FrontRowSportsReport.com: Sports Blog

This video of Shaq’s flagrant foul of the Detroit Pistons Amir Johnson made me cringe. It had to hurt, no way you can run into Shaq (or his best new nickname Big Cactus) and not get banged up. Anyone else does this people are going to scuffle - with Shaq what can you do? He is always the biggest guy on the court.



I buy into the argument that it is going to take some time for the Phoenix Suns to gel with Shaquille O’Neal in the mix. Suns coach Mike D’Antoni has to play around with the lineup and see what works and what doesn’t. However, so far I give this trade a D for the Suns as they lost another game last night, at home, to the Detroit Pistons.

The Pistons (41-15) basically dominated the entire game and pretty much embarrassed the Suns (38-18) 116-86. Losing at home to a NBA Eastern Conference team by 30 points is unacceptable. The Pistons also ended the Suns’ 11 game winning streak against Eastern Conference teams.

Rasheed Wallace put up 22 points and 8 rebounds as he was one of six Pistons who had double digits in points scored last night. Besides Wallace, the Pistons were led by Rip Hamilton who had 18 points, Chauncey Billups had 14 points and 11 assists, and Antonio McDyess had 12 points and 13 rebounds.

“This was a big game for us,” Billups said after the game. “You know how we are, man, when we play against other elite teams, we lock in. We lock in big-time. I thought everybody played great today- everybody.”

The Suns were led by Amare Stoudemire who had a game high 31 points. Shaq had another disappointing game offensively  putting up only 7 points but had 11 rebounds in 34 minute of playing time. Shaq was also 1 for 8 at the free throw line.

Suns coach D’Antoni tried to blame the loss on the team being spent.  “Maybe we used all the adrenaline left these last two games. Emotionally, we’ve been on a high for the last three days and you wake up on Sunday at noon and we’re not quite ready to play.” Yeah ok Mike, I have watched a lot of Suns games and this team never looked tired or “spent”.

Again it is a bit to early to say whether this trade was a complete failure or not. However, if the Suns lose another game they should hit panic mode as other Western Conference teams are looking better and better.

Big news came out just before the NBA trade deadline - not as big as Shaq going to Phoenix, Gasol going to the Lakers or Kidd to the Mavericks, but it could have major implications in the weak NBA eastern conference. The trade involved 11 players and three teams, but the Cleveland Cavaliers were the obvious focal point of the trade.

The 11 player trade involved the Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls and Seattle Supersonics. The Cavaliers got Lebron James help inside and outside with the acquisition of center Ben Wallace and forward Joe Smith from the Bulls and forward Wally “World” Szczerbiak and guard Delonte West from the Supersonics. To get Lebron his supporting cast the Cavaliers traded guard Larry Hughes, forwards Drew Gooden and Cedric Simmons, and guard Shannon Brown to Chicago and forwards Ira Newble and Donyell Marshall to Seattle.

The Cavaliers will also get the Bulls 2nd round pick in the 2009 NBA Draft. The Supersonics will get guard Adrian Griffin from the Bulls as part of the trade.

Cleveland G.M. and former Duke Blue Devil, Danny Ferry was able to put this deal together just before the 3 p.m. trade deadline. This trade is by far the biggest trade he has been able to pull off and might be a last-ditched effort to keep Lebron in Cleveland and prevent him from jumping in a couple years to the Nets (Jay-z + Brooklyn + Lebron = awesome).

So what exactly are the Cavaliers getting? Well with Wallace they are getting a defensive force down-low. Wallace has averaged 8.8 rebounds and 1.60 blocks per game - Wallace is not a scoring threat as he is averaging only 5.1 points per game. Some feel that Wallace’s best days are behind him, his recent numbers are below his averages - for most of his career he has averaged double digit rebounds. Szczerbiak is another role player who can shoot it from behind the arc. Wally is averaging 13.1 points per game and is shooting .428% from 3-point land.

Again, is this enough to push the Cavaliers over the edge and keep Lebron in Cleveland? I don’t think so, how big of an improvement is Wallace over Drew Gooden? Enough to help them beat the Lakers, Suns or Mavericks? I don’t think so. To me this was a desperate move to do something, anything, to try and make their star happy.

Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett officially withdrew from the NBA All-Star Game yesterday, his replacement will be Detroit Pistons forward Rasheed Wallace. Garnett has missed 7 straight games due to a abdominal strain and will not play again until after the All-Star break.

Celtics and Eastern All-Star team coach Doc Rivers had hoped that Celtics shooting guard Ray Allen would have been Garnett’s replacement. “He should be anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t Ray they use,” Doc Rivers said. “It would be nice to have Ray on. I would take Ray.”Even without Garnett the Celtics were able to beat the San Antonio Spurs yesterday 98-90, without Garnett the Celtics are 5-2. Garnett is averaging 19.2 points and 9.9 rebounds per game.

Wallace will join Pistons teammates Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton at the NBA All-Star game being held in New Orleans. Wallace is averaging 12.9 points and 7.3 rebounds per game this season.

The Boston Celtics (29-3) and the Detroit Pistons (26-8) have the best and second best record in the NBA. Yup, that is right - the two top teams in the NBA play in the Eastern Conference, not the Western Conference. These top 2 teams played last night in what will probably be a preview of the Eastern Conference Finals game.

The Celtics topped the Pistons 92 to 85 in game that showed that the Celtics can win with other players not named Garnett, Pierce or Allen. Rookie Glenn “Big Baby” Davis scored a career high 20 points after the Pistons focused their defense on the Big 3 and left Davis open much of the game. The Pistons led the Celtics 22-12 after the 1st quarter and held the lead for most of the game, however in the 4th the Celtics came together and outscored the Pistons 29-19. Davis, who came off the bench, led the Celtics with 20 points, Paul Pierce had 19, Kevin Garnett had 15 and Ray Allen had 9. The Pistons were led by Rip Hamilton’s 18 and Chauncey Billups who scored 17.

With the win last night in Detroit the Celtics extended their winning streak to 9 games.