2008 Woodie Awards
The NBA at a glance
Golden State Warriors and beyond
Matt Macaulay, Sports Editor
Issue date: 2/1/06 Section: Sports
Warriors losing ground
After getting off to their best start in 10 years, the Golden State Warriors have been receding back into the depths of NBA obscurity over the last month.
The team has posted an abysmal 5-12 record between Dec. 18 and Jan. 23 and fallen below the .500-mark once again and out of the playoff picture should the post-season begin today.
Baron Davis, the point guard and leader of the Warriors, is only posting an average season by his standards despite ranking second in the NBA in assists at more than nine per game. He ranks sixth in the league though with six technical fouls not even halfway through the season demonstrating his frustration with the team's current lulls, and Davis has fallen off nearly five points per game from two years ago when he averaged 22.9.
Jason Richardson is having his best year yet as a Warrior in terms of points scored averaging nearly 23 points per game and ranks fifth in the NBA in three-point field goals made.
The Warriors are ranked 17th according to ESPN's NBA Power Rankings, far below every team in the Pacific Division save the lowly Sacramento Kings.
Kobe drops 81
Jan. 22 was Championship Sunday in the NFL, but the biggest story of the day belonged to the Lakers' Kobe Bryant as he inked his name into the record books by throwing down 81 points in a 122-104 win against the Toronto Raptors.
After the game, Bryant insisted that getting the win was more important than his performance, but history will disagree.
Bryant's 81-point effort places him second behind only Wilt Chamberlain and his legendary 100-point game in 1962. The biggest difference being that no actual footage exists of "Wilt's 100", but "Kobe's 81" is destined to be played over and over on ESPN Classic and the likes.
Michael Jordan's career high in a game was only 69 points and Chamberlain's next highest point total was 78.
Bryant joined an elite group of players who have scored more than 70 points in a single game placing his name among the likes of Elgin Baylor (74 points), David Thompson (73 points), David Robinson (71 points), and of course Wilt Chamberlain.
Kobe had a respectable 26 points in the first half, but really turned it on by scoring 27 points in the third quarter after becoming angered about what he deemed as his team's lack of effort. He then went on to score 28 points in the fourth quarter sealing the come-from-behind win for his team and forever inserting his name in the record books.
Kings trade for Artest
Ron Artest is probably one of, if not the most talented small forward on both sides of the court. However, he is undoubtedly the most disturbed.
After being suspended for 73 games last year for inciting the infamous brawl in Detroit, Artest shocked the players, coaches and management of the Pacers by requesting a trade in early December and didn't play in another game for Indiana.
The team agreed to trade their seemingly unbalanced star, but teams willing and able to make the trade for Artest had been few and far between before the Sacramento Kings offered up Peja Stojakavic.
Golden State was initially rumored to be the best fit, but nothing materialized. Sacramento actually had league approval late last week, but rejected the trade after Artest reportedly balked at actually playing for the Kings should he be traded.
Then in typical Artest fashion, the volatile forward changed his mind the very next day and hopped a plane for California.
He has gone on record saying that he would have preferred to have been traded to a team in the East, and listed Cleveland and New York as possibilities. He continued to say in an interview with the Indianapolis Star long before the trade was actually made that he would return to the East two years after this season when his current contract expires should he be traded to a team in the West.
Pistons firing on all cylinders
Detroit Pistons' head coach Flip Saunders has already been named as the coach of the Eastern Conference All-Stars long before any of the players will be determined.
The honor of coaching in the All-Star game goes to the coach whose team has the best winning percentage in their respective conference as of Feb. 5, two weeks before the actual game.
The Piston's are so good this year that they clinched that right for their coach on Jan.18, more than a month before the All-Star game in Houston on Feb. 19 by posting a 31-5 record. The next best record in the Eastern Conference on that date belonged to the Cleveland Cavaliers at 20-16.
In a rematch of last year's finals, the Pistons handed the San Antonio Spurs, who have the best record in the Western Conference, an embarrassing loss during a nationally broadcast game on Christmas day by winning 85-70 in a contest that wasn't really even that close.
Detroit reiterated their dominance by beating the Spurs in another blowout 83-68 in San Antonio on Jan. 12.
The Pistons are currently winning their games by an average differential of 9.5, 3 points per game better than the NBA's second-best San Antonio Spurs.
