Somebody stop the Fakers!

It's amazing how good the Lakers are. In just over 13 months, the NBA power-structure has been turned upside down. The Lakers, who were barely making the playoffs for many years, have gotten to the top of the mountain over the course of just one season. They started the 2007 season as just another team and they ended up in the Finals in June. Now they can't lose this season. They are so good, Kobe is not even in the top 3 scorers in the league and they are still 13-1. Though, to be fair to Kobe, he is still jacking up the same number of shots :-) He is playing 5 minutes less per game, shooting less 3's and taking lesser number of free throws per game.

In any case, Mitch Kupcake has really built some team. He might have gone from the laughing stock of the league to a perennial Executive of the year candidate. It started with his commitment to Bynum and things really came together with the Gasol trade. Since that trade, it seems like the Lakers truly believe they can't lose to anybody. Goes to show you how much of the game is mental. The same guys have been playing much better since last year, though some of it is young guys getting better. Of course having a personality like Kobe on the team sometimes doesn't help the confidence of the kids, but ever since they started winning last season, this team has just been firing on all cylinders. I mean, Lamar Odom comes of the bench and Luke Walton doesn't even play much anymore. Thats how good this team is.

I can't believe I am saying this, but I don't think there is anybody in the West thats in the same class as the Lakers. The Champs are a robust 16-2 in the East and we may be looking at another Lakers-Celtics finals come June. The East is no longer the LEast and the other true contender may also be playing there. King James is the other big news of this season. Dude has been awesome and is probably a year or 2 away from overtaking Kobe as the best player in the league. I mean he may already be the best player in the league and if you were to draft one player for your team, he is the clear choice today. But it's hard to argue against the sheer scoring dominance of Kobe and you still have to say Kobe is the best player in the league. But the evolution of LeBron is going in the right direction for sure. And his exposure to superstars like Kobe in the Olympics has made a better defender and helped make him a more complete player. Cleveland is 14-3 and they may ride the King all the way to a championship this year. Thats how good he is.

Much like the MJ-era, I want to watch Sportscenter everyday just to see LeBron's monster blocks and nasty dunks.

Brand Roy

I am a big fan of Brandon Roy. He is a very unique player who went to college and who came to the league a finished product. He is smart, very versatile, knows how to play the game and makes his teammates better. He is not uber-athletic or a superstar scorer like Kobe or LeBron, but there is this quite efficiency about his game that is almost non-existent in the game today. Plus he is clutch like he showed today at Portland.

NBA is in full flow now and there was a great game between Portland and Houston today. It started off bad, but heated up towards the end. Roy was bottled up for the most part by Ron-Ron, but then he came alive in OT. He made Ron Artest look stupid on one drive to the hoop and then hit the last 2 shots for Portland including the long buzzer-beating 3 from Corvallis, Oregon. Between his 2 shots, Yao hit an amazing jumper that should have won the game for Houston if only T-Mac knew what he was doing when he was defending Roy during that last sequence. Great game and Roy was awesome.

T-Mac did have a great game. I have always liked Aaron Brooks since his Oregon days and he is contributing now for the Rockets. Dude is laser quick. Suns pick Rudy Fernandez had a great game for Portland as well. Good to see the new blood in the league. But the "old" blood ain't doing too bad either. Some huge numbers yesterday for superstars. Our own Amare dropped 49 on Indiana. Tony Parker went nuts with a 55-7-10 night and the King broke out with a 41-9-6 night despite some injury action early in the game. Good stuff going on in the league early.

AI got traded to Detroit for Chauncey Billups. AI had a great presser at Detroit with some funny lines about "practice". I like the trade a lot for Denver. They finally got a PG and someone who might fit with Melo. Speaking of Denver, the NFL thursday games started this week and Jay Cutler lit it up with 447 yards and 3 TDs. Brady Quinn wasn't too shabby either as he threw for 239 yds and 2 TDs. It was good to see the Sun Devil Ryan Torain rush for the Broncos. But the real question is, why is Denver struggling to beat teams like Cleveland? Is this the same team that looked like a Super Bowl contender at the start of the season? That whole AFC West looks shaky this year. Lets see what happens. Tennessee might actually go all the way the way things are right now.

Audacity of Hope

Historic election night in America today. A true watershed moment in history as America welcomes it's first black president-elect. Nobody thought this day was ever going to come. Now it's here and it's real and this is a proud day indeed for America. It tells anybody and everybody that this is still the land of opportunity and in the words of a delirious Kevin Garnett after his championship -"anything is possible!!". I can't imagine how much this means to a new generation of minorities in this country. They can now aspire to be anything they want to be including the President of America. Congrats to Obama and his brilliant campaign for bringing this change and hope and we expect many more changes.

Speaking of hope, the Suns are still hoping to be an elite team. They are 3-1 and today they crushed the Nets. But then again thats neither here or not there. The Spurs are surprisingly 0-3. They lost to the Mavs tonight. A tough schedule so far, but still it's odd to see the Spurs 0-3. Of course they will start their rodeo trip eventually and thats probably when they'll start winning and go on some sort of a run. They'll be fine, especially when Ginobli comes back. Until then, I'll just enjoy the increased scoring I am getting from Timmy for my fantasy team.

The football weekend was good, though I was distracted by the election fun a little bit. Texas Tech upset Texas and kicked them off their number 1 ranking. The longhorns almost got out of their brutal 4-game stretch unscathed, but they stumbled at the last hurdle. Now Tech is ranked all the way up at 2 leap-frogging Penn state. Penn state is pissed, but they need to focus on their schedule and just do their job because Texas Tech will probably lose given their brutal Big-12 schedule. Alabama is at LSU this weekend and thats no walk in the park. So this thing is long from over and I expect several shake-ups in the BCS standings before it's all said and done. If Penn State wants the right to get blown out in the championship game, they just need to hang in there and win their easy games. They'll get their wish.