Steph Curry at The Garden

I got an e-mail from my best friend asking me to look in to some accommodation in San Fransisco for his 40th birthday next year. He mentioned a few of the things that we might get up to around the area and I said surely we'll be seeing a Golden State Warriors game. My friend isn't a basketball fan as such but knows a bit about the NBA as he loves sports and we used to have epic NBA Jam battles back in the day. I'm sure he wouldn't know that Aussie Andrew Bogut is now playing for the Warriors but I thought I should introduce him to Steph Curry ...

NBA game down under and some gold from Chris Anstey

Two good reads from yesterday, first there is talk on the NBA blog about a possible pre-season game being played down under which I think is well overdue:

Why not down under?

By the end of 2013-14, the NBA since 1978 will have staged 148 preseason or regular season games in 20 countries and territories across Europe, North and South America and Asia. Still waiting their turn – to answer the many emails we get here at HTB – are Australia and New Zealand.

Scott Levy, senior vice president and managing director, NBA Asia, acknowledged the heavy interest in the NBA in those countries. Past and present players have hailed from there, including Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, Luc Longley, Sean Marks, Shane Heal, Chris Anstey and Nathan Jawai. Oklahoma City’s first-round pick Steven Adams is from New Zealand and Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving was born in Melbourne.

Participation is high, Australia ranks No. 1 in subscribers to NBA League Pass International and in NBAstore.com’s international revenue, and the country certainly has the sports facilities and culture befitting a possible preseason destination.

“Australia is an important market for the NBA in the region and we enjoy a great following from our fans,” Levy said. “We have conducted several NBA events in the country, including the 2011 Asia Pacific Team Camp featuring the top youth basketball players from Australia, New Zealand, China, and South Korea. There have been discussions around many different programs from grass-roots clinics, development programs, mass participation events, and a preseason game, but nothing is definite at this point.”

For the full article, click here.

Then, in his weekly blog for the NBL website, Chris Anstey talks about what he learnt from Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki while he was playing for the Dallas Mavericks. Click here to read the whole story but what surprised me most was his final paragraph:

I played tennis until I was 17. My doubles partner, Dustin Fletcher, played to the same age and will become the second highest AFL games player in history.

Being a Bombers fan I didn't know this about one of my all-time favourite players. That must've been the tallest, skinniest doubles pair ever!

ANZAC day in the NBA

In a landmark day for Australian and New Zealand basketball, today saw the first NBA game with THREE ANZAC's in it. With Milwaukee playing in Portland, Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills and (Kiwi) Sean Marks all played in the same game.

It wasn't a great night for Bogut who's team was on the wrong end of a beating (80 - 106). Without his starting point guard Brandon Jennings (fractured left foot), Andrew had just 5 points 5 boards. Sean Marks had 6 points, 5 boards, 2 blocks in 24 minutes of court-time which are all good numbers for him. Patty was also solid with 8 points, 3 assists, 2 boards and 2 triples in 18 minutes.

I watched a little bit of the game tonight and it was funny to see Patty actually look tall for the first time on an NBA court ... when he was matched-up on Earl Boykins (5 foot 5). I checked Mills stats on ESPN and he's officially listed as 6 foot ... hmm, I think that's an exaggeration.

If you look very closely in the photo below you can see all three on-court at the same time. Bogut attempting the block, Marks on the left and behind him on the left is Mills.

Free-throw shame

The starting five for the Milwaukee Bucks should bow their heads in shame after today's performance. Sure, they got the win against Orlando ... but superstar Dwight Howard didn't play and the Bucks' starters shot a combined 14 of 34 from the free-throw line. I haven't picked up a basketball for about 2 years and I GUARANTEE you I would make at least 20!

