Andris Biedrins, far right, won’t have Baron Davis, front, passing him the ball anymore

Biedrins has game.

Who?

Andris Biedrins. He just signed a huge contract with the Golden State Warriors for 62 million bucks.

62 million bucks for Bee runs?

No, Biedrins. Andris Biedrins. They also signed Monta Ellis for 66 million bucks.

Monta Ellis?

Golden State wanted to lock up some young talent and they did.

“We’re extremely happy to have Andris under contract for many years to come,” said Chris Mullin, the Warriors’ top basketball executive. “He is clearly one of the top young centers in the NBA, and much like (Ellis), he has continued to improve every season. It’s not easy to find quality young big men in this league, but we certainly think we have one of them, and he’s only 22 years old.”

Biedrins has improved his scoring average in each of his seasons with Golden State, developing from a skinny rebounding specialist into an all-around player and a low-post scorer for the uptempo Warriors.

source

Did you know Andris led the league in field goal percentage at 62.6 %? He is a 6′ 11″ center and brings what you would call a 10 10 game to the NBA, 10 points and 10 rebounds per game. Andre is young and getting better.

As for Monta Ellis, he averaged over 20 points per game last year and will take over for Baron Davis. Baron left for the Clippers.

Should be fun to watch Golden State in their high speed offense with Monta Ellis bringing up the ball and Biedrins as a reliable scorer and rebounder.

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Who are these guys?

Deron Williams? All everyone talks about is Chris Paul of the Hornets, or the arrival of Jason Kidd in Dallas, but Deron Williams is off to a great career with that hidden team, the Utah Jazz. Deron had 14 assists by half time. Half time!

Mehmet Okur? All everyone talks about is Shaq going to the Suns, or Dirk Nowitzki lighting it up for the Mavs, or the return of Andrew Bynum, or Pau Gasol gaining new life with the Lakers, but Mehmet has some of those European style components to his game, learned in Turkey, that make him tough to guard and he rebounds well in a crowd. Just ask Joe Dumars, he wanted to keep him a Piston, but the price was too high.

Carlos Boozer? Hey, what is he doing on the Jazz? Carlos is a 20/10 guy that weighs 266 pounds. 20 points and 10 rebound season average that is and the 266 pounds on his 6′ 9″ frame makes him tough to handle inside.

Andrei Kirilenko? He may not be a 20/10 guy, but he does everything else with steals, blocked shots, rebounds, points, and just plain excellent defense. In 2005-06 he was on the NBA all defensive team. This year he has suffered a lot of injuries and did not play most of this most recent game.

Utah played most of the game without forward Andrei Kirilenko, who was knocked out of the game with 7:04 left in the first quarter after taking a flagrant foul from Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki. Kirilenko went crashing to the floor and bruised his right hip bad enough that he was taken to the hospital for X-rays, which showed no break. source

NBA Basketball Andrei Kirilenko factoid – Became just 4th player in NBA history, and first since 1993-94, to average 15+ points, 8+ rebounds, 4+ assists and 3+ blocks in single season (Abdul-Jabbar six times, Bob Lanier – 1973-74, David Robinson – 1993-94) source

Kyle Korver? The least heard about trade this side of Golden State picking up old timer Chris Weber. Kyle gives them the big time bench scorer they needed and had 17 points in this game.

Utah won over Dallas 116 – 110.

The Jazz went on a momentum-changing fourth-quarter run in a 116-110 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night, coming back after blowing a 21-point lead. Utah made all 18 free throws in the fourth quarter and stayed near the top of the congested standings in the Western Conference. source

Dallas

Josh Howard scored 25 points and Nowitzki finished with 23 for Dallas, which fell to 4-4 since acquiring Jason Kidd.

Kidd finished with nine assists and 19 points — 10 of which he scored in the fourth quarter. Jason Terry scored 21 for the Mavericks.

It appears the Jason Kidd experiment will take a little time to get going.

Anyway, Utah is fighting for their life in the tough Western Conference.

Back to Utah

“It was a playoff atmosphere,” Boozer said. “You had people diving for loose balls, scrapping for rebounds. That’s what the playoffs are about. That’s what the last 20 games are going to be like as we try to position ourselves for the playoffs.”

So who is Utah and why aren’t the New Orleans Hornets called the Jazz? Hmm, that does seem a bit strange.

Utah is the hidden team loaded with talent and a good record. Look out Western Conference!

NBA Basketball Fan Question Were you aware of how good the Jazz are looking?

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Maurice Brooks writes for NBA.com and has an ongoing article keeping track of his Top Ten nominations for NBA MVP.

It is called Race to the MVP Weekly Leaders.

Let’s take a look at Maurice’s list with your intrepid author’s comments in italics.

