[rtbtParticipant]

I watched Russell Westbrook against the Knicks Saturday night and couldn’t believe how much he’s improved. He’s almost unstoppable when driving to the basket and will soon become one of the elite PGs in the game. His one offensive weakness appears to be his outside shot.

Stephen Curry scored 32 points on 13 of the 18 from the field versus Atlanta. This isn’t a big surprise but his shooting’s been off recently. I’m sure NY Knicks management gets sick every time they see Curry play so well when he was almost in their grasp during the 2009 draft.

After all of the verbal abuse he received on this forum before the season began, B. Udrih has repeatedly proven that he’s an excellent NBA PG. In only 24 minutes of play against Phoenix last night, he shot 7 for 9 from the field and had 5 assists.

Of course the play of his teammate Tyreke Evans is no surprise to me, I’ve been saying for months that he’s a future star.

And for all of you Dark Milicic followers, he finally returned to the court last night in Minnesota against the Thunder. He played 19 minutes, which is probably close to his grand total for the season with the Knicks earlier this year. In that brief period of time Milicic shot 4 for 7 from the field, had 8 rebounds, and blocked 1 shot.

It was only one game, but it once again illustrates that if given an opportunity to play, Milicic has the talent to be a legitimate NBA center.

[Dtay2152Participant]

another surprise was the blazers going up by 25 in the 3rd and still finding a way to lose us blazer fan have had enough heart break this year without a loss like that, but give credit to the jazz they didnt give up and boozer was an animal

[llperez]

rtbt, it was 27 in the 4th quarter. But it was not a playoff game. I can’t remember the lakers even playing dallas in the playoffs since 1988

[rtbtParticipant]

The last time I saw such a huge turnaround was a Dallas – Laker playoff game in LA. If memory serves me correctly, Dallas had a 27 point lead in the 3rd quarter and somehow managed to lose the game.

It’s amazing what momentum can do to a team’s psyche. Once the onslaught started, Dallas could no longer make a shot, even ones that were wide open. If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I would have a hard time believing a team could blow such a huge lead. After all, the only thing you have to do with such a huge lead is exchange baskets for the remainder of the game.

[rtbtParticipant]

Wow! Was it really the 4th quarter? Losing a 27 point lead in one quarter is beyond my ability to comprehend. LLperez22, I know it really happened because I just looked it up, the game was December 6, 2002 [Shaq was still in LA].

By the way, thanks for the correction on the playoff comment, but at least I had the point differential right. That tells me my long term memory isn’t as bad as I thought [LOL].

[llperez]

no problem. I remember that game specifically because i had guys giving me crap the whole game because they hated the lakers. It was a nationally televised game on TNT and it seemd like the whole laker hating world was blowing up my phone for 3 quarters.

[Dtay2152Participant]

yeh for a team to lose that big of a lead in one quarter they had to have some kind of mental lapse. the blazers only scored 10 points in the 4th quarter im gona be depressed about this one for a while.

[the I in winParticipant]

If and hopefully when westbrook gets a jumper he will be close to unguardable. However that can be said for a lot of point guards today.

[DanEboyParticipant]

Don’t forget about the Bulls who were up 35 in the 3rd only to blow it to Sacramento earlier this season. That was brutal.

[NYKnumba3Participant]

you do know he was playing the knicks the team with no true center and no shot blocking presence what so ever. people like tyron lue bust the knicks dont be suprised when up and comming stars like westbrook do it.once he does it in big gamems in playoffs then talk about his turnovers oops meant his amazing play

[rtbtParticipant]

NYKnumba3, that was a fair point about New York, but Westbrook followed it up with another monster game versus the Timberwolves. OK I know, just like the Knicks, Minnesota isn’t exactly a stalwart on defense.

But what I saw the other night goes beyond the Knick’s lack of defense. Westbrook has an extra gear that most players cannot match. And unlike many other point guards, he has tremendous strength that helps him power his way to the hoop. Throw in terrific leaping ability/quickness, and you have a guy who is virtually unstoppable when he’s driving down the lane.

But can he shoot? I don’t know the answer. Since I haven’t seen enough of Westbrook to assess his weaknesses, I’ll leave that up to others who’ve watched him play on a regular basis.

[Author]

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