Milwaukee Bucks
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-	PTS
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, SF	34	0-3	0-0	1-2	1	5	6	1	1	0	3	0	+12	1
Larry Sanders, PF	23	2-4	0-0	0-0	1	4	5	0	0	1	1	1	+8	4
Andrew Bogut, C	39	13-20	0-0	5-16	8	10	18	1	2	2	2	4	+15	31
John Salmons, SG	36	7-15	0-1	2-6	0	4	4	1	4	1	1	4	+22	16
Brandon Jennings, PG	41	10-20	1-5	6-10	0	7	7	6	1	0	2	0	+14	27

As you can see, the worst offender was our own Andrew Bogut who at one stage was just 3 of 14 from the line. (note: the rest of his line is outstanding ... but 5 of 16 from the free-throw line is just WOEFUL)

The only saving grace for the team was that their bench combined for a perfect 9 of 9 to bring a little respectability to their overall team performance from the line (23 of 43).

The Bucks hang on to win the game by 11 in the end, but I assure you that if Howard was playing for the Magic, this woeful performance at the free-throw line would've cost Milwaukee the win.

Andrew Bogut on the 7pm project

Thanks to DJ Rod and the Townsville Crocs Facebook page for bringing this Andrew Bogut interview to my attention.

Andrew Bogut's other love

Thanks to Robbo for pointing out this article on Twitter this afternoon. Like fellow Aussie Eric Bana, Andrew Bogut's other love is clearly cars.

The superstar and the muscle car | Courier Mail

• By Neil Keene
• From: The Daily Telegraph

IT'S hard to keep a low profile when you're 213cm tall and a millionaire sports star to boot.

But that's just what Australian basketballer Andrew Bogut was doing on Monday night when he turned up to bid at the auction of the most expensive Australian-made car in history.

The vehicle in question - a 2002 HRT 427 Coupe - one of only two ever made, sold two years ago for a whopping $920,000.

It had no log book, no owner's manual, not even a spare key, and with a top speed of 299km/h it can't be registered in NSW.

Not that it mattered much to Bogut, who is based in the US on a five-year, $75 million contract with the Milwaukee Bucks NBA team. The 25-year-old pushed bidding to $305,000, but the car was passed in after it failed to meet reserve.

It is understood Bogut, who has said his biggest dream outside basketball was simply "to have a huge car collection", is now negotiating for the prized wheels.

The car was one of more than 20 Holdens, Fords and Chevrolets put up for auction by Queensland businessman Shawn "Chooka" Ryan. Two companies with which Mr Ryan was associated have been placed into receivership.

Andrew Bogut named 3rd team ALL-NBA

The big news today from the NBA is that Australian Andrew Bogut was named in the All-NBA Third team. This is significant because its the first time ever an Australian had earned an All-NBA honour. Bogut had a great year and if it wasn't for a couple of injuries, I'm sure he would have gone one better and made the Second Team. Maybe next year tho ...

For the full story, click on the title below. For the full breakdown of the All-NBA teams, click here. Good to see my boy Steve Nash make the Second Team.

National Basketball League: Bogut receives All-NBA honours
May 07, 2010, 11:25 AM AEST By: Basketball Australia Australian Golden Star Boomer Andrew Bogut has been named in the 2009-10 All-NBA Third Team, the league announced overnight.

Bogut, the first Australian to earn All-NBA honours, received the most votes of any player on the Third Team and the 11th highest tally overall.

The dual Olympian started 69 games for the Bucks this year, averaging career-highs with 15.9 points and 2.5 blocks (second in the NBA) and added 10.2 rebounds (second-highest total in his career). The fifth-year veteran was one of two players (alongside Dwight Howard) to average at least 15 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks per game this season.

NBA Rookie of the Year race

I follow Andrew Bogut on Twitter and saw a post from him earlier:

SO they got my youngfella @BJ3nnings3 at 5th in the rookie rankings? What a joke. Even though he doesnt care bout ROY. 5th?? 5th?? LIKE 5th? about 7 hours ago via web

So it got me wondering what the current rankings were so I found this article. Here's their breakdown of the top 5.

1. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
63	35.9	16.0	4.2	5.4	1.8	0.2	.455	.417	.878

Last Week: 2 | Drafted: 7
I can no longer ignore the fact that Curry is playing better than Evans. Evans may have already won over too many voters, but Curry is certainly making his case in a big way. ESPN.com's Marc Stein had an interesting column this week in which he spoke with several scout around the league. One Western Conference scout had this to say about the two: "[Tyreke] Evans is going to win it and [Brandon] Jennings was up there early, but [Steph] Curry is going to wind up being the best player of the three. He's the ray of hope in Golden State because he's got the shots, he's got the moves, he's marketable and he's only going to get better. And I think his teammates like playing with him. He's a great shooter, obviously, but he's unselfish. He's looking to get other guys involved. You can argue that [Curry's] numbers are inflated playing in Golden State's system, but you could have said that about a lot of rookies over the years. Most of the top rookies are on bad teams. Rookies of the Year aren't coming from the Lakers. The issue is what the Warriors are going to do with [Monta] Ellis, because it's obvious that that team needs to be built around Curry, and Curry defers too much when Ellis is in there."

2. Tyreke Evans, Sacramento Kings

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
59	37.2	20.3	4.9	5.4	1.5	0.4	.462	.259	.744

Last Week: 1 | Drafted: 4
Evans is obviously comfortable being a leader on the young Kings. Maybe too comfortable. In the Kings' 108-102 loss to the Thunder on Sunday, Evans called out teammate Andres Nocioni after the veteran took several questionable shots down the stretch. "We were in the game, and you come down and take bad shots?" Evans told the Sacramento Bee. "That's not team basketball. Coach didn't say nothing, so I thought I had to step up (and say something)." Maybe Evans was justified -- he had 24 points and seven assists to Nocioni's six points -- but he still apologized Tuesday afternoon on a Sacramento radio station.

3. Darren Collison, New Orleans Hornets

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
58	24.8	11.0	2.3	5.0	1.0	0.0	.465	.358	.840

Last Week: 3 | Drafted: 21
One Western Conference scout, in the earlier-mentioned Marc Stein article on ESPN.com, asked the question many have been asking: How will the Hornets -- and Collison in particular -- fare when Chris Paul returns? His answer: "The rookie has been so good because he's had the ball in his hands. Collison is more of a penetrator than a shooter. He's not a guy who's going to make shots out there [as a shooting guard]. The last time they went through this, they put Collison right back on the bench. Can [Paul and Collison] play together now? I don't necessarily think so."

4. Marcus Thornton, New Orleans Hornets

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
55	22.7	12.9	2.6	1.1	0.7	0.2	.453	.400	.796

Last Week: 4 | Drafted: 43
It's amazing to me that Thornton is still not starting. He, along with fellow rookie Collison, has been one of the Hornets' most aggressive and productive pieces. Still, Morris Peterson is starting, despite shooting just 36 percent from the field (33 percent on 3s). Peterson has scored in double-digits once in the last eight games and just four times all season. Thornton, on the other hand has scored in double-digits in 25 of the last 27 games. Hornets coach Jeff Bower continues to start Peterson and prefers the jolt Thornton provides off the bench, but why not let Thornton play a consistent 30-plus minutes per game?

5. Brandon Jennings, Milwaukee Bucks

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
63	33.2	15.8	3.5	6.1	1.3	0.3	.368	.382	.807

Last Week: 5 | Drafted: 10
Despite all the distractions, all the Rookie of the Year talk, all Jennings wants is a spot in the playoffs. Early in the week, Jennings raised eyebrows after going just 2-for-12 in a win over the Wizards. "My offense is just terrible right now," Jennings was quoted in the Journal-Sentinel. "I don't even know if I want to shoot the ball because things are just not going my way. I'm struggling really bad right now." That drew a sitdown with coach Scott Skiles. "We're not fond of that kind of statement," Skiles said. "We know where his heart lies." Where Jennings heart is is helping the Bucks -- currently fifth in the East -- reach the playoffs. "Right now, I'm playing for something bigger. I don't even care about the Rookie of the Year," Jennings said. "Forget it. Whoever gets it, who cares? Both of their teams suck, so whoever gets it, it doesn't matter."

Unlike Bogut, I think they've actually got the rookie race pretty much right. His boy Brandon Jennings got off to a great start to the season and was definitely the front-runner but my boy Stephen Curry is the man to beat now. I'd actually put Jennings ahead of Thornton but that's the only change I'd make to the order.