LeBron says – It is all about team (yeah, right)

1. LeBron – Last Week’s Rank – 1
The Cavs are six games below .500 without James in the lineup and 13 games above it when he plays. This past week I received a large amount of e-mails pointing out that he is in the East. Do you really think his stats would be any worse if he were in the West? As well as he has balled this season, he has been even better lately, averaging nearly 33 points, nine boards and six assists over his past six games.

You will get no argument from me. LeBron is bringing it right now and his team is winning.

2. Chris Paul

Wow, Maurice goes out of his way to rake Deron Williams over the coals, but the Hornets are hot right now and that helps.

3. Kobe Bryant

Maurice seems to think Pau Gasol will reduce Kobe’s chance to win the MVP, but your gallivanting author thinks it will increase his chances. Pau will be a number two star that will keep the winning coming, especially when they get Bynum back.

4. Steve Nash – I know there are a bunch of fans checking out R2MVP right now and wondering how come this guy is always in the top five. We’ll start with the fact that he is a great teammate, shoots over 50 percent from the floor and over 90 percent from the line, leads the league in assists and is the best player on the best team in the West and go from there.

Nash is unbelievable, but it is how he incorporates Shaq that will make the difference.

5. Dwight Howard

Maurice kids Dwight a bit and he is an emerging star, but this ranking just seems too high.

6. Allen Iverson

The only person that plays less D is Melo.

7. Paul Pierce

An unrecognized star for years, there is still the question of how well he will play number two star to Kevin Garnett.

8. Dirk Nowitzki

Wait a minute, this guy plays less D than AI.

9. Baron Davis

Love watching this guy play, but then Stephon Marbury amazes me too.

10. Kevin Garnett

This guy has to be in the top five. Come on.

Love Maurice’s column, but does he have to get down on Rasheed Wallace being picked for the All Star game? Rasheed has his ups and downs, but the Pistons are nothing without him. He routinely shuts down opposing centers and power forwards and scores his share in the Pistons balanced scoring offense.

Defense needs to be included in the MVP award and sadly is not.

Where is Tim Duncan?

NBA Basketball Fan Question Who is missing from your Top Ten?

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And LeBron shall lead them…

Winning.

Every team that experiences winning can tell you how great it feels. After a while a team that wins begins to think of themselves as winners.

That is where the trouble begins. Teams forget all the hard work, the lucky breaks, the momentum, the close calls that went their way. They seem to claim a divine right that makes them better.

Cleveland started to really play as a team when they faced the Detroit Pistons in the playoffs last year.

Detroit, on the other hand, was a tired and uninspired team. To be sure, they took the Cav’s lightly.

LeBron and teammates made them pay for that attitude and knocked them out of the playoffs.

Cleveland forgot that they were still learning, still getting better, still needed more help. The summer came and the front office made no moves.

Now Cleveland must relearn to be winners. It is a process and with LeBron, they can do it. Right now, though, Cleveland is struggling.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are a team in disarray.

A 105-96 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night was their 10th in 13 games, and was met with a chorus of boos from fans of the defending Eastern Conference champions.

The latest loss, in which the Cavaliers never led and trailed by 28 points in the third quarter, was so bad LeBron James left the arena without talking to reporters. source

NBA Basketball Fan Question Is Cleveland out of the playoff picture all ready?

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Dirk is smiling with victory!

The Dallas shoot em if you got em Mavericks beat the Cleveland LeBrons.

LeBron was in foul trouble in the first half and went scoreless. He finished with only 10 points on only 11 shots. LeBron James made only 2 buckets.

If you play the Mavs and your superstar only scores 10 points, then you are going down.

There are a lot of experts that have completely written of the Cavs for returning to the finals. Some of those experts have to realize how balanced the East is as a conference and that LeBron will not have a lot of 2 bucket games.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas not only had 17 points, but 18 rebounds. The old guy can still play and Cleveland will need him.

Dirk Nowitzki is the heart and sole of the Mavericks, but tonight it was Jason Terry with 7 3’s and 24 points.

Now the big question is whether the Mavericks can win it all?

Let’s look at what they are saying in Dallas.

Do the Mavericks have the physical talent to win a championship? Yes.

Do the Mavericks have what it takes mentally to win a championship? No one knows. Based on historic collapses against Miami and Golden State, based on eight losses in their last 10 playoff games — three of them blowouts — the argument can be made that the answer is no. source

There are those that think the quick scoring teams like Dallas, Phoenix, and Golden State can not win titles, because they can not crank up the defense to get important stops. They are in essence just trying to out score you.

Do not count your intrepid author in this group. Golden State may not be ready, but Phoenix is primed and Dallas is right there next to them.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Can Dallas win it all?

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