Raja's basketball diaries

Highlights from Raja Bell's latest journal on ESPN.

His best buddies - Nash, LB, Sen. Burke :
the guys I took with me are the ones that I click with pretty well and roll to dinner with, so when I was able to get four tickets, those are the guys I invited.

On Andrew Bynum:
He's a great young player who, like most big men, shoots a very high percentage, but I was most impressed with his passing out of the triangle offense. Young guys, and especially 7-foot-plus young guys, aren't usually able to pass with such a deft touch, but he's got that down.

Suns are Piranhas:
I think Elton Brand used the word "Piranhas" when he talked about our pace offensively, and he's right.

Back to School:
Something else I've been hitting hard is the books. Yup, I've decided to go back to school. I just got the results back on my midterm from my Religious Analysis class, and I did pretty well, scoring an 87.

On how he met his wife:
..they told me she had a man.
It's kind of corny, but at that point, I was like, "Yeah, right! We'll see about that." Sure enough, she broke up with that guy and we've been together ever since, 10 years now, and got married in August '04.
Sorry, pal, wherever you are.

M

Suns vs Lakers highlight video

Amare's monster dunk against the Lakers



If you missed the Suns game against the Lakers, you might want to check this out.

Suns vs Lakers - sluggish start

Blast! That was a pretty lousy game to start the season. Nash led the Suns out of the gate to play a killer first quarter when they scored 41 points on 17/22 (77%) shooting. The ball movement was great, the defense (esp at the low post) was impressive - it was Suns' basketball at its best. Steve Nash had 7 assists in the first quarter alone. Amare showed a few flashes of his old self with a monster slam. This was the last we'd see of the Suns for the rest of the game.

The following picture sums up the rest of the game better than anything else. The Lakers had the Suns by the balls.



Lakers take over
To the Lakers' credit, they took over the game starting the second period. They pounded the ball in for easy layups, grappled for rebounds and played like their lives depended on every possession. Lamar Odom seems to reserve himself for the Suns. I don't know if its his rivalry with Marion, who was drafted the same year as him or just plain hatred for the Suns. He turns into a monster at the boards, unleashes his arsenal in the low post and puts the icing on the top with a flurry of three pointers every time he plays the Suns.

Bynum
But Andrew Bynum? This 19 yr old kid was starting for the first time in his career and the Suns let him run all over them. He spent the whole of last season getting tutored by Kareem Abdul Jabbar and boy, has he picked up fast. He showed poise at the basket, never gave up and completely dominated the defensive boards. He finished with impressive numbers - 18/9.

Asleep at the boards
Rebounding was completely absent from the Suns. There was zero interior presence on both ends and they finished the game getting out-rebounded 35-51. I wonder if the Suns had any second chance points as they stayed out of the paint like it was a snake pit or something. Nothing says 'the Suns are losing' better than watch Marion jack up his ugly jumpers from three point land. He was content camping out, waiting for the ball instead of crashing the boards for offensive rebounds.

The biggest disappointment was Boris Diaw who looked listless throughout the 29 minutes he played. He was slow-as-molasses and looked uninterested in what was going on around him. He has a reputation of being an easy going guy but its time he started playing with a fire befitting the $9M paycheck he takes home.

The Clippers visit the Suns tonight. Hope the Suns put up a better showing.

M

Suns beat Kings, Cassell caught gyrating, Kidd thinks ball is sticky

Allllright! The Suns steamrollered the Kings 111-94 in their pre-season meeting a few minutes back.

Game highlights

• Steve Nash - he's not the 2 time MVP for nothing. He had 6 assists in the first 9 mins of the game.
• Nash finished with a brilliant scoreline on 100% FG shooting.
• 27 mins 6-6 2-2 3-3 13 asts 2 stls 17 pts
• Suns scored just 10 points in 2nd quarter
• Suns then came back to score 43 points in the 3rd qtr
• Shawn Marion - 20 points, 8 rebs
• James Jones rediscovered some of his shooting touch, scoring 15 pts on 5-11 shooting and making 3-7 from 3 pt land
  

Highlights from the Clippers vs Lakers game

• Clippers won 91-90

• Reggie Miller, Cheryl Miller, Steve Kerr - 3 of the 4 who tested the new ball (Mark Jackson was the 4th) were at the game. So they were confronted about the lousy job they'd done of testing the ball.

• - Reggie and Steve both sidestepped the question by saying they only dribbled the ball a little and mainly shot it around for a brief while
• - Steve Kerr had a good suggestion though : there is a problem only when you're sweating, so take it easy and try not to break a sweat

• Sam Cassell was pulled aside by a referee for excessive hollering and warned. It was during a timeout, so the conversation was quite audible.

• ref to Sam Cassell : If we're talking like this, its OK. We won't tolerate it when you wave your hands or gyrate
  
• Steve Kerr and Reggie Miller gave the ref a tough time, joking about his use of the word 'gyration' in this context
  
• Cheryl Miller later spoke to Sam and asked him what he though of the word 'gyration', to which Sam replied

  "I've never heard of that word. I've lived in the East Coast and am in the West Coast now. I haven't heard that word, ever! Not in English..maybe its Russian or something"
  

I say, admit it Cassell : you're an ALIEN. That's why you've never heard that word!

• Seeing a jersey with the name Evans on the floor for the Lakers, Kaman probably deemed it safer to sit out preferring to save his family jewels. Poor chap is so traumatized by the Reggie Evans incident. It never gets old - watch it here. btw, the guy on the floor was Maurice Evans :)
  

Other news:

• How desperate are the Golden State Warriors to do well this season? Don Nelson has been promised $1 mil if GSW make the playoffs , $1 mil if they get to the conference semifinals , $0.5 mil if they get to the conference Finals , $1 mil if they get to the NBA Finals
  

Good luck with that, Warriors.

• Jason Kidd on the new ball:
• He complained that the new ball sticks to the rim.
  

• He even offered a conspiracy theory:

The NBA is probably trying to legalize knocking the ball off the rim, like in international basketball. The ball sticking to the rim will make that easier

• Bulls beat the Spurs 99-67!

• The Spurs scored just 8 points in the 3rd quarter

M