Battier makes the Final Four (again)

Being a Dukie, I'm sure Shane Battier is quite familiar with tournaments and making the "Final Four"... and he's done so again.

Battier squares off against Ronnie Turiaf in the Conference Finals of the Floor Burns Tournament. Battier also has the opportunity to avenge the brutal voting death of his teammate, Chuck Hayes (who somehow lost to Turiaf in Round 1).

Go Vote!!!

Shane needs to avoid Chuck's fate!

Round 2 of the Floor Burns Tournament started today...

please go vote for Shane Battier again!!!!
(sadly, I must report that Chuck Hayes was defeated in Round 1 by Ronnie Turiaf. I still claim the deck was stacked against Chuck based on the matchups and the glowing Turiaf-based article that was linked next to his introduction.)

Shane got screwed on the DPOY voting and the All-NBA-Defense teams again this past year. The Floor Burns Tourney is a good start towards making up for these transgressions!

Floor Burns - Shane and Chuck need your help!

Hoops Addict has posted a very interesting tournament concept this week... an all "floor burn" competition among NBA players. Or, more specifically:

Each night ESPN, NBA.com and YouTube are flooded with clips of players soaring through the air for rim rocking dunks, buzzer beating three-pointers and blocked shots that make your jaw drop in amazement. While those are all entertaining plays, teams who win championships need players who are willing to get a little dirty and do the little things needed to help their team win. As valuable and crucial as these players are to their respective teams success, these players rarely get the credit or respect that they deserve. With that in mind, the First Annual Hoops Addict Floor Burn Tournament will kick off this week.

Over the next few weeks we’re going to pare down 32 participants until we’re left with one final player who will be heralded as the First Annual Floor Burn Tournament Champion. As players are eliminated, they’ll be matched against the bracket below them. For example, the winner of the West/Powe match-up will face off against the winner of Dudley/Nocioni in the second round.

Keep in mind that voting for the first round will end on August 11th at 12:00 AM.

Now, how cool of an idea is that? It's made even more cool with the inclusion of Shane Battier and Chuck Hayes as the representatives from the Rockets. Ryan from Hoops Addict was even nice enough to stack the deck in Round 1 and put Shane up against that annoying P.O.S. Matt Harpring of the Utah Jazz, a team I hate so very, very much. Not surprisingly, Shane is kicking that Georgia Tech ass all over the brackets. Meanwhile, Chuck has a more difficult matchup against Ronnie Turiaf - and as of this posting, Chuck is maintaining a slim lead.

So ... what are you waiting for - go stuff the ballot box! And when finished, you can always go check out Chuck's free throw form again for some laughs.

NBA All Defensive Team voters = HUGE joke

NBA head coaches, you guys are not too intelligent. Shane Battier absolutely owns Bruce Bowen on the defensive end. Yes, Bowen gets more head lines, mostly because he is a dirty bastard of a defender, but Shane does every single thing on the defensive end better. I feel like a Spurs hater today even though I truly respect what they've done, but Tim Duncan is only an 11 time All NBA first team defensive player because power forwards suck at defense apparently. That's not to say Duncan isn't a really good defender, he's just not a great one. Throw the 11 in a row at me all you want, the stats and my eyes say he is really good, but not great.

Shane Battier was the best defender on the league's third best defensive team. He was also the only truly good defender on the entire team. Let that sink in, Shane carried a team, sometimes by himself, on the defensive end to the third best statistical team on defense. How exactly was he 1. Not the defensive player of the year or 2. Even on the list of first teamers? He constantly guarded the other teams best player and just about always held them down in some easily understood way. Shane out-averaged Bowen in rebounds (5.1 -2.9), steals(1.0-.7) and blocks(1.1-.3). He did lose out to Bowen on a-hole plays (1, the Durant trip, to Infinity, also known as every thing Bowen does).

The most ridiculous part? Shane wasn't even a unanimous second team pick. In fact, 9 coaches (Adelman wasn't allowed to vote for him) didn't put him in the top 2. That's just pathetic and tells me that coaches have no business doing anything but coaching. Chris Paul, who I would trade your first born child for, was only 3 points behind Shane. Chris Paul, while great at playing the passing lane, is simply not a good defender. Even the Hornets fans can admit to this. Yet there Shane is, sitting barely in front of him.

