NBA tidbits

Its still the off-season in the NBA but its not long to go until pre-season and the date for our league's fantasy draft is now being discussed.

Here are a few tidbits from the NBA over the last few days and they are about a few of our favourite shooters.

1. This from the FIBA European Championships:
... Ersan Ilyasova continues to outshine Hedo Turkoglu for Turkey, putting up 22 points and 11 boards in a win over Serbia, while Hedo had four points (1-16 FG), four steals and seven rebounds
1 of 16 Hedo? OUCH!! Having owned him in my fantasy team last season I know he's a slow starter but that's baaaad even for the off-season.

2. Thanks to Twitter I found out Ray Allen is playing hide-and-seek with his fans, hiding pairs of shoes around the place and leaving clues on Twitter as to their location. He has said he'll be doing this all season ... if only Ray would come to Australia.

3. Last but not least, our boy Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf got a mention on Dime today. They've been doing a "where are they now" story each week on former NBA players and it turns out Mahmoud is off to Japan next. Even at the age of 40, its great to know that Abdul-Rauf is still doing what he loves and no doubt still searching for perfection. Click on the title below to read the full story.

Where Are They Now: Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf | Dime Magazine (www.dimemag.com) : Daily NBA News, NBA Trades, NBA Rumors, Basketball Videos, Sneakers

Nobody who followed basketball in the ‘90s could ever forget the name Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Some may remember him as the high scoring, diminutive guard with the silky-smooth shooting touch. But chances are, most just associate him as the guy who refused to stand during the national anthem in 1996. At that time, he was possibly the most controversial and hated athlete in all of sports.

Abdul-Rauf, born Chris Jackson, had overcome enormous obstacles to get to the NBA. Growing up, he had battled extreme poverty and Tourette’s syndroume, which is an inherited neuropsychiatic disorder that results in uncontrollable body movements and tics.

More action from the NBA off-season

There have been some more big name movements in the NBA over the last few days. I mentioned it in my post last week and it was confirmed yesterday the Boston Celtics got their man signing Rasheed Wallace to a two-year deal. Talk is now wondering whether he will start or come off the bench and which 'Sheed will indeed turn up this season.

One of the top free-agents this summer has been Hedo Turkoglu (pictured right) from the Orlando Magic. Rumour had him going to Portland which I don't think would have been great for him or them but thankfully at the last minute he instead signed with the Toronto Raptors. The deal is reportedly for 5 years around $56 - 60 million and goes to show you what well-timed form can do for you. Having big expectations for Hedo this season I drafted in the early rounds of my fantasy league and he under-performed for much of the year. In the play-offs he had some great games, hit a few clutch shots and hello pay-day!!

Free throws ... the importance of

Other than being just about basketball, the focus of this blog leans towards the shooting aspect of the game. Whether its free-throw shooting, three-point shooting, clutch shooting, we've got it covered.

I've talked many times about the importance of free-throw shooting and why its vital that you spend hours at the line working on it. I've highlighted the truly great free-throw shooters (Ray Allen, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and many more) and how you should watch and learn from them.

Well last night's game 4 of the NBA Championship Series has again got everyone talking about free-throws as Orlando hit just 22 of 37 (59.5%) from the line and went on to lose the game in overtime. Most people are pointing to Dwight Howard's two missed free-throws in the final minute of regulation which would've given them the win ... but Hedo Turkoglu was just 8 of 13 (61.5%) from the line. Hedo is an 80% free-throw shooter over his career so was it the pressure of the situation that got to him? If either of them just make one more free-throw, they win this game and level the series at 2 - 2, instead they're down 3 - 1 and it looks like they're done.

Dime had a good piece about the situation on their website, I've included an excerpt from it below. Click on the title to read the full story. PS. Great to see them giving up the love to my boy Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf!

Coaches don’t miss free throws | Dime Magazine (www.dimemag.com) : Daily NBA News, NBA Trades, NBA Rumors, Basketball Videos, Sneakers

NBA big men are traditionally below-average free throw shooters, and while you can chalk that up to hand size, range of motion in the shoulders or whatever, I think it’s really just because nobody expects them to be that good. From the time they’re in high school, they don’t practice free throws as much as a guard would practice. If you’re getting tough buckets in the paint, winning your team extra possessions by battling for rebounds, and blocking a couple shots on top of that, it may seem like a lot to ask to also turn into Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf from 15 feet away. But because every big man can point to Wilt Chamberlain and say, “He only shot 51 percent from the line,” it’s acceptable to perform at a lower standard than other players.

