The 3 Most Influential Trades This Year

Last year, the Celtics and Lakers played for the NBA Championship. Both teams made the Finals because of moves by their front offices. The Celtics, brought in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, making them one of the most lethal teams in the league. The Lakers got Pau Gasol from Memphis for practically nothing, Kwame Brown.

This year, the Cleveland Cavaliers finally got Lebron some quality help in Mo Williams. And Wow! What help Williams ended up being. Did anyone ever think Mo Williams was this good?

This season, Williams is averaging 17.8 points per game and shooting .436% from 3 point land. He's also putting in over 4 assists per game and grabbing over 3 boards a game. For his career, Williams is averaging 13.5 ppg and shoots .386% for 3 pointers.

Last year, Cleveland went 45-37 overall and 27-14 at home. This year, the Cavs had the best season in franchise history. Going into their final game tomorrow, Cleveland has locked the best record in the NBA at 66-15 and 39-1 at home!

The 1986-86 Boston Celtics went 40-1 at home and won 67 overall. The Cavs can tie both those marks tomorrow night when the host the Philadelphia 76ers. Cleveland will most likely rest all its starters and the 76ers are still jockeying for playoff position.

The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls who went 72-10 finished 39-2 at home.

And how about this, Joe Smith, who Cleveland sent away in the trade to acquire Mo Williams, is back with the Cavs!

Number 2. Chaunecy Billups to the Denver Nuggets.

Talk about another steal! Early in the season, the Nuggets dealt past his prime Allen Iverson to Detroit for the experienced team leader Billups.

Last year, the Nuggets finished 50-32 and squeaked into the playoffs as the 8th seed just 2 games ahead of Golden State. The Nuggets were then swept in the first round by the Lakers.

This year, Denver sits at 54-27 and are one win away from securing the second seed in the Western Conference.

As for Iverson and the Pistons? AI has been hurt, benched and has never really accepted his role as not being the number one go to guy for the Pistons. Without Iverson, the Pistons seem to play better and are a shadow of what the franchise has been this decade. Currently, Detroit is 39-42 and will be the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference. Hello Cleveland! Good bye in the first round Detroit. Boy how times have changed.

Nubmer 3. Ron Artest Houston Rockets.

When the Rockets picked up Artest, there was a lot of speculation whether the ticketing time bomb would ruin the team or give Houston a legit big 3.

And when T-Mac made is annual return to the disabled list, it looked like the Rockets were done. They even waved the white flag and traded starting point guard Rafer Alston.

Since T-Mac's last game, the Rockets are 22-7. Artest has fit in perfectly as the Rockets are a scrappy, defensive team, exactly how Artest plays. Houston held Chris Paul and the Hornets to only 66 points Monday night.

Now, the Rockets are a win away from locking up a division title and maybe even a possible 2 seed in the playoffs.

NBA Line of the Week for March 30 to April 5 2009

Obscure Point Guard Ramon Sessions (Nevada) saw his name in bright lights as he recorded a triple double last Wednesday (April 1). No Joke.
Playing at home against the Lakers, Sessions and the Milwaukee Bucks nearly pulled off their biggest win of the year, but fell just short 104-98.

In 35 minutes, Sessions put 16 points, 16 dimes, 10 boards and 2 steals.

Later that evening in Oakland, Sacramento and Golden State showed why both teams are in the cellar...No defense. The Warriors rallied from behind to win 143-141 in overtime.

With all those fireworks you know there were some big numbers.

For the Kings, Kevin Martin (Western Carolina) scored 50 points-23 coming from the charity stripe. Martin was 23-26 from the line, 5-11 from 3 point land and 11-22 overall from the field.

For the Warriors, Monta Ellis played 49 minutes, shot 16-35 from the field, 0-1 from behind the arc, 10-12 free throw shooting, also adding 9 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 steals and finishing with 42 points.

Both these guards are tremendous scorers who get no publicity because they play late games on horrible teams.

Old Man Herbert Sings on American Idol?

Looking for a good laugh?

After hearing American Idol's Adam Lambert perform last night, I could only think of one person as I was laughing my ass off-Old man Herbert from Family Guy!

