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Wizards’ Arenas and His Injuries

Tom — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:10:59 +0000

Injured start player of the Washington Wizards for the past two seasons, Gilbert Arenas, has been seen practicing with the team, for the basketball summer camp. Arenas has been seen joining in the five on five halfcourt drills. Seen enduring scrimmages or practice sessions, he has been actively participating in getting the needed workout and practice with the new rookies that have joined the Wizards.

Unfortunately, during these last few days of practice, Arenas is currently seen in the injured list again. During one of the practice sessions they had, Arenas played his usual over enthusiastic self and injured his finger.

Coach Flip Saunders was heard saying that Arenas, is constantly getting injured.
This current injury of his, a dislocated finger, happened during training camp.

Arenas also has had three operations done to his left knee in a period of a year and six months, which made him miss almost the whole season for that year, and allowing him to attend and play in only a couple of games.

The season after that, he also played in only thirteen games because of that injury as well.

Now that with the coming season on November, coash Saunders is thinking that because of this new injury to his dislocated finger, it might be an issue. Hopefully, this wouldn’t be the case, as he is seen joining the team for practice sessions.

Currently considered the highest paid player in the NBA considering the status of the likes of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, he has a better contract, which would tantamount to a higher salary to these well known and famous players.

For everyone’s information, Gilbert Arenas, is the Go To Guy of the Wizards, and has always been considered one of the most important contributions to the team. He has been making miracle shots against rivals on very close games. So with his injury, that had him lose games, the Wizards were much affected by his absence.

Defensive Player Winner- Catchings and her brush with WNBA History

Tom — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:10:39 +0000

Defensive Player of the year, Tamika Catchings, of Phoenix Arizona Fever, did not quite enjoy her first experience on her first WNBA Finals.

On the first game over Indiana Mercury, she was not in her element, guarding Diana Taurasi, the Most Valuable Player of the year. In the first thirty one minutes of the game, scoring only eight points, she was really not playing her best then. Could that possibly be because of the player she was guarding?

Arizona Fever, however, had home court advantage over Mercury, so they were able to steal the game. They had to go overtime, and pulling out Catchings made her feel letting the team down. Although they were able to defeat Indiana, Catchings felt she was not able to give what the team deserved and stepped up to it at the end of the game. She promised her the blunders she felt she created during the entire game would not be repeated again.

This was made true on the second game, winning the second game in the best of five series. She sure played her usual game, and led the way on both sides of the court for the second game.

Co players and team coach felt that on game two, Catchings radiated passion, determination, her usual great playing skills and persistence in ensuring a great game, and winning.

Because of the great way her games have been, especially for the first two games of the WNBA Finals, officials and game authorities noted that Catchings could have almost beaten the record on the first triple-double in WNBA Finals history. Catchings’ record for that game was nineteen points, eleven assists, and nine rebounds; which is just one rebound short of the record. That would’ve been a feat for first time WNBA Finals player, Tamika Catchings.

West and the Cavaliers Predicament

Tom — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:11:17 +0000

Delonte West, having missed a couple days of training camp is back, albeit with unexcused absences. West belongs to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and according to coach, Mike Brown, after having West back, he had a good practice with the team.

Currently facing issues that might affect his career, he declined meeting the press, together with general manager Danny Ferry.

The team’s Mr. Ferry will be addressing this current issue West is facing on Saturday, at the team’s practice at the University of Akron.

This current issue pertains to the time he was caught in Maryland. West was asked to pull over by the traffic police of Maryland because of a traffic violation. He, then, pulled over his three-wheeled motorcycle and upon checking, was found out that he was carrying loaded weapons. That is right! Not only one, but three loaded weapons. A couple of loaded handguns, and one loaded shotgun. These items were placed in a guitar case.

Currently facing charges of gun possessions, possible consequence that West could receive as outcome could be a league suspension.

O’Neil feels that West is quite important to the team, and according to him, they will be supporting and backing him up. He believes that not only is he vital to the team, but is a fabulous player as well.

West’s statistics has him having eleven point seven points during the regular season last year, and is considered one of the second most important players in the playoffs after LeBron James.

Post season has West playing forty two minutes, and having an average of thirteen point eight points, four assists and three point five rebounds, in all fourteen games.

Now you can see why O’Neil is ensuring that the public and team officials be fair in coming up with a decision over West’s current dilemma, and hopefully, be able to have him play in the coming season.

