bruce@godot.UUCP (Bruce Nemnich) (01/22/85)
What a race we have going in the Atlantic! The 76ers ran off 13 straight wins to catch (and pass, for two days) Boston before losing to the Celtics at the Garden yesterday. Halfway through the season, both teams have a shot at the all-time victory record (69 by the '71-2 Lakers); they are currently on a 68 win pace. Round 3 yesterday was a relatively easy (considering the rivalry) Boston win. Boston went on a 14-2 tear early in the 2nd quarter, and the Sixers never recovered. Philly is a very good defensive team, but they don't really have anyone to guard Bird (not many do). Julius usually gets the job and has done pretty well on him in the past, but Bird has been eating his lunch this year (outscoring him 114-39 in the three games thusfar). The Sixers problem yesterday was turnovers (23). They outrebounded the Celts by 50-33 but took one less shot. Quote of the day, from Charles Barkley: "We can't beat them here. I honestly believe that in my heart." Boston is now 29-0 when ahead after three quarters. Philadelphia is 9-5 when *behind* after three quarters. Boston is 18-1 at home; Philly 17-4 on the road. The Lakers had finally got themselves on a good roll until they came east and lost consecutive games in Milwaukee, Detroit, and Boston. Speaking of East vs. West, here are the cumulative division records so far: Atlantic 122 84 .592 Midwest 121 124 .494 Central 112 129 .465 Pacific 115 133 .464 East 234 213 .523 West 236 257 .479 Given that about 28% of games are interconference, one can deduce that the East has about a 79-58 .577 record v. the West. The latest ballot tallies show that Larry Bird will probably not be voted to start on the all-star team. That is completely absurd. My personal picks: Moses Malone, Larry Bird, Bernard King, Michael Jordan, Dennis Johnson. The guards are the hardest: Sidney Moncrief and Isiah Thomas are right there, too. This year's crop of rookies is the best since at least the '79 group including Bird and Magic. Jordan is almost a shoe-in for rookie-of-the-year. I can see why Houston was under local pressuse to pick Akeem, but they would be better off with Jordan in the backcourt and Sampson at center. Akeem is a very good athlete and will get better as he learns the game, but he's no Pat Ewing. But Portland really blew it by passing up Jordan, not to mention trading everyone to Denver for Kiki. Barkley is a very impressive rebounder with Philadelphia (and a definite improvement over Ivaroni). Bird on Jordan: "He's the best player I've ever played against." -- --Bruce Nemnich, Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA ihnp4!godot!bruce, bjn@mit-mc.arpa ... soon to be bruce@tm.arpa
avr@CS-Arthur (Andrew V Royappa) (01/23/85)
Argle, long awaited 76'er-Celtic matchup turns into
an embarrassing blowout .. I guess Boston is invincible
at home, after all. I thot Philly was going to win since
they've been playing reasonably well lately. Oh well,
I'll have to wait until they play at Philadelphia ..
I agree, it would be disgraceful if the best player
in the NBA (Larry Bird) doesn't get to be a starter in the all-star
game. About your other picks .. huh, only a Celtic fan would pick
Dennis Johnson over Isiah Thomas. Michael Jordan should be there
of course. Yow. A couple of games back he had 35 points, 15 rebounds,
and 14 assists.
Speaking of Portland, of course they blew it, but how's
Bowie doing ? I haven't heard much, and judging from the boxscores
he averages about 5 ppg (but rebounds well).
Andrew Royappa
{decvax, ucbvax, pur-ee, ihnp4}!purdue!avrfredg@tekecs.UUCP (Fred Griffin) (01/25/85)
Sam Bowie is averaging about 8 points and 6 or 7 rebounds, along with about 2.5 blocks per game. He still looks pretty green but has shown some improvement since the start of the season. His last two games were good performances. (16 and 18 points and about 20 rebounds total) On the whole the team looks lousy. Every televised game I watch has them getting blown out. There is no one who is taking a firm leadership role on the team. Although Kiki is among the leaders in points per game his defensive skills are apparently non-existent. I think they should change their name to the Portland Trailing Bozos and hope for a bottom seven finish and a chance at drafting Ewing. Fred (please don't send mail 'cause this is my last day here) Griffin