NBA Player of the Week

Mike G said:
Now for those of you don't know: the Nothin' But All-Stars Crew is CSU East Bay's premier source for the latest in NBA action! Check us out each week as we present you, the fans, with OUR highlights and picks....straight from a fan's perspective!
Now for those of you who already know: You don't even have to ask! It's time for another installment of the Nothin' But All-Star's NBA Player of the Week!
Now as you know, the NBA is the premier league of the professional sports world as far as RAW, athletic talent is concerned. With that being said, it is only natural that there be dozens of candidates for Player of the Week. For example, we saw spectacular performances this past week that had us going CRAZY! Some names in the honorable mention include: Detroit's "Rip" Hamilton, Houston's Yao Ming, Memphis's O.J. Mayo, and -- a Nothin' But All-Stars' personal favorite -- Golden State's Steven Jackson.
But there were 2 that undeniably went above and beyond. If you know this blog, then you know that there can't be a tie. And if there is, then it must only be under EXTREME circumstances. And after a tough debate, ladies and gentleman -- The time has come once again! This week's award of NBA Player of the Week for games played 2/2 through 2/9 are..................Los Angeles Laker Pao Gasol and Cleveland Cavalier LeBron James!
Pao Gasol did his thing this week, averaging 26.0 points and 13.8 rebounds per game (which ranks him 3rd in the NBA among rebound leaders). And not only did the man average point-rebound double-doubles, but he shot an impressive .667 from the field, helping the Lakers to a 4-0 East Coast road trip, which included an overtime win in Boston and an upsetting win in Cleveland.
As for my man LBJ, it was business as usual. Even though the Cavs didn't do as well as Los Angeles (2-1), and even suffered a defeat at their hands (which snapped their home game winning streak), LeBron put up insane numbers, and made history in the process. LBJ averaged 33.7 points, 9.0 assists, and 8.0 rebounds per game this week, and had an insane game vs. New York (52 points, 11 assisits, and 9 rebounds), making him one of only two visitors to score multiple 50+ point games in Madison Square Garden. The only other player to do so was "His Airness" Michael Jordan. In addition, on 2/2 against Toronto, James reached his 12,000th point milestone, becoming the youngest player in NBA History to do so. MVP? Guess we'll have to wait and see!!!

Week 5: Question of the Week

Who is the best team in the league right now?

Kris said:

The Lakers are the best team in the league right now, even without Andrew Bynum. It helps to have the most offensively gifted player in the league, Kobe Bryant. He has also been on the NBA All-Defensive First Team, so be plays both ends of the floor. They also have Pau Gasol, who is an All-Star, playing out of his mind right now. They even have the deepest bench in the NBA and possibly the best coach in the league in Phil Jackson. He does have 9 NBA titles and the highest winning percentage of any coach. Plus, they have the best record in the league and beat the Celtics and Cavs on the road, back-to-back. That is impressive. So, at this point, they are no doubt the best team in the league.

Week 5: Game of the Week

This weeks top game has to be the best in the West (Lakers) vs the best in the East (Celtics). If you folks watched the LA vs Boston game that night, you would have to agree with me that, that game was the best one this week. Going into the 4th quarter Celtics had the lead over Lakers but not by much. Celtics were on a 12 game winning streak, trying to make it 13 against LA that night. During the last 5 minute of the 4th quarter, NOBODY could have stopped Kobe's 3 pointers. He was literarlly on fire, knocking down 3 three's!!! Garnett fouled out and had to watch his Celtics on the bench. Game went into overtime and man this was a close one but LA leaves Boston with a win 110-109. Game ball goes to Pau Gasol, the man went 10-14 with 24 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. What a game it was!!!

