NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

It should be the name of a rock group and at times they play just that crazy and act just that crazy. The team got to the point that there was no separation between the night life and the court life.

Now all that has changed. George Karl was fed up and wanted to go back to the old tried and true ways of actually stopping your opponent. Still, something was missing and that is when Chauncey Billups arrived.

Chauncey had played for Rick Carlisle (Defense, man to man), Larry Brown (Defense, spread the ball), and Flip Wilson (team defense, and score the basketball). Chauncey had learned the disciplined way from all three and then you have to add in the fact that he played under the GM brilliance of Joe Dumars. Joe settled for nothing less than excellence.

Chauncey Billups is leading the Nuggets

Now Chauncey is exerting his influence on a Nugget team that is desperate to get away from the old ways and win an NBA title.

Nearly everything Karl had preached, Billups magnified. Defense. Toughness. Professionalism. With the ball in his hands, Billups was able to shepherd these wayward Nuggets toward a common goal.

“I was always looking for somebody like Chauncey to come to our team,” Carmelo Anthony(notes) said.

His career tarnished by five consecutive first-round exits, as well as a few off-the-court transgressions, Anthony’s hunger to win grew even more after he had helped the U.S. Olympic team win a gold medal in Beijing. If Billups wanted to lead, Anthony, like most of the Nuggets, would follow.

“My whole thing was I knew some guys wanted to win,” Billups said. “Where I come from that’s one thing I know how to do: win. I don’t do it all the time, but I’m trying to all the time.”

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Photo source Newscom

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Terry Porter was fired by the Suns and replaced by Alvin Gentry.

GM Steve Kerr has no clue. He took the very successful running offense that could not get it done in the playoffs and fired its architect in Mike D’Antoni.

Then Steve hired Terry Porter to bring in the Detroit Pistons defensive style of play. Huh? Same players completely opposite styles? Won’t work and it didn’t.

Porter was in the first year of a three-year, $6 million deal to replace Mike D’Antoni, who left after four highly successful seasons to coach the New York Knicks.

D’Antoni is a coach who lets his players run and shoot, and maybe play defense once in a while. It was Kerr’s insistence on emphasizing defense that led, in large part, to D’Antoni’s departure. Porter wanted a defense-oriented team in the tough mold of the Pistons.

It was a bad fit.

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Now Steve brings in Alvin Gentry, always the coach to replace the fired coach, because the players like him. Gentry says he will bring back the racehorse style, only D’Antoni won’t be there, and Steve Nash is 2 years older, and All Star MVP Shaq is 37 and can’t run.

Good Luck with that.

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Byron Scott in with the new.

Avery Johnson out with the old.

That was the swan song of the Coach of the Year award.

New Orleans 99 Dallas 94

Top 10 reasons Hornets eliminate Mavs

10. Chris Paul at beginning of a potential Hall of Fame career, while Jason Kidd near the end of potential Hall of Fame career.

Chris Paul had 24 points, 15 assists and 11 rebounds, and the Hornets held on for a 99-94 victory over the Dallas Mavericks to win their first-round series in five games.

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9. Dirk Nowitzki settles too often for jumpers, even when there is a mismatch on D.

8. Poor recognition of mismatches on defense by Dallas.

7. Poor defense by Dallas.

6., 5., 4., 3., 2., 1. No clue how to defend by Dallas.

Just in case you think the Mavs never played defense, there is proof that they did.

Dallas never led and was hurt badly by an 11-1 Hornets run after Nowitzki’s free throw had pulled the Mavs to 73-66 early in the fourth quarter.

Dallas played solid defense on New Orleans’ next possession, keeping the ball on the perimeter, but Pargo hit a deflating 3 at the shot clock buzzer.

Time to stop blaming Jason Kidd.

“We’re better than what we showed this series,” Nowitzki said. “The summer is going to be long. … You don’t want to say stuff when you’re emotional and disappointed. … You’ve got to look at what you can do to make the team better. We’ve got to look at it this summer again, but it’s not the time now.”

Nowitzki gave mixed reviews to the Kidd trade, which cost the Mavericks young point guard Devin Harris, a former first-round draft choice.

Dallas will probably be looking at firing former Coach of the Year Avery Johnson and adding some defense to their games.

Kidd and Johnson never found a rhythm together, never found a common ground to make this work. And Mark Cuban did nothing in the losing locker room to end speculation that an NBA Finals collapse and two straight first-round playoff blowouts would end Johnson’s run as Mavericks coach.

“Nothing to say,” the Mavericks owner said, throwing a fistful of popcorn into his mouth.

“I pass.”

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Yes, Chris Paul was brilliant and outplayed Jason Kidd, but do you think for a minute Chris Paul would not have destroyed Devin Harris?

Dallas needs Defense.

NBA Basketball special comment Chris Paul sure is fun to watch. Go Hornets.

