the lakers have just pooped their big-boy pants: 2012-2013 NBA regular season thread (part 2)

how long until we can just say lebron's better than jordan? two more years of this?

yeah two more full years of this insanity and I'd start saying it

I am essentially rooting for lebron to get a couple more rings real quick here simply to humanize Jordan and antagonize Kobe.

^

http://nesn.com/2013/02/report-kevin-garnett-exercises-no-trade-clause-to-end-trade-discussions-between-celtics-nuggets/
Man, KG on the Nuggets would be interesting

nuggs would probably have to slow way down. no idea who they'd want for him - gallo i assume would be the centerpiece

http://gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs/531864_o.gif

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/8924249/kobe-bryant-challenges-dwight-howard-return-shoulder-injury-play-pain

Kobe Bryant once again has urged Dwight Howard to play through some pain while claiming that the Los Angeles Lakers center "worries too much" about media and fan criticism.

Howard has missed the past three games because of a torn labrum in his shoulder, aggravating an injury he initially suffered earlier this season.

Despite winning the three games Howard has missed, the Lakers (23-26) are 10th in the Western Conference playoff race. They also will be without star forward Pau Gasol, who could be sidelined four-to-six weeks with a tear in the plantar fascia of his right foot, an MRI revealed Wednesday.

"We don't have time for (Howard's shoulder) to heal," Bryant said Wednesday in an exclusive interview with ESPNBoston.com's Jackie MacMullan. "We need some urgency."

The interview with MacMullan came one day after Bryant publicly challenged Howard, stating that playing through an injury is "something that you have to balance out and manage."

Bryant also asserted that Howard is preoccupied with how he is perceived by fans and media.

"Dwight worries too much about what people think," Bryant told MacMullan. "I told him, 'You can't worry about that. It's holding you back.' He says, 'OK, OK, OK,' but it's always hovering around him.

kinda loving this ginobili and Duncan-less core of spurs, they won't be contenders in a couple of years, but I think they'll be a playoff team. Parker is at his peak right now, he's really grown into an elite PG, and danny green and kawhi leonard are really formidable wings on both ends. splitter is starting to come into his own. once Duncan and Manu retire, feel like they pick up a max type player and they're still relevant.

xp haha BE CRAZY LIKE ME!

BUt for real Dwight at 60% with one arm in a sling is better than anything else they have.

as long as Pop is around they will always be relevant imo xp

think I've said it before, but I really don't think pop will stick around long once Duncan retires

yeah the spurs are a blast

just looking at the popovich-era spurs' season-by-season records is a thing of beauty.

they've won 12 in a row and 21 of 24 btw

^ unreal

sorry, 11 straight, 13/15, 20/23

very easy schedule next few weeks too

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/54395/john-hollingers-new-view

fluff piece but nice to check in on an old friend

'87-'88 MJ shot 13% from 3, only made 7 the whole year, and still got 35ppg, won MVP, crazy. a wing will never have a season like that again.

how long until we can just say lebron's better than jordan? two more years of this?

overlooking MJ's D imo

btw those heat alternates are p dope if maybe a lil too cute imho

http://images.livemixtapes.com/artists/trapaholics/waka_flocka_flame-duflocka_rant_2/back.png

how long until we can just say lebron's better than jordan? two more years of this?
overlooking MJ's D imo

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, February 7, 2013 2:43 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lebron's one of the best defenders in the league too

off the ball ? i don't consider him the lock down guy that jordan was in his time.

no he's an incredible lockdown defender, and unlike jordan can do it at 4 positions

But you're also forgetting that, in crunch time, you can put LeBron on almost anyone, pg -> center. Plus, on off-the-ball defense, Miami probably wants him roaming somewhat, which is how he picks up a lot of blocks and steals, rather than playing deny-first D.

Always wonder how different Jordan/Russell/Bird/Magic's numbers would look if they'd played in an era that had better efficiency stats. Feel like if those super-competitive guys knew which shots to avoid / passes to not make / players you'd want to coax shots from / etc., their numbers would look a lot different. Kinda goes w/o saying I guess, but still.

lebron is a really good defender, MJ was better

MJ forever wins cause he never lost to Dirk in the finals, how I break it down

mj got swept in his three straight first rounds and got his ass beat by the pistons in the eastern finals three straight times before he finally broke through though- so it's not like he didn't struggle to get there

obviously he's still the GOAT and it might have been 7-9 straight titles if he hadn't taken a few years off, so lebron's got a way to go...but he's on the right trajectory to get into the conversation when he's done

MJ forever wins cause he never lost to Dirk in the finals, how I break it down

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, February 7, 2013 11:19 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no he just couldn't get past the pistons, you're right

Dirkin' Dirk could have beat anyone tbf.

also dirk > anyone on those pistons teams

Remember when MJ kept choking in the clutch and it was a big deal and everyone wondered whether he could ever get over it?
Remember when MJ totally quit on his team in the last few minutes of a conference finals?

MJ couldn't get past the Pistons...until he swept them and they walked off the court like bitches, c'mon that's awesome thanks for giving me a chance to bring that up.

isaiah was really really good and those pistons teams when back to back finals and were better than those mavs. weren't you like 3 yrs old when this happened??

fourth times a charm sure

yeah those piston teams and the defensive rules at the time would have beat the crap out of the Dirk's mavs

MJ w/shitty cast lost to great Pistons teams, excellent counter argument to LeBron totally pissing his pants and losing to Dirk and bunch of moderately good dudes when he had Wade and Bosh, u right

thomas wasn't that good. wasn't even the best player on those teams. the 2011 finals were weird, yeah, idk, but then the 2012 finals happened.

actually i got my dantley dates mixed up, but thomas was still never the player dirk was, even at the start of his decline in 2011

hahaha yeah ok thomas not that good, ok buddy. ok. good one. yeah.

"that" in the matt armstrong sense from last night, meaning not as good as dirk

if only MJ were as good as LeBron, would've swept those Pistons

obviously he was really really good (but probably a little overrated)

good thing you're here to properly rate everyone

like, thomas for instance

Man people scoring points on Dirk nagl. And neither is diminishing the late '80s Pistons, which featured one of the all-time great pgs in his prime, a hall-of-fame shooter, and one of the all-time best defenders/rebounders (not to mention an amazing cast of role-players, which Dirking Dirk had and LeBron has basically never, ever had in his whole career and would greatly benefit from).

LeBron is amazing but idk how I see it he has to make up for 2010 and 2011 playoffs by doing crazy stuff like avg trip dub, 8 titles in 10 yrs, something like that. body of work counts for more than peak play when imo when talking who's the greatest.

hey, MJ needed pippen and bron needed wade. no shame in that

LeBron is amazing but idk how I see it he has to make up for 2010 and 2011 playoffs by doing crazy stuff like avg trip dub, 8 titles in 10 yrs, something like that. body of work counts for more than peak play when imo when talking who's the greatest.

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, February 7, 2013 1:47 PM (18 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lebron's peak has been going in for about 6 years now and isn't slowing down anytime soon. don't really care about counting rings, but he'll have a few