A team of NBA legends of Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Horace Grant and Jason Williams beat Team Taiwan 104-89 in an exhibition game on Sunday night in the southern port city of Kaohsiung.

The legends trailed 29-23 after the first period but quickly turned the game around, leading 54-41 at the half.

The visiting team was led by Charoy Bentley, who scored a team-high 21 points, and Chris Campbell, who had 17, but all eyes were on the former Chicago Bulls stars and the “White Chocolate” in the game with a playful mood.

Williams had 11 points, three assists and three steals and wowed the spectators with the passing skills that brought him to fame.

Interestingly, the former Sacramento Kings point guard left the game with eight minutes remaining to catch a flight.

Pippen, who was visiting Taiwan for the third time, had seven points and eight rebounds while Rodman had two points and grabbed nine rebounds.

Rodman’s diving save of a ball going out of bounds with two minutes remaining left a little girl sitting on the courtside crying. The former NBA rebounding king then kissed the girl and gave her an autographed basketball.

Rodman, who remained very popular among Taiwanese fans, threw his jersey and sneakers to the fans after the game.

Doug Creighton led Taiwan with 26 points on six three-pointers. He made five consecutive three-pointers at one point and scored 17 in the first half.

Team roster of the NBA players (12): Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Horace Grant, Jason Williams, Mitch Richmond, Vernon Maxwell, Jeff Trepagnier, Devon Hardin, Cliff Robinson, Alexus Foyle, Chris Campbell, Charoy Bentley (I don’t think all of them made the trip…)

Team roster of Taiwanese players (10): Chen Hsin-an, Tien Lei, Su Yi-chieh, Ho Shou-cheng, Mao Chia-en, Lu Cheng-ju, Doug Creighton, Tseng Wen-ting, Chen Shih-nian and basketball player-turned-entertainer Chen Chien-chou, aka The Blackman.

The scene? Why, PremierHobby.sg’s first ever group case break, of course!

PremierHobby.sg was set up by a group of basketball enthusiasts as an online forum for local basketball lovers to share their love for the game and for basketball cards in particular. Started only a couple of weeks ago, the community quickly blossomed, and to mark such a rapid growth, the administrators of the forum decided to host a group case break to celebrate basketball and to provide an opportunity for the forum members to meet up face-to-face.

Here’s how it works:

30 slots exist for the 30 NBA teams, and each member would purchase one or more of the slots in order to join in the group break, and pick the number or numbers that they desire. On the day of the break, 30 ping pong balls numbered 1 to 30 were placed into a bag and drawn out one by one, thus deciding the draft order of the break, à la the NBA Draft. The participants would then call out the teams that they wish to pick, according to the draft order. As a little compensation (which turned out to be not so little in the end!), the member picking last would get all the Team USA cards.

With each case of 120