NBA

Most of today’s top echelon NBA teams are engineered by very good to great point guards. NBA championship success has shifted from the big man as the predominant position to a point guard driven league. Take a look at the New York Knicks revival starting with the acquisition of Jason Kidd to replace Jeremy “Linsanity” Lin. The Lakers are putting the hopes of their team chemistry into finding a way to win with a 38-year-old point guard in Steve Nash.

The Los Angeles “Lob City / Show Time” Clippers have experienced uncharted water for the franchise with the two headed warriors of Chris “CP3” Paul and Chauncey Billups at the point. Once Tony Parker was teamed up with Tim Duncan the San Antonio Spurs have been champions and championship contenders ever since. Point made.

The (16-15) Minnesota Timberwolves will hit the road after a two game home-stand as they face off against the (26-8) Oklahoma City Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena tonight at 8:00 p.m. (ET)

The Minnesota Timberwolves have done everything possible to try and fulfill the high expectations that were set for them at the start of the season. With the promise of a playoff appearance and a money back guarantee on tickets to boot, the Timberwolves are doing their best to stay afloat in the wake of numerous key injuries.

Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio made their return to the court earlier than expected, and now the Timberwolves are paying the price. Love re-injured his hand on January 3rd while playing at Denver. News broke that Love may need surgery on his re-fractured right hand, but no determination has been made as of yet, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. With Love out indefinitely and Rubio’s overall health still in question, the Timberwolves will need to rely heavily on rookie guard Alexey Shved and center Nikola Pekovic to carry the load in Love’s absence.

It is officially time for the Los Angeles Lakers to panic. The NBA season is nearly at the halfway mark and the Lakers are four-games under .500. 

They have only been above .500 for one day this season and that was all the way back on November 20th. 

I usually don't say it's time to panic before the All-Star break, but it is clear there is a lot wrong with the Lakers this season, and this is with Kobe Bryant playing his best basketball since 09'. He is shooting a career best 48% from the field and he's leading the NBA in scoring. The "Black Mamba" is averaging 30.5 PPG, he hasn't averaged over 30 PPG since he was playing with Smush Parker and Kwame Brown. 

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Everyone thought Mike Brown was the problem, but it clearly was a lot more than Brown. It's not on Mike D'Antoni either. You can't blame a coach that had no training camp or preseason to fix a team in a matter of weeks. There was only one coach who could have fixed this problem immediately, Phil Jackson. 

The Los Angeles Lakers have been struck again by the injury bug. This time, the injuries piled up and have depleted their front court.

To begin the season, point guard Steve Nash missed the majority of the first two months of the season with a fracture in his leg suffered in the teams first game. 

Currently in midsts of a three game losing skid, the Lakers got hit hard by the injury bug with the announcement of Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Jordan Hill’s injuries. Howard, who had back surgery last May to fix a herniated disk, has a torn labrum in his right shoulder and was seen with the shoulder heavily wrapped after the teams loss on Sunday night at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. The Lakers are reporting Howard will miss one week and will then be re-evaluated. 

Gasol, who missed eight games at the beginning of December with tendinitis in both knees, took an inadvertent elbow from Nuggets center Javale McGee late in the teams game on Sunday night. Gasol was forced to leave the game due to excessive bleeding from his nose. The team announced Gasol had been diagnosed with a concussion and is out indefinitely. 

The Orlando Magic had to make a decision on what to do with then franchise player Dwight Howard. Howard, who was not happy in Orlando, demanded a trade multiple times and ultimately led to coach Stan Van Gudy’s firing. On August 10th, 2012 the Magic, under new general manager Rob Hennigan, made a move that would not only change the franchise’ future, but the entire landscape of the NBA. 

Hennigan completed a complicated four team trade that would send the disgruntled Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers, while the Magic, Denver Nuggets and Philadelphia 76ers swapped more players. Once all the dust settled and the deal was finally announced, Howard along with Chris Duhon and Earl Clark were Lakers, former Laker center Andrew Bynum and Magic guard Jason Richardson were in Philadelphia, Denver received the 76ers wingman Andre Iguodala and the Magic received a package of draft picks, guard Arron Afflalo and Christian Eyenga, forwards Al Harrington, Josh McRoberts, Maurice Harkless and center Nikola Vucevic from Denver, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.