Darren Collison has flown in to the top 3 due to the injury to Chris Paul. Collison (the new DC as we call him) has been putting up large numbers over the last month or so and although he turns it over far too often, its excusable from a rookie thrown in to that situation. Paul is supposed to be returning soon so DC will likely fall off and if Jennings can find his shot again he'll be back in the top 3.

Australian Dunk of the Year

From today's Bucks vs Celtics game, Andrew Bogut throws down the biggest dunk by an Australian in a long, long time.

Andrew Bogut - new career high

Fittingly on Australia Day in the US, Andrew Bogut recorded a new career high 32 points (and 9 boards) in today's game against the Dallas Mavericks.

The game was shown on One HD so I got to watch the end of it during lunch. Bogut was a perfect 9 of 9 from the field in the second half and finished the game a red-hot 13 of 14 from the field. He proved unstoppable against defenders Dampier and Gooden, giving them jumpers and his whole arsenal of hook shots inside.

Happy Australia Day Andrew Bogut, way to represent!!

David Andersen delivers

Its been a fairly unexciting last few weeks in the NBA if you're following the hopes and dreams of David Andersen and Nathan Jawai. If you've checked out a Portland Trailblazers game lately you've no doubt seen Patty Mills in plain clothes sitting behind the bench watching the action.

Thankfully tho there is some good news ... Andrew Bogut has returned from his most recent injury and is putting up good numbers for the Milwaukee Bucks. The team itself is doing well considering they've been without star Michael Redd and they've surprised all but DJ Rod (who said they would have a good season) and are sitting just under 500, good enough for 6th spot in the Eastern Conference.

A week or two back when Kevin Love returned from injury for the Minnesota Timberwolves it looked like it might be the end for Nathan Jawai's minutes. He's had a number of DNP-CD's since then but the good news for Nathan is that his team is the worst in the league which means they get beaten regularly and by quite a margin. This means there is plenty of garbage minutes and today Nathan got to enjoy a few of them. In just 18 minutes of court-time, Jawai notched up 9 points, 7 boards, 1 block and a steal. Don't expect these numbers out of him regularly, but every now and again he'll get time when the result of the games have been decided. At this stage of his development, the more time the youngster can spend on the court during the game can only be beneficial.

Its been a similar story for David Andersen in Houston who had only seen 15 minutes of game time once this month before tonight. David finds himself backing up an under-rated Rockets front-court including Luis Scola and Carl Landry who are both having career years. Andersen saw just over 20 minutes today and scored 17 points, 9 boards on a very tidy 6 of 8 from the field. The 17 points was just 2 short of his NBA career high that he had mid-November against the Lakers.

David Andersen isn't usually the focus of the photographers, unfortunately for him they didn't miss this awkward incident.

The importance of free-throw shooting

I just watched the end of the Milwaukee Bucks vs Chicago Bulls game on One HD. Not a great spectacle but a hard-fought close game down the stretch. Essentially the Bucks jumped the Bulls early, Bulls eventually find some form and overtake the Bucks in the final quarter.

What got me about this game was what I also saw in the closing minutes of the Denver Nuggets vs Portland Trailblazers last week. In today's game, the Bulls got momentum on their side, got in front of the Bulls but failed to put them away due to some errant free-throw shooting in the final minutes.

The Bucks were struggling to score down the stretch and finding themselves behind on the scoreboard they put the Bulls on the line to make them earn the points and stop the clock. First it was Brad Miller who is normally a good free-throw shooter (80% over his career), 20 seconds to go and he misses his first, makes his second to give his team just a two point lead leaving the door open for the Bucks. Then Andrew Bogut used his last foul to ensure it was Joakim Noah a very average free-throw shooter (68% and horrible technique) that was sent to the line. Again, Bulls up by two so Noah could've basically ended it by hitting them both, instead he missed them both and keep the Bucks right in the game. Unfortunately they couldn't take advantage of it, but if the Bulls had made their free-throws this game would have been over much sooner. Milwaukee could've made their job a lot easier too shooting just 5 of 10 from the free-throw line themselves.

I meant to blog about the Denver Portland game the other day with the same theme in mind. Again, thanks to One HD I got to actually watch it and this was a much more entertaining game than todays. It was essentially a battle between Carmelo Anthony (pictured right) and Chauncey Billups vs Brandon Roy and Rudy Fernandez.

