HERO OF THE WEEKIt’s not in vain that Stefon Marbury noticed that Madison Square Garden had not seen such a thing since Michael Jordan. And from the player, “Knicks” - and even more so. In a meeting with “Miami”
Jamal Crawford felt such amazing self-confidence that he began to “water” the ring of opponents from all possible positions - and get in! The attacking defender of “New York” in the course of business realized 16 shots in a row, and, mind you, there was not one simple one among them! His 52 final points are all the more surprising since they did not require a 40-minute stay on the court - the champion was defeated, the leaders were saved.
So that you do not think that Crawford became a hero only for a single flash, we’ll give his statistics in a couple of other matches of the week: 29 points, 11 assists and 6 rebounds against the Phoenix, 26 points and 4 assists against Milwaukee.
TEAM OF THE WEEKPretty sluggish starting in 2007,
“Chicago” shook himself and again began to show a game worthy of a favorite. “Bulls” are not just the only ones in the league to complete the reporting period with a 100 percent indicator, but also managed to deal with both finalists last year's playoffs. And if “Miami” was not so scary - Shakil was slowly gaining shape on that day, and Dwayne Wade traditionally plays poorly in his native Chicago, and even under the care of “Flash stopper” Kirk Heinrick, then the Dallas league leader was on go, winning 7 times in a row, and played in the optimal composition.
In the near future, “bulls” are waiting for difficult times. Ben Wallace was injured - the doctors did not find anything serious in Big Ben's knee, but you will have to miss a few matches. Plus, the management is very active in the transfer market, and has not abandoned the hope of exchanging Kevin Garnett or Po Gasol ...
LEGIONARY OF THE WEEKLaugh, laugh. Yes,
Anthony Parker is not a foreigner at all for the American League. But the native of the town of Naperville, Illinois, can not be perceived as a local player - the defender gave too much to European basketball, having twice received the Euroleague titles in the Tel Aviv-based Maccabi. His return to the NBA turned out to be difficult, I had to get used to other balls and the layout of the court, a different pace and quality of basketball. But the persistence of Anthony and the faith of coach Sam Mitchell did their job: Parker entrenched in the start of the progressive “Toronto”, got used to the seven-meter three-pointer, did not lose his wisdom, and at times reminds fans why he was called European Jordan for so long. Take a look:
On Friday, in a match with “Boston” Anthony set a personal record, gaining 23 points and having realized at the same time 7 “three rubles”! His weekly averages are 15 points and 5 rebounds.
Chasing the week“Last year, we probably would have lowered our heads and dropped to minus 20,” admitted Chris Bosch from Toronto, pulling out a tough match on Wednesday against New Orleans (90:88). It was Bosch who “tricky” evened the score in the last quarter, during which the
“dinosaurs” were inferior to 15 points . In total, Chris scored 35, but a significant share of success was on the conscience of the “legion”, more precisely, Jose Calderon, who scored 4 points in the final 30 seconds and made a block shot.
CONFUSES OF THE WEEKIn a Sunday meeting in Los Angeles, “San Antonio” still took revenge for the recent defeat of the “Lakers” on its site. It turned out hard, even a little strange: in this match, which ended in overtime, “Spurs” made 28 percent of the shots from the game - how to win with such statistics is not clear ...
But the most unpleasant thing happened in the last moments of regular time. “Ozerniki”, as usual, entrusted with complete confidence to decide the fate of the match Kobe Bryant. The defender fired from a distance, but received a clean block shot from the efficient Manu Jinobili. Then Kobe immediately went to plan B and, waving his hands, began to imitate a foul. His theatrical movement did not impress the judges, but Ginobili was very expensive - Bryant's hand broke his nose to the Argentine, making him miss almost three minutes of overtime.
“I don’t think he did it on purpose. He’s not like him,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich did not inflate the conflict in the press.
TOPIC OF THE WEEKLast Thursday, the league announced the
results of a cheerleader referendum on choosing the starting fives of the All-Star Game , as always bombarding the fans of the analysis with many surprises.
