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NBA THE ART OF ALLEN MLB TIM LINCECUM LEADS REVAMP’S OPPOSITION

NHL NATHAN HORTAN OUT FOR GAME 6

IS HUNGRIER THAN EVER. NBA, WATCH OUT.

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CONTENTS44

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KOBE’S HUNGRY

PROJECT END ZONE

THE ART OF ALLEN

MVP CRIBS FEATURING DERRICK ROSE

THE DUMMY’S GUIDE TO PEDs

MAKING THE BEST OF BAD

TIM LINCECUM LEADS REVAMP’S OPPOSITION

The Lakers are riding high, feeding off a boisterous crowd that will now be in a Kobe-induced frenzy. BY: TIM KEOWN

Who says QBs are unpredictable? Not us. Our innovative QB predictor tells all. BY: PETER KEATING

You learn more from your misses than you do from your hits ... So says The Artist Presently Known As Ray Allen. BY: DARRYL HOWERTON

If you thought MTV Cribs was nice, just wait til you see MVP Cribs fea-turing Derrick Rose ... I mean, I don’t remember 50 Cent ever having three masseuses in his home. BY: DARRYL HOWERTON

When the next steroids scandal breaks, this handy guide will tell you what’s what. BY: SHAUN ASSAEL

When the next steroids scandal breaks, this handy guide will tell you what’s what. BY: SHAUN ASSAEL

When the next steroids scandal breaks, this handy guide will tell you what’s what. BY: SHAUN ASSAEL

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are riding high, feeding off a boisterous crowd that will now be in a Kobe-induced frenzy. I imagine

the hottest NBA ticket is in Los Angeles when the Lakers play at home, Tickets are selling like hotcakes

these days, as a lot of people are going to want to see what Kobe-s doing each night. After scoring 81 points

in one game, Kobe Bryant-s status as a player is now in the company of Wilt Chamberlain, arguably, the greatest

NBA player to ever play the game. Bryant-s feat is second only to Chamberlain, who scored 100 points in a game for the

Philadelphia Warriors in 1962 against the New York Knicks. So, it begs the question; Is Kobe Bryant one of the greatest? Well, at least he had his name placed next to

Chamberlains in the record books.

Kobe Bryant says he feels a little embarrassed by his 81-point effort against the Toronto Raptors, and that he is not trying to eclipse Wilt Chamberlain’s long-standing record of 100

points in a game, according to a Reuters report. Bryant continues to be hounded by questions after his scoring outburst. “I-m a little embarrassed actually,” Bryant

said after a Lakers- practice. “I think it-s exciting for the game and the

organization because of all the

BRYANTK O B EThe Lakers

7

all time, including Bill Russell, his lifelong on-court nemesis, who won a mind-numbing 11 t i t les and r e g u l a r l y beat up on Chamberlain’s teams in the playoffs. There is also Michael Jordan, who earned six tit les and won f i ve NBA regular season and six Championship Finals MVP titles; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,who also won six titles and is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and Earvin “Magic” Johnson, who won five titles and was more of an all-around player than Chamberlain.

Statistically, Johnson was arguably the greatest offensive producer ever. Assuming every assist creates 2 points,

buzz, but personally it-s a little embarrassing.” Kobe Bryant may have some personal issues about which he should be embarrassed, but scoring 81 in a single game is not one of them.

He is try ing to lead the Lakers to a s u c c e s s f u l season, and u l t imate ly , a good showing in the NBA playoffs. Bryant leads the NBA in scoring, averaging 35.7 points per game. In January, with his 81 point game, he averaged 43.4 points per game. He joined Chamberlain again in the record books as the only other p layer to average over 40 points per game in a single month. He says winning is themost important thing for the Lakers.

“The concept is not about going out there and putting on a show or going out there and scoring points,” he said. “It-s to win games. I-d much rather go out and score 25 points and get 10 assists and see everybody in a rhythm, everybody in a groove.” About Chamberlain-s mark Bryant said, “I don-t even think about it. That’s unthinkable. It was done once by Wilt, and I’m not Wilt.”

