Rasheed Wallace says the Boston Celtics can win more than 72 games
Man, I have to admit, I think we are going to occasionally miss ridiculous Rasheed Wallace comments this season. Sheed tells the Connecticut News that the Celtics are going to challenge the Chicago Bulls' record of 72 regular season wins:
"Definitely, playing with those three other guys, also combining that with the guys we have on the bench, I think we definitely can. Me personally, I think we can get that Bulls record. You know we have the talent for it. We have the will for it and ... I think we have the defense for it."
You sure, Rasheed? The writer, Thomas Halzack, even gave have a chance to back off, asking, "Do you want me to use that?" But you know Rasheed would not back off of a crazy quote:
"You can. Because honestly, I really do feel that. That was a good team. They had some HOFs on there, but we have a few on this team, too."
It's true, Boston has some good players. And if this was 2002, that Garnett/Pierce/Allen/Wallace foursome would be a little extremely imposing. But there's a lot of mileage on those guys, particularly KG, and he's still moving pretty gingerly on that knee.
Those 72-win Bulls had a still-in-his-prime, possibly best player of all-time in Michael Jordan on the roster. The Celtics don't even have a guy I would consider a top five player in the league right now (sorry P-squared). Everyone knew that Chicago team was historically good. There's not even a consensus on whether Boston is the best in the East, as most have Orlando or Cleveland favored. I don't see the Celtics winning more than 50-55 games, which is fine for them. No need to ratchet up the expectations.
I don't claim to be an expert on tennis. However the French Open is my favorite tennis tournament every year so will follow it closely.
Going through the futures markets now, hunting for the best price on Rafa which will be the few ocassions I will bet that much chalk. Not going to bet on qualifying though.
From a womens perspective I think it will be a Russian dominated event. Safina and Kuznetsova come into this tournament as the form players on the surface, do believe this is little Safin's year. Wozniacki is a bit of a sleeper even though highly seeded, her movement on the surface is exceptional which will ensure she will be competitive against the big guns but not sure she has the firepower to beat the likes of Safina, Kuznetsova, Jankovic in the business end of the tournament.
The Knicks are at a season low right now, currently on a 5 game losing streak has resulted in D'Antoni talking about them being in a "crisis." The Nuggets start a 4 game road swing today and come into this game with a lot of momentum after their come from behind win against the Sixers.
With Melo back the Nuggets have too much firepower for the Knicks whose shot selection has been atrocious recently.
Nuggets -4 over Knicks
With the news of Mo Cheeks being the latest head coach being sacked it represents the most number of head coaches sacked before Christmas in ANY season played in the history of the NBA.
It's an absolute joke that we are only 25 or so games into the season and that there has been so many who have been given the flick. The NBA players get it way too easy and take no responsibility for their own poor performances. Instead of front office taking the easy way out and blaming the coach for their own team's poor start to the season how about they grow some balls and start calling out some of their own players who don't perform on a nightly basis.
Pathetic,
Jazz -8 over Nuggets (5)
Just getting the early season Nuggets fade going starting tonight who I expect to regress significantly this season. Even without D-Williams and Harpring this Jazz team owns the Nuggets and are far too deep for them. Nuggets will be severely shorthanded for this encounter having already lost Melo through suspension, Sonny Weems, Chucky Atkins and Steven Hunter all carrying injuries and AI having a less than ideal preseason missing 4 of 7 games due to a sore left knee and sprained right ankle.
Jazz own the Nuggets as their recent series history suggests winning 3 of 4 meetings last season and 9 of the last 12.