Christmas Day

Christmas is the season of giving so what better way for the NBA to do that by giving us 5 games tomorrow! I am stoked! Though 2 of the games are pretty anti-climatic, who knows maybe a Christmas miracle could happen in the Bulls-Lakers game (doubt it). 2/5 of these games are horrendous match-ups and the CLE-MIA really isn't that good of game with how bad the HEAT are and with out Chris Bosh. The OKC-SA game will be worth a watch though Kevin Durant is not suppose to play, so that game drops a few ratings in my book. The best game to watch will be the late game between GS and the LA Clippers. This game will be the best of the day.

Washington Wizards at New York Knicks:

I don't even want to talk about this game, that is how bad it will be. The Knicks are bad and Washington is good. I expect a big scoring performance out of Melo, but a Knicks loss is for certain. The Wiz are just to good and play great defense to lose to a horrendous Knicks team. John Wall is going to have a hay day.

OKC Thunder at San Antonio Spurs:

Spurs win this one. No Durant for the Thunder and Tony Parker back for the Spurs, I'll expect a good game, but it will take an MVP like performance from Russell Westbrook for the Thunder to win this one in San Antonio. A win for the Spurs will get them back on track for a top 3 seed in the West after their recent 4 game losing streak.

Cleveland at Miami:

The most OVERRATED game of the NBA season. There is little to no hate for LeBron from the fans of Miami. They even are supposedly giving him a video tribute. This return is no-where close to when LeBron returned to Cleveland in his first season on the HEAT. He didn't leave the fans devastated and he did bring the city 2 more championships. There is really nothing for them to be mad at and that's why they aren't. The game itself isn't that good of a match-up to begin with. The HEAT have definitely struggled since the departure of LeBron, including a loss at home to Philly earlier in the week when they were up 23 at one point. That burns (pun intended). I expect the game to be very competitive with big runs to keep the game close, but in the end the Cavs are a much better overall team and will pull away in the 4th. As for LeBron, I don't expect anything above average because he doesn't have anything to prove. 

LA Lakers at Chicago Bulls

Do I dare say that if Kobe doesn't play the Lakers have a chance? It worked against Golden State, the NBA's best team. I don't think it will make a difference because the Bulls are playing well with a healthy Derrick Rose and a top defense, I expect we will have a 20 point blowout in Chicago. If Kobe plays, he'll get his 20, but tat wont be an easy 20. He'll take more than 20 shots and convert less than half. The Bulls can already chalk this one up as a win. 

Golden State Warriors at LA Clippers:

Same court, different team for the Warriors. The best game of the night! This game will be a playoff like game between two of the more entertaining teams to watch in the league. Golden State looking to bounce back after an ugly loss to the Kobe-less Lakers. The Steph Curry-Chris Paul battle will be enticing. I am going to go with the home team because the front court advantage for the Clippers will be the difference with the backcourt cancelling each other out.

Follow me on twitter @basketballguy61 and @jpsweets

Merry Christmas!

NBA Western Conference: The Week before Christmas

The Memphis Grizzlies are rolling. They ended the 16 game win steak of the Golden State Warriors and then the next day beat the Spurs at San Antonio in 3 OT.  Their coach has them clicking on all cylinders. I  think they will get the #2 seed in the western conference playoffs which is a scary seed with OKC most likely to be a #7 or 8 Seed. That would be a exciting first round match up. This is how I predict the playoffs will end up.
#1 warriors
#2 grizz
#3 spurs
#4 clippers
#5 houston
#6 portland
#7 okc
#8dallas

GSW-Mavs:  The Mavs will put up a fight, but the warriors are too yong, fast, and can shut down Dallas and its offense. Tyson chandler can't guard the rim and 3 point line. Probably Dirk's last run at the playoffs. GSW wins in 5.
 Grizzlies-OKC this is the best match up of the first round. If KD and Russell wouldn't have missed all those games at the beginning of the season I think OKC would be in that 2 spot. The battle of bigs will be fun to watch and can Tony Allen contain KD like he did last year?


These Predictions were made on Wednesday 12/17/2014 before the Rajon Rondo trade and Corey Brewer trade.


