With a late rally, Allen Iverson is an All-Star starter again.

Iverson surged from behind in the fan voting to earn a starting spot in next month’s game when the vote totals were released Thursday night. Denver Nuggets teammate Carmelo Anthony will join him in New Orleans after earning his first starting nod.

Lakers star Kobe Bryant will team with Iverson in the Western Conference backcourt for his 10th All-Star appearance. Houston center Yao Ming was voted in by the fans for the sixth straight season at center, while San Antonio’s Tim Duncan was chosen as the other forward. He has been selected to every All-Star game since entering the league in 1997.

Boston’s Kevin Garnett, the MVP of the 2003 game, was the leading vote-getter with 2,399,148 votes. He will be joined in the East frontcourt by Cleveland forward LeBron James and Orlando center Dwight Howard, a first-time starter. Miami’s Dwyane Wade and New Jersey guard Jason Kidd round out the starting lineup.

With his team down nine points at halftime, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich went with an intellectual, rather than emotional, appeal on Wednesday night.

“‘You have to participate in your recovery,”‘ recounted guard Brent Barry. “I think that stuck with us. When things aren’t going well, and you’re not playing well, you can’t sulk.”

Something in Popovich’s address must have clicked for the Spurs, because their second half against the Los Angeles Lakers looked a lot better than their first in a 103-91 win.

Tim Duncan had 28 points and 17 rebounds, and Ime Udoka scored a season-high 18 points in the Spurs’ second straight victory.

“Pop didn’t say much at halftime. He didn’t want to come in here screaming and yelling, but he did mention getting the ball into people’s hands,” Udoka said.

Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 29 points and 12 rebounds, and Ronny Turiaf scored 14 points. Sasha Vujacic and Lamar Odom added 11 points apiece.

Without center Andrew Bynum, the Los Angeles Lakers have reason for concern. The San Antonio Spurs, meanwhile, should be concerned that they haven’t beaten a winning team in more than a month.

Both clubs - who have combined to win seven of the last nine NBA titles - try to overcome their concerns Tuesday when they meet in San Antonio.

The Lakers (27-12) assuaged some of their fears by beating Denver 116-99 on Monday, their first convincing win without Bynum in the lineup. The 20-year-old center, who leads the NBA with a 63.6 field-goal percentage and is averaging a team-high 10.2 rebounds, injured his knee on Jan. 13 against Memphis, a game the Lakers won 100-99. He is expected to miss about two months.

In the first two games following Bynum’s injury, the Lakers

The most recent weekly college basketball AP Top 25 Poll (1-18-08) and the most recent Sagarin Ratings (1-17-08) provide some clues about which teams are likely overrated.

Sagarin’s Ratings give you a bird’s-eye view of identifying teams that have played a bunch of weak sisters to build up an impressive, early season won-loss record and now must face the music of playing in league competition.

You can learn a lot by noting the strength of schedule for top-rated teams. My method is to divide the 341 total Division 1 teams in 5 categories (literally, 340 divided by 5 equals 68). This creates a Top 20% (1-68), 2nd Tier (69-136), 3rd Tier (137-204), 4th Tier (205 to 272) and the Bottom 20% (273-340).

The Top 20% is top-flight competition. I think of the next 3 tiers as 2nd string, 3rd string and 4th string competition. The 20% at the bottom I consider bottom dwellers who feed on the crumbs that fall off of the tiers above.

Here are 4 teams in the AP Top 25 Poll that are probably overrated and will prove it in the near future: No. 25 Villanova, No. 16 Vanderbilt, No. 10 Texas A&M and No. 21 Miami (FL). These 4 are given a much higher ranking in the AP Poll than by Sagarin is his ratings.

The most exaggerated example is No. 25-ranked Villanova that is rated 57th by Sagarin. Villanova sports an impressive 12-3 record but its strength of schedule (SOS) is 240. In other words, Villanova earned its record playing 4th-tier (or 4th-string) competition.

Vanderbilt is ranked 16th by the AP and rated 36th by Sagarin. Vandy has a 12-3 record but its SOS is 164 because of playing 3rd-tier (3rd-string) competition.

Texas A&M is ranked 10th by the AP and rated 24th by Sagarin. A&M has a 14-2 mark but its SOS is 290 because of playing among the bottom 20% of competition. Texas A&M, true to my prediction, just got upset by none other than Bob Knight and his Texas Tech Red Raiders, 68-53. The victory was Knight’s 900th. Knight is No. 1 on the NCAA Division 1 career wins list.

Texas Tech is rated 80th by Sagarin with a 9-6 record but its SOS is 104 because of playing 2nd-tier (2nd-string) competition. The Red Raiders clearly played much better competition before meeting the Texas A&M Aggies and it showed.