I'm so upset at this. I thought it was just an anomaly that would get corrected this year. And while I'm sure Shane doesn't care, I do. Shane, maybe it's time to be an a-hole on the court, it makes people think you are a better defender than you actually are. You went to Duke, I thought they taught y'all that stuff there?

And the hits just keep on comin'...

Kevin Garnett named NBA Defensive Player of the Year.

It's okay, while I know Shane is truly DPOY, I was resigned to the voters giving it to KG as a consolation prize for not naming him MVP... I get it.

What makes no sense to me? Shane only finished THIRD!!

Behind Marcus Camby!??!?!?!?!

Marcus Camby, he of the team that is universally known for playing NO defense. Ask Kobe and the Lakers how much defensive resistance they got from Denver on Sunday. Yes, I know Camby won last year... but there is no way he should get more votes than Shane. Ridiculous.

This is bulls--t!!!!

ESPN.com listed their award winners for NBA things...

Here's who the panel voted for in the Defensive Player of the Year category:

Kevin Garnett.

Hey, I'm cool with KG. I get it. His team won 65 games. It makes sense. I mean, it's not the correct answer...... Shane Battier is DPOY, but at least I understand the motivation.

What's that? Not a SINGLE person voted for Shane? WTF? And who the hell voted for Josh Smith??? Oh, Scoop Jackson... why am I not surprised? F'n moron. Scoop is a clown.

Kevin Garnett gets 19 votes and Shane gets 0? That's bullshit and you all know it.

No Shane, No Problem!

The Defensive Player of the Year unfortunately had to miss last night's game against the Phoenix Suns...

no problem. Rockets win anyway. As usual.

Suck it, Fat Ass!!


Deke wags his finger at your pathetic efforts to win...

Rockets to the Playoffs - "We're Coming"

The good guys have now won three in a row; that's a winning streak I believe! The Rockets took care of the LA Clippers last night despite Elton Brand playing his first home game of the season. They played a brand of basketball not seen since the days of the streak. Every time LA closed the game to 11 or 12, the Rockets took it as a personal insult. Each mini run by the Clippers put Houston in lock down defense mode and they eventually blew the some cannon ball sized holes in the Clips.

In the second half I became somewhat nervous as the Clippers whittled away a bit at the once 20 point half time lead; getting it down to a respectable 13 points by the end of the third. The Rockets have not been playing consistent second halves as of late and while I knew they were going to win the game, deep down the possibility of a less than stellar outcome nagged at me. The fourth quarter put my mind at ease, helping me get to sleep later than night as I wouldn't be up late trying to see where it went wrong. Houston pushed it to 20 within 5 minutes of the quarter beginning and never looked back, sending the Clippers to their 54th loss of the season and winning the first two games between the two by an average of 21.5 points.

There were many encouraging items from the victory, let's break them down list style, and in no particular order:

1. Tracy took less than 20 shots on a night he wasn't shooting well, instead of shooting more he dished out 9 assists and added 8 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block, thank you Tracy, it is appreciated
2. For the first time in a few weeks, when the reserves came in they extended the lead. This is how we had so many double digit wins during the streak, and it was nice to see it again
3. Luis Scola was 4-5 from the field and 8-10 from the line for 15 points and 5 rebounds. He was stellar early on and was able to rest a bit late in the blowout. Scola has seemingly found his way at the free throw line, now if he can add his 15-17 foot jumper back in he could be a complete force in the playoffs. He's too good of a shooter to keep doubting himself from out there
4. Carl Landry dunked, I can't remember the last time he did that. Hopefully the knee is starting to heal, we need the old pick and roll to the rack back
5. Luther Head looked confident taking the ball to the basket, it was a nice site to see. He's better than he's played this year, and it would be nice to see that more
6. Shane Battier held Al Thornton to 4-13 shooting and thoroughly frustrated the rookie all game. He's is the Defensive Player of the year, it's not even arguable
7. Aaron Brooks showed why he has so much promise, putting up 18 points on 7-9 shooting and adding 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 0 turnovers
8. The ball movement was a thing of beauty. They didn't chunk a lot of shots up early in the clock and looked for the open shot on just about every possession. When it was evident TMac wasn't going to make it to the game for long stretches, Tracy set the tempo with his passing. He shot a few too many threes, but mostly played within the offensive flow
9. Playoff spot clinched - For the commenters that have said "stay tuned" to the Rockets not making the playoffs, where are you now? The Rockets are in, and currently have the 6th best record in the entire NBA and are 2 games back of 3rd place (first place in the west). Not too shabby
10. 6 players were in double figures and Dikembe was one missed dunk away from joining them. The scoring distribution was fantastic

Overall I enjoyed watching this game, and that's a huge plus in a blowout. The team moved well without the ball no matter what the score was and that is very encouraging coming up on the playoffs. Next up for the Rockets the Seattle/OKCity Durants on Wednesday at 7:30PM CST in Houston. My wife and I will be there, I'm looking forward to TMac showing up to play KD again.

