MONDAY NBA Thoughts

Hornets @ NJN :

It's seems fairly obvious that Vince Carter will NOT be playing tonight. The real issue for me is this..this will be the Hornets 5th game in 7 days , a Back 2 Back spot and they started by traveling WEST , then returned home and went NorthEast ! Honestly , I thought that yesterday would be a problem spot for them in Philly since the Sixers had fought hard at home vs Tor , NJN and Charlotte while defeating the misera-BULLS in Chicago. Clearly I was mistaken. Though Philly came out strong but faded when the second unit hit the floor and could not score in the 2nd quarter while NO reigned threes! What was more relevant probably was the fact they were off a 2 game losing streak and if they played poorly would have posible lost 4 straight with this game. Looking at the schedule NO has won nice games @ denver and @ LAL but those teams are inconsistent and would not context them as high quality wins . After that they beat Port and Sac at home both teams who will win few road games , lost @ Portland in a tough travel spot and lost at home vs SA. Then they beat up on the offensively challenged Sixers.

You can bet that NJ will look to bounce back here for 3 reasons. First is they billed themselves as a TRIO (Carter , Kidd , RJ) just like the media has Boston (KG , Pierce and "Jesus"). I believe there EGOS were bruised in that loss. Second is all good teams like to step it up when a STAR player is OUT. This being his forst absence provides a great opportunity for NJ to rise to the occasion. Third is NO being a quality team defeating them adds some luster to there W/L rap sheet. It's incentive to prove themselves even further and NJ has lost by once past few years vs NO. When both RJ and Kristic were out but Carter did go off that night 46!

Situational speaking I think it all points to NJ as they have remained HOME really for the entire season except a quick ride down to Philly. I think we can agree Vince Carter had struggled to date espite a good showing vs Boston. He seems willing to take alot of jumpers and threes instead of attacking the rim. Antoine Wright has looked solid in limited minutes. Sean Williams opened some eyes versus Boston . While they havent shown it NJ has upgraded the bench and Boston Nachbar should benefit in increased minutes as well. Last night you could have had an 191 UNDER in Philly , so here 185 seems pretty tight. Possible 1st H under and 2nd H over .?

CLE @ DEN

Real interesting matchup : Melo vs Lebron , Cavs winding down a long west coast swing playing 5th in 7 days BUT Nuggs return home after an East Coast swing also playing 5th in 7 days! Denver returns home after two good performances to close the trip after a lackluster start in NYK and Boston. While Cle 3-2 on the trip lost at the buzzer in Utah and folded late in Phoenix. All in all a fairly solid trip.


I think you could argue alot of things here. First that Cle is tired here. Well every game on the trip has been tough and down to the wire but they still come out the next game w/o looking drained. Interesting was Big Z playing a season high in minutes and LeBron a season low. Seems like smart coaching to me if it was planned( King James did have foul trouble). You figure the BIG guy is sort of limited here with so much running up and down the court while you would want LeBron fresher. On the other hand maybe Z feels great cause he sure is playing alot more minutes then he has past few years..right now about 5 or 6 more on avg per game.

You would think DEN carries the momentum over from there 25 pt comeback @ Indiana but it could leave them drained. That was a 4th in 5th spot for them and both they and Pho shined in that spot as small road chalk on Saturday. Interesting to see how DEN holds up cause Nene and Atkins are OUT for awhile now. Putting some pressure on Kleiza , Diawara , Kenyon Martin returning from injury playing about 20 minutes per , JR Smith to show more consistency .

The Cavs BENCH has been scary ! HUGE UNDER THE RADAR INJURY was Sasha Pavlovic leaving early yesterday and not returning ! That leaves Devin Brown (playing real well) , Damon Jones and Ira Newble off the bench if he cant go.

This is also the highest total bewteen these two teams. With Hughes back they tend to play games in the 90's. Denver has actually played some defense lately. really interested in Pavlovic's injury status. This could get ugly...they havent had a correct line on a CLE game all trip....-6 @ Sac after +9 @ Utah , PK @ LAC w/o Mobley?? I owuld have guess more like 4.5 to 5.5 here but who knows....


Sac @ Utah :

I think the Kings are going to have issues on the road till they get Artest and Bibby back. They played fairly well at home with comeback wins vs Minny and Seattle again two teams who simply wont win many road games. Offense will be a challenge if you contain Kevin Martin. I would expect 88-94 points here for Sac. With how Utah looked vs Memphis they could wax Sac here especially since Ron Artest is back on WED. Basically looking at the UNDER 206 , Kings team UNDER , 1st H Utah ...I could be mistaken but on the road Sac looks overmatched....nice work by Salmons and garcia so far but Miller is struggling and the rest of the guys are limited offensively though Beno Udrih may help the second unit.