As of now 12/20/2014 I see a slight change in the Western Conference Playoff seeding.


#1 GS Warriors
#2 Memphis
#3 Houston
#4 San Antonio
#5 LA Clippers
#6 Dallas
#7 Portland
#8 OKC

The West is very hard to determine right now because we're still in December and there are a lot of situations that could change. The Corey Brewer addition to Houston was a very smart move by the Rockets that could very well get them through to the second round and possibly to a Western Conference Final.

Who are you Reggie Miller

Kobe is the 2nd greatest player of all time as of now IMO. He is the closest thing to MJ we will ever see in terms of skill. He has 5 rings! For Reggie miller to say "Michael Jordan on his worst day is 10X better than Kobe Bryant on his best day," 2 days after saying "Congrats to the Black Mamba (Kobe) on passing the Black Cat (MJ), two of the best to ever  do it.. #GreatnessPersonified" is a disgrace to Kobe and to the basketball community. 

Follow me @basketballguy61 or @jpsweets

NBA Eastern Conference Top 5 teams

After about 6 weeks of the NBA season, I have came to some thoughts. The Eastern Conference is totally up for grabs between Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Toronto, and the Wizards. Those 5 are the only good teams in the East. I left the Miami Heat off because without LeBron they are now just an average Eastern Conference team. Now let me breakdown the 5 teams I mentioned.

Atlanta Hawks: I don't know how they are on a 9 game winning streak, but whatever they are doing keep doing it. They are .5 a game behind Toronto for the #1 seed. I don't see them as being a real contender for the Eastern Conference Championship, but they will be tough to go through if they keep playing as they are for the rest of the season.

Chicago Bulls: On paper they look really good and they are really good. They have maybe the most complete team in the East. They are the favorite to a lot of journalist to win the East and they certainly can, but their playoff success depends on the health of Derrick Rose. Last night, he looked really good against a very good Western Conference team, the Portland Trailblazers. Dropping 31 was a great sign for him and the team. As a fan of the game I hope he gets back to his MVP form, but that's highly unlikely. Rose has struggled this season. He is shooting a very low FG% and 3P%. Those number's need to increase closer to 48% and 35%. I would say the biggest concern that I can see are the amount of free throws attempted. He has only one game this season with 10 FTA. His average FTA is only slightly lower than his career FTA, but I personally think that the scoring PG that he is should be getting to the FT at least 6 times per game. It's early in the season, so there is a lot of time to improve and get back to his peak, but that will take proper rest from coach Thibodeau in terms of minutes played and games played. The addition of Pau Gasol has been a great compliment to both Jokim Noah and Taj Gibson. The emergence of Jimmy Butler as premier defender and legit offensive threat has been impressive. The Bulls are a serious contender that could possibly knock King James off his throne.

Cleveland Cavaliers: Sitting at the #5 seed in the East, you would think this team will make it to the playoffs and then bow out in the first or maybe second round. That is not the case. The Cavs just ended a remarkable 8 game winning streak that truly showed us (the fans and league) what this team is capable of doing. After their sluggish start, they finally showed that they can be a sound defensive team and high powered offensive team that we all could predict when the new Big 3 (James, Irving, Love) teamed up. Blatt has finally figured out a game plan that will play to his team's strengths. With a defense first mindset, the Cavs can easily rise to a #1 o#2 seed in the East. Last night was an MVP like performance from Mr. James. 17/24 from the floor is quite spectacular. LeBron is playing great, it's his teammates that need to step up as it's always his teammates that need to step up where ever he goes. DeJaVu? When the Big 3 are all clicking, this team is pretty tough to stop, but it's the guys like Tristan Thompson and Varejo that are the X factors of the Cavs winning these regular season games. Thompson is a very important key to the Cavs success. If Thompson, Love, and Varejo can control the boards, the Cavs will be very successful. Getting Delladova back is a huge addition for the Cavs. He will be able to take some pressure off Kyrie Irving when Irving is on the bench or at the SG position.

follow me at @basketballguy61

Lebron's Homecoming

Well that was ugly. I know it was just this first game of the season, but that had to be so disappointing to the city of Cleveland. Lebron looked like he had never played with his teammates and he didn't want to upset them by playing like his usual self. He literally played like an average SF in the league that was just there to get occasional shots. It seemed as if the game plan was for him to play off his teammates rather than his teammates play off him. If the Cavs want to be serious championship contenders David Blatt is going to need to change his game plans.
This was a rare outing from Lebron and I expect a huge game from him tonight, but it wont be easy going to the revamped Chicago Bulls for their home opener and Derrick Rose back. Kyrie will have his hands full with Rose and vice versa.

