In reality, the only game I really watched with real interest from wire to wire was the Houston Rockets 114-104 road win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Pretty good NBA regular season game all things considered involving two teams who should both be in the hunt come May and June.
I think it’s good Doris Burke has found her comfort zone again on a different broadcast team. I like Doris. I always have. She just didn’t for some reason mesh with Michael Breen and the blathering Richard Jefferson. But of course, in the end, neither did Jeff van Gundy as it turned out. And I’m not sure at this early juncture that Tim Legler does as well. It’s tough to compete with Richard Jefferson for minutes. He never shuts the f–k up.
The Houston Rockets even without Fred VV are still really good. A very dangerous team with an excellent roster other than the point guard slot. But on this night in mid November, the Rockets got excellent point guard play from both Reed Shepperd andAaron Holiday, younger brother of Jrue, of whom I’ve always loved as an NBA guard.
Both guys were very good in this game…and on the road I might add. That’s a very positive sign for the Rockets. Aaron Holiday is in his 7th NBA season and is a career 6.5 ppg game guy. So I would say with caution…there will be nights when he doesn’t score like he did last night. But on the positive side—he and Shepperd were rock solid.
Otherwise…Houston in my mind has everything else needed to give both OKC and and Denver a serious run for their money in the West.
This team has four guys anybody in this league would covet in Sengun, Amen Thompson, an aged Kevin Durant, and Jabari Smith. Plus, their depth and size with their bigs is in my mind the best in the league. In my basketball mind as well…they’re the best rebounding team in the league when they get that look in their eyes and they go BIG.
These three teams, plus San Antonio, Minnesota, and perhaps even the Warriors on nights when Steph plays like a kid fresh out of Davidson… should make the West a compelling conference once again.
I still don’t really think the Lakers are legit. Maybe entertaining at times, but not legit as presently constructed with LeBron at this stage in his NBA career.
As far as the Thunder, the defending champs are the team to beat at 15-1 even though they’ve to date really only one game against a team which I consider as a viable contender. That being, the season opener in that great double overtime win over the Rockets.
It should be great. I’m heading to Norman tonight to watch the OU men play Oral Roberts and then over to Othello’s for a Joe C celebration of sorts for the best athletic director in the country.
Ciao.
MJ