Watch the two videos and you be the judge. Better yet, don't watch them, just close your eyes and listen. Pretty hilarious and creepy!

I guess Simon gave the kid a standing ovation. Does that mean Old Man Herbert is good enough for American Idol?

Nobody Finer Than Carolina

Boy, this game was practically over before it started.

The only thing Michigan St. had going for them was the home crowd, and North Carolina took them out of the game early and often.

With 13:30 left in the first half, the Tar Heels had jumped out to a 24-8 lead! Carolina was shooting 60% and had created 7 turnovers.

Sparty was unable to find any transition game due to Carolina's excellent shooting.

And honestly, have you ever seen anyone run the floor better than Ty Lawson? The guy was straight up sick, not only running the offense but swiping 7 steals in the first half. And of course Lawson ended up with 8 steals for the game, a tournament record.

Lawson's play brought back memories of Michigan St.'s Mateen Cleaves and UConn's Khalid El-Amin.

North Carolina led 55-34 at half, the largest halftime lead ever in a championship game. We hadn't seen such a dominant performance in a championship game since the 1990 UNLV Running Rebels.

Whether it was stage fright or what Tom Izzo called "deer in headlights," Michigan State just could not get anything going-the turnovers, missed front ends of one and ones and poor shooting. The Spartans just couldn't make a run in the second half. North Carolina left the door open a small crack as the Tar Heels shot poorly in the second half.

Michigan St. shot just 30.4% from behind the 3 point line, compared to 41.7% for the Tar Heels.

You have to give Tom Izzo and Michigan St. props. This team overachieved throughout the tournament and was very fortunate to beat Kansas in the third round.

In the end, it was North Carolina cruising to a 89-72 victory for the school's 5th National Title. Carolina cruised through the tournament winning every game by double digits.

And another Big 10 team got slaughtered again on the big stage.

NBA Line of the Week for March 23 to 29

Don't look now, but here comes America's least favorite team. Again.

With less than 3 weeks until the playoffs, the San Antonio Spurs are clinging to the second seed in the Western Conference. Pretty remarkable considering all the injuries the team has faced this season. Of course this is the team that draws low television ratings, gets all the calls down the stretch (Hello Manu Ginobli), and is just a fundamentally sound basketball team. So of course no one wants to watch them.

But, they are the team of the past decade.

And it all starts with the Big 3. And no one was bigger last week than Point Guard Tony Parker.

Parker was the leader as he helped the Spurs go 3-1 last week and regain the second seed.

Last Wednesday at Atlanta (3/25), Parker led the Spurs to a 102-92 victory...Without Tim Duncan!

Here's Parker's line for that night:

42 points, 10 assists and 3 boards.

For the week, Parker averaged 27.5 points and 8.25 dimes.

Can you believe people actually don't care to watch this team when you can see Eva Longaria every night out!

Everything Going Mizzou's Way

Speaking of 70 foot shots...This may be the shot of the tournament so far. With practically everything going Missouri's way last night against Memphis, Mizzou's Marcus Denham nailed this shot from roughly 70 feet out.

Lebron James Goes Deep on 60 Minutes

If you haven't seen or heard, Lebron James was interviewed by Steve Kroft for 60 minutes airing this Sunday. And of course King James ceased to amazed.

This video is already making its rounds on YouTube and is the subject on about every talk radio station.

I think my favorite part of this shot is how Lebron is so cool, calm and collective. Like it was no big deal, because he does this all the time. No running around the gym and high fiving everyone.

The guy is incredible!

NBA Line of the Week for March 16 to 22

Since suffering a partially collapsed lung against the Lakers in late January, the Charlotte Bobcats' Gerald Wallace has shown no signs of weakness. Last week Wallace (Alabama), helped the Bobcats go 3-1 and now has Charlotte thinking playoffs!

Currently, Charlotte is 31-40 and just 2 1/2 games out of the eighth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Last Friday (3/30), in a 102-89 win against Toronto Wallace's line read:

30 points, 8 assists, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals, 9-13 fg%, 2-2 3pt%, 10-12 ft%

Bracketology 101

First 4 in, Last 4 out.

