Basketball Daily

The Houston Rockets newest member, Ron Artest is looking like to be a good trade for the franchise.  The Rockets mowed down the home town crowd of Dallas in last nights game with a victory of 112-102.  Artest scored 29 points on 10 for 22 shooting and Yao Ming had 30 points on 11 for 15 shooting.

The game was a wild ride of swings and runs with the Dallas Mavericks having a chance throughout the game for a win.  Dirk Nowitzki had a great season opener with 36 points on 10 for 22 shooting and so did Dwight Howard who dropped 28 points.  This will be another season for Dallas to try and make a run back to the Conference Championships.  To me it just seems like this team don’t have the toughness and determination that is needed for a serious Championship run.

The season opener between the San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns was a thrilling and exciting game.  If this game is any insight on the upcoming season, basketball fans are in for a treat.

In a comedic fashion, Greg Popovich announced to the floor to foul Shaq immediately at the very start of the game.  The hack-a-shaq was widely criticized by the diesel in the Playoffs last year, and Pop thought it would be funny to start this year the same.  Both Shaq and Pop had a great laugh together in the first few seconds of the game.

Phoenix ended up beating San Antonio in a 103-98 victory, where Shaq and company got the last hurrah over the Spurs.  Amare Stoudemire was the high man for the Suns with 22 points, and Shaq ended up with 15 points and 13 rebounds in a dominant fashion.

Tim Duncan and Tony Parker played a fabulous game both ending with 32 points, but without Manu Ginoboli who is likely to be out until December due to injury, the Spurs seemed destined to lose.

Yesterday featured 3 games and 6 teams playing their first game and the final 24 teams will have their season openers today.  The schedule today includes the following games.

Atlanta Hawks at Orlando Magic.
Toronto Raptors at Philadelphia 76ers.
New Jersey Nets at Washington Wizards.
Miami Heat at New York Knicks.
Indiana Pacers at Detroit Pistons.
Sacramento Kings at Minnesota Timberwolves.
Milwaukee Bucks at Oklahoma City Thunder.
Phoenix Suns at San Antonio Spurs.  Nationally televised on ESPN at 8:00 pm EST.
Memphis Grizzlies at Houston Rockets.
Denver Nuggets at Utah Jazz.
New Orleans Hornets at Golden State Warriors.
Los Angeles Lakers at Los Angeles Clippers.  Nationally televised on ESPN at 10:30 pm EST.