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

The captain takes over. I'm all in this Feburary.

This week is a week after a grueling Preliminary Examinations week, results from these exams also came out with it, and it came out somewhat mixed, some exams I got high scores (even coming up on top in one of the exams), while others came out a little lower than expected. Fortunately, I passed in every subject I'm taking this prelims period. Including the two other major tests that we took this week.

But before the results came out, I did took time off from schoolwork for I was exhausted after those exams, where I did my best taking a good time away from the usual student routine by hanging out in different places, either on my own by hanging out at a Starbucks branch nearby or with my family in Greenhills to go to church and buy things. As well as getting myself a new haircut and use wax on my hair. Even to the point I'm not answering questions about schoolwork from my blockmates. Don't forget the fact I'm filling up my planner with every day that pass by.

January is coming to an end, and February is inching closer with every day and every hour, and it's going to be one busy month for me, as projects that are needed to be addressed will be done. Including two projects where I'm leading the way. Aside from those schoolwork that will be addressed, I will have a couple of competitions to end the school year. It will also be the last two competitions with the whole team (with two senior teammates before they graduate) which has been a great honor to have been their teammate, and the other one I will compete all by myself. So right now, I'm preparing myself for these competitions I will take on next month as well as savoring the moment of representing the school. Also, I have to think of some things to do when my blockmates and fellow batchmates go to Korea in the middle of the month, while I'm staying here in the Philippines.

I'm thankful for the opportunity I have been given over the past couple of months and I look to take every advantage and opportunity I can grasp on my hands today. I will do all the pursuits I am taking in my life with all my best and I will never stop in making a good name for myself.

"All the days that you wake up, you got one job, and that's to get better every single day." - Derrick Rose

Loaded up and all in for the tasks at hand.
K-Smoove

2013 NBA All-Star Game Starters announced. LeBron reaches 20,000 points. Alvin Gentry part ways with Suns.

The starters for the 2013 NBA All-Star Game has been announced. One player makes history, while another coach gets the boot. Here are the highlights from Week 12 of the 2012-13 NBA season.

2013 NBA All-Star Game starters announced.

Photo ©NBA.com

The starters for the 2013 NBA All-Star Game to be held at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas has been announced over the week. Here are the starters from both conferences.

In the Western Conference, four of the five starters came from teams playing at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers will be joined in the backcourt by Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers  In the frontcourt, it will be Dwight Howard of the Los Angeles Lakers, Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Bryant, who was also the lead vote-getter for the All-Star Game at 1,591,437 will make his 15th straight All-Star appearance. Paul meanwhile will make his 6th All-Star appearance. Howard will make his 7th All-Star appearance and his 1st for the Western Conference. Griffin will make his 3rd All-Star appearance while Durant who finish 3rd overall in voting at 1,504,047 will make his 4th All-Star appearance.

In the Eastern Conference, four of the five starters also came from two teams, LeBron James of the Miami Heat will be joined in the frontcourt by Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks and Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics. In the backourt it will be Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat together with Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics.

James, who finished 2nd in overall voting at 1,583,646 will make his 9th All-Star appearance. Anthony who finished 4th in overall voting at 1,460,950 will make his 6th All-Star appearance. Garnett will make his 15th All-Star appearance (ties the record with Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal for 2nd most All-Star appearances). Wade who finished 5th overall in voting at 1,052,310 will make his 9th All-star appearance while Rondo will make his 4th All-star appearance and his 1st as a starter.

The reserves for the All-Star game will be announced next week and it will be determined by the 30 head coaches of the NBA. As for the head coach of both conferences, it will also be determined in the standings after January 30, 2013. Chicago's Tom Thibodeau and Oklahoma City's Scott Brooks are not eligible to coach the East and West respectively as they were the head coach from last year's All-Star game in Orlando.

LeBron James reaches 20,000 career points.

Photo ©NBA/MiamiHeat.com

In their 92-75 victory against the Golden State Warriors at the Oracle Arena in Oakland last January 16 (January 17 Manila time). LeBron James of the Miami Heat made history as he became the youngest player in NBA history to reach the 20,000 point mark for his career. James achieved the feat at 28 years and 17 days old when he made a 12 foot jumper with 2:45 left in the 1st half, he surpassed the feat set by Lakers guard Kobe Bryant who achieved the feat at 29 years and 122 days old. LeBron also surpassed the 5,000 assist mark for his career in the victory. Love him or hate him, LeBron James has proven himself worthy of a future Hall of Famer at the same time, he is in contention as one of the greatest basketball players of all-time.

Alvin Gentry part ways with the Suns.

