Points in the Paint 02.09.09: The Health Care Edition
Posted by Rob Bonnette on 02.09.2009
The injury bug strikes!
Good morning all and welcome to a injury-plagued edition of Points in the Paint. This week it's all about the lost players, with a little bit of Kobe/Lebron highlights sprinkled in. So whip out you band-aids and let's go.
Worst Week Ever!
This was a truly bad week to be a Knicks fan, like me. When your team is on the highlight reel of doom for an entire week, it makes you ready to reach for a bottle and down the whole thing. Three home losses, the best of which was a worse-than-the-final score 110-100 defeat Friday to Boston, who seemingly made three pointers at will all night long. The other two losses are in the history books now as the ‘can you top this' duel between Kobe and Lebron. Kobe gives us 61 in the first game, then Lebron drops 52 points with 10 assists and nine rebounds (the tenth was taken away later by the stat geeks). The Knicks pretty much gave it up like it was free at the defensive end, which looks bad enough most bads but is really bad when facing an opponent who decides to really take advantage of it. I'm all for the league getting good pub for a whole week, but does most of it have to be the expense of my boys? I guess so.
OK, I know you don't care about all that. Whose game was better, Lebron or Kobe's? I vote Lebron; 52 points with 10 assists and nine boards beats 61 with little of anything else. Understand though, that this is like being asked to choose between Beyonce and Eva Mendes; no matter which way you go you won't be disappointed. Give me either one of those guys any day on my basketball team. And no, Lebron's performance isn't any indicator that he's coming to New York. Just stop it already, OK? And one more thing: the Lakers-Celtics game from Thursday was the highest rated game on TNT since a Lakers-Bulls game from 1996; can all the naysayers out there who like to opine about how much the NBA sucks now and no one watches anymore please shut up? Attendance has been up overall, and ratings have been up for the past two seasons. If Boston and L.A. are good, and you have another guy like Lebron playing, people will tune in.
The MASH Unit!
Injuries have reared their ugly heads over the past few weeks, and the consequences are going to be pretty dire. Nothing can turn a promising season into a total trainwreck like having a few starters out for extended periods of time, and we're about to see some serious derailments over the next few weeks. Whether it's the Lakers, Bucks, Hornets, or Wizards, the toll that injuries play is usually a big one. Several teams have had to attempt to make due without key people this season, and the results have been all over the place. And some other teams have just now been hit with losses that look to be devastating. And then there's one team that may actually be better off without the player they lost. Here's the roll call, starting with those who've been dealing with it longest and ending with the recent victims:
Washington: Starting center Brendan Haywood was lost for the season in training camp, while star player Gilbert Arenas continues to miss time due to his knee injury from a year and a half ago. The results have been crippling. The team's other two All Stars, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison, have done their best to keep the ship afloat but have gotten little help from what's left of the roster. Haywood, despite being a middle of the pack center, was crucial to what little defense they were playing last season and his absence has made the interior a free fire zone for opposing teams; it gets attacked early and often, with little resistance. Another equally bad result of the injuries is that the Wizards are now dealing with an active roster that is fifty percent made up of guys with three years of experience or less, and who are still in the learning phase of their careers (a phase that, for this particular group, doesn't look like it will be ending anytime soon, either). Head coach Eddie Jordan got fired after a 1-10 start, and his replacement Ed Tapscott hasn't done much better (9-30 since). After four straight playoff appearances, the Wizards were a 2009 lottery team before Christmas 2008 even hit.
Utah: All Star power forward Carlos Boozer went down after 12 games, at which point the Jazz were 8-4; they've been 21-18 since and are fighting, along with Dallas and Phoenix, to get one of the last two playoff spots in the West. At the beginning of the season they were a playoff lock and probable division winner. Now they are stuck in third behind the improving Blazers and Nuggets, and could be watching the action from home in May. Boozer's place has been ably filled by Paul Milsap, to the tune of 15 points and nine rebounds per game, but that hasn't enough to make up for Boozer's production. The Jazz have also been without starting point guard Deron Williams and sixth man Andrei Kirilenko at times, which hasn't helped. Right now Boozer is still listed as being out indefinitely; it's going to be difficult to see them getting over the hump and back to the playoffs without him in the lineup. They can beat the bad and mediocre teams without him but not the good ones. If he gets back in time to finish the season strong, I think you can count them in and either Dallas or Phoenix out.
