NBA News, Notes, and Observations: Jan. 6, 2009

There's no question that the NBA season starts in late October every year. For the casual NBA fan, though, the season doesn't start until Christmas.

Let's face it, 82 games makes for a long season. So unless something earth-shattering is going on—like a brawl between fans and players in Motown—you won't get the average fan to interrupt either their NFL season or their fantasy football season to tune in to a random Saturday matinee between the Raptors and Bucks.

Christmas has become the unofficial start date to the NBA season because it's when network coverage begins. With network coverage comes a sexy matchup or (two) and with that comes hype. Lots of it. The kind of over-hype that makes you want to throw a shoe at your television screen every time you hear "Let's Get It Started" by the Black Eyed Peas.

By Christmas we also have a pretty good indicator of which teams are contenders and which are pretenders. Up until then it's like watching a 30-game preseason filled with the same annual stories.

Every year we hear about the possibility of a team winning 70 games and by Christmas we realize that we were a bit premature. Did I say "a bit"? I meant very premature.

Just a little reminder for the future: The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls were 41-3 through 44 games. They went 31-7 through the remainder of their schedule.

What does that tell us? We should at least wait until the All-Star break before even broaching the subject of another team winning 70.

All that being said, I felt it was time for another News, Notes, and Observations to kick off the new year.

What's Wrong with the Celtics?

The easy answer is nothing. Don't get me wrong. I've watched every one of the Celtics losses over the past 10 days. They definitely don't resemble the same team that won 19 games in a row—especially in the fourth quarter.

But do I think that the Lakers put them in a funk? Not really. I think the loss to the Lakers did two things to the Celtics. First, it took a little shine off of them. They lost a little of their swagger, but more importantly it gave their opponents confidence.

This is what happens when you're defending the title. You realize that it's much more fun being the hunter sometimes than being the hunted.

If you walk into another team's building on a 10-game winning streak you've already got an edge in the psychological battle. As soon as the streak ends you give your future opponents hope.

Who do you think the top three road draws in the NBA are? Here's a hint: If you don't know this, then you're an idiot.

That's right. The Lakers, Celtics, and Cavaliers. The building is sold out every time one of these teams comes to town.

What am I getting at? Let me explain using an example:

Imagine you're Francisco Garcia of the Sacramento Kings. Your team averages a league-worst 12,358 fans per game in a building with a capacity of 17,317. The hated Lakers are in town. You walk through that tunnel onto the court and you see 5,000 more fans in the building than usual and a lot of them are wearing gold No. 24 Lakers jerseys—in your house!

There's an electricity in the building that hasn't been felt in years. The fans want so badly to relive those days not so long ago when a Kings-Lakers game was a must-see Thursday game on TNT. Now it's on a Tuesday and nobody outside of California cares.

Don't you think there's a little more juice pumping through the veins of the home team than usual? Garcia, who averages 10.6 points per game, scores 21 points in a 113-101 victory.

That brings me back to the Lakers-Celtics game. If anything the Lakers gave every other team the realization that the Celtics weren't invincible, and if you give your home fans a reason to cheer they can push you to the finish line.

The other thing I think the Lakers did was prove that if you can hold the Celtics' starting backcourt to under 20 points you can beat them. They don't really have the depth to compensate on those nights when Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo score below the 29 points they combine to average each game.

More importantly, Rondo isn't as good of a player away from Boston. In fact, he averages five fewer points on the road than he does at home (13.1 to 8.3).

If you look at the Celtics last four losses you'll see that Rondo and Allen only combined to score over 20 points once. They scored 25 against Portland—a game in which their bench combined to score only nine points.

Kobe, Shaq, and Phil Reunited in Phoenix?

Don't look now but Shaquille O'Neal is slowly gaining momentum in his quest to be a reserve on this year's Western Conference All-Star team. Over his last eight games he is averaging about 21 points and 10 rebounds per game. His season averages are up to 17 and nine per game.

While Shaq has no chance at passing Yao and being voted on by the fans, there is a good chance that Shaq could be voted in by the coaches. Each team will have one reserve center and two more reserves that can be any position.

Right now Shaq's only competition is from the Warriors' Andris Biedrins and Denver's Nene. Biedrins is averaging 14.2 points and 11.9 boards a game. Nene is averaging 14.7 points and 7.9 boards per game.

Kobe Bryant is currently leading all Western Conference players in voting so he's already assured a starting spot.

The coaches of the All-Star teams are determined by which teams have the best record in each conference the second week of February. The Lakers currently have a five-and-a-half game lead over the second-place Spurs, so unless the Lakers suffer a January collapse Phil Jackson is all but assured to be the head coach of the West.

All-Star reserves are voted on by the head coaches in the respective conferences. There are bound to be a number of coaches who are either convinced that Shaq is still an All-Star or they just have a sense of humor and want to see the three together again.

Speaking of All-Star Voting

Tracy McGrady is currently about 100,000 votes ahead of Chris Paul in the race to see who will start alongside Bryant. While McGrady is still very popular, his lead on Paul is no doubt a byproduct of his popularity in China.

McGrady has already missed nine games this season and has his fewest points per game average (15) since his third season in the league.

It's time for the NBA to reassess the current voting rules and decide if it's worth giving China a disproportionate amount of power in deciding it's All-Star starters.

Yi Jianlian is currently third amongst Eastern Conference forwards behind only LeBron James and Kevin Garnett despite averaging only 9.7 points and six rebounds a game.

I'm pretty sure the Chinese fans are at least watching basketball. If all they were doing was scanning their ballots for Chinese names I'd expect David Lee would have more votes.

Cheikh Samb—Senegalese for Chucky Brown

Cheikh Samb was traded for the fourth time in his short career today.

Samb was drafted by the Lakers in 2006 and traded to the Pistons for Maurice Evans. The Pistons then traded Samb to the Nuggets this year as part of the Allen Iverson-Chauncey Billups deal.

Now the Nuggets moved Samb to the Clippers for a future second-round pick.

Before this season Samb had only played in four games—the same number of times he's already been traded. Still, he has a long way to go to catch Chucky Brown, Tony Massenburg, and Jim Jackson, who each played for 12 NBA teams in their respective careers.

By the way, they speak French in Senegal.

Lakers Standing Pat?

It's looking more and more like the Lakers aren't going to obtain another point guard while waiting for Jordan Farmar to return from his knee surgery. Sasha Vujacic has received the majority of Farmar's minutes and responded by getting his season on track.

Beginning yesterday teams will now be able to sign free agents to 10-day contracts. It doesn't look like the Lakers will try to bring in any of the point guards floating around the D-League.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Lakers tried to obtain Lindsey Hunter or Tyronn Lue with Chris Mihm's expiring contract or if they tried to bring Jannero Pargo back from Russia since all three are former Lakers familiar with the triangle offense.

If the right veteran were waived from a non-playoff team, someone like Joe Smith or Bobby Jackson, the Lakers would have their full mid-level exemption to offer.

Other than that, the only other available free agent the Lakers might consider adding is Robert Horry.

Don't Drink and Drive...Especially in Arizona

Right on the heels of Charles Barkley's DUI in Arizona comes the news that the Suns' Jason Richardson was accused of driving under the influence, speeding, and failure to drive in one lane on Dec. 21.

Dumbleavy's Theory

Clippers head coach and GM Mike Dunleavy is wondering if player agents are encouraging their players to come back slowly from injuries.

On a related note, player agents are wondering if Dunleavy is just slow since he was the only GM willing to sign Ricky Davis.