Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks improved to 19-6 after defeating New York rivals the Brooklyn Nets 100-86 at Madison Square Garden.

‘Melo’ was extremely efficient, playing in his first game back since missing the last two games because of a sprained ankle. He scored 17 points in the first half, helping the Knicks take a 52-48 halftime lead.

Point guard Deron Williams helped spark a Nets’ comeback as he scored nine of Brooklyn’s first 10 points, to start the second half, giving the Nets a 61-57 lead.

New York was able to regain their composure and played solid lockdown defense to regain momentum. They then finished the third quarter with an eight-point lead, thanks to an 18-6 run late in the quarter.

Anthony finished the game scoring 31 points on 12 of 22 shooting from the field, and 4 of 8 from downtown. He also contributed with three rebounds, one assist, two steals and a block. In his three games against the Nets, Anthony is averaging 37 points per game.

Prolific sixth man and guard, J.R. Smith, scored 19 points, dished out three assists and secured five rebounds. Big man Tyson Chandler also contributed as he recorded his tenth double-double of the year, scoring 16 points and grabbing 12 boards.

The Nets were led by shooting guard Joe Johnson, who scored a team high 17 points.  Deron Williams and center Brook Lopez both finished the game with double-doubles, as Williams scored 16 points and dished out 10 assists, whilst Lopez also scored 16 points with 10 rebounds.

Brooklyn continues to be inconsistent as of late, and are currently on a three game losing streak, which contributes to a record of 2-8 in their last 10 games. The Nets will be hoping for a chance in fortunes when they welcome the Philadelphia 76ers to the Barclays Center December 23, for the first time this season.

Although being blown out at home against Houston earlier in the week, the Knicks have managed to win five of their last six games, and remain atop the Eastern Conference with a game and a half lead over the Miami Heat. The Knicks will entertain the Chicago Bulls at Madison Square Garden on December 21.

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The Orlando Magic (29-18) suffered one of their worst losses of the season on Monday night, as the league’s best team record-wise, the Chicago Bulls (38-10), handed them a disappointing 85-59 home loss despite the absence of reigning MVP Derrick Rose. Rose sat out his fourth straight contest with a groin injury that he suffered last week.

“Tonight, they sent a team out there that played without their star player and did what they needed to do to win the ballgame,” said Magic reserve Glen Davis. “And they beat us. They beat us with no problem. I wish they would have had Derrick Rose, in a sense.”

Oddly enough, the Magic defeated the Bulls in Chicago with Rose on the floor on March 8, 99-94. But playing their third game in four nights and a back-to-back after falling short in Miami last night may have had the Magic players overly fatigued coming into this matchup with Chicago 11 days later.

Carlos Boozer led the way for the Bulls with a 24 point, 13 rebound effort. Backup guard John Lucas 20 point game, which consisted of nine points in both the first and fourth quarters, was a solid compliment. Dwight Howard was the high scorer on the night for the Magic with 18 points. He also pulled down 12 rebounds.

Ryan Anderson’s 10 points made him the only other Magic player in double figures. Howard shot 8/12 from the field, but the Bulls – who are second in the league in points, allowed with just 89.3 per game – did an excellent job of ball denial on him with Boozer, Joakim Noah, and Omer Asik.

Orlando was also unable to score 20 points in any quarter last night, and has actually failed to do so over their last six quarters of action. The Bulls converted 19 Orlando turnovers into 25 points, and held the Magic to just 35.3% shooting.

“Our offense was pathetic,” said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. “And that’s something that I’ve got to take a look at because we’ve got better players than that. I’ve got to take a look at what we’re doing because it’s really two games in a row now where we’ve been very, very bad offensively.”

With the score 22-14 in favor of Chicago at the completion of the opening quarter, it was still a single digit ball game. However, after the Bulls outscored the Magic 26-19 in the second, they had extended their halftime lead to a comfortable 15, 48-33. Both teams struggled mightily in the third quarter, as they combined for just 27 points. The Magic were able to outscore their opponent by three and cut the deficit to 60-48 entering the fourth quarter.

The Bulls were not by any means extraordinary scoring the ball in the final period. They put up 25, but the fact that they only gave up 11 is what allowed them to cruise toward their fifth win in six games.

The win was Chicago’s third during the current four game stretch without Rose. He’s missed 14 overall due to back issues that he fought earlier in the season, but that hasn’t prevented the Bulls and their smothering defense from going 10-4 during those games.

For the Magic, it was their third loss in their last four games. Van Gundy did not shy away from taking the blame for his team’s recent struggles.