Firstly, the leader was unexpectedly LeBron James, who collected 2.5 million votes and coped with Yao Ming himself, behind whom there was a huge Celestial Empire. “I never even dreamed about that,” the Cleveland leader could only say. Even more surprised was LeBron's future partner in a pair of strikers of the starting five of the East: Chris Bosch admitted that he had to pinch himself in order to believe in the reality of what was happening. Let's continue about oriental miracles. The 14th consecutive election of Shaquille frankly made laugh - nevertheless, the center “Miami” in this championship really didn’t manage to play. In a pair of defenders after a spectacular finish spurt was Gilbert Arenas. Such an honor for the playmaker, “Washington” is well deserved, but Gil would not have seen the start place as his own ears, if “Philadelphia” had not exchanged Allen Iverson for “Denver”, that is, to the West. “It was a blessing to me,” breathed the ambitious Arenas, who will now be released on February 18 at the Las Vegas venue next to Dwayne Wade, the only person whose candidacy has not raised any doubts.
In the West, even miracles did not happen, but injustice. Tell me, is it right that Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki, the main contenders for the MVP championship and the leaders of the best league clubs, were outside the main squad? Nevertheless: you can’t argue with popularity, and the basketball rating in Canada and Germany is not comparable with other countries. Of course, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett are worthy personalities. But someone had to give in. For example, Ti-Mack, who is not having the best season and rode out on the backs of the Chinese who voted for Tracy “complete” with teammate Yao. Or Garnett, whose “Minnesota” barely weaves in the middle of the standings.
In the case of Nowitzki, you can still fix it. Injury will not allow Yao to appear in the All-Star Game, and David Stern will certainly not doubt who to replace him with: Dirk is the best candidate for the company "big", where Duncan can be moved to the position of nominal center.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK"Most NBA Internet users are foreigners, and most foreigners are trained to vote according to the party line. You need to get used to it. Voting is international, and a lot of Communists take part in it. And they always follow the party line," said Dallas owner
Mark Kuban explaining in an interview with Dallas Morning News why Nowitzki and Nash were not in the top five of the West All-Stars.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK01/25/07. Clippers - New Jersey. Photojournalists of AR are able to capture moments and crop pictures. "toTrade", written in capital letters next to Jason Kidd, sounds like a "swap" sentence. The Nets, indeed, are desperate to find the “big one”, as well as the Chicago one, trying to “drive up” to Gasol and even to Andrei Kirilenko, who was recently severely reported in the press by Utah owner Larry Miller. Experts understand that in the event of such a trade, the “net players” will have to part with one of the leaders, but Nenad Krstic and Richard Jefferson are injured, Vince Carter, although he shows excellent statistics and a spectacular game, is not particularly appreciated by the managers of other clubs, and Kidd simply old, albeit superstar.
MOMENT OF THE WEEKToday,
Vince Carter has proven to be our winner thanks to an unaccounted throw. Just think, the game was stopped! Who says Vincenti no longer flies, as in his youth?
FIGURES OF THE WEEK17 consecutive wins - at this point on Monday the Phoenix series was interrupted, a record in the club’s history. In order to stop the “Sons”, Garnett and his “Minnesota” had to implement 60% of shots from the game. After all, the team of Mike D'Antoni, even in a lost match, followed the magic “
formula 170 ”.
These interesting numbers were disclosed by Tim Legler, a former Washington attacker who is currently writing for ESPN. 170 turns out if a person has exceeded 50% of hits from the game, 40% of three-pointer and 80% of penalties. “We considered this line to be a grandmaster for a player,” Legler recalled. So, imagine, at the moment, “Phoenix” satisfies “Formula 170 ″ average statistics on the team! To be precise,
50.0 + 40.1 + 80, 9 !
WAITING FOR THE WEEKThe schedule is full of interesting events. The most boring - but the classic names of the clubs will be visits by the Lakers to New York and Boston (Tuesday and Wednesday). It will not be boring at all to continue the San Antonio exit series, which has been expelled from its hometown for 24 days by the rodeo festival. Spurs on Wednesday and Thursday will visit Salt Lake City and Phoenix, and on Saturday, Jazz and Suns will meet each other. Finally, Monday marks the Golden State's visit to Indianapolis, the club’s first fight since the recent major exchange between them.
Finally, we are waiting for the announcement of reservists of national teams “stars” on Thursday. Here the Communists can no longer influence anything - the word belongs to the club’s head coaches.
Nikolai TSYNKEVICH