The season has started!

Exactly zero games has taken place since last year, and already the paper bags are coming off.


Let me first just mention that, after a nice plug on celticsblog.com, I, of course, got a few silly Celtic fans coming on the page and enjoying my thoughts on why the Raps are going to take out the Celtics on Sunday. The way I work normally is to just post my thoughts and whatever and move on, and let you fine folks add anything if you please. BUT I do feel the need to at least address one thing here. PLEASE don’t refer to a preseason game that happened almost a month ago. Yeah the Celtics won by 1 or 2 points in a game that saw Moon/Hump/Baston/Martin/Jackson on the floor at once and playing the majority of the 4th quarter minutes together. If you Celtic fans are using THAT game as proof on how the Celtics are better, then you just don’t know too much about this wonderful game of basketball and how the NBA works. I guess then the Knicks have a great chance at taking out the Celtics, since they both split games in the preseason, and the Bulls/Wiz/Cavs have no chance against the Raps after the Raps beat all three teams by 20 plus points.

IT’S THE PRESEASON!

The Celtics are going to be a playoff team this year. No doubt. And it’s very possible they will end up being a top 3 or 4 team in the East. But here is the important fact…the Raps already WERE a top 3 or 4 team in the East last year and they have gotten better during the offseason. Since the Celtics have done absolutely nothing so far to show they are a top team, since they have yet to play a regular season game together, let’s keep everything in perspective.

And I hope you all will come visit powerof15.blogspot.com on Sunday after the Raps take out this new “Dynasty” version of the Green Machine.


THE regular season has STARTED! Finally. My fantasy team is up and running. Had McGrady last night getting off to a slow 1 for 6 start but as I told my friend, that is his style. McGrady always starts slow then piles on the stats later in the game. 30 points, 50% shooting (VERY nice) around 6 boards, 4 assists. A steal would have been nice, but the percentages were a very nice surprise. I also had Ronnie Brewer from Utah, who I picked up a week ago at the expense of Antonio McDyess. Nice game, 18 points with good percentages. And 4 steals! Very nice. I also had Luke Walton and Andris Biedrins playing last night, both guys didn’t put up horrible numbers, but nothing newsworthy ether. I need Biedrins doing 10 plus boards a nice. (last night he had 9). So a good start. The guy I am playing against had Deron Williams who did a super solid 24 points, 8 assists. Not bad. Of course, him also having Stephen Jackson in his lineup was not the best indication that he did his homework before the week.

So are we surprised that Kobe scored 40 plus points last night? Dude is going for 50 a game. Screw assists, screw percentages, just jack that ball up every single time. And that is what he did last night. And again, the problem is going to be that Kobe will be in a rhythm for the most of the season, but any chance his teammates had at doing something this year is out the window already. They have no chance of getting the ball or doing anything to help them progress. As long as Kobe is a Laker, it will the Kobe-time for 48 minutes a game. Houston looked HORRIBLE for the first 5 minutes of the game, lost and confused. They had a month to figure out the new system, so I don’t know what was going on last night. Then they let the Lakers back into it at the end of the game when the Lakers went on a 10-0 run with 2 minutes left. A crappy game with at least an exciting last 2 minutes.

Speaking of crappy games, San Antonio beat Portland last night. Look, I respect the hell out of S.A. I watch them play and am amazed at how well coached that team is. And how it is DUNCAN who is the best player in the game today. But my god, do they bore me. I understand why ratings are so slow for the finals last year. Portland did a decent job sticking around in the game, LaMarcus Aldridge was huge last night, but there was no way they were beating the Spurs in San Antonio on ring night.

And Utah is looking in playoff form as they beat Golden State. I am really wondering about the Warriors. Did they just get on a huge hot streak at the right time? Yes, it was just one game. With out Stephen Jackson I should mention, but they got smoked by the 4th or 5th best team in the West.


Tonight ladies and gents, and silly Celtic fans, the RAPTORS are back and ready to go. I will be at the ACC and I will have some thoughts on the game tomorrow. Stay tuned.