The NBA is Back!

Sunday December 25, 2011 was tip-off day for the 2011-2012 NBA season. The games have always been great on Christmas Day, but this would be different due to the 140+ day lockout that just occurred (and it showed).

The Day started off at 11:00 AM with the debut on TNT of Shaq. Shaq on TNT is a great combination; especially with "Sir" Charles Barkley being on as well. (Note: Congrats Barkley on the weight loss).
The Knicks defeated the Celtics on what I believe was a fluke foul call by the refs at the end of the game. The Bulls are definitively the best team in the East top to bottom (D.Rose is BEAST) after defeating a hard working KB24 with the Lakers. Then The Clippers defeated the Golden State Warriors, which was a fun and exciting game, and was the best overall offensive game (not team Miami fans) of the day.

The Orlando Magic and the OKC Thunder was a one-sided affair. For Orlando it was turnovers,horrible shot choices as well as shooting, defense lacked,and NO offensive flow. For all the Magic fans there were some bright spots as well as some that were NOT bright.

Bright Spot:
1) Jameer Nelson & Von Wafer (Nice pick up thus far) refused to settle for jumpers and kept penetrating. (Exactly what Orlando did the first 9 shots of the game, even TURK)
2) Ryan Anderson was one fire from three and he will more than likely continue that.

NOT Bright:
1) Jason Richardson shooting (???), Chris Duhon (please comeback Jason Williams), Turk choosing not to take open jumpers but make impossible fade aways or horrible passes, Earl Clark lack of denfense, Dwight Howard scoring as well as passing our of the quadruple teaming!

In general all the teams that played (excluding Miami) seemed to still be in Summer League mode because offense and defensive line-ups looks scrambled, the bad passing, as well as the slower looking players.