Photo ©NBA/Suns.com

Another coach has been relieved of duty during the season as Alvin Gentry part ways with the Phoenix Suns after the Suns have dropped to a West-worst 13-28 record. Gentry becomes the fourth coach during this season to step down after Mike Brown of the Lakers, Avery Johnson of the Nets and Scott Skiles of the Bucks. Gentry who took over as head coach of the Suns in the middle of the 2008-09 season from Terry Porter finishes his near 4 season tenure with the Suns with an overall record of 158-144 (.543), He also led the Suns to one playoff appearance in 2010 where he led them all the way to the Western Conference Finals before falling in 6 games against the eventual champions and their Pacific rivals the Los Angeles Lakers. The Suns will determine the interim head coach soon, but they have to play better as their season could be over early and miss the playoffs once again.

Meanwhile, Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder wins his third Western Conference Player of the Week Award for Week 11, while Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks wins his second Eastern Conference Player of the Week Award for Week 11 after winning on the 1st week of the season.

Here are the standings from across the association:

Western Conference:

1. Thunder (32-8), 2. Clippers (32-9), 3. Spurs (32-11), 4. Grizzlies (26-13), 5. Warriors (24-15), 6. Nuggets (24-18), 7. Jazz (22-19), 8. Trail Blazers (20-20), 9. Rockets (21-21), 10. Timberwolves (17-20), 11. Lakers (17-22), 12. Mavericks (17-24), 13. Kings (16-25), 14. Hornets (13-27), 15. Suns (13-28)

Eastern Conference:
1. Heat (26-12), 2. Knicks (25-13), 3. Pacers (25-16), 4. Nets (24-16), 5. Bulls (23-16), 6. Hawks (22-18), 7. Bucks (21-18), 8. Celtics (20-19), 9. 76ers (17-23), 10. Magic (14-25), 11. Pistons (14-25), 13. Bobcats (10-30), 14. Cavaliers (10-32), 15. Wizards (8-30)

Stay tuned as a brand new edition of the NBA Weekly Blog comes your way next week.

K-Smoove

Brand new year, life rolls on.

A new year has come upon us, as we are still fresh from the coming of the year 2013, aside from writing my weekly NBA blog on this blog entry, I have not written a blog entry outside of the NBA since the start of the year. So this is my first life story blog entry of the year. It has been long overdue, since I could not buy time to write a blog entry, especially with the busy schedule that I had in the past few weeks. Now that I have the time in the world to write this blog entry, let's get to it.

As 2013 came along, only a few days remained on the Christmas break, So, I made the most of the short time remaining by doing important things. It was also during this time, when a huge weight on my shoulders was lifted, which was a great feeling for me, because I know I'll be leaving all the heartbreak of 2012 behind me. Then three days into the new year, it was back to España, and I get to see my blockmates and my friends in school again as well as hang out with them during break time, and sometimes after classes. Of course

For the next few weeks, we had to scramble and work hard to get to all our requirements done both at home, in school and on the field. There were plenty of things to do once we came back in school, that is one of the reasons I have not been writing life story blog entries this year until today. 

Also, I made at a time the most difficult (in a sense horrible) decision I had to make in my entire life. When I decided I will not participate in the international tour we are going to have next month. It would have been my first time going out of the Philippines if I came along, however there were a lot of things I had to consider in that decision and it was not the destination I was aiming for. Fortunately, it had a silver lining, turns out it was a good call on my part, so my international travels that I aim for will have to wait. One day, I'll be out exploring the world, but definitely, I have no plans of living outside my beloved homeland the Philippines.

Then came the Preliminary Examinations (Prelims) Week which happened this week, my prelims week lasted only three days from Monday until Wednesday, but we took one exam the week before, and there will be 2 more exams next week. Well, it was a mixed exams week, some were easy, others were just right, and of course there were some that were difficult that literally got D-Rose'd. Also I had to bear the unforgivable mental lapse in some of the tests which cost me some points.

*D-Rose'd - remember when Derrick Rose tore his knee in last year's NBA Playoffs, well that's what I felt (not as if I broke my legs in a basketball game) after that test.

Well as a sports fan, it's been a mixed start to my 2013, the Houston Rockets had a great start to 2013, but they're on a losing streak right now. The Texans lost to the Patriots in the NFL Playoffs, while my bet Rain or Shine got swept by Talk 'n Text in the recently concluded PBA Finals. Well, it's a long year, and there are plenty of things that will happen this year.

Also, early in the year, I tried having an ask.fm account, ask.fm is a new site where people ask people random questions whether it can be about sports, lovelife, life stories and everything else, at first it was good to have that account, however when the questions people wrote on my profile got more foul, I had to close my account forever. As the saying goes "Haters gonna hate." and this has no connection with either Heat forward LeBron James nor singer/rapper Drake.

*Haters gonna hate. - A colloquial saying. It means that people who don't like you will always find a reason to dislike you, no matter how stupid that reason may be. (from UrbanDictionary.com)

  Photo ©Karl Carandang

As my planner for 2013, starts to fill up with stories I have so far over the course the year. Expect, that 2013 will be a great journey worth taking, it's still early into the new year, and the journey rolls on.

"The secret to living the life of your dreams is to start living the life of your dreams today, in every little way you possibly can." - Mike Dooley

A fresh start is upon us.
K-Smoove