A LEGEND IS BORN III

[Fresh8]

Cpu trades switch on.

[Fresh8]

Pau Out For Spanish Fiesta



JANUARY 8, LOS ANGELES – It has been confirmed that Lakers forward Pau Gasol will miss the highly billed matchup between the LA Lakers and Indiana Pacers with a separated shoulder.

The Lakers have marketed the game to be a ‘Spanish Fiesta’ that will have a strong Spanish theme on the night when they host the Pacers at STAPLES Centre. Gasol said that he was disappointed that he could not join teammate Jose Calderon take on fellow countrymen Ricky Rubio and Marc Gasol.

“I guess I am going to know what it feels like to be Rudy (Fernandez),” Gasol joked, “Rudy has been texting Ricky and telling him that he can’t wait to see all four of us in the same game in the NBA.” Gasol also said that he was very happy that the franchise were paying homage to their country; a force on the international basketball scene. “I think that this event is very clever and I know that the NBA likes to recognise the popularity of the game internationally,” he stated.

Both the Lakers and Pacers are fighting to make the playoffs this season. The Pacers are fairly high in the Eastern Conference standings and no doubt have an easier task of achieving a playoff spot than the Lakers who are fighting to stay in the top eight. Gasol’s injury comes as a blow to the team who will rely upon Andrew Bynum to carry the load in the frontcourt.

“Losing a player of Pau’s ability is tough but it’s up to me, Trevor (Ariza) and Andrew to pick up the slack,” Kobe Bryant recently said.

As for the other Spaniards, Calderon has settled into the purple and gold seamlessly. The point guard forms a potent one-two punch at the position with sixth man Rodney Stuckey. For the Pacers, the younger Gasol brother Marc has been solid all year averaging close to a double double in points and rebounds.

However, talented playmaker Rubio has hit a form slump with his double double average dipping towards marks of 8 points and 8 assists per game. “I need to break out of this funk,” Rubio said after a recent Pacers loss.

Read More…

[Fresh8]

Lakers Cruise To Spanish Fiesta Win



JANUARY 9, LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers beat the visiting Indiana Pacers 105-95 in what was largely an uneventful contest. Before the game, photographers got all four Spanish players from both teams at midcourt to pose for a quick photo. It was all smiles for Jose Calderon, Ricky Rubio, Marc Gasol and injured brother Pau Gasol but after the game there were no smiles from Rubio and the younger Gasol anymore.

“It’s not nice to lose to my brother,” Marc told press afterwards, “Especially when he isn’t even playing.” Rubio was just as disappointed, “It was a very special night tonight because we were celebrating our country but we still come to win the basketball game. It’s not good that we lost the game.”

Gasol led the Pacers with 18 points and 8 rebounds and Rubio added 12 points and 8 assists. Danny Granger and Jeff Green also scored 14 points apiece while Albano Spanoletti finished with 9 points.

The Lakers were led by Kobe Bryant’s 23 points. Calderon finished with 19 points and 6 assists. Rodney Stuckey chipped in with 19 from off the bench. James Carter, recently in trade rumours after a locker room bust up with Trevor Ariza, struggled with his shot but still added 15 for the Lakers.

Read More…

[Fresh8]

Wolves Defence Challenges Stealth But Run Continues
Minnesota Timberwolves at Seattle Stealth: 90-100
Preview | Boxscore | Recap | Highlights



January 14, SEATTLE (AP) – Kevin Durant had to pull a few rabbits out of a hat to save the Stealth from a hungry Wolves club looking to cause an upset against the streaking home team. For that, he called Minnesota ‘one of the toughest teams’ that his team had faced during their now-20 game winning streak.

“Props to the Wolves,” Durant praised his opponents after the game, “They turned up the heat on us and made us work for this win. No other team has done this. Minnesota came out onto our homecourt to try and cause an upset. I can respect that.”

Durant then smiled and commented, “But they ran into me.”

Durant was lethal as he scored two clutch shots to seal the win during the final minute. He also chased down a late shot attempt by Wolves guard Kevin Martin; adding to his impressive highlight reel for the night. Coach George Karl said, “Kevin won the game for us tonight. There’s no question about it. He’s having a tremendous season.”