In the final four minutes of the game, both teams were in the penalty meaning that any defensive foul would send the other team to the line to shoot two. In a close game, this foul count meant it was always going to come down to free-throw shooting. For Denver, Carmelo cooly stepped to the line on four occasions during this time and made all eight free-throws. For Portland tho, the usually reliable Brandon Roy missed 1 of 2, Andre Miller missed 1 of 2, LaMarcus Aldridge missed 1 of 2 and with just 4 seconds to play and his team down by 1, Greg Oden missed 2 of 2.

In such a close game between two top teams, free-throw shooting down the stretch was the difference between winning and losing. Its because of this, when the game is in the balance, coaches try to have their best free-throw shooters on the court. Its not a glamourous part of the game but if you want to be a great player who can be relied on in the final minutes of the game, you have to spend time practicing your free-throws.

Twitter ... I didn't want to, but

I've previously said I would avoid the Twitter fad but today I relented ...

Prompted by a post from John Rillie about his trip to Darwin to follow the Top End Challenge I decided to take the step and sign up. It seems that if you want to stay up to date with what's really happening, especially in the sporting world, Twitter is now a must have. The crew at Dime virtually fill half of their off-season smack with Twitter updates from players.

After "following" JR, I tagged a number of others in the basketball world (both NBL & NBA) to keep up to date with. So far I have:

• Patty Mills
• Kevin Garnett
• Shaq
• Stephen Curry
• Steve Nash
• Mark Cuban
• Andrew Bogut
• Big Joe
• Joe Ingles
• Shawn Marion
• Troy Murphy
• Luke Schenscher
• Chris Webber
• Kevin Durant
  

Speaking of Luke Schenscher, its great to see that he's just signed with the Perth Wildcats instead of heading to Europe. He had a great season and I'm looking forward to seeing him build on that this year.

I'm getting a new mobile within the next week so I'll now make sure I can get one that I can tweet from.

Get it right NBL - says NBA star Andrew Bogut

After not posting for a week or so, I was doing some catch-up and came across the following article. Essentially its Andrew Bogut telling the NBL to get their sh*t together. News about the new season/league has been pretty quiet so its not surprising that many people are wondering what's going on. Click on the title below to read the full story.

Get it right NBL - says NBA star Andrew Bogut | Herald Sun

Carly Crawford
March 18, 2009 12:00am

SUPERSTAR basketball export Andrew Bogut has slammed the game's Australian officials, urging them to hustle with their revamp.

The 213cm Milwaukee Bucks centre said he would eventually like to play at home, but he could not return with the league in such disarray.

'Once my playing career is over, yeah, but there's no sense coming back and playing in a league that's not stable,' Bogut said.

'I'm playing for the best league in the world, so there's no way I would come back to play in the NBL. Down the track I would definitely like to be involved somehow.'

Congrats JR

It would be remiss of me not to give a big shout-out to John Rillie on a week of milestones for him. On Thursday night he played his 450th game in the NBL and if that wasn't enough on Saturday he became the first player in NBL history to play 350 straight games. Great to see JR's team-mates come to the party and help him celebrate the milestones with 2 wins. To read the full story, click on the title below.

In other news around the NBL, it was great to see Andrew Bogut do his bit to help out the struggling Sydney Spirit, despite (Bogut) having never played a game in the NBL. To read more about it and his future plans, click here.

Praise for Townsville Crocodiles' resilient floor leader John Rillie | Townsville Bulletin Sport

By Antony Stewart

He's sustained fractured toes, dislocated fingers and ruptured bursas, but nothing has been able to stop John Rillie from becoming the most enduring player in NBL history.

Tonight when he runs out for the Crocodiles at The Swamp, the sharp-shooting guard will mark his 350th consecutive game – the only player in history to achieve the feat.

Rival coaches and players alike have done their best to swat him, but like a pesky fly buzzing around your head, Rillie keeps coming back for more. For 15 seasons the 37-year-old has defied the odds, turning up night in, night out across four NBL clubs, often playing through the pain, to keep his amazing streak going.