MVN - Most Valuable Network

Hittin’ the Links - 10/30

It’s almost time. In about six and a half hours from now, the 2007-08 NBA season will officially begin with a TNT evening doubleheader. The first game is just an appetizer, as the Oden-less Portland Trailblazers visit San Antonio to face the champion Spurs. Look for the Spurs to cruise.

After that, the revamped Houston Rockets look to get their season started with a win against the Lakers in Los Angeles. This game might not have its full luster, however, as Jeff Caplan of the Star-Telegram just reported that Kobe Bryant is inactive and will not play. I doubt his knee is giving him enough problems to cause him to miss the season opener, so could this be a sign that the Lakers are close to trading him? We’ll just have to wait and see.

And even though it won’t be nationally televised, the only other game of the night should be equally tantalizing, as the Golden State Warriors try to avenge last year’s playoff defeat when they host the Utah Jazz.

Now on to some linkage. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram ran a pretty extensive Mavericks preview today featuring a handful of stories covering some of the numerous storylines in Dallas. In their predictions, both beat writers have the Mavericks and Suns in the Western Conference Finals, with Phoenix finally breaking through to the Finals and eventually winning the whole shebang. An interesting note: Jeff Caplan has the Toronto Raptors winning the East.

Josh Howard was cleared to practice, paving the way for him to be at full strength when he makes his season debut on Saturday against Sacramento. We’ll also find out the team’s permanent starting lineup in that game. And though this is a couple days old, here’s Eddie Sefko’s season preview article. He’s also got seven questions for the Mavs. Here’s an excerpt from one of them:

Are the Mavericks cutthroat enough to win it all?
Championship teams win in different ways. But almost all of them have one common denominator: a ruthless, to-heck-with-the-opponent attitude. The Mavericks were out-toughed by Golden State last season. They withered two years ago in the Finals against Miami. That can’t happen again if they expect to win it all.

Finally, here is the last batch of the season previews hosted by Celticsblog. We end out west with the Pacific Division. Enjoy!

Golden St. Warriors
Golden State of Mind

Los Angeles Clippers
ClipsNation.com

Los Angeles Lakers
Forum Blue & Gold
With Malice

Phoenix Suns
Bright Side of the Sun

Sacramento Kings
Sactown Royalty

Archives
CelticsBlog NBA Page

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 11:52 am and is filed under Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings, Links, Dirk Nowitzki, Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, Portland Trailblazers, Utah Jazz, Blogroll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.