The B Team Revisited- The Veterans

Before he was the size of a small large polar bear and spent his Thursday nights going Ron Burgundy on TNT, Charles Barkley was a pretty good basketball player. He led the Dream Team in scoring and won the 1993 MVP award after being traded to an already formidable Phoenix Suns team. According to popular NBA history, Barkley came into that season focused and in better shape because of his Dream Team "experience." This has always seemed odd to me, as it appears that Barkley's experience seemed more centered around insulting outmatched opponents, gambling with Michael Jordan and being treated like the Queen of England, Michael Jackson and Batman all rolled into one super-celebrity entity during his stay in Barcelona. The intense (and legendary) Dream Team practices surely helped Barkley maintain his edge over the summer, a time Charles usually reserved for the golf course. But Barkley actually had several more productive seasons while in Philadelphia during the first half of his career. The difference in 1993 was that he combined his individual exploits with team success and, most importantly, fit the MVP narrative of that season (though everyone now it agrees it should have gone to that Jordan guy).

LeBron James used the 2008 Redeem Team as a similar springboard to winning his first MVP award in 2009 (although he had already been the best player in the league). And Kevin Durant was the 2011 MVP award front-runner after leading the B team to FIBA world championship gold despite being no better than the fifth best player in the league. Durant quickly silenced that talk with an early shooting slump but the impact his Team USA teammates had on the early part of the season became a talking point for NBA fans that weren't too busy dissecting Heatlemania. I, being a natural cynic and non-believer (shunnnn me), was initially skeptical about the hypothesized positive effect Team USA was having on its' members. Now that the year is well underway, it's an appropriate time to break down the seasons the B Teamers are having to try to determine if there is any sort of appreciable Team USA bump. In the interest of space (and short attention spans), I'll split this post into two parts. First up, the veterans.

Half-Man, Half-Machine

Following a tumultuous three year stretch that saw the Los Angeles Lakers fail to advance out of the first round of the NBA playoffs, Kobe Bryant answered his critics with an MVP award and three Finals appearances since 2008. He has matured as a basketball player and (somewhat) repressed his pathological tendencies for the greater good of teamwork and chemistry. He has won two titles without Shaquille O'Neal and, perhaps even more impressively, with Luke Walton. But has Kobe really proven his mettle? The 350-pound monkey may be off his back but Kobe's greatest challenge still awaits. Can he win a title without Sasha Vujacic?

"He's not a man- he's a machine. A Terminator. A Cyberdyne Systems Model 101." -Kyle Reese in The Terminator

Chris Paul for MVP

On Saturday night, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the New Orleans Hornets 101-95. Pau Gasol went Black Swan all over David West and Kobe Bryant looked good enough that I'll express my disapproval with his upcoming filmmercial "The Black Mamba" at another time. Even with those superstar efforts, the Lakers could not put away a Hornets team missing two of its' four best players (Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor). How did New Orleans stay competitive with Aaron Gray and D.J. Mbenga manning (and I use that term loosely) the center position? In my opinion, that answer is threefold. First of all, Chris Paul scored 21 points on only 11 field goal attempts. Meanwhile, CP3 ran the pick-and-roll flawlessly and recorded 15 assists. Finally, 'Paul, Chris' played a season-high 44 minutes and masterfully orchestrated the Hornets offense throughout the game. As has been the case all year, Paul dragged a supporting cast of mostly mediocre NBA players to an excellent result. Tonight's effort alone should earn him some sort of award.

Wait...what? There is an award for this kind of performance? That's crazy! What's it called???

 Derrick Rose is figuratively bowling over MVP voters. Maybe Chris Paul is just too literal.

The Nightman Cometh

I like dunks. You should, too. Dunks involve cool things like jumping really high and cupcakes. Blake Griffin has yet to incorporate any baked goods into his around-the-rim repertoire but he already has 90 dunks in his first 39 games. It would have been an upset for anyone to dislodge Dwight Howard from the top spot of the dunk leaderboard but it's shocking that the new leader looks like the marginally cooler stepbrother of Brian Scalabrine. Griffin's very un-Scalabrinesque play has been the driving force behind the Clippers 10-4 record over their last 14 games. He extended his streak of consecutive double-doubles to 26 games last night in a victory over the (two-time defending champion) Lakers. However, the Clippers victory was more about a massive outside shooting advantage than a standout performance from Griffin and, indeed, his string of 20 point-10 rebound games was snapped at 14. Despite poor games from each player, the matchup between Griffin and Pau Gasol was the most interesting subplot to a surprisingly dull game. They are the two best non-German power forwards in the Western Conference but produce in very different ways. In an increasingly homogeneous NBA world, this matchup presented a contrast of styles rarely seen among elite players.

Welcome Back Kotter

Happy Martin Luther King Day! Let's fake gamble! That's what I call an intro!

Dallas Mavericks (-5) OVER DETROIT PISTONS (-110)
Dirk is back. Tyson Chandler is back. I am not impressed with Detroit's wins over Toronto and Sacramento. Dallas has been excellent on the road this season (with Dirk). Those are all logical arguments. But mostly this pick makes a Pistons game watchable for more than the possibility that Tayshaun Prince will punch John Kuester in the face.

GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (-7) OVER New Jersey Nets (-110)
The Nets are struggling. It's possible that Brook Lopez infected the team with his leftover mono but it appears to be more of a case of Sasha Vujacicitis. Nasty stuff, that. Golden State has been playing well at home and has sweet jerseys. That's good enough for me.

Oklahoma City Thunder (+4.5) OVER LOS ANGELES LAKERS (-110)
Am I making like Harry Potter here and getting my anti-jinx on? Potentially. But the Lakers have struggled matching up with athletic teams this year and the Thunder are all about the running and the jumping and the dunking. While the Lakers have 30 wins this season, the best of these was a solid home victory over the Knicks. Not exactly worldbeaters, here.

"And I was born a ramlin' gamblin' man" Bob Seger in Ramblin' Gamblin' Man

Season Locks: 8-5-1