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

2008 NBA Playoffs

Kobe takes Melo to the rack

Image details: Los Angeles Lakers v Denver Nuggets - Game Three served by picapp.com

Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers make you think of offense with Kobe and his jumpers raining down from up high.

Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs

The Spurs make you think of offense with Tim facing up and playing like a power forward and Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker slicing through the defense.

Truth be told, both teams are very efficient on offense, but even more efficient of defense.

More truth to be told, the Suns and Nuggets do not play a lot of defense. In fact, one of the main factors in getting Shaq for the Suns was to guard Tim Duncan. Maybe they should guard the other four guys on the court too.

As for the Nuggets, they don’t guard much of anyone.

Phil Jackson

Like all good coaches; Phil Jackson was not satisfied with the Lakers latest effort.

Anthony and A.I. shot a combined 10-for-38 and finished with 16 and 15 points, respectively.

No thanks to the Lakers, either, suggested coach Phil Jackson.

“I thought our defense packed it in on them, but they missed some easy shots,” Jackson said. “I told the team at halftime, ‘They’re not going to shoot like this for the whole game. They missed some close shots, some shots they usually make. We’ll have to play better defense in the second half.’

“But they never showed up. They never got it going.”

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Spurs

Tony Parker was on fire for the Spurs in game 3.

The Spurs led from opening tip to final buzzer, playing what Manu Ginobili later called “almost a perfect game.” Parker never has been better, scoring a career-best 41 points, distributing 12 assists and peppering the Suns with jump shot after jump shot for the 40 minutes he spent on the floor.

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You wonder how many points Tony Parker would have had if any of the Suns had bothered to guard him?

Teams like Denver and Phoenix can cruise through the regular season winning on all offense, looking great, placing players on the All Star team, but it all becomes a joke when they try to win playoff games against good defensive teams.

NBA Basketball special comment You must have a balance between offense and defense to win big games.

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In a game of two awesome point guards, it was the lack of defense that stood out.

Dallas came back in the fourth quarter with a 16 - 0 run to take the game. A game that Phoenix led from the get go and had a 13 point lead in the 3rd quarter.

Dirk scored 32 points on one ankle as the Mavs won 105 - 98.

Dirk Nowitzki signals he can score on one ankle or two

“Every team we’d played so far we were right there, on the road or at home,” Nowitzki said. “So it feels great to get finally over the hump. I think everybody in t he locker room was pretty hyped up that we had finally pulled this one out. Hopefully this could build some momentum.”

Josh Howard added 24 points and Brandon Bass 19 for the Mavericks, who used a smothering defense in a 16-0 run that put them ahead for good in a game the Suns had led nearly throughout. Phoenix went scoreless for just under 8 minutes, missing 12 shots in the process.

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The disturbing part of this game was the lack of defense on the pick and roll. In the playoffs, you have to be able to defend the pick and roll.

It got so bad in the second half that my TV was switched to The Lord of the Rings II. Rohan used excellent defense to defend Helms deep from the invading Orcs. It was playoff defense at its best.

Anyway, getting back to the game, it seemed like either team could shake a man loose on the pick and roll whenever they wanted. There was no cut out or rotation or trap or any of the myriad ways to defend. Nowitzki and Shaq both looked helpless on pick and rolls.

How do these teams plan on beating San Antonio and Tim Duncan or Utah and Darren Williams without defending the pick and roll?

NBA Basketball special comment It still has to be San Antonio in the West until better defense is played by the other teams.

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Ok, don’t take this the wrong way, but that was an easy 50 points if there ever was one.

LeBron James is awesome. There is no question of that and he is the front runner with Kobe Bryant for MVP of the National Basketball Association.

But come on. The Knicks?

Happened to catch the Sports Center Highlights of the 50 point barrage.

What was that the Knicks were playing? You could not call it defense. One gets the feeling that LeBron could have scored all the points if he wanted to. It looked that easy.

The Knicks are so bad that rumors began that James is coming to New York to play for the Knicks, rather than worry about how sad their team is now.

“Because how bad New York [teams are] and they’re looking for a guy who can help change things around and because how close I am to Jay-Z [part owner of the Nets], there are questions about that every day,” James said.

James said the rumors will continue until — and after — he becomes a free agent. source

Just how does Isiah Thomas keep his job?

How does David Stern keep his lunch down watching one of his biggest markets stink up the joint night after night?

Anyway, not to denigrate James, but maybe he felt sorry for New York and that is why he did not get 60!

NBA Basketball Fan Question Will LeBron win the MVP over Kobe Bryant?

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The Pistons were able to play defense on one guy.

Uhh, one guy?

Yeah, they held Dwight “Superman” Howard to eight points on 2 for 9 shooting with 5 turnovers.

Nice, what happened?

The Pistons lost to the Magic 103 - 85.

How could they lose?

They forgot to play defense on the other 4 guys.