Can't wait to watch ESPN @ 7:00 PM CT Cavs at Bulls

Follow me on Twitter @basketballguy61

NFL Season Thoughts Week 8: NFC West

This has been one of the more bizarre NFL seasons in recent history. There has been all kinds of upsets and puzzling headlines. The most recent upset that knocked everyone off their rocker was the then 1-4 abysmal St. Louis Rams shocking the defending Super Bowl champions beating them 28-26. How this upset even happened, Pete Carroll is still trying to figure out. The Rams are playing without their #1 draft pick Sam Bradford, they have only won 1 game and are nowhere close to the caliber team as the Seahawks. The Seahawks on the other side haven't been doing so hot either losing 2 straight before losing to the Rams. BUT they (Seahwaks) are the only team to beat the arguably the best team in the league the Denver Broncos. Then you have the 49ers who were playing so well, get absolutely embarrassed on Sunday Night Football by the Denver Broncos. The NFC West is still very up-for-grabs because even though the AZ Cardinals are 5-1 I don't believe they can hold off the defending champs and the 49ers in the division.

Follow me on Twitter at @basketballguy61

Game 3

I honestly thought Game 3 was the worst performance the Miami HEAT had ever shown in the Big 3 era. I was so amazed by how badly they were getting beat in the first half that I couldn't even say a word every time the Spurs scored again, I just sat there in silence wondering if this was the NBA Finals Game 3 or a scrimmage of the Varsity against the Freshman "B" team. It was all bad, but of course the HEAT made a comeback to cut it to 7 points, 7! After letting a team shoot close to 90% and give up 41pts in the first quarter and being down 20+, they got it back to 7. I thought maybe when Lebron re-entered the game, the HEAT would make one last final push to make it a battle til the horn went off, but no, they ended up losing by 19. In the mix of all this, Kawhi Leonard had the game of his life, LITERALLY! He hadn't scored that many points in an organized game since High School.
As for the Heat, Lebron played like the 2011 Finals vs Dallas even though his numbers were ok, they weren't LEBRON like numbers. His 7 TO's were career high as well, basically canceling his assists.
Wade was Wade, an average game at best but nothing that stood out. He did lead that 3rd Quarter comeback that cut it to 7, but couldn't get any closer than that.
Bosh was basically just out there, not protecting the rim and not playing much offense, a mere 12 touches could say something about his 9PTs and 3 Rebounds.
Rashard Lewis actually played the best of anyone knocking down his 3's when he was asked to.
Mario Chalmers should be benched after his last 3 games. I hope and suspect he will have a big game in Game 4, big for him meaning 13-19 points, 2 3's and decent defense on Tony Parker.
The bench went missing in Game 3 but I believe they will have a breakout game in Game 4, somebody is bound to go off.
Let's see what happens Thursday night in South Beach!
 Follow me at @basketballguy61

This is just cool. The Game Before The Game

Kobe's Future and an Epic Finals Matchup

I'm writing this on May 31st 2014

After seeing the fact that Kobe or LeBron have been in the Finals every year since 2007 but have yet to face each other, I came to the thought that the Heat will hopefully win another Championship adding to the legacy of LeBron and reducing the gap between Jordan and Kobe as the Greatest Of All Time.

I absolutely see the Lakers landing 1 if not 2 huge free agents this off season, providing Kobe some star power teammates like he once had (Shaq) and a good supporting cast like the early 2000's teams had. Being likely that it will be Kobe's last full, whatever is left in the tank season, I expect him to make a heroic playoff run hopefully meeting the Miami Heat in the Finals as the Heat go for their 4th straight championship and making it the premiere NBA Finals match up everybody dreams of. Kobe vs LeBron.

-Josh Pella