Durant led his team with 39 points. He was flanked by big man Andrew Bogut who collected an outstanding 27 points and 15 rebounds. Jason Kidd, thriving this season with the team’s surprisingly increased pace, added 18 assists a few nights after setting a career high 26 against the Wizards in Washington.

Martin gushed at the Stealth’s roster after the game, “You have Kevin and Andrew playing the best basketball of their careers and then you have Kidd who looks like he’s 25 years old all over again. Jason Kidd is ancient. He shouldn’t be having these kind of games out there. Period.” When asked what he thought Kidd’s secret was, Martin replied, “I don’t know. I don’t know if he’s making his teammates better or if they are making him look really really damn good.”

Martin finished with 25 points to lead the Wolves. His teammate Manfred Nissley was a walking black hole as he bricked his way to 24 points. It was Nissley who hurt his team the most with 5 of his 6 turnovers in the first half as he was harassed by Kidd and Reshawn Tyson early. Young Euro centre Janis Kalnins struggled early but got into a second half groove. He finished the game with 13 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks but his impact was far beyond the scoresheet as he helped fuel a Timberwolves’ comeback in the final quarter.

The Wolves came out of the third quarter break with added intensity on the defensive end leading to multiple Stealth fourth quarter mistakes. Those mistakes included a defensive three second call on Lee, two missed layups from Durant, a missed layup from Allen Iverson, and several rare missed shots from Bogut underneath the hoop.

The mistakes kept piling up as Kidd made an unforgivable error by stepping backcourt. Martin scored a layup against lazy defence from the Stealth to cut the lead to 9 points. Things got even more interesting soon after as Nissley scored a triple to further slash the lead to 6 points with 1:33 left in the game.

Sensing that his team was at risk of losing, Coach Karl called a timeout. The instructions were clear: ‘pass the ball to Kevin’. With 44.4 seconds remaining on the clock, Durant set a screen for Kidd and then rolled. He received the pass back and pulled up for a jumper that was good. It was the next play when he blocked a Martin shot attempt and sending it to sail out of bounds. Nissley put up a shot that was never going to go in with the shot clock winding down. Durant then called an isolation on the other end of the court and calmly iced the game by crossing over Martin, creating some space and scoring the pull up jumper.

Notes: Seattle is now tied with the 1999-2000 LA Lakers for the third longest winning streak… The Stealth host the Dallas Mavericks in their next match. A win will give the side a 21 game winning streak, which will be good for third outright in regards to the longest winning streaks in NBA history… Kidd’s assists average has risen to 10.1. It is the first time in four seasons that he is averaging double digit assists… At halftime, the quirky Manfred Nissley asked one of the staff at the stadium to bring him a print of him being dunked on by Durant. After the game, Nissley found Durant in the home locker room and asked him to autograph it...

Seattle Stealth 29-9 (28 – 23 – 26 – 23 – 100)



Kevin Durant: 39 pts, 8 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk, 17-26 FG, 1-2 3PT, 4-4 FT
Andrew Bogut: 27 pts, 15 reb, 2 ast, 3 stl, 2 blk, 13-19 FG
Jason Kidd: 18 ast
David Lee: 8 pts, 11 reb
Reshawn Tyson: 9 pts

Minnesota Timberwolves 21-17 (19 – 20 – 27 –24 – 90)



Kevin Martin: 25 pts, 4 reb, 5 ast, 9-24 FG, 2-7 3PT, 3-5 FT
Manfred Nissley: 24 pts, 5 ast, 6 to, 9-25 FG, 6-19 3PT, 0-2 FT
Janis Kalnins: 13 pts, 10 reb, 5 blk
Luol Deng: 10 pts

[Justine.]

Bogut is really dominating in every games! We had the same winning streak now

[Fresh8]

Bogut is really dominating in every games! We had the same winning streak now

Thanks Justine. We sure do! re: winning streak.

[Martti.]

