As a Suns fan, it was hard to watch Phoenix get smacked down in L.A. 121-102 on One HD on Friday. Behind 26 points, 15 rebounds and 3 blocks from Andrew Bynum, the Lakers ripped the heart out of the Suns’ 7-1 start to the season.
Watching Bynum, one word comes to mind. Patience. The Lakers finished eleventh in the Western Conference in 2004-05 season. Kobe Bryant could only manage All-NBA Third Team and the MVP was one Steve Nash. With the 10th pick in the 2005 draft, the Lakers took Andrew Bynum and he became (at the time) the youngest player to ever play in the NBA. No-one outside of the Lakers’ front office believed in the pick, and certainly not Kobe, who would have loved to turn Bynum into Jason Kidd. But times have changed.
Bynum, with size and power, dispelled any ideas that the Suns can match it with the best in the NBA. Too tall and too strong, I watched Bynum running the court and I thought, “How do the Lakers manage to get a guy like this?” Patience. Now the Lakers have a genuine player in the middle, and a player who Bryant needs if he is going to win more championships. And all the Lakers had to do was simply… wait.
Thankfully, the Suns have two chances next week to put in a better showing than the 36.5% brickfest that I endured today.
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Heat 104, Cavs 111
The Cleveland Cavaliers completed an important one-two punch by defeating the Miami Heat 111-104 on Thursday night. Having beaten the Orlando Magic in their previous game, the Cavs are building some early momentum after a poor start to the new season.
There was however only one talking point from the game. In the first quarter, Lebron James drove to the hoop and had his dunk blocked by Jermaine O’Neal. Dwyane Wade calmly collected the loose ball, pushed up the court and surprised Anderson Varejao at the rim with the dunk of the season. In fact, it was one of the most explosive in-your-face dunks that I have ever seen.
If dunking over Alonso Mourning was Vince Carter’s biggest dunk, then Wade has already topped him with this effort. You only need to watch how hard Varejao hit the floor to see that this dunk was huge.
What is the biggest facial dunk that you remember?
lol ur jokin right? vince carter dunked over a great shot blocker, wade dunked over an overpaid power forward…