Player of the Week

Mike G said:
Okay....it's the end of the week, and we all know what that means: Time for this week's installment of the Nothin' But All-Stars's NBA Player of the Week. And remember, as always, this week's pick is brought to you straight from California State University, East Bay in lovely Hayward, California -- Home of the Nothin' But All-Stars Crew!
Now we saw a lot of action this week throughout the NBA. Who can forget that stellar performance by Kobe Bryant against New York? And then going to Boston, only to disappoint the defending champs in what was truly a close call! Or how about LeBron James, who also had a spectacular game against the New York Knicks. And did I mention he's averaging 39.3 points, 7 points, and 7.3 assists for the month of February! -- It's just too bad their performancse just missed the deadline! Maybe next week.
Now let's get back on topic. Now with all of this talk about slaughtering the New York Knicks, it's only expected that this would be the last place that we'd look for our NBA Player of the Week, right? WRONG!!! This week's Nothin' But All-Stars Player of the Week comes to you straight outta the Big Apple: Yes, ladies and gentleman, this week's award goes to none other than David Lee of the New York Knickerbockers!
Lee, shooting an impressive 53.5% from the field, averaged 19.0 points and 15.3 rebounds per game for the week of 1/26 to 2/1. As a matter of fact, the Knicks forward has recorded 35 double-doubles this year, sitting 2nd only to Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic. With Lee averaging point-rebound double-doubles, New York went 3-0 against Houston, Atlanta, and Indiana. Pretty impressive for the fourth-year veteran, if you ask me!

Week 4: Question of the Week

Which game at Madison Square Garden was more impressive: Michael Jordan’s 55-point performance or Kobe Bryant’s 61-point show?

Kris said:

Let me just start by saying that both players played AMAZING games. However, there can only be one. In this case, I would have to say that the Chicago Bull, Michael Jordan (wearing #45), had the more impressive game. I know some would argue that Kobe Bryant’s was better because he set the Madison Square Garden record for most points by an opponent (previously held by Michael Jordan) or that he has injured fingers on his shooting hand. No matter what reason someone gives me, I am still going to say that Michael Jordan’s game was more impressive.
The first reason why I say Jordan’s game was more impressive is because it came down to the last shot; Michael Jordan found Bill Wennington for the game winning dunk. Jordan had a great record-setting night, but still passed the ball to the open player with the game on the line. The second reason is the difference in defense and skill level of the Knicks now and then. The Knicks today play a run-and-gun style with no real defense. They do not have a solid man-to-man defender either. The Knicks in 1995 were hard-nosed defenders led by Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley, and John Starks. They were also fresh off an NBA Finals loss to the Houston Rockets. Also, in 1995, players were still allowed to hand check. My final reason is the fact that it was only Jordan’s 5th game back from his first retirement. The fact that he had spent two years playing a completely different sport (baseball) made this 55-point game even more impressive.

Week 4: Game of the Week

Adam Said:

Last Thursday night's game with Phoenix hosting against the Spurs was a shoot out and entertaining one. Game might have seem like Spurs won with ease because of a 10 point victory, but if you watched the game, viewers knew that the game was close throughout the night. It was a very high scoring game for both teams, Steve Nash dished out 18 assist that night, but was short to a victory. Ironically when Steve Nash becomes a high distributor instead of a scorer, his team has a very high chance of winning, but this was not the case on Thursday night because Manu coming off the bench just took over the game. Manu scored 30 points that night 18 for 18 at the free throw line, which was crucial because both Phoenix and San Antonio were shooting great numbers at the line, but San Antonio had the better free throw percentage that night and scored more from the line. The game was just a straight shoot out fest, Amare started off hot early, but cooled down after the second quarter and towards the end of the game, he just kept hitting jump shots after another and another. Amare had a pretty good night with 28 points and 10 boards. But Tony Parker had himself a decent night with 26 points and just nails a bulls eye shot near the end of the 4th to pretty much seal the game.

NBA Player of the Week:

Mike G said:
Okay, okay. I understand tomorrow's the"Big Game," and everyone's going to be talking NFL tomorrow. But I hope I make it real clear when I say that the NFL will never overshadow anything here at the Nothin But All-Stars crew! That being said, it's time for this week's installment of NBA Player of the Week!
Now this week, we saw a lot of great players put up great numbers. Naturally, there were plenty of candidates who proved themselves worthy of receiving this top honor. BUT...I've said it once, and I'll say it again: There can only be one!
And the award goes to........................NOT Andrew Bynum! Sorry Lakers fans, but this week's NBA Player of the Week, as given to you unbiasedly from the Nothin But All-Stars crew, goes to none other than King James, himself! Yes, that's right! LBJ had an amazing week on the road, as the Cavs went 3-1 on their trip to the west coast. King James averaged 30.5 points, 9.8 rebounds, 8.8 assists, and 2.3 steals -- Just shy of a triple-double! He was also ranked in the top ten in All of those categories among All players in the Eastern Conference. And in addition to being named the Nothin But All-Stars's Player of the Week, this is also the fourth time that LBJ has been awarded Eastern Conference Player of the Week by the NBA. On behalf of the Nothin But All-Stars crew here at CSU, East Bay, I would personally like to congratulate LeBron James for what has turned out to be an amazing season! King James....What else can I say? You've earned it.