“When you play the way we played tonight, this is a team-wide thing,” said Van Gundy. “I’ve got to take responsibility.”

The Bulls will make their way up to Toronto on Wednesday for a game against the Raptors, while the Magic will play host to the Phoenix Suns that same night.

Image Courtesy of   Chicago Bulls

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To the majority of sports fans in the United Kingdom, Mixed Martial Arts was an almost completely unknown phenomenon six years ago, until a certain Michael Bisping won the third season of The Ultimate Fighter, a reality show with the prize of a contract with the prestigious Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The English fighters’ success in the competition and his subsequent victories in the Octagon catapulted the sport from obscurity to one of the most anticipated sporting events. The UK now hosts regular UFC events as well as boasting several top fighters in the forms of Dan Hardy, Terry Etim, Ross Pearson (another Ultimate Fighter winner) and of course Bisping himself.

This has led to the UK becoming one of the largest markets worldwide for MMA, and more specifically the UFC. It is therefore not a large leap to assume that the recent announcement of Chicago Bulls star Luol Deng’s impending first British All-Star status could have a similar effect on the popularity of basketball and the NBA in the UK.

This current season withstanding, the NBA has played preseason games in the UK for the last few years and even took this a step further last season with the New Jersey Nets and Toronto Raptors competing in two Regular Season games at London’s O2 Arena. Despite the sports’ lack of mass appeal in the congested British sports market, both games were sell outs and deemed highly successful by both NBA officials and the fans who attended the games.

Although the NFL, who have also been hosting a Regular Season game in London for the last few years, is perhaps a step ahead of the NBA in terms of its presence in the UK, the emergence of Deng as one of the top performers in the NBA may be just what’s needed to readdress the balance.

The Sudanese-born small forward, who relocated to Brixton, South London after being granted political asylum, moved to the States at the age of 14 to pursue a promising basketball career. In fact, at the end of High School he was considered by many as the second best senior in the country, with only superstar LeBron James preceding.

He then attended Duke University for just one year before entering the NBA draft, his draft stock considerably boosted by the fact he led all rookies in scoring, rebounds and field goal percentage during his solitary season as a Blue Devil. He was drafted seventh overall by the Phoenix Suns but was immediately traded to the Chicago Bulls, where he set about laying the foundations for what would develop into a highly successful relationship for both team and player alike.

Deng seemed to be on the cusp of something great in Chicago for several seasons, but a multitude of injuries limited his time on the court, however, not preventing him from being named to the All-Rookie First Team in his debut season. Then the arrival of Derrick Rose and Carlos Boozer unfortunately detracted from Deng’s numbers despite causing an increase in the Bulls’ scoring potential.

Since then, Deng has improved his outside shooting significantly under the tutelage of Tom Thibodeau and an enhanced understanding with fellow All-Star Rose has culminated in Deng’s hard work and determination being rewarded by a place in the upcoming All-Star weekend in Orlando.

Perhaps the most influential aspect of Deng’s career so far, at least in terms of raising the games popularity in the UK, is not his ability to put up great numbers, which is considerable, but his desire to represent the national team of his adopted country. Despite facing insurance problems and domestic pressures not to compete at the Eurobasket 2011 for Great Britain, Deng overcame these obstacles and went on to be named MVP for the tournament.

He led an inexperienced GB side very well, and won himself a lot of plaudits from both sides of the Atlantic, not only for his exceptional play, but also his seemingly well honed leadership skills.

Based in a continent where the likes of Spain, France and Italy tend to dominate internationally and domestically, a good showing at the upcoming Olympics from a Deng-led Great Britain could do wonders to help raise the sport’s profile. Throw into the mix the potential inclusion of Detroit Piston’s shooting guard Ben Gordon, as well as NBA journeyman Pops Mensah-Bonsu, then GB’s chances look to be getting much better.

The presence of several British players in the American collegiate system also raises hopes that we may see more players forge a successful career in the NBA, and it only seems a matter of time before basketball starts to grow in popularity and the NBA receives the same level of exposure as its national compatriot, the NFL.

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A potent offense is something that every team needs to be successful in the NBA. We saw last season that even though the Chicago Bulls had the stingiest defense in the league, the lack of help for Derrick Rose on the other end of the court essentially led to their downfall.

Crawford is, by far, one of the most explosive, electrifying scorers in the NBA. With his dazzling crossovers, his crafty shake-and-bake move, and his nearly unstoppable jump shot, Crawford is a threat anywhere on the court.

Now that his time with the Atlanta Hawks is up (the Hawks did not offer him a contract extension last season), Crawford has expressed interest, in one form or another, in joining quite a few teams around the NBA.