And here’s the problem, particularly for somebody like Dwight: He takes A LOT of free throws. Because of his size and skill, teams have to foul him close to the basket. Throughout this series it’s been clear the Lakers made it their game plan to not let Dwight get those soul-crushing dunks on them, especially in Orlando, where he can whip the crowd into a frenzy. Kobe and everyone else in purple would rather bear-hug Dwight and tackle him before letting him get a dunk. And a lot of teams would do the same. During the regular season, Dwight led the League with 10.8 free throws per game (59% FT). In the playoffs, he’s been taking 10.2 free throws per, second behind LeBron James (14.2 FT per game). And, true, up until last night, he’s been pretty good in the Finals from the stripe.

But Howard, and every coach that he’s ever played for and will ever play for, knows damn well he’s gonna be put on the line often. He’s going to have to hit some free throws in crunch time. So why should he be held to a lower level of expectation than the Nick Andersons, Darius Washingtons and Derrick Roses of the game? If any perimeter player bricked those FT’s in Game 4 — and Lord help us all if it were LeBron or Kobe — nobody could “live with” those misses.

If you missed it, here are the highlights from the game

Orlando Magic ... home cooking

There's nothing like playing at home!

After stinking up game 1, narrowly losing in overtime in game 2, the Orlando Magic had to be looking forward to playing at home in game 3. Sleeping in your own bed, not having to travel, playing on your own court, in front of your own fans, on your own rings ... hopefully it would all add up to a much needed win.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, if the Magic are to win, they need their shooters to fire ... and FIRE they did in game 3. The inconsistent Rafer Alston found his range hitting 8 of 12 from the field, Hedo Turkoglu was 7 of 12, Rashard Lewis was 8 of 14 (including 3 triples) and Mickael Pietrus came off the bench shooting 7 of 11 from the field.

Dwight Howard continued to spend more time at the free-throw line than anywhere else as the Lakers again played their version of Hack-a-Shaq with him. He was 5 of 6 from the field and 11 of 16 from the line.

The Magic shot a ridiculously good overall clip of 62.5% for the game ... but still only won by 4 points.

The Lakers shot 51% but managed to hang with the red-hot Magic behind 31 points, 8 boards from Kobe Bryant (although he made just 5 of 10 from the line) and 23 points on 9 of 11 shooting from Pau Gasol.

Lamar Odom, who had been massive in the first 2 games was held to just 11 points, 2 boards due to foul trouble.

Due to One HD showing replays the day after, I haven't watched game 3 yet but will do so tonight. From a basketball shooting perspective, it should be great checking out the Magic shooters on fire and LA still managing to keep it close.

Here are the highlights of the game (I am avoiding watching them):

NBA Championship Series - Lakers vs Magic Game 2

We've just had the Queen's birthday long weekend here in Australia so its been a few days since I last blogged. The upside of the long weekend tho, was that I got to watch game 2 of the NBA Championship Series between the Orlando Magic and the LA Lakers.

I got a call from some friends and we had an afternoon feast of sport. First there was the AFL game between Melbourne and Collingwood, then it was the NBA and the night wrapped up with Titans against the Dragons in the NRL.

After the disaster that was game 1 for the Orlando Magic, I was hoping they would bounce back in game 2. The game was again in LA so the Lakers were certainly the favourites and their confidence was riding high.

The first quarter was a dour, low-scoring affair with the scores tied at 15 at the first break. The Lakers pushed ahead in the second quarter before Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu found their shooting rhythms and the Magic came back.

The last quarter was back and forth and Orlando looked like they could steal it but two costly misses from Magic rookie Courtney Lee in the final minute meant we were headed to OT.

Orlando continued to turn the ball over in the extra period and LA hit their free-throws down the stretch and secured the win.

For the Magic, the good news was the form of their big 3, Shard, Hedo and Dwight. The bad news was the rest of their team shot just 8 of 30 from the field and had 20 turnovers to just 12 for LA. The Magic need better production from the likes of Alston, Lee and Pietrus.

For the Lakers, Kobe was good (29 points, 8 assists but 7 turnovers) without completely dominating like he did in game 1. The Lakers have to be delighted with what they're getting from Lamar Odom (19 points, 8 of 9 from the field, 8 boards off the bench) and Pau Gasol (24 points, 10 boards).

Here are the highlights from Game 2:

NBA news

It may be getting to crunch time in the NBA as we head in to the conference finals but its seemingly been a very quiet couple of days. With a couple of the series finishing early we had 2 days off and then 2 games yesterday and today was another day with no games scheduled.