Week 3: Question of the Week

Should fans be allowed to vote for the All-Star Game starters?

Kris said:

I do not believe fans should be allowed to vote for the starters of the All-Star Game. Perhaps we could be allowed to vote for one or two players per conference, but not the whole starting line-up. Voting for the whole starting line-up is giving too much power to the people. Fans tend to vote for their favorite players or who they like, but these players do not always deserve to be All-Stars and could be taking roster spots from players who actually deserve it. I understand that the NBA is for the fans, but I do not think it is fair when a player that deserves to be an All-Star does not get the opportunity to participate in the game.
The reason I chose this question as Question of the Week is because TNT announced that Allen Iverson is a starting guard for the Eastern Conference. I honestly do not believe that he deserves it because since he joined the Pistons, they are 20-19. Iverson’s scoring average this season (17.7 ppg) is also well below his career scoring average (27.7 ppg). I also think there are more deserving players than Iverson, like Rajon Rondo and Joe Johnson.
Need some examples? Yao Ming has been voted to start every All-Star game since coming into the league (that is 7 years in a row). Did he deserve it every year? Not really. Some years he did, but when he makes the starting line-up during an injury plagued season, something must be wrong. Some players that come to mind that could have started instead of Yao Ming in the past: Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, Amare Stoudemire, Marcus Camby, Carlos Boozer, Dirk Nowitzki, and Al Jefferson.
During the 2005-2006 season, the Detroit Pistons started 40-8; one of the best starts in NBA history. However, no Detroit Piston player was voted as an All-Star starter even though they all played so well. Instead, the players chosen as starters were Lebron James, Shaquille and Jermaine O’Neal, Dwayne Wade, and Allen Iverson.

Week 3: Game of the Week

All right folks, I'm not bias when it comes to the NBA's game of the week, but this week I'm going to pick Cavs V.S. Warriors. I know in Week 1 I had Cavs up there and Week 2 I had the Warriors, but if any of you guys seen the Friday Night game with LeBron and the return of Monte Ellis, you would have to agree with me. Warriors kept the game very close through out the night, but King James just breaks the Warriors heart again for the 2nd consecituve game, by making a last second shot. LeBron was struggling a bit shooting on the court, he shot well below 50% going for 10 out of 24, but doesn't matter how bad your night is, it's all about making the shot when it counts. As for Monte Ellis return, not bad of a night for him. Scoring 20 points with 34 minutes and shot just above 40% going for 8 for 19. It's really good to see him being able to play like how he did on Friday night after coming back from suspesion and injury, because he missed nearly half of the season. Things don't look too bad for Golden State right now, with Monte back in the line up things will look much better for them in the future.

NBA Player of the Week

MiKE G said:
Okay, HERE WE GO! It's time for another installment of NBA Player of the Week. And as usual, this installment is brought to you straight from the Nothin But All-Stars crew at California State University, East Bay.
This week's candidates for player of the week included names such as LeBron James, Yao Ming, Dwayne Wade, and Deron Williams. However, despite their efforts, 2 names were decisively left ahead of the pack. But as we know, there can only be one. Sorry CP3, but this week's NBA Player of the Week award goes to Jameer Nelson of the Orlando Magic. With his help, Orlando went for a 3-0 record for the week, and currently sits in 3rd place in the Eastern Conference. Nelson had a great week, averaging 24.7 points, 8.0 assists, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.7 steals in the Magic's road victories over Sacramento, Los Angeles Lakers, and Denver. Pretty Impressive, if you ask me!