Westphal: Kings Next Head Coach

Tom — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:42:34 +0000

Late last Tuesday, the Kings agreed that Paul Westphal would be their fourth coach within the last three years. This was the scoop that a league source told David Aldridge who is a TNT analyst. They have agreed on a two year deal with more than $3 million at stake and another year which is an option to be taken for another $2 million.
The Kings agreed to choose Westphal over the assistant of Lakers, Kurt Rambis and the Boston Assistant Tom Thiboeau. The co-owner of the Kings thought that it was the best idea to hire the former Mavericks Assistant coach in the year 2007-2008 and who won being the general manager of Sacramento over Geoff Petrie.
Westphal had been a payer and a coach in the NBA for a longtime now and that experience that he had with the Phoenix Suns and the Seattle SuperSonics had made the Kings decide to get him and replaced Kenny Natt when the team finished off 17-65, the worst in the NBA and in the franchise history as well.
As the other hire, Rambis, eyed for a salary higher than 1.5 in the first year, this makes Westphal the lowest paid head coach in the NBA league. However, Westphal had been strongly recommended by some people including the owner of Mavericks Mark Cuban and the Pheonix Suns Player Kevin Johnson, the present Sacramento mayor.
According to Maloof, Westphal is very good in the offense and what he can do to make a perfect team is to hire a good assistant with an equally genius idea on the defense. Is this a good action that the Kings made? Will we be expecting something spectacular as the nest season would start with the Kings having a new coach to guide them? This is something that we will be looking forward to in the next season of NBA.

Fisher Making History on His Career

Tom — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:37:13 +0000

Derek Fisher added another story in history in the basketball court. The scores that he makes and the how he does it, never fails to grab the attention of many. Bryant is the lead player of the team but Fisher is now hand in hand with Bryant to save the Lakers with the three point shots that he makes every time.

Fisher tied the game in the fourth quarter with his three points and with 4.65 seconds on the clock. The over time gave Lakers the chance to work for the lead and with another 3 point shot from Fisher, Lakers grab the 3-1 lead over the Orlando Magic in the NBA playoffs.

Bryant even teased Fisher because of his failed attempts on the three-point attempts. However, Fisher’s attempt worked on the final seconds that made the team grab the win on the fourth game. These were the shots that were thrown with confidence and with great determination to score the points to win the game.

It was Fisher’s dedication and focus that helped his team win in this game. With Fisher’s focus not making his failed attempts affect him that made him save this game which they almost lost to the Orlando Magic. He plays with his that if he goes out to play, he has that responsibility with him to his team that he will be making a difference each time that he gets the chance to prove himself on the court.
Fisher, although he may have failed shots, he is making the history for himself in the basketball with the timely points that he made saving the team from almost loosing the game. But even with the shots that he made, Fisher remains humble with what he made for the team that he declined making comparisons with himself and the other players making it to score threes in their time like Robert Horry.

Pietrus Safe from Sanction

Tom — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:39:47 +0000

In the fourth game of LA Lakers against Orlando Magic, Pau Gasol received a two-handed shove from the Mickael Pietrus in the last seconds of Game four. The NBA has decided that no further action will be taken against the Magic swingman after reviewing the fourth game.
The shove that Pietrus did on Gasol could have caused a suspension of game 5 as its worst effect. The shove was more of a flagrant foul that is the first that happened in the NBA finals and the review resulted that the 14 other flagrant fouls will be reviewed as well.
The last seconds of the game four between Magic and Lakers, Pietrus chopped the back of Gasol hard enough with his both arms as the latter was throwing down his second dunk where the Lakers won over the Magic ending the game in 99-91 score.
The action of Pietrus angered Gasol that he reacted angrily that they both had technical fouls after they were separated. According to Pietrus, he did not have the intention of hurting Gasol and with the six years that he spent on NBA he never had the hard fouls and that he never had hard feelings over the other players. He also said that what happened is just something that happened and there had never been intended to happen.
Gasol was very angry with what happened because according to him, it felt more like a punch than it was like a push. He was angry because he was already in the air that would be too late for Pietrus to attempt a play.
However, with that flagrant being done and the decision to take no further actions against Pietrus has been made, the game continues until a champion is being awarded. This is something that the NBA needs to look into to explain well what a flagrant foul is and how it is being determined to prevent any player from getting hurt and let the offender get away with it.

Lakers, One Step Near to Win the Championship

Tom — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:35:18 +0000

Los Angeles Lakers is a step closer to the 15th title in the NBA finals. The team worked twice as hard after they lost game three. Lakers ended the game with a 99-91 score over Orlando Magic in an overtime game.
Lakers won in a team effort with Bryant scored 32 points in the game and with the help of Fisher’s three point shots; this helped the Lakers to lead the championship in the best of seven. According to Bryant, you have to play big games and what happened in game 4 was one of those big games that Lakers played. Everyone played and contributed to the victory in game four. Aside from Bryant and Fisher’s points, Trevor Ariza and Pau Gasol added 16 points each that contributed to the games winning score and made them one step closer to win the championship.
Fisher gives out his three point shot with 4.65 seconds on the clock that tied the game in the fourth quarter of game 4 and gave it another 3 point shot with 31 seconds on the clock during over time that gave the Lakers a good lead.
The Lakers is just so determined to have the win this time. With Bryant on the lead, who made everyone on court involved in the game and giving them the chance with the ball and help the team win. Even with a not so good first half, they worked hard in getting back the lost points in the second half to grab their 3rd win making them a win more to have the championship title.
If the Lakers would be consistent with their play and their determination to win, they could end the season in the fifth game with the title. This is what the team needs to be concentrating on rather than victory because without focus and much excitement over the victory may give Orlando Magic the chance to rip victory from them.