1. Portland Trail Blazers

Because of his unbreakable bond with superstar PF, LaMarcus Aldridge, Crawford has expressed interest in joining the Portland Trail Blazers. Aldridge, with a little bit of a sales pitch, has been trying his hardest to snag him while the lockout rages on.

On October 26th, Aldridge tweeted:

Rip City when @JCrossover come play in my game we need to make him feel at home so he will sign with us!

Crawford then responded:

@aldridge_12 —yall have GREAT fans too!! And love u and broy’s game!!!

Now, it would take a great deal of rotation work to fit him in—the Blazers are stacked at the Guard position with Raymond Felton, Brandon Roy and Wesley Matthews—but if they could find a way to work all four of them into the game plan, Portland would have the best four-guard combo in the NBA. Crawford is sort of a combo guard, possessing the ball handling ability to run the point and the scoring ability to run the two.

It would be an interesting acquisition that just might pay off in the long run.

2. Miami Heat

Could you imagine Crawford coming off the bench and dropping 15 points behind the already offensively savvy Dwyane Wade? It would be ridiculous!

LeBron James already put the thought out there in the twitter world:

Would love to see @JCrossover in a Heat uni! What u guys say?

And while Aldridge tried his best to protect his potential free agent jackpot, tweeting:

@KingJames how are you going to try and steal @JCrossover from us?! I already told Portland to make him feel at home on the 6th.

There’s absolutely no doubt that Crawford would take a contract from the Miami Heat as a potential championship contender for the next decade.

3. Chicago Bulls

Returning back to his true NBA home in Chicago isn’t a distant thought from the former Sixth Man of the Year, either. After being questioned about it from several of his followers on Twitter, Crawford finally budged with a response.

@Raffletickets17: “@JCrossover ever consider the bulls? With you at the 2 we would be amazing! Championship right there”–course I wud.!

With the already dominant scorer, Derrick Rose, leading the way for the Bulls, the only thing they need is a second option on offense. Their defense is already top tier, hanging high above all other teams in the NBA last season. If they could get their hands on Crawford when the free agency period opens up, Chicago could find themselves in the NBA Finals within the next two years.

4. New Jersey Nets

Jamal Crawford and Deron Williams are already good friends. What’s to say he doesn’t join forces whenever the lockout comes to a halt? Crawford’s also good friends with Marshon Brooks, the Nets acquisition on the day of the draft. While Williams and Crawford cut their conversation short on Twitter, moving into private messaging, but one can only speculate as to what they could be talking about.

Crawford to the Nets would only give Deron Williams another reason to stay with the franchise.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait until the lockout is over to see where all these free agents end up. With other big names like Tyson Chandler, J.R. Smith, David West and Caron Butler in the market, the NBA could see a complete shift in power. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

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The 2011 NBA regular season is in serious jeopardy of not starting on time as the lockout continues late into September. The 2011 season is scheduled to tip-off on November 1, as last season’s champions, the Dallas Mavericks, are set to host the Chicago Bulls. As the days march on, that start date looks less and less likely to be accurate.

With players and owners still in disagreement over the new collective bargaining agreement, training camps and the first week of preseason games, from October 9-15, were both cancelled Friday afternoon. Players were scheduled to report to training camp on October 3.

“We have regretfully reached the point on the calendar where we are not able to open training camps on time, and need to cancel the first week of preseason games,” Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “We will make further decisions as warranted.” This is unfavorable news for NBA fans, as the Summer League was already cancelled.

The Summer League serves as a venue for coaches to evaluate the talent level of rookies and young bench players. While the Summer League is not integral to having an NBA season, the combined cancellations do not provide hope for a prompt start. The only time the NBA season did not start on time due to a work stoppage was during the 1998-99 season, where the regular season was cut to 50 games.

The main issue of the 1998 lockout was that owners wanted to cut player salaries and set a salary cap because player salaries were significantly taking away from earnings. During negotiations in 1998, the problem wasn’t directly dealt with. While players’ salaries were capped between $9 million and $14 million, each party agreed to institute a soft cap.

This allowed teams to exceed the cap and pay players as much as they wanted if the teams paid a luxury tax to the NBA on the player’s salary. That decision to allow an exception is becoming a big problem 12 years later, and owners want to decrease salaries and set a hard cap.

The hard cap would prevent teams like the Los Angeles Lakers from having a $91 million payroll, when the salary cap is $57.7 million. The Lakers dish out $17 million more than the Orlando Magic, the team with the second largest payroll. Unlike smaller teams, the Lakers have a huge fan base to draw from, and can generate the revenue needed to pay the luxury tax.

