Austin- Western Conference (Q)

We've got some catching up to do in the Western Conference before we reach the all-star break and trade deadlines, and there's some serious news to discuss. First of all, to get this out of the way, Kobe Bryant will be reevaluated for his knee injury next week. He's been out since December 17th. League leading scorer Kevin Durant has been as hot as ever lately, scoring at least 40 points in 4 games this month, including a 56 point game (a career high). In the history of the NBA, only 3 players have put up 3 consecutive seasons that included 50 point games. Those players are Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlin and Kevin Durant. When it's all said and done, KD could be the best scorer in league history. Just a thought. LeBron James even said that he had a "KD watch" on his phone to record Durant's scoring outbursts. While we're on the subject of LeBron James, I might add that he posted a picture on instagram this week of his feet in a pair of Kobe Bryant PE sneakers. Interesting to say the least. In other news, the top 3 spots of the Western Conference are all within 1.5 games of each other. The Spurs hold onto the 1 spot as they have a .5 game lead over the Thunder. As we are at the mid-point of the season, we might as well take a look at the (non-existant) half-way point awards. If the season ended today, I think we'd see Kevin Durant take home the MVP title, with 31 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists a game. If I had to pick an All-Western Conference line up, it'd be Paul, Curry, Harden, Durant and Kevin Love. All 2nd team would be Tony Parker, Damian Lillard, Blake Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge and Anthony Davis. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Eddie H- Winter Preview Awards (P)

So the season has been underway a couple months now and we have already seen tremendous basketball from some individuals and horrific showings from other. ESPN has recently issued some Winter awards sort of previewing who could possibly win these awards at the end of the year. I would care to elaborate on this for you. On ESPN they foretasted Kevin Durant to win MVP. I agree with this 100% Durant is playing absolutely phenomenal, he is at a different level right now. In his last 7 games Durant has not scored less than 30 points. In one game in Golden State he set his career record for most points with 56. Even though you may see a dip in production from Durant when all-star guard Russell Westbrook returns to the line-up i still feel that he is the heavy favorite to win the covenant Most Valuable Player award this year. You still have to keep an eye on Lebron because he is also playing at an even higher level of basketball than we are used to seeing from him. For defensive player of the year ESPN had Roy Hibbert atop their list. Hibbert is no question a dominant force on the defensive side of the ball. Actually in one of our vlogs I had Roy Hibbert as my pick to win this award. I still stand by this all the was, seeing Hibbert improve in the league so much in the past couple years is sure a sight to see. The last award i would care to elaborate upon is Coach of the Year. This was given to Terry Stotts the coach of the Portland Trailblazzers. Now if any one would have told me that Portland would be close to atop the Western Conference i would have said that you are crazy but they are doing that exact task right now. Portland has proved themselves as one of the top tier teams in the NBA and Terry Scotts is a easy choice for coach of the year.

Austin- Western Conference (p)

As we near the All-Star break in the NBA, games start increasing in importance. Today we'll take a look back at this weekends games. Friday brought us 3 western conference match ups and 5 inter-conference games. The battle of LA took place on Friday night, and the Clippers looked superior. The Clipps, with out Paul, won my a margin of 36 points, as Griffin had an unstoppable performance with 33 points and 12 boards. Memphis fought off the hot Suns (no pun intended) behind 31 points from Conley. Dallas took down New Orleans by a score of 107-90. The west won 3 of the 5 inter-conference match ups. On Sunday, we saw the largest margin of victory of the season, as the Kings beat the Cavs by 44 points. To sum it up in one word, this weekend in the west was: BORING. In other news, 7 of the top 10 teams in the power rankings are from the western conference. Portland and OKC are only 1 game behind the Spurs for first place in the west. The Clippers, Warriors, Rockets, Suns and Mavs round out the top 8, and Denver is just 2 games out of the 8 spot. The Western Conference is superior this year, but we most likely won't see much as much drama for playoff spots as we will in the East since right now every team except for Denver is at least 3.5 games out of the 8 spot. My predictions for the playoffs haven't changed much, as I still see Golden State attending the big dance after beating the Thunder in the Western Conference finals. Stay tuned ladies and gentlemen.

