So on Christmas day, I sat on my ass and watched the NBA for about 10 hours. Hands down, the best game was the Suns/Spurs game. Today I watched some videos of Mason hitting the game winner and I noticed something…

Check out Tony at the 0:12 mark….he’s not even excited. He just walks off to the lockerroom…Man, even Duncan plugged back in his emotion chip and did a fist pump.

Can the Mavs win a championship starting Jose Juan Barea at point? I say no.

I don’t think I have the words to describe my feelings from the Spurs game tonight. I’m too worked up. Or I was until I read this post on 48 minutes of hell. Smart and optimistic thinking. It was, at least, what I needed to hear. All I can say is, I like George Hill but was hoping to bring him along a little slower than this. And it heartens to hear that Ian Mahini will be healthy soon, but will Pop open his heart to another Frenchman. Is he even French? Who is this Farmer fellow? So many questions. I am tired.

Hello America!!!

The latter half of TNT’s NBA doubleheader was much more enjoyable than that crap the Eastern Conference lugs out every night. Barkley called it an ugly game to watch and even dogged it at the end saying both teams just didn’t play good defense. There’s some truth to that considering I was falling asleep here and then but the ending was awesome regardless. Also, making shots is much more memorable than weak-side defensive rotations any day.

Taking my first look at the supposed contender 76ers tonight, I realized that getting Elton Brand never made any damn sense at all for this team. A traditional post-playing big man is great and all if you have a roster like the Spurs, but if your team is composed almost entirely of slashers, what the hell are you to do? I have special interest in this issue as my once valuable Iguodala fantasy property is now diminishing every day. He can’t shoot and he can’t work around Brand. How all the bball minds missed this possibility in the preseason as they picked them to take the leap is beyond me.

I’ve watched one and a half games of regular season basketball for the Warriors, and I gotta say I’m really encouraged. It looks like everyone predicting 35-37 wins for this time didn’t count on them making notable progress on their team defense. These Warriors, minus Baron and plus Turiaf and Maggette, are suddenly much bigger and hit the glass much harder. For stretches when they were able to create turnovers and a little bit of up-and-down chaos, which plays right into their offensive strengths, they looked like the better team against both the Hornets and Raps.

My prediction: With a little luck and a few losses by the Nuggets and Blazers, the Warriors will fighting for that 8th seed when Monta comes back — if they keep playing D like this.

Not that these are worth anything, but here’s what my gut’s saying going into this season:

• New Orleans will win it all.
• I have no idea who will come out of the East. Probably whoever wins game 7 between the Celtics and the Lebrons.
• The Lakers are built only for the regular season.
• This feels like a first-round exit for the Spurs, unless Ginobili comes back in near MVP form.
• The Clippers will be worse than you expect, way worse.
• But Milwaukee might be the worst team in the league, not counting the OCK Barons.
• The Knicks will be better than people think.
• The Wolves are the best candidate to be this year’s Blazers-2007-lite.
• The Heat will be a mess unless they make a trade.
• The Bobcats still look destined to be pathetic.

And finally, even though this Warriors season is shaping up to be ultimately disappointing and makes me sympathize wholly with these poor tortured fans out here, at the end of the year I won’t regret buying season tickets because Nellieball will always be Nellieball.

The rush early last season to label Durant a chucker — which led to the Horford for ROY campaign — always bothered me. Even today someone in Hollinger’s chat derisively called him a “machine gunner.” But he ended the season at 43%, better than:

• Shane Battier
• Baron Davis
• Tracy McGrady
• James “Cashin’ In” Posey
• Kirk Hinrich
• Mike Bibby
• Jamal Crawford
• Jerry Stackhouse
• Stephen Jackson
• Rafer Alston
• Malik Rose (sorry, Hengst)

I’m too depressed to even think about Monta Ellis’ injury, so I’ve got nothing substantive to say except I’m totally confused as to why Sean Marks keeps getting signed — this time with the Hornets — instead of a young, athletic guy who might surprise you with his development. C’mon, seriously, someone pick up Rod Benson.

I joyfully (and perhaps intoxicatedly) stayed up until 3:30 last night to watch the conclusion of Olympic basketball and a pretty good game against a Spanish team that I knew would be tougher this time around. I can’t help but enjoy and identify with this Team USA, even though they feature several players I dislike (mostly Kobe, but in lesser parts Carmelo and J-Kidd.) I’ll admit that its partly a naive  identifying of all USA teams with the original Dream Team, but I counter that with the fact that I always root for the men’s basketball team, even when it featured AI and Starbury. I just love basketball and I also love the USA.

Why do I make such hay explaining myself? Mostly because of this Slate article, explaining how The Redeem Team is being trademarked and we’re all dupes of NBA marketing. Even though I can agree with many of the points made, I reject the cynicism that would throw out what they accomplished with the bathwater. Yes, of course, the team’s image is micromanaged to ridiculous lengths. I will never believe Kobe to be a good guy, no matter how hard he tries. J-Kidd is no legendary team player, despite the great passes. And Lebron (glorious as it is to watch him play), only allows tiny parts of his supposedly great personality to eke out, as mandated by his handlers.

But if you just watched the games you would know that this team played its ass off and played as intelligently and as unselfishly as any Olympic team has. You can’t fault them for that, and I for one found myself impressed with their discipline and team play (especially Kobe, who pretty much saved the last night’s game). This post on TrueHoop (about the players support of Darfur-related causes and Jerry Colangelo asking them to put aside non-basketball concerns) probably does the best job explaining the fine line these guys walked, and while it sucks to see that they were eventually dissuaded from being more vocal, I’m happy to see that they actually cared in the first place. This reverses my cynical feelings about Lebron that I harbored after hearing he wouldn’t sign Ira Newble’s petition to the Chinese government.

So mark me down as a believer in the “redeem team.” Just not a dupe of The Redeem Team (Patent Pending).