Miami (FL) is ranked 21st by the AP and rated 33rd by Sagarin. Miami has a 13-2 mark but its SOS is 281 because of playing among the bottom 20% of competition. You get the picture.

Here is another outstanding example from the Pac-10 Conference. Oregon is not ranked in the AP Top 25 but is rated 31st by Sagarin with a 12-5 record and its SOS is 24 because of playing top-flight competition.

Washington is not ranked in the Top 25 but is rated 65th by Sagarin with a 10-7 record and its SOS is 50 because of playing top-flight competition. Washington just beat Oregon 78-70 at home. Notice that both teams are rated among the Top 20% of teams and are used to playing top-flight competition.

Here is what will not work 99% of the time. North Carolina A&T is rated 268th by Sagarin with a 2-9 record and an eye-popping SOS of 2. They have played the 2nd toughest schedule in the country so far this season, but will not be upsetting anyone soon because they are rated too low to begin with, only 5 spots from being in the bottom 20% nationally.

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Ed Bagley’s Blog Publishes Original Articles with Analysis and Commentary on 5 Subjects: Sports, Movie Reviews, Lessons in Life, Jobs and Careers, and Internet Marketing. My intention is to inform, educate, delight and motivate you the reader.

Read my articles on “The Sagarin Ratings: What They Are, How to Read Them and What to Do With Them”, “How to Predict When Teams Are Overrated and Due for an Unexpected Loss”, my 14 consecutive weekly wrap-up articles on the 2007 College Football Season, and my 32-game bowl season wrap-up series. The bowl wrap-up is strictly for hard core football junkies; it goes on for 17 pages.

Find my Blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/Sports.html

One of the most important things at basketball is the shoot. The better the shooting, the higher the chances of winning a certain game are. Good players can shoot over 90% from the free throw line, over 60% for two and more than 40% for three during a game. Now imagine how well they must be shooting when there is no one covering them. For a great shot you have to have good shooting technique. People very often forget that hands are not the only part of the body making a shot work that is why I will try to concentrate on the other parts of the “shooting machine” in this article, which are also important for someone to score well during a game.

The one thing you should always be careful about is the position of the legs. The foot that is under your shooting hand be slightly in front of the opposite foot, so someone that is shooting with right hand should have right leg in front of the left one. Both legs should carry the same amount of your weight, so your body can be balanced properly. The lower part of the body should not be straight and tight, but bent so it can create a jump or just push upwards.

The other thing which doesn’t include hands is your vision. Even though a lot of players use different techniques at this part, they all shoot well. It is not about focusing on basket or drawing a line to the basket in your mind, it is more about using the same procedure every time when you shoot.

To achieve good leg and eye coordination you should practice, practice and practice and the results will follow you and scoring will become a routine for you.

For more information about basketball and vertical jump visit Improve vertical jump

Last night, Phil Jackson tried to pass his all-time coaching wins list, but it did not happen in the game against the Celtics. Phil Jackson stayed tied with Auerbach, seventh in the NBA history with 938 career wins.

The Celtics finished their Western road trip with a win over the Lakers 110-91. Boston enhanced to a best NBA-record 26-3. They have won eight straight games on the road. Boston is currently 12-2 away from TD Banknorth Garden and is 8-0 against the Western Conference.

Boston’s scorers were Paul Pierce with 33 points, Kevin Garnett with 22 points and 12 board, and Ray Allen with 19 points. For the Lakers; Kobe Bryant scored 22 points but he was 0 for 6 on 3-pointers and was only 6 of 25 from the floor.

In the opening quarter Boston swooped on the Lakers, bounding the LA team to 38.1 percent field goal shooting (8-21). None of the starters for Boston scored fewer than 5 points in the quarter. Moreover, there was some premature petulance by both squads with technicals. Lakers Bryant and Ariza got the punishment, and Garnett and Kendrick for Boston.

While Boston led 45-36 the game turned more physical; Garnett was slashed on top of the right eye. A mad Garnett with blood flowing down his face showed the cut to the refs and retired to the locker room. During that time the Celtics went scoreless for 4 minutes until Eddie House’s jumper put Boston ahead, 47-38.

The rest of the game was a continue battle but the Lakers’ deficiency was the key success for an aggressive Boston defense. The Celtics with 10:49 left in the last quarter, was leading, 86-66. With 9:36 left to play, Bynum fouled out and a 3-pointer by House pressed Boston up, 93-68. With that happing some of the deceptions’ Lakers fans started to leave the Staple Center. Boston was already claiming the victory 110-91 in the scoreboard.

Celtics’ Coach Rivers was delighted his team as it was the fourth win in five nights. “I think the atmosphere played in our favor. The key for us early was getting off to good start. We talked about that before the game. There is no way we could have played from behind tonight, playing a fourth game in five nights. Going out, getting the quick start and getting that lead was big for us,” he said.

Ally White is a top senior copy writer for the sportsbook
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