One of the most controversial topics for basketball fans is whether Wilt Chamberlain is the best player ever. His incredib le stat ist ics are unparalleled, but the great argument against him is that he “only” won two champion-ships. So, there are several players who arguably rival Chamberlain for the title of greatest basketball player of

he produced 54.85 points per 48 minutes, compared to Michael Jordan’s 50.98 or Wilt Chambelain’s 40.82. Johnson also scored 17,707 points over the length of his career of 906 games, averaging 19.5 points per game. However, there are severa l arguments that support the idea that Wilt Chamberlain is the greatest player. In his prime, Wilt was so dominant that the NBA actually changed the rules to stop him, including outlawing the inbounds pass over the backboard and prohibiting dunking from the foul line during free throw attempts.

OR SCORINGPOINTS

THECONCEPTIS NOT ABOUT

PUTTING ON A SHOW

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CHANGEDANY RULES

THENBA HASN’TDUE TO

KOBE BRYANT’S PLAY

The NBA hasn’t changed any rules due to Kobe Bryant’s play. However, his career straight out of high school has taken many twists and turns with numerous well-documented off-court troubles, but his game has always shown steady improvement despite various distractions. The Los Angeles Lakers became perennial championship contenders under Bryant and former teammate Shaquille O-Neal, who teamed up to form one of the deadliest center-guard duos in NBA history. Their success gave the Lakers three consecut ive N B A

championships in 2000, 2001,and 2002. The 2003 seasonsaw the end of the Lakers’ run as a mini-dynasty, but also became the definitive season for Kobe Bryant an NBAsuperstar at only 24 yearsof age, Bryant averaged over 30 points per game and embarked on a historic scoring run, posting 40 or more pointsper game for 9 contests.

Though impressed by Bryant’s achievement, Pippen said he did not think it was good for the game. “Basketball is a team game,” he said. “People come out to see great team performers.

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I HAVEN’TTAKEN ANYDAYS OFF.

I HAVE.I’VEWORKED

EXTREMELYHARD.

Although individuals tend to rise and make themselves stand out, there is no place in the game really for a guy” to ignore his teammates to the point that “they’re not even a part of the game.”

To be fair, offense is only part of the game of basketball. So trying to crown a “greatest ever” in the NBA is nearly an impossible task. To be even more fa ir , the game has changed radically since 1962 and so has the athleticism of the players. The NBA is inundated with players that perform specif ic roles for their team. These “specialists” do what they do very well, such as three-point-shooting, defense, distributing the ball,inside game, etc. Wilt was maybe not the best , but for sure, he was the most

dominant player the game ever produced. The question is, would he be as dominant in today-s game with today’splayers? Kobe Bryant is an amazing athlete, an all-around player. It is still early in his NBA career, and although has all the tools to eclipse the greatest players in history, he hasn’t done so yet. Kobe Bryant...WE WILL BE WATCHING.

Got ideas, gripes, something nice to say?E-mail the writer at cole.johnson@ablemag.com.

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HORTANN A T H A N

rebound come out,” Horton said, smiling at the memory. “It was like it’s in slow motion. It was just sitting there. I’ll tell you, it felt good to put that in the net. Obviously winning the game, it was a pretty special moment.” It was a moment the Bruins desperately needed. They had lost the first two games of the series here at TD Garden to fa l l into a precarious hole. Now, after battling the series to a standstill after two huge wins in Montreal, both the game and the series were hanging in the balance in that second overtime.

Something had to happen. Somebody had to step and be a hero. And, that’s the

BOSTON – Since joining the NHL seven years ago, Bruins forward Nathan Horton has dreamed about the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Five games into his first run, Horton has already achieved one of the highest highs of post season hockey - scoring an overtime winner. For Horton, it was the deciding goal in Boston’s 2-1 win against Montreal in double overtime of Game 5 on Saturday night at TD Garden. “Since we were k ids , we all dream about scoring the winn ing goal in overt ime,” sa id Mi lan Lucic, Horton’s l inemate. “He did it tonight.”