Yesterday was game 7 for the Lakers vs Rockets and also for Celtics vs Magic.

The Lakers took care of business behind a massive night from Pau Gasol (21 points, 18 boards). The Rockets on the other hand couldn't buy a bucket, shooting just 37% from the field and 64% from the line. The game was essentially over by half time with the Lakers up 51 - 32 and they cruised home from there.

It was the series in the East that had my attention tho. I really wanted to see the Celtics get up but unfortunately it was not to be. Orlando was on song jumping out to an early lead, the Celtics came back in the 3rd, but Orlando went on a run at the start of the 4th and it was too much for Boston to cut back.

Hedo Turkoglu was the killer shooting 9 of 12 from the field including 4 of 5 from downtown for a game high 25 points. I watched the last few minutes online and it was Hedo who hit the daggers down the stretch (10 of his 25 points came in the final term). Other than Dwight Howard (12 points, 16 boards, 5 blocks) who is always rock solid, the other player who stepped up for the Magic was Mickael Pietrus who provided 17 points off the bench (6 of 7 from the field including 3 of 3 from deep).

Despite a solid night from Ray Allen (23 points on 9 of 18 shooting), Boston struggled from the field shooting just 39% ... which is never going to get it done. Full credit to the Celtics for making it this far without superstar Kevin Garnett.

Next up is the conference finals. Denver vs Lakers and Orlando vs Cleveland. Its looking very much like a Kobe vs LeBron championship series but I'll be cheering for the underdogs in both of the games.

Here are the highlights from the Celtics game:

End of fantasy basketball season wrap

I haven't posted much about my fantasy basketball season lately and now that we're in to the real-life NBA Playoffs, our season is over. This was the first year that our league has chipped in money to put up some cash prizes and the pay out went to the top 3 (of 12). My team didn't make the money, finishing in 7th place. Congrats to two of my boys, Al and Mitch for their second and third placed finishes.

For most of the season I found myself at the bottom of the league so fighting my way up to 7th wasn't too bad a finish. A bit of luck and a few less injuries and I could've made it to 5th, oh well, there's always next year.

Looking back, I blame my lack of success on two players. My 3rd and 4th picks, Hedo Turkoglu and Carmelo Anthony. I owned Turk last season, he was outstanding and I expected similar if not an even better performance from him this year. I believe he may have had some niggling injuries but he let me down badly with his terrible field goal percentage and high turnovers. He also failed to deliver the point guard type numbers (high assists) that I expected from him. Melo on the other hand was held back by injuries and never really got moving (he played in just 66 games, down from 77 the year before). His field goal percentage, scoring and points were all well down from the previous season. Not good enough when you draft them 36th and 37th respectively.

On the upside, my superstar turned out to be Troy Murphy who I took with the 84th pick and when the season was over he was ranked 8th on averages. Every single stat category of his was up from the year before and when one of your centres can knock down over 2 triples per game that is gravy! Other good picks were Danny Granger at 13 who had a breakout season and Devin Harris at 60 who was excellent for the first few months of the season (struggled down the stretch). My boy Steve Nash got off to a slow start to the season but finished strong, as did Al Horford.

The free-agent pick-ups that did well for me this season were Joakim Noah and Ronnie Brewer. Noah was inconsistent early which saw a number of GM's pick him up and then drop him but he was outstanding for me over the last couple of months. He had a great field goal percentage, rebounded well and blocked a few shots which was exactly what I needed. Brewer was sneaky good, shooting good clips and getting active in the other categories.

The mistakes I made as GM this season were:

• Dropping players too quickly to try and combat the slow start (from Nash, Hedo and Melo). Names such as Rodney Stuckey and the surprisingly solid Steve Blake were early cuts from my squad that went on to shine for others. I also dropped Joel Przybilla when Oden returned but Joel continued to start and produce (for someone else).
• Due to injuries, I fould myself without many shooting guards so after stealing Marc Gasol off someone, I traded him for Quentin Richardson (who stunk it up for me and I quickly dropped him).
• I traded away Danny Granger (when he was at his peak and I thought was going to be rested because of some niggling injuries) for Kevin Garnett who played a few games for me and was then basically shut down for the rest of the year. Unlucky result but I did it thinking Danny was going to struggle and I wanted to improve my rebounding and field goal percentage.

My league is now counting down to the next draft night, probably the highlight of the fantasy basketball season.

Troy Murphy, a great shooter and my steal of the draft