Tonight in the Association

Just three games on the slate for tonight, but there's some good ones. Well, two anyways. Let's get to 'em.

Chicago at Cleveland (-4.0)
Cleveland. LeBron? On national TV? He'll show up.

A big topic of discussion lately is Kobe's supporting cast in Los Angeles: can they learn to still be aggessive when he's on the court? Or will they always defer to him by default? The thinking is that if Lamar and Friends can play with Kobe, the Lakers are pretty unbeatable. Good logic, too, I think.

But why doesn't anyone mention this with Cleveland? If any team is the poster child for deferring to its star player, its the Cavs. Do you remember the Cavs offense last year in the playoffs? You know, give the ball to Bron Bron and get the fuck out the way? (Sorry to swear like that right there - I'm really trying not to do that - but the offense was that ridiculous.) Now they have this motion offense, which is nice, but when it comes down to it, its still give it to Bron, but now you only have to get the hell out of the way. Baby steps, I guess.

Big matchup in this game, I think, is on the boards between Ben Wallace and Drew Gooden. If Gooden keeps it competitive, Cavs should win.

Oh yea, the Eric Snow Match Up of the Night: Kirk Hinrich. Yea. The Bulls actually have two point guards that are better than snow. Cripes.

Dallas at Phoenix (-5.0)
Dallas. Phoenix has a pretty bad habit of blowing late-game leads. So far this season they've blow leads of 19, 15, 9 and 9. Probably why they are 1-4. But that's going to happen; when you don't really focus on defense and just try to outscore your opponents, leads will come and go. If your shots aren't falling, you can't maintain a lead. Feast or famine, basically.

As bad as Dallas is playing, Phoenix will keep them in it. Dallas was gettin their ass beat at this time last night; PHX was playing a hard-fought OT game. And Dallas has to be a little more desperate. I hope they are, anyways.

NOOCH at Golden State (-2.0)
NOOCH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOCH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCH!!!

Last night: 5-6. Season: 24-22-2.