What's it matter. ESPN's Joe Lunardi has been working hard the last 6 weeks on this. Why? What a waste of time. It changes everyday and it doesn't really matter until Selection Sunday.

Lunardi's bracketology is about a big of a waste of time as Mel Kiper/Todd McShay's mock drafts.

First off, there will always be upsets in Conference Tournaments. Teams like Cleveland St. and Northern Iowa win their Conference Tournament and knock bubble teams out.

Lunardi has Pitt, Louisville and UConn as number 1 seeds. Can you say East Coast bias? I thought the selection committee puts a lot of weight on Conference Tournaments. How can both Pitt and UConn be number 1 seeds when they both went one and done and the Big East? Now they say it's better to lose early because the teams get more rest. That's really not fair to every other team who play hard during their tournament.

Oklahoma and Kansas also were one and done. If you go one and done in your Conference Tournament, you don't deserve a number one seed. It also doesn't help a team's confidence when you go limping into the post season, in any sport. Hell, UConn hasn't won a post season game since 2006, the year George Mason beat them to go to the Final Four.

What about Memphis? They're a top 5 team who easily won their tournament.

What makes Joe Lunardi so special? And where does he get his credibility? I can pull names out of a hat and probably guess better than Lunardi.

Currently, Lunardi has USC out. USC will play for the Pac 10 title today. What if USC wins? Then the magnificent Lunardi will have to throw out his 4 in, 4 out.

So like I'm saying, what does it matter right now!

Who's in and who's out? If you're in a major conference and you have 20+ plus wins, you're probably gonna get in the tournament. If you're from a mid major conference, you better when your tournament or have at least 25 wins, see Creighton and maybe Utah St.

So if you pay attention to Lunardi's predictions, you're wasting your time. All that really matters is Sunday night.

My biggest question? What does Joe Lunardi do for the rest of the year?

Bron-Bron-3 Straight Triple Doubles

This may be the most exciting MVP races in recent memory. Most of the year the talk had been Lebron/Kobe. But lately Dwyane Wade has made a strong case for the MVP, averaging 40 plus points, 10 plus assists and hitting game winning jumpers.

Kobe has his Lakers sitting with the best record in the NBA and the Lakers have swept the Cavaliers and Celtics, pretty much securing home court advantage throughout the playoffs.

Now Lebron has just been lighting it up like Michael Phelps lights up bongs. Caught up in last night's 6 OT Big East thriller, you may have missed one of the funnest NBA games to watch. Bron-Bron led the Cavaliers from behind on the road in Phoenix. In doing so, James finished with his third straight triple double, a feat not accomplished since Jason Kidd.

In Cleveland's 119-111 victory in Phoenix, Lebron finished with 34 points, 13 assists, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 steals.

The biggest play of the game was probably this sick block James had on Jason Richardson. This play came after Lebron missed a three on the other end and Richardson seemed to have a wide open break to the basket. The most amazing part about this play was how in the hell James was able to make it down the other end of the court. This play shows Lebron's determination and hustle.

In Lebron's last three games, he has averaged 26.7 points, 12 dimes and 11 boards.

Last Tuesday, the Cavs were down 19 points in the fourth quarter to the Clippers, only to come back and win 87-83. Yeah, I know it was against the Clippers, but it's pretty impressive when a team can come from 19 down in the final period to win the game, no matter who the opponent is.

NBA Line Of The Week for March 2 to March 8

Dwyane Wade is making a strong case for league MVP of late. We all saw his double overtime buzz beater to beat Chicago Monday night.

Last week Wade helped the Miami Heat go 2-2, coming up short twice against Lebron and Cleveland.

On Wednesday, March 4, Wade led the Heat to a 135-129 victory over the Phoenix Suns. Wade finished with 35 points, 16 assists and 6 rebounds.

Last Monday, March 2, Wade did all he could but the Heat blew a fourth quarter lead to the Cavs. Wade finished with 41 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds and 7 steals.

For the week, D-Wade averaged 35.7 points, 11.2 dimes and 6.7 boards.