Sunday, January 27, 2013

2013 NBA All-Star Game Reserves announced. Spurs cookin' at home. Celtics in a slide.

Who will come off the bench for both the West and East. One team is in a groove, especially on their home floor. While one team is in a slide and have put their playoff hopes in serious jeopardy. Here are the highlights from Week 13 of the 2012-13 NBA season:


2013 NBA All-Star Game reserves announced.
Photos ©NBA.com

The lineups for the 2013 NBA All-Star Game in Houston, Texas has been filled up with the announcement of the reserves for both the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference this week as voted by the 30 coaches of the NBA. So here are the reserves from both sides of the association:

In the Western Conference, we start off with James Harden of the home team the Houston Rockets who makes his very 1st All-Star Game appearance and is the only player in the Western Conference who will make his All-Star debut as the rest of the reserves for the West will make their return trips to the All-Star Game. Joining Harden will be his former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate Russell Westbrook who makes his 3rd All-Star game appearance, the San Antonio Spurs tandem of Tim Duncan and Tony Parker who are making their 14th and 5th All-Star game appearance respectively. To wrap up the reserves for the West, it will be Zach Randolph of the Memphis Grizzlies, David Lee of the Golden State Warriors and LaMarcus Aldridge of the Portland Trail Blazers who will make their 2nd All-Star game appearance.

Meanwhile in the Eastern Conference, five players will make their All-Star game debuts this year in Houston, namely Tyson Chandler of the New York Knicks, Joakim Noah of the Chicago Bulls, Paul George of the Indiana Pacers, Jrue Holiday of the Philadelphia 76ers and Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers. To complete the reserves for the East it will be Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat who will make his 8th All-Star game appearance and Luol Deng of the Chicago Bulls who is in the All-Star game for the 2nd time in his career.

The coaches for both the West and the East will be determined on January 30 (January 31 Manila time), and it will depend on the standings at the end of the night. Oklahoma City's Scott Brooks and Chicago's Tom Thibodeau are ineligible to coach in the All-Star Game this season after coaching the West and East respectively at the last All-Star Game in Orlando.

Spurs cookin' at home. Aiming for the top out West.
Photo ©NBA/Spurs.com 

It is no secret that the San Antonio Spurs, despite having a veteran-filled lineup have managed to still compete among with the best and the up and coming teams across the NBA over the past couple of seasons. As the San Antonio Spurs are riding a 8 game winning streak as well as a 16 game home winning streak which makes the AT&T Center one of the toughest places in the NBA for visiting teams. The Spurs are knocking on the door of the West leading Oklahoma City Thunder and have overtaken the Los Angeles Clippers for 2nd place, as the Clippers have been struggling since the loss of Chris Paul to the lineup. Led by their penultimate future Hall of Famer trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili as well as the consistent coaching of Gregg Popovich, the Spurs are just finding ways to keep themselves competitive each year. It's on them however if they can end a six year title drought and bring the title back to the Alamo City.

Celtics in a slide down the standings.
Photo ©NBA/Celtics.com

Things have not been well in Beantown the past couple of days, aside from the fact the NFL's New England Patriots losing in the AFC Championship Game at home against the Baltimore Ravens. The Boston Celtics have struggled recently and are now in a six game losing streak, their last loss came in double overtime against the Atlanta Hawks on the road. The Celtics are at below .500 at 20-23 and holding on to the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference and are behind Atlantic Division rivals the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Net. For a team that made it last year to the Eastern Conference Finals, they have mightily struggled this season as head coach Doc Rivers has been vocal and animated about the C's recent struggles this season. With a big game coming up tomorrow against the defending champions Miami Heat at home on Ray Allen's first trip to Boston since taking his talents to South Beach, this game has a significant importance which will determine the fate of the season for these guys from Beantown.

Meanwhile, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder wins his 4th Western Conference Player of the Week (2nd in a row) of the season in Week 12, while Carlos Boozer of the Chicago Bulls becomes the 8th person this season to win the Eastern Conference Player of the Week Award in Week 12.

Now here are the standings from across the association:

Western Conference:
1. Thunder (34-10), 2. Spurs (36-11), 3. Clippers (32-13), 4. Grizzlies (28-14), 5. Warriors (26-17), 6. Nuggets (27-18), 7. Jazz (24-20), 8. Rockets (24-22), 9. Trail Blazers (22-21), 10. Lakers (18-25), 11. Mavericks (18-25), 12. Timberwolves (17-24), 13. Kings (16-29), 14. Suns (15-29), 15. Hornets (14-29)

Eastern Conference:
1. Heat (28-12), 2. Knicks (26-15), 3. Bulls (26-17), 4. Nets (26-18), 5. Pacers (26-18), 6. Hawks (25-18), 7. Bucks (23-19), 8. Celtics (20-23), 9. 76ers (18-25), 10. Pistons (16-27), 11. Raptors (16-28), 12. Magic (14-28), 13. Cavaliers (13-32), 14. Wizards (11-31), 12. Bobcats (11-32)

Keep in touch as a brand new edition of my NBA Weekly Blog comes your way next week!

K-Smoove

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