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First podcast in almost a month!

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Some topics: the dunk contest field, bagpipes, DeAndre Jordan, Hedo Turkoglu, the most disappointing players of the season, and the O.J. Mayo/Tony Allen fight.

Supplementary material after the jump…
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My God, it’s great to watch Chris Paul again. The Hornets/Heat game last night might have been my favourite game of the whole season. Dude was the best player on the court for those 48 minutes, and that court had a few pretty amazing players on it.

I’m sure you’re aware the Hornets are 5-0. And it hasn’t been an easy schedule – Milwaukee at home, Denver at home, San Antonio on the road, Houston on the road, and Miami at home. Plenty more impressive than Atlanta going 6-0 against MEM/PHI/WAS/CLE/DET/MIN, right? Or the Lakers beating HOU/PHO/GSW/MEM/SAC/TOR? Yeah. Shoals is right, New Orleans is the biggest story in basketball.
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There were seven games on the schedule last night, but the Knicks and Magic didn’t play because Madison Square Garden is not safe. I’ll start with the one game that came down to the wire:

The Wizards beat the Sixers 116-115 in overtime. It wouldn’t have made it to overtime if not for Cartier Martin (representing the D-League) tying the game with a last-second three-pointer that could easily have been an and-one. John Wall could not have been introduced better in the Wizards’ home opener and proceeded to put up a monster line: 29 points (on 16 shots), 13 assists, a franchise record-tying 9 steals, and, gulp, 8 turnovers. Since there are always fun numbers in overtime games, check out some other stats: Lou Williams started 0-8 but finished with 30 points on 16 shots (15-17 FT!), Elton Brand had a super-efficient 21 and 9, and Jrue Holiday had 14 points and 13 assists. I wanted a second overtime, but I was happy that Wizards fans got this win and EXTREMELY happy for Mr. Martin.
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Hey heyyy, it’s the first BfB of 2010. I’m a bit pissed at myself for letting so many days go by without an update here, but at least I’ve been really active on Twitter, right? Right? Hope that’s okay. Anyway, 4 games on the schedule last night. There’s stuff to talk about. Continue Reading

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Oh, it has been far too long since the last BfB. Holidays and all, you know. I can promise these will be more frequent now, though. Anyway, seven games on the schedule last night and three of them turned out to be fairly big upsets. Fun! Continue Reading

I took a break from daily recaps last week, but trust me when I tell you I didn’t take a break from watching ball or reading about it. There’s no way I can let a week of action go by without sharing my thoughts, so here’s a mammoth recap. Continue Reading

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I’m eschewing the normal BfB format at least for one day. It might just be the spazzy band I went to see last night, but I’m feeling a bit ADD and want to ditch the normal structure and just give some thoughts about the games I watched on Saturday and Sunday. Continue Reading

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This is the third OTN podcast and it’s just me and Julian this time. Stupid Wagman and his evening shifts. Anyway, here we start off discussing the two ROY frontrunners and their teams. Then, we spend a lot of time looking at the Western playoff picture, more specifically analyzing the Rockets, Jazz, Spurs, Thunder, and the post-Oden Blazers. Finally, we talk about the bottom half of the Eastern playoff picture and what we can expect out of the Sixers, Wizards, Bobcats, and Bulls moving forward. Oh, and we cover LeBron’s recent shenanigans on the sideline. This was recorded just before Wednesday evening’s games, so we don’t get to talk about John Wall’s insanity or Chris Paul’s game-winner, but I should point out that we both predict what Brandon Jennings did to the Raptors.

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I’m really glad I didn’t end up going to the Raptors/Wolves game last night. I considered getting last-minute tickets to check out the classic uniforms and see Jonny Flynn’s first game in Toronto, but this was a League Pass Night. Continue Reading

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A quick recap this morning, due to time constraints. First, though, I should mention Saturday night. I skipped out on BfB yesterday because I didn’t want to talk about the horrible thing that happened in Portland. I feel like I should acknowledge the other stuff that took place that night, though: DeMar DeRozan kicked ass and made me happy, Jarrett Jack tied his shoe while holding onto the ball and made Bulls fans angry, Steve Nash and Vince Carter owned their respective 4th quarters to secure wins, Joe Johnson helped his Hawks win ugly, Kevin Love put in his second straight double-double in a win against the Jazz, and the Spurs are apparently not to be feared anymore. Okay, we good? Onto Sunday… Continue Reading