NBA weekend wrap-up

Posted by Dan Dragicevich.

This weekend had some interesting story lines, especially the emergence of J.R. Smith in New York.

J.R. Smith of the New York Knicks

As a follow-up to my recent article, I wrote about the in-season acquisition of shooting guard J.R. Smith by the New York Knicks. This weekend he made his season debut when he came off the bench against the reigning champs, the Dallas Mavericks. This was a surprise to many because even though Bill Walker was unable to play, Smith was reportedly still a long shot to play with only a few days of practice with his new team. Well, the Knicks made the right decision and are happy they did because Smith came out on fire scoring 15 points and knocking down 3 treys to go along with 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal. He ended up going 6 of 16 from the field which is a .375 shooting percentage which is right around his average. This is a great sign for Knicks fans because if Smith can stay consistent (which is a big if), he can really take pressure off of Carmelo Anthony who is scheduled to return tonight. Also, Jeremy Lin continued his dominant run by scoring 28 points, dishing out 14 assists, and having 5 steals. The Knicks are starting to develop a great supporting cast for Carmelo Anthony, let’s just hope it doesn’t all fall apart when he gets back.

Another interesting headline in basketball that happened over the weekend was the jab that Kobe Bryant took at the Laker’s front office after their game against the Phoenix Suns. In a post-game interview he explained (with some expletives) that he is very upset about the job that the Laker’s front office is doing with the talks about the Pau Gasol trade. He said, “I'd rather (Lakers management) not trade him, but if they're going to do it, (expletive) do it already. If you're not going to do it, come out and say you're not going to do it.” Bryant didn’t seem too upset when talking about it but he was very serious about it. Although Gasol is playing well, Bryant believes it is having an effect on his game and that it isn’t right what management is doing for him and the team. We’ll see what kind of effect this has on the team because this isn’t the first time Bryant has done something like this. Much like his old coach, Phil Jackson aka the Zen Master, Bryant knows exactly how to fire up his team when he feels they are struggling. For all the Laker fans out there (including myself), I wouldn’t worry about this having a negative effect on the chemistry of the team because Bryant is one of the greatest leaders of all-time to play this game and I think he pulled out the big guns just in time for the Laker’s to make a run leading up to the all-star break.