Pregame Warmup - Denver at Cleveland.

Year three of the "Phenom Rivalry". Melo vs. Bron Part 5 in Cleveland. Both Melo and Bron have been lighting up the scoreboard as of the passed few games. Lebron, scored 52 points on Saturday and 39 on Tuesday in losing efforts with a defense lacking Cleveland team. Carmelo on the other hand, had a career best 40 in the last game (which was a win) and 105 points in his last three, and has turned on the jets after coming back with a vengance after an ankle sprain.

Cleveland is definetly in a "funk" as King James put it after the loss to the Sadlanta Hawks. The defense is horrible and there is too much staring at Bron when he has the ball. This is a team lacking an actual identity and if the losing keeps up, rookie coach Mike Brown may be taking some finger pointing here soon. Lebron has been incredible but needs to step up and yell more at his fellow players. Its hard to fathom a team this talented to miss the playoffs, but if the D dosn't improve...and with the suprise teams in the east like, Philly and Milwaukee showing that they have alot more than what was expected....the Cleveland Cavs may be just missing the playoffs once again.....

Denver on the other hand has been up more than down all season. The surprise reincarnation of Bill Russell inside of Marcus Camby has been unreal. Although Marcus has calmed of late, he has the potential to blow up again when they face Cleveland. Carmelo is just playing great team ball. He's chasing down rebounds and scoring at will. George Karl and Kenyon Martin have discussed the limited roll that KMart will play because of the nagging knee injury. So hopefully Kenyon can put in some meaningful time and stay in the game in the latter stages. I expect Denver to be making some moves here soon (Veshon Leonard and maybe Earl Watson).....and I think that will only make them better.

My call: Cleveland stays close and its a shootout between Melo and Bron. Both post more than 25 points, but Denver holds off Cleveland and wins by more than 10.

Just a few random thoughts after catching Wednesday's NBA action.

Houston at Golden State

Someone in the Houston Rockets organization, coaches, teammates, friends or even family members...someone needs to tell Yao that the "Big Chinese Man raises his arms to draw a charge" thing dosn't work. Yao, your 7' 6". When a 6 foot point guard barrels into you, just knock him on his butt and take a real foul. They'll learn not to try to posterize you everytime your in the circle, especially when they get an elbow or a forearm in the nose. All in all, you might even get the block. How often do you get the charge anyway? C'mon man, use your height to your advantage.

And speaking of height, well done on showing how flawed Golden State's defense is against a low post threat. Yao was man handling the Warriors in overtime. Even Ryan "Opey" Bowen was showing up the Golden State big men. But Yao, 12 for 18, 30 points and 16 rebounds, was killing the GS Defense. Golden State has to find a way to hold an opponent down in the final minutes. They can't rely on making jump shots all the time.

Quick one liners

Ben Wallace needs to keep the red goggles, ala "The Milkman" from the movie the Super. I couldn't help but laugh when Chauncey Billups was quoted on ESPN.com saying that Big Ben looked like "Blankman". Someone had to have taped the pregame locker room conversations for the Pistons......you know that all of Big Ben's teammates were scoring on him.....even Darko was taking shots!

Somebody needs to let Kobe know to lose those god awful shiny purple shoes.....oh, and I know it's been said before, but, lose the tights too, Robin Hood.

AK47 is finally in the groove, 21pts, 16reb, and 8 count em' 8 blocks! Now all he needs is a team.

I just read that Chris Paul was left off of the Allstar ballot. Thats a shame. The rookie of the year deserves a heavy dose of write ins. Hackers, on your mark.........

Can any team out there stop Allen Iverson? Allen's averaging 34ppg. He had 39 last night on 15 of 30 shots. Just a couple years ago they were saying that he's getting older and losing his step. Last year was a career year. This year, he's blowing last year's career year out of the water.....I'll have what AI is having.

What's better right now, the Nike commercials featuring the Lebrons? Or the TNT Thursday commercials featuring Ali G?......Such a tough call. Both are funny and clever. And who woulda thought Lebron could pop and lock so well! He keeps it up, he'll be the MP3 of the league for sure!