Kevin Durant? Meet Shane Battier.

I do not believe you two have been properly introduced...

Mr. supposed Front-Runner for the Rookie of the Year?

Meet the 2008 NBA Defensive Player of the Year.

What's that, K-Smooth? 2-17 FG shooting? Only 4 points?
Awwww, so sorry!

Hey, don't mess with Shane. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

Shane Battier is the DPOY - here's proof!

Shane Battier is the Defensive Player of the Year for 2008.

There are no other legitimate candidates.

Oh, sure, someone will name drop Marcus Camby, or Ron Artest, or maybe even Kevin Garnett. And I'd give someone the time of day if they made a case for Garnett, but not for anyone else. And I mean anyone.

See, Shane's statistics are not going to blow you away. He averages only 5.1 rebounds a game (3.4 defensive). He only gets 1 steal a game on average. And while he's #2 on the Rockets in blocked shots, he only blocks 1.2 per game. Translation? You aren't going to see Shane doing any finger wags to the crowd anytime soon.

My point, however, is this -- since when have individual statistics ever defined good defense?

I've taken the time to put together a chart of the NBA's leading scorers and compared how they did against the Rockets (and by extension, Shane). I've also included their FG% against the Rockets, because the Rockets let you get your points, but you gotta take a lot of shots to get there.

The results... well, see for yourself:

(... sorry about the bad graphic, it was the best I could do to get all those names and numbers in one place. But anyway, back to the point.)

All stats pulled from http://www.basketball-reference.com/.

We all know that Shane's job is "guard the other team's best player" so long as it's not a center (Dwight Howard) or super-quick point guard (CP3). The * next to the player's name indicates that this is a player Battier is likely to match up with defensively. On the chart there are 21 players on this list that qualify as such: LeBron, Kobe, Carmelo, Kevin Martin, Michael Redd, Richard Jefferson, Maggette, Joe Johnson, Antawn Jamison (when Tuff Juice is hurt), Jason Richardson, Jamal Crawford, Stephen Jackson, Josh Howard, Rudy Gay, Manu Ginobili, Durant, Pierce, Iguodala, Turkoglu, Brandon Roy and Ben Gordon.

Things you will notice from this list:

(1) Only two players of the 21 shot better than 50% from the field against Shane - Corey Maggette and Paul Pierce. Maggette did not take very many shots though in that one game (13) and still was more than a point below his season average. Pierce is pretty good, so I am not surprised he shot over 50%, but he never "went off" in either of the two games.

(2) The highest average against Shane was Kobe, with 33.0 ppg. Of course, that is heavily tilted by the 45 point game to open the season. But we can't ignore that game. On the flip side was the nationally televised game where Shane held Kobe to 24 points on 11 for 33 shooting. I would think it's safe to say Shane got even. Oh, yeah, the Rockets won both games, too.

(3) Of these 21 players... exactly FIVE (5) met or exceeded their season averages against Shane. Granted, the most anyone played against him was 4 games so it is by no means a strong statistical sample size, but over 75% of the players on the list did not reach their season averages against Shane. Including that LeBron guy.

(4) Shane really really makes an effort to stop Rudy Gay. Then again, they were traded for each other, so that should be expected.

(5) Think about that again, the HIGHEST average was 33.0... and that was by the same guy who was the only person to go for 40 against Shane. Kobe. That Kobe guy is kinda good. And even he shot below 40% against Shane this year.

Not only does Shane routinely hold you below your season average, but your shooting percentage is likely to take a hit in the process. You would think that a random fluke player might drop 35 a couple times on Shane and also shoot over 50% in the process. But it just does not happen. With anyone. At least not in 2007/2008.

Big or small, quick or strong... Shane keeps you in check. And with a hand in your face.