Hahaaa, that guy doing the double facepalm on the T-Wolves bench adds flavour to the pic.

[Fresh8]

Hahaaa, that guy doing the double facepalm on the T-Wolves bench adds flavour to the pic.

haha. Definitely! Didn't notice that. Good spotting!

[puttincomputers]

ouch. 6 turnovers! I think I know what I will use this years points on!

[Fresh8]

ouch. 6 turnovers! I think I know what I will use this years points on!

Did you see the quote about what you did after the game?

Left you some openness to let us know what happened next

[puttincomputers]

ouch. 6 turnovers! I think I know what I will use this years points on!

Did you see the quote about what you did after the game?

Left you some openness to let us know what happened next

oops I missed that!

I think I will write an article about it.

[Fresh8]

ouch. 6 turnovers! I think I know what I will use this years points on!

Did you see the quote about what you did after the game?

Left you some openness to let us know what happened next

oops I missed that!

I think I will write an article about it.

Or a blog/script of what KD had to say to you

Just throwing out some ideas!

[Houndy]

Bogut is a 20-10 machine

[puttincomputers]

Jefferson Clinton Williams
Minnesota Howling Wind News
January 15th

Much speculation has been swirling about Manfred Nissley acquiring an autographed picture of himself being dunked on by Durant. I had an interview with him and here is what he had to say.

I admire Kevin Durant for his skills. He is one of the best players in the league. So what if I got dunked on. Everyone gets dunked on sometime. I also like to collect pictures of myself being posterized. I use them to remind myself to become a better player.
Up until last night I also admired Durant for his personality. What I discovered in the locker room was amazing! I had usually taken Durant's side of the story when it came to his run-ins with Ty. Last night I was astounded to see Durant belittling Ty for no reason! I had entered the home locker room with an escort from the Stealth including their assistant coach and Durant did not see me until he was in the middle of a tirade at Ty. As soon as Durant saw me he began to plaster me with praise! He said I was the best young player he knew of and that Ty could take some lessons from me. I replied that Ty was already at my level and that I was trying to pass Ty in ability. Durant got really red and said we would be steam rolled because of that statement. I then gave him the picture to autograph and Durant looked slightly confused. He signed it and patted me on the head and told me not to say anything about what I saw. I figure the reason Durant said such nice things about our team after the game was because he was trying to keep me from spilling the beans! I probably would not have spilled the beans but his patting me on the head was the last straw! Now where is my cheese!

I am sure this news will send shockwaves throughout the association. We here in Minnesota had been lobbying for a trade to get Durant. It now appears we were aiming for the wrong player! Maybe we need Ty!

[newc]

damn, that was close, you got lucky Sit

5 blocks - I'm a defensive machine We would've won if our strating guards wouldn't be attempting 49 shots (26 of them 3pointers ), while making only 18.

EDIT: And I like, what Durant told about our team

[kibaxx7]

Why "Spanish Fiesta" and not "Spanish talking Fiesta"? I could be there.

Keep the wins coming.

[Fresh8]

damn, that was close, you got lucky Sit

5 blocks - I'm a defensive machine We would've won if our strating guards wouldn't be attempting 49 shots (26 of them 3pointers ), while making only 18.

EDIT: And I like, what Durant told about our team

You were a blocking machine but Bogut dominated you in the end.

Why "Spanish Fiesta" and not "Spanish talking Fiesta"? I could be there.

Keep the wins coming.

No Spanish Talking Fiesta. No one cares bout Albano.

[The X]

I was 100% right on my analysis on Nissley. Nineteen 3pt attempts

[Murat]

Good win man, keep it up!

[Fresh8]

I was 100% right on my analysis on Nissley. Nineteen 3pt attempts

Yeah... 19 was a bit too much. The cpu clearly has no conscience.

Good win man, keep it up!

Thanks Bibby.

[Valor]

Love the article man, great read

[Lamrock]

Try to keep this streak going for 44 more games

[Fresh8]

Tad unlrealistic there L-Train?

[Fresh8]

Sorry guys, this is on hiatus.

Personal problems.

[The X]

Such is life