Brooklyn Showing Signs of Improvement.- Edward H (p)

Last night posssibly the hotest team in league in Golden State traveled into Brooklyn on a 6 game road winning streak and an overall 10 game win streak.Golden State came into yesterday’s game looking to break NBA history for the first team to win 7 road games in a row. It had the symbolic value of getting the Nets into eighth place in the Eastern Conference, which really means nothing in January. Joe Johnson made sure this did not happen as he dropped 27 points on the Warriors-d and also added that with 3 rebounds and two steals. Kevin Garnett also had a good day coming up huge when they needed it. Garnett had 11 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter alone to keep the lead from the Warriors. He also intercepted Steph Curry's pass with 16 seconds left on the clock to instill the Nets victory. The Nets overcame an early 16 point victory to win their 4th straight victory and 2 of these came over quality opponents as the recently beat Oklahoma City. Many fans are hoping this is a turning point for Brooklyn as the have been very disappointing to this point in the season. With another big matchup coming up on Friday for the Nets, they hope to continue their winning streak to 5 and "Beat the Heat" in Brooklyn. In other news The Clippers edged past the Celtics yesterday night 111 to 105. The Clippers are faring well since all-star point guard Chris Paul went down winning 2 of their first 3. Blake Griffin and Jamal Crawford both put up over 25 points on the night with Darren Collison adding 15. This win gave the Clippers a 16 and 3 record at home and also Doc Rivers second win against his former team.

Austin- Western Conference (p)

To sum it up in one word, the 2014 NBA season so far been unpredictable. Just this week we saw the struggling Nets end the Warriors win streak, Loul Deng became a Cavalier, and Andrew Bynum found himself once again on the free agent market. Talks of a Melo-Blake Griffin trade had also made their way around the league. That's something to talk about. Let's just brain storm here real quick, so the Knicks send Carmelo Anthony to the Clippers, and the Clipps send Blake Griffin to the Knicks, there may have to be other roster adjustments. The Knicks would be left with 5 power forwards. The Knicks also send Jeremy Tyler, and to balance that out, The Clippers send Jared Dudley to NY. However, another problem arises in Knicktown, as Bargnani, Stoudamire,Kenyon Martin, Cole Aldridge, Tyson Chandler and Griffin are all competing for the 2 starting big men spots. So maybe the Knicks will also send Aldridge with Melo and Tyler to LA, and the Clipps send up Matt Barnes. So now the Knicks release Stoudamire, because he's been worthless as of late (averaging 5 rebounds a game). The starting line up for the Knicks now reads; Raymond Felton, Iman Shumpert, Jared Dudley, Andrea Bargnani and Blake Griffin. That leaves Barnes, JR Smith and Tyson Chandler coming off the bench. The Knicks improve in depth largely. There also left with a group of talented, unselfish scorers. They improve and enter the playoffs as the 7th seed. The rest is history. In LA, the Clipps bring the leading scorer back to the west, where he enters the starting line up with Paul, Jamal Crawford, Antwan Jamison and DeAndre Jordan. For the first time in his career, Melo is playing with a relatively young, and extremely talented and unselfish point guard in Chris Paul. The Clipps would also have Collison, Reddick and Aldridge coming off the bench. LA struggles a little bit at first, as Melo (as always) has to work out his ego issues, but they eventully get it figured out, and go on an impressive 12 game win streak to end the season with an impressive 58-24 record, good enough for the 3 spot in the superior western conference. Alright that's all for fantasy time, here's the facts. The Spurs are 1 with OKC half a game behind. Portland is trailing (pun intended) the Thunder by half a game. The Clipps, Rockets, and Warriors follow them, and Phoenix and Dallas, the last 2 teams in the conference with records above .500 are at the 7 and 8 spots. The final thought of the day- If the Phoenix Suns were in the eastern conference, they'd be in the 3 spot. WOW.