Battier's defense is so good that defense he played a year ago is still having an effect on individual players this year! (Dwyane Wade and his bum shoulder agree - do not try to score on Shane. You will pay! Bitch about calls? Shane will send you off the court crying for a wheelchair. Wade has never been the same since.)

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with your 2008 Defensive Player of the Year:
Shane Battier

"I don't want money and I don't want medals"

What is better... being part of a team that is on a 22-game winning streak? Or receiving an individual award? (MVP, ROY, most improved, DPOY, etc.)??

This is a great article from SI.com discussing how the Streak has given the Rockets enough exposure that we might get to reap in some individual awards. T-Mac for MVP, Ricky for Coach of the Year, Scola for ROY, Battier for D-POY, Daryl Morey for Exec of the Year (hey, I already covered this!) ... and even Rafer freakin' Alston for Most Improved Player.

Two months ago, none of these guys were even in the discussion. Today? Adelman and Morey have to be serious contenders, while T-Mac, Scola and Battier will definitely finish in the top 5 of voting for the respective awards. Rafer... well, I just don't see how he could legitimately be "most improved" - he had a damn fine season in Toronto three years ago. I don't think he's "improved" on that season. But, hey, national recognition is always a good thing!

I'll take it! Though I'd still prefer we keep the Col. Jessup mindset and continue to order Code Reds on the rest of the NBA. No need for medals or awards just yet. We do like rings though.

Rockets and Celtics - a pro/con list!

The Boston Celtics come to town tonight. Lee tells me the game is on TNT at 8:30pm because it's a marquee game. So I have to wait an extra hour for my entertainment now? That's a bunch of crap! Anyway...

I've constructed a pro/con list to truly gauge tonight's matchup and the viability of a potential 23 game winning streak:
Pro: The Rockets are really good.
Con: The Celtics' record (53-13) suggests they might actually be better.

Pro: The Rockets are at home tonight.
Con: Boston is 24-8 on the road, including last night's victory over the Robert Horrys.

Pro: St. Patty's Day was yesterday... no distractions!
Con: St. Patty's Day is over. :-(

Pro: Ray Allen unlikely to play tonight!
Con: Yao is not walking through that door.......

Pro: But Carl Landry just might!
Con: Boston still has that KG guy.

Pro: The Rockets still have T-Mac.
Con: The Celtics also have Paul Pierce. And Sam I Am.

Pro: The Celtics played last night... it's a back-to-back for them!
Con: It's not like KG is prone to getting tired.

Pro: The Rockets are on a 22-freakin'-game winning streak!
Con: Yeah, there's no "con" for that - we're awesome.

Pro: Rafer Alston is coming off a career high 31 point effort on National TV!!!
Con: Rafer might actually think he's good now. Uh oh.

Pro: T-Mac is unlikely to have a 4-16 game again tonight.
Con: Rafer probably will...

Pro: The Rockets are the #1 team in the Western Conference.
Con: The Celtics are the #1 team in the Eastern Conference.

Pro: The Eastern Conference sucks.
Con: Boston is 21-4 against the West.

Pro: Shane Battier is the Defensive Player of the Year.
Con: Shane can't guard KG *and* Paul Pierce. Or can he?

Pro: We have Luis Landry.
Con: Ha ha! There is no "con" here! Suck on that, Boston!

Go Rockets... 23 in a row! What a cool number for a Streak.

Quick NBA Rules Lesson

NOT against the NBA Rules

Not sure who created that at Clutchfans (I stole it from Hornfans.com that stole it from Clutchfans) but nice work.

This is not, repeat, not, against the NBA rules. Face guarding in this manner is legal in every way. The only way to make it illegal is to face guard from behind a player without the ball. Stop saying it's illegal mainstream media and message boarders, please just stop.

Here is the rule straight from the NBA rulebook:

m. Eye guarding (placing a hand in front of the opponent's eyes when guard-ing from the rear) a player who does not have possession of the ball is illegal and an unsportsmanlike technical shall be assessed.

So there you have it, there is no reason to point out "from the rear" if it is also illegal to do it from the front. It is not illegal, end of story.

Rant over

As an add on, here is an example of journalistic integrity, Charley Rosen proving once and for all he doesn't actually read the rule books.

Relentlessly hounded by Battier, Kobe was 11-for-33 — although it must be noted that Battier face-guarded Bryant on virtually every jumper. The last time I looked at the rule book, face-guarding was illegal.