With only five losses nearly halfway through the season in terms of games played, the Pistons have a relatively realistic shot at making a run at the Chicago Bulls' record season in which they posted a 72-10 record.
After getting off to their best start in 10 years, the Golden State Warriors have been receding back into the depths of NBA obscurity over the last month.
The team has posted an abysmal 5-12 record between Dec. 18 and Jan. 23 and fallen below the .500-mark once again and out of the playoff picture should the post-season begin today.
Baron Davis, the point guard and leader of the Warriors, is only posting an average season by his standards despite ranking second in the NBA in assists at more than nine per game. He ranks sixth in the league though with six technical fouls not even halfway through the season demonstrating his frustration with the team's current lulls, and Davis has fallen off nearly five points per game from two years ago when he averaged 22.9.
Jason Richardson is having his best year yet as a Warrior in terms of points scored averaging nearly 23 points per game and ranks fifth in the NBA in three-point field goals made.
The Warriors are ranked 17th according to ESPN's NBA Power Rankings, far below every team in the Pacific Division save the lowly Sacramento Kings.
Kobe drops 81
Jan. 22 was Championship Sunday in the NFL, but the biggest story of the day belonged to the Lakers' Kobe Bryant as he inked his name into the record books by throwing down 81 points in a 122-104 win against the Toronto Raptors.
After the game, Bryant insisted that getting the win was more important than his performance, but history will disagree.
Bryant's 81-point effort places him second behind only Wilt Chamberlain and his legendary 100-point game in 1962. The biggest difference being that no actual footage exists of "Wilt's 100", but "Kobe's 81" is destined to be played over and over on ESPN Classic and the likes.
Michael Jordan's career high in a game was only 69 points and Chamberlain's next highest point total was 78.
Bryant joined an elite group of players who have scored more than 70 points in a single game placing his name among the likes of Elgin Baylor (74 points), David Thompson (73 points), David Robinson (71 points), and of course Wilt Chamberlain.
Kobe had a respectable 26 points in the first half, but really turned it on by scoring 27 points in the third quarter after becoming angered about what he deemed as his team's lack of effort. He then went on to score 28 points in the fourth quarter sealing the come-from-behind win for his team and forever inserting his name in the record books.
Kings trade for Artest
Ron Artest is probably one of, if not the most talented small forward on both sides of the court. However, he is undoubtedly the most disturbed.
After being suspended for 73 games last year for inciting the infamous brawl in Detroit, Artest shocked the players, coaches and management of the Pacers by requesting a trade in early December and didn't play in another game for Indiana.
The team agreed to trade their seemingly unbalanced star, but teams willing and able to make the trade for Artest had been few and far between before the Sacramento Kings offered up Peja Stojakavic.
Golden State was initially rumored to be the best fit, but nothing materialized. Sacramento actually had league approval late last week, but rejected the trade after Artest reportedly balked at actually playing for the Kings should he be traded.
Then in typical Artest fashion, the volatile forward changed his mind the very next day and hopped a plane for California.
He has gone on record saying that he would have preferred to have been traded to a team in the East, and listed Cleveland and New York as possibilities. He continued to say in an interview with the Indianapolis Star long before the trade was actually made that he would return to the East two years after this season when his current contract expires should he be traded to a team in the West.
Pistons firing on all cylinders
Detroit Pistons' head coach Flip Saunders has already been named as the coach of the Eastern Conference All-Stars long before any of the players will be determined.
The honor of coaching in the All-Star game goes to the coach whose team has the best winning percentage in their respective conference as of Feb. 5, two weeks before the actual game.
The Piston's are so good this year that they clinched that right for their coach on Jan.18, more than a month before the All-Star game in Houston on Feb. 19 by posting a 31-5 record. The next best record in the Eastern Conference on that date belonged to the Cleveland Cavaliers at 20-16.
In a rematch of last year's finals, the Pistons handed the San Antonio Spurs, who have the best record in the Western Conference, an embarrassing loss during a nationally broadcast game on Christmas day by winning 85-70 in a contest that wasn't really even that close.
Detroit reiterated their dominance by beating the Spurs in another blowout 83-68 in San Antonio on Jan. 12.
The Pistons are currently winning their games by an average differential of 9.5, 3 points per game better than the NBA's second-best San Antonio Spurs.
With only five losses nearly halfway through the season in terms of games played, the Pistons have a relatively realistic shot at making a run at the Chicago Bulls' record season in which they posted a 72-10 record.