Houston: Aren't they always here? Of course. Out of the fifty games they've played so far this season, they've been without Tracy McGrady for 17, Ron Artest for 13, and Shane Battier for 22. Starting point guard Rafer Alston and All Star center Yao Ming have been relatively healthy, missing only six and three games respectively. Of their top seven or eight guys only power forward Luis Scola and reserve forward Carl Landry have suited up for every game. As we know this happens pretty much every year in Houston; McGrady and Ming almost always miss at least twenty games apiece. But now it has spread to the rest of the roster. Battier usually stays upright all season but he's been down. Artest does tend to get hurt wherever he's played, so him missing time isn't a shock. But it still upsets the continuity of the roster. As always, if they can manage to field their full team down the stretch they'll lock up their playoff berth and at least be a tough out in the first round. If they continue as they have so far, they'll still get in but it will be as a six or seven seed and they won't be around long.
And now onto the newbies….
Milwaukee: The Bucks were fighting for eight place all season long. Now in a two week span they've lost their best player in Michael Redd for the rest of the season and their starting point guard Luke Ridinhour for the next month. And they've been without starting center Andrew Bogut from some time now and will be for another eight weeks. They're 24-28 as of this writing, and you can expect the losses to pile up now. They have no other full time answer at the point to fill in for Ridinhour or for Redd at the two, and Dan Gadzuric will now have to log starter's minutes at center. That's three starters lost in two weeks, and their three most important ones to boot; they could finish up like the Wizards in all honesty, maybe worse. The playoff run is over and it's time to start scouting those draft prospects.
Orlando: The Magic were mounting a surprising but serious challenge for first place in the entire East, and now that's over. Point guard Jameer Nelson, in the midst of his best season and first All Star selection, is out indefinitely with a torn labrum, and the Magic have no one to replace what he's been providing. With him gone their backcourt is no good at all compared to the duos they'll have to deal with on a nightly basis, and it will show soon enough. (Actually, it already did: starting guards Anthony Johnson and Michael Pietrus combined for an awesome eleven points on 3 for 10 shooting in a loss to Indiana on Friday.) They have an eight game led in their division as of this writing, but that may not hold up for long. Their playoff spot should be pretty secure, but it will be interesting to see if they're able to make any moves before the trade deadline and whether or not Atlanta will be able to close the gap in the Southeast division race.
Philadelphia: This one is actually the most recent one, but I had to save the best for last. The Sixers lost Elton Brand for the season this week, and of all the teams losing major guys they might quietly be the happiest. They'd struggled to incorporate Brand into their offense all season long, and it may have cost Maurice Cheeks his job as head coach. The team that made the playoffs last season and put a little scare into Detroit for the first four games of their series was a running team that tried to beat people up and down the floor for points and Brand had trouble adapting to that. Teammate Andre Iguodala was having his worst season in years trying to fit in with Brand; now that he's gone the Sixers are back to the same basic unit they had last season and stand to gain in the standings, or at least solidify their spot. They still won't be much of a factor in the playoffs, due their rebounding disadvantage with their starting five, but could get to the second round if they manage to sneak into the four or five seed.
Los Angeles: I'm sure you've all heard about the Andrew Bynum injury by now. Like the Brand injury in Philly, this more or less puts the Lakers in the same place they were a year ago with roughly the same roster. And like last year, they should have no issues in the first two rounds of the playoffs. If Bynum makes it back by the conference finals, they should be good. But if he isn't, then the Spurs (if they get there) could take them out unless the Lakers are able to get tough in the paint for a change. Bynum is the only frontcourt player who shows that with any regularity; a healthy Spurs team (remember, Manu Ginobli was hobbled during last year's five game loss to the Lakers) could rough up Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol the way the Celtics did in the Finals and render them ineffective without him there.
OK, that's it for this week. I know I promised All Star commentary but I'll have to hit that next time. Until then…