Magic Scores but Lakers Lead on

Tom — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:32:19 +0000

Orlando Magic had been scoring in shots, however, on Wednesday; all they ever talked about was to focus on their defense for their game with the Los Angeles Lakers. Their serious talk about the defense was not wasted. It worked to their benefit when they ended game 3 with a 108-104 score over the LA Lakers. However, with the Lakers on the lead, they still have a long way to go. With the 2 wins of Lakers over their first win, and with the Lakers home court advantage, Van Gundy, Magic’s coach, said that they still have a long way to go and that road is not an easy way to win the Finals.
The Magic had an impressive record of 75 percent in the first quarter, however declined in the second quarter with only 29.9 percent which is the lowest percentage in the history of NBA. The win made the team happy but it is still a long way to go because they have yet to win 3 games to grab the championship with the Lakers.
The mistakes that Bryant had made in the third game gave the Magic an advantage to win. However with Lakers winning the two games in a row at their home court advantage, winning would not be easy but they will do their best not to give Lakers the easy win.
The Orlando Magic is dedicated to do their best in every game that they play. They didn’t let the two wins of the Lakers discourage them in winning the third but it would be a lot of hard work just to do so. They may not get the chance to get the victory of this season’s NBA finals but they will play every game with dedication and the best play that they will have making it harder for the Lakers to win the championship.

Lakers’ First Win in the Finals

Tom — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:39:22 +0000

Lakers had a good start by winning the first game in opening the NBA finals. With the first game closing at 100-75 score, Lakers led the NBA finals in a 1-0 lead in the best of seven series. Kobe Bryant led the game with 40 points in the game and 8 assists that made Lakers gain victory in game one.

Bryant played differently, when he was used to closing out opponents on the last quarter, at this game he wasted no time and made the 18 point lead in the third quarter making it hard for the Orlando Magic to recover giving a no sweat game for the Lakers with an 18,997 crowd watching them at the Staples Center. The team was very wiling to take advantage of the game that the Orlando Magic is playing. They have given Lakers the chance to score and lead the game to a win.

Pau Gasol helped in increasing the teams score with the 16 points that he made, Lamar Odom also gave 11 points and having 14 rebounds who are trying to make amends with their loss with the Boston Celtics. They do not want a repeat of what happened when the Celtics grabbed the title from them.

This is what is also Bryant is dedicated to do, win the NBA finals even without his former teammate, Shaquille O’Neal on the team. With this dedication to win he led the team to play the way he wanted the team to play and get the NBA title this season.
With the goods start that the Lakers have and the dedication that they will grab the NBA title, they could close the season on game four if The Orlando Magic and the Lakers would play the same way as they play with game one. This game series is something that we would be looking forward to. Until what game would the Lakers play to get this season’s NBA championship title?

Kobe Bryant Bringing Victory to Lakers—Is It Possible This Season?

Tom — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:17:26 +0000

Behind an overwhelming defeat to Boston last year, Kobe Bryant of Los Angeles continues to expect for victory on their next game with Orlando Magic on Thursday, June 4. He once was asked if he needed O’Neil’s share in order to win, he answered straight that his performance doesn’t mean anything to him at all today. Bryant and Los Angeles Lakers are back to blow the finals between them and Magic.
Bryant is somewhat different now- calmer than he used to be during his previous games, while Magic center Dwight Howard is busy preparing for Magic’s competition against Lakers, says their camp will be vary capable to cause Lakers and upset in this finals. On their way to the championship, the 3 point in high spirits Magic have knocked off privileged Boston, Cleveland and now they eye to defeat Lakers.
Dwight Howard as commonly called Superman by his team mates wants to bring victory to his team, according to Magic’s superman, they are always overlooked by other teams, they were unnoticed in the first series, they were ignored against Boston, they were unnoticed again against Cavaliers, he sigh saying he doesn’t want them to be eyed by people to be the best or not the best in the game because sometimes you will forget what can really will make you win. He continue saying, “what everybody thinks about them makes them strive harder”.
These teams are in a faceoff again, ready to reach for victory. They are both inclined in giving their best shot to bring pride to their team and the millions of fans around the world, with more people looking forward to next game on Thursday June 4. Will it be Bryant of Lakers or Howard of Magic, no body can tell, you just have to watch for the biggest challenge they will encounter.