There is a big push for the hard cap from smaller market teams like the Golden State Warriors, who are finding it hard to compete because they can’t pay high level talent what teams like the Lakers can pay. However, installing a hard cap would decrease every player’s salary, an issue the players are not willing to concede to at this moment.

The belief of the players is that they only earn a small piece of the money pie, and the owners want them to have an even smaller piece. It isn’t shocking to see that money is the main component for the cause of the lockout. However, owners and players need to come to an agreement soon before they lose something they both couldn’t exist without: a fan base.

 
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Sunday night during game three of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls, Joakim Noah had a verbal altercation with a fan resulting in a $50,000 fine. Noah promptly apologized for the derogatory anti-gay term he used in response to a fan showering insults about Noah’s mother among other things. Some of the players said the fan was intoxicated, but he was never removed from the game.

This was just another instance in the NBA that sparks discussion on several topics. Should security be increased around the benches? Should ushers warn fans around the benches when they are getting out of control? Do arenas need to limit alcohol sales?

Now these are all areas that the NBA needs to make sure they are doing a good job in handling, but the true responsibility lies with the fans. Paying top-dollar for a seat right behind the bench does not buy you the right to act like an idiot. It is sad when one or a few moronic fans ruin things for all the other fans that do a great job rooting for their teams. This is no good-natured Spike Lee Reggie Miller spout. This is just plain harassment and it needs to end.

Taunting is of course a part of the game, and it can be a fun and exciting part of the game that drives players to play harder. More trash-talking takes place on the floor than cameras are able to capture. Every now and then you can read their lips, but most goes unheard by the fans. In the crowd there is also rumblings and chants targeting players but that is part of playing in a hostile environment, and these fans aren’t in the players’ faces they are simply creating a home-court advantage.

The NBA is different than any of the other major sports in America. There is very little separating the fans from the players, often nothing at all. There are seats on the edge of the floor, behind the benches and under the baskets. There is no distance, and fans can be right in the faces of players, verbally abusing and harassing them during the course of a highly emotional game. Sports like the NFL have the fans far removed from the players, and baseball has walls, foul areas, and covered dugouts. The NHL even has glass separating fans from the playing ice.

This incident brings The Malice in the Palace back to life, although in a much smaller scale. This happened between the Pacers and the Pistons November 19, 2004 at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Two notable players, Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson ended up in the crowd going toe to toe with fans. Five players were eventually charged with assault and five fans faced criminal charges and were banned from attending Pistons games for life.

How much is too much?

This article is not meant to excuse Noah of his actions, and he never should have confronted the fan in the first place, but it brings to light a responsibility that lies with the fans. Fans please be responsible when you attend games. Sporting events are meant to be fun, to be an escape from everyday life. Being a fan is about having passion, but when you cross the line it becomes something else, ruining the game and the reputations of fans.

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Derrick Rose at 22 years of age became the NBA’s youngest to win the Most Valuable Player Award with his dominant 2011 season. Though he showed off his skills in a way that we had never seen out of him before, much of the talk around the league is that he was undeserving of the award this year, and in fact is a bit overrated as a player.

I believe that overrated is quite a strong word. It should merely be reserved for a class of players that has one or two strong seasons but then never quite seems to live up to that potential again throughout the rest of their career. I have no doubt that Derrick Rose does not belong in this class.

Although I hate to begin an argument with statistics (because they surely do not tell the entire story of a players overall game) I will use them as a launching point.

Rose is obviously first and foremost, a scorer. Whether or not each individual fan wants their point guard to be “score-first” they will have to deal with it from the young Bulls superstar, because his reputation has become one of the toughest guards to defend across the entire league. In 2011 alone he upped his scoring from 20.8 to 25 points-per-game.

Not only is he getting to the rim more but he also increased his free throw percentage from an average 76.6% to 85.8%, making it even tougher to defend him in the paint since no coach wants to give away free points.

The biggest transition in his game came with his touch from the outside. Much of this “overrated” talk came from Rose’s struggles shooting the ball in the playoffs. Whereas that may be true, anyone who has watched basketball for a significant amount of time knows that young players are bound to struggle come playoff time when the experience just isn’t there. All of the great players went through lulls where the ball just wouldn’t go through the hoop, and rose is no different. It should be said however that this is no reason to discredit his dominant regular season (especially since the MVP award is NOT based on the postseason).

Despite his struggles, throughout the regular season, Rose increased his 3-point shooting from a terrible 26.7% to a respectable 33.2%, and can be expected to increase again next season. The percentages do not tell the whole story however, since last season he was only able to net 16 shots from behind the arc, and in 2011 hit 128.