“I am disappointed, (the players) are disappointed and the fans are disappointed,” coach Flip Saunders said after the Orlando Magic came into The Palace on Wednesday night and laid a 103-85 whipping on the Pistons. “We didn’t need to come out and lay an egg like that.”

The Magic shot holes in the Pistons’ 10-game winning streak with a barrage of 3-point shots. They knocked down 13-of-20 on the night, nine of the first 12. source

Apparently the Pistons have the magic powers of a chicken and can lay eggs.

The NBA just gets weirder all the time.

Anyway, the Magic just kept pouring in the 3’s.

Bogans, Rashard Lewis (20 points) and former Piston Maurice Evans (16 points) combined to make 11 of 13 triples and the Magic won at The Palace for the first time in eight tries.

“They were hot, man, hot, hot, hot,” Pistons guard Chauncey Billups said. “Give them credit, they came in here and took it to us. No excuses.”

Was Chauncey singing when he said this?

Oh, my. What could happen next?

Leave it to the All-Star break to break momentum.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Do strange losses upset you?

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Jason Maxiell danced to victory against the Bobcats

The Pistons are hot again and looking like a championship team.

Taking 24 three-point attempts was probably not the way the Pistons figured they’d beat the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday night.

But they started falling early, when Tayshaun Prince made four of five in the first quarter, and they never really stopped, as the team finished 12-for-24 from long range in a 113-87 victory at the Palace. source

The Pistons set the tone early with defense.

The Pistons (37-13) held the Bobcats to 13 points in the first quarter, when they went up by as much as 20, and for the second game in a row, they didn’t look back.

The Pistons just keep on rolling.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Will the Pistons win the East?

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Rasheed Wallace calls for low post offense

In the pre Super Bowl marquee NBA matchup, the Detroit Pistons showed why defense wins championships.

Holding the powerful offense of the Dallas Mavericks to 29 points in the second half, the Detroit Pistons easily won the afternoon game.

Detroit had lost in Dallas in January in a typical Maverick racehorse affair. They were determined not to play that way this time.

A special focus was put on stopping the high scoring Dirk Nowitzki and it paid off with Dirk missing shot after shot in the second half.

The Mavericks, who were without starting point guard Devin Harris and sixth man Jerry Stackhouse, also shot a season-low 30.3% and made a season-low 23 shots.

The key was a relentless defense that involved more switching than usual on pick-and-rolls and a physical an aggressive approach to handling reigning MVP Dirk Nowitzki. source

Coach Flip Saunders, who is better known for offense, has always been a strong believer in defense.

“When we are playing our best, that’s how we play,” said Pistons coach Flip Saunders, who called Sunday’s defense the best he has seen on Nowitzki in his time with the Pistons. “We play physical, we get after it, we make teams react to what we do, and we don’t stay back. We become more proactive.”

Rasheed Wallace speaks

The center for the Detroit Pistons, Rasheed Wallace, had a ready quote before the game. Read more

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Big Baby Glen Davis

No it was not Kevin Garnett. He sat for most of the first half.

No, it was not Ray Allen or Paul Pierce. It was Big Baby.

Get this; it was the first time all season that one of the Big Three did not lead the team in scoring. Big Baby was humble, just the same.

“It feels real good to contribute in a big game like this,” Davis said. “But we can’t get too excited. This isn’t the last time we’re going to see this team.” source

NBA Big Baby factoid - “The Notre Dame coach at the time came down to look at him,” Temple said of Tyrone Willingham. “Every football coach in the country wanted this boy. He was a freak. We’re talking about a senior in high school who weighed 340 pounds and could run a 4.9 40. He’s a freak, man.” source

Boston plays D

The bigger story tonight was the Celtics defense. This is an area that most of us thought the Celtics might struggle; instead it looks like they may be one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. So how did that affect the Pistons?

This game looked a lot like some games we’ve seen the Pistons play in the last two postseasons. You know the ones. The Pistons get stagnant on offense. Billups misses shots and nobody else can drive to the basket consistently. An unsung opponent (in this case Glen Davis) scores a bunch of points. Rasheed Wallace lets a few bad calls drive him off a mental cliff. (Wallace, I’m told, left the arena in full uniform Saturday night.) source

Tayshaun ponders his lack of productivity

Tie in the fact that Tayshaun Prince struggled once again this season against the Celtics.

And one important Piston struggles mightily – in this case, as in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals against Cleveland, that Pistons was Tayshaun Prince. Prince is now 4 for 22 in two games against the Celtics. And at least twice in the final minutes, Pierce blew past Prince, leaving Prince with a befuddled look on his face, as though he expected Pierce to at least leave a forwarding address. Naturally, other Pistons had to help out on Pierce, and just as naturally, Pierce found teammates for easy scores.

Look to the playoffs

Boston is a gifted team on offense and defense and so is Detroit. These two early games that each team won on the other team’s court only go to show how good these teams can be.

Come playoff time, both of these teams Read more