Surely, Horton dreamed of prettier goals than the one he scored Saturday night, but he’s not about to give it back.

On the play, in the 90th minute of the game, Horton went hard to the net – which he is paid to do on a nightly basis --and was in the perfect position to slam home one of the few rebounds given up by Carey Price, who made 49 saves.

“It was an exciting game for both teams, but in the end it felt good to get that,” Horton said. “We knew it was going to be a greasy goal, and it sure was. It was a rebound, but they all count. It was a big goal for us.” Twenty minutes after the game, Horton could still close his eyes and vividly picture every frame of the goal-scoring sequence that will play as loop long after he closes his eyes in an attempt to fall asleep Sunday morning.

“I saw the rebound, we had control of the puck, and I saw the

thing about playoff hockey -- nobody ever knows who that somebody would be.

On this night, it was a playoff newbie with just one postseason goal and four playoff games to his credit. He was the man in the right place at the right time, the one that wi l l b e remembered for the deeds of 20 men on Saturday night. “That was a huge goal for Horty,” said Boston goalie Tim Thomas, who should at least be a co-headl iner on this night after his 44-save performance,including an epic save on Brian Gionta mere minutes before Horton scored. “It’s well deserved, it couldn’t

I SAW

THE REBOUND COME OUT

THE REBOUNDWE HAD CONTROL

OF THE PUCK, AND I SAW

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happen to a nicer guy and that was huge for the team and huge for him.” In its way, it was a validation of all the hard work the line – Lucic and Horton between center David Krejci – had done in this series to overcome a slow start that had the critics in a lather about breaking the unit up in favor of combinations.

Lucic still doesn’t have a goal in this series, but he is far more act ive than he was earlier. He had several great chances in Game 5 and set up the winning goal with a sweet pick-and-roll play out by the blue line, a play on which he shielded the puck expertly and used his strength to keep the defender at bay and open up a lane for Andrew Ference to get off the initial shot.

“Well I mean, we were chipping away all game long it seemed like,” said Lucic, who had 8 shots and blocked 4 Montreal shots. “I don’t know what it is, these last 15 games I just, for myself, whenever I get a scoring chance it seems like it’s not going in. But tonight, for sure, definitely we didn’t get frustrated and it was almost like when we had the opportunity in overtime we wanted to do whatever we could to step up and contribute to this team.

“It’s obviously great that we were able to create that goal. And you definitely don’t want to be satisfied. You want to keep pushing for more and

contributing.” For Horton, it will be hard to push for more than Saturday night’s heroics. But, he knows one more win in this series – perhaps as early as Tuesday’s Game 6 wil l deliver him to the second round and an even bigger playoff stage on which to perform.That would be just fine with him.

“We’ve had opportunities to score, we’ve been playing well, but it hasn’t been going in,” Horton said. “But it’s a team game and like you said, in the playoffs, it doesn’t matter who scores, it matters who wins. In the end, that’s all that matters.”

AND LIKE YOU SAID

BUT IT’S A TEAM GAME

IN THE PLAYOFFSIT MATTERS WHO WINS

Got ideas, gripes, something nice to say?E-mail the writer at cole.johnson@ablemag.com.

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NATHAN HORTONRIGHT WING - BOS

2010-11 SEASON STATISTICS

LAST FIVE GAMES

REGULAR

@BOS

RANK

@MTL

@BOS

@MTL

PLAYOFFS

RANK

80 26 27 53 29 85 6 0 2 188 13.8

1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 3 33

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 22

1 0 0 1 -1 0 0 0 1 3 33

1 0 0 1 -1 0 0 0 1 3 33

128 44 129 75 9 66 79 134 153 95 94

80 26 27 53 29 85 6 0 2 188 13.8

80 26 27 53 29 85 6 0 2 188 13.8

GP G A P +/- PIM PP SH GW S S%

GP G A P +/- PIM PP SH GW S S%

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