After the Game 1 loss, the talk in Orlando is focusing on many issues. One popular issue is the starting point guard. Although Rafer Alston has played better than expected in the 2009 NBA playoffs, Jameer Nelson was named to the All-Star team this year for the Eastern Conference. Now that Nelson is healthy, should he getting his starting job back or should Alston continue to start?
So far in the playoffs, Alston is averaging 12.3 points, 4.2 assists and 2.5 rebounds in 32.5 minutes per game. He’s shooting 37.7% from the field, 33.7% from beyond the three-point arc and 75% …read more

 Who will guard Kobe?
Rookie Courtney Lee will likely get his shot at the Black Mamba in the beginning, provided Lee is in the starting lineup. Otherwise, when Mickael Pietrus is in the game, he will no doubt be regarded as the ‘Kobe Stopper’. How well he can stop Kobe is debatable, but my guess is Pietrus will do a better job than Ruben Patterson ever did.
Wouldn’t surprise me to see Hedo Turkoglu or J.J. Redick get some cracks at Kobe here and there, but it probably won’t end well for them.
Can Andrew Bynum step up his game against Superman?
If Bynum …read more

In case you missed the Houston Rockets vs Phoenix Suns game, there was a whole lot of pushing and shoving going on. On a screen, Phoenix’ Matt Barnes pushes (elbows?) Rafer Alston, who isn’t pleased about it, to start the whole thing. Steve Nash then pushes Rafer and then everyone gets involved – including Shaq pushing TMac to the ground.
I’m sure some kind of fines/suspensions will be forthcoming …