Rose’s blocks, steals, assists, and rebounds all increased by a fairly significant margin as well over his MVP year, and yet still he is doubted.

Let’s get to what I believe is the real root of the problem here: the Chicago Bulls as a team.

Do not get me wrong, personally I enjoyed watching the Bulls play this season and do believe they are on pace to compete for years to come in the eastern conference (if only they can get a shooting guard who isn’t named Keith Bogans into the starting lineup). The fact is, nobody expected them to be the top seed in the east this year whatsoever.

This is where my word change comes into play. Overachieved is the best word for both Rose and the Bulls. Rose was forced to take over many games in the regular season and in the playoffs due to the teams struggles without him. It seemed like they just haven’t gelled all the way yet, and are a good off-season away from being a serious title contender.

I also hate to use injuries as an excuse, because we have all seen what the Dallas Mavericks have done without one of their premier players Caron Butler, however the Bulls were bitten hard by the injury bug all year long, causing them only to be able to play with their real starting lineup for a handful of games coming into the postseason.

My real gripe with many fans though can be seen in comparing Rose to one of the other young budding superstars in the league, Kevin Durant. Like Rose and the Bulls, Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder made it to the conference finals and were dominated by an older, more experienced team. My problem is that everyone seems to give Durant a pass just because he’s young and hasn’t been there before.

Every respected voice across the basketball community believes that the Thunder will soon be the kings of the Western Conference, and just need some time to get there. So why the free pass for Durant and not Rose? In fact, Durant is not only a year older than Rose, but has mostly the same team as he did last year, while Rose was forced to create chemistry between he and the Bulls new high-powered forward Carlos Boozer this season, along with a slew of other new names and a new coach, or should I say NBA Coach of the Year, Tom Thibodeau.

Some may say that they want to see more out of their league MVP, and I get that some people will always be unhappy no matter who is chosen. All I want to say to fans out there is, give the kid time, and watch out, because both Rose and the Bulls will be back and hungry in the 2012 season, and don’t be surprised if you see some more hardware on Rose’s mantle before it’s all said and done.

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Lebron James was once again King James in game 2 tonight against the stagnant Bulls whose defense kept them in the game but was no match at the end. His performance tonight was what Dwayne Wade envisioned when he recruited good friend James to join his depleted heat squad.

Dwayne Wade had a good night scoring 24 points on 16 shots, being very efficient against the best defensive team in the league this past regular season.  More importantly his 9 rebounds showed the effort that they lacked in game 1 where they were out hustled on the boards by more than 12.

The Bulls played their usual tough defense that they have come to be known for but the hustle along with the energy seemed to have disappeared along with Derick Rose’s ability to get to the paint at will.

Rose went 7 for 23 along with 8 assist but his energy and determination was not there thanks to the Miami defense which decided to sow up today.  Let’s not forget the Miami defense was statistically the 2^nd best defense in the league so this performance was nothing new for them.

Lebron James is slowly but surely quieting his critics in crunch time, delivering timely buckets with high level difficulty and not just driving blindly to the paint often resulting in block shots or even turning the ball over.  He poured in 29 points, 10 tough rebounds and 5 assist to Haslem and running mate Dwayne Wade.

Although Lebron was big in crunch time scoring 9 points to seal the victory, the true hero for Miami was Udonis Haslem.  He has played only 9 minutes this whole post season and his 23 minutes this game provided the spark needed to win the game.

Miami has two future hall of famers, what they lacked the first game was energy and rebounding which Haslem provided.

Chicago has Joakim Noah who was everywhere during game 1, whether it was loose ball or rebounding or a tip in, he did everything but tonight was different. He was relatively quiet during the second half and Haslem assumed the role left vacant by the absent Noah.

If this game showed us anything, it is that this series will come down to offense… yes, offense.  We all know that these two teams will play defense, that will not stop…with the exception being game one.  It came down to who can execute better offensively with the game on the line and Miami has two guys who can do this on regular basis and Chris Bosh, who can do this as well when needed to.

Derick Rose will have to find a way to run this offense and not get frustrated by not being able to drive at will like he has done in the past.  He will have to use his improved jump shot more often and maybe get his other teammates involved in the offense, mainly korver.

The Bulls bench is better and deeper than the Miami bench, so that is where they will have to win this series.   Miami’s starters, well Lebron and Wade will have to dominate and somewhere down the line Bosh will have to come up big once again.

The formula is there for both teams, now let’s see who will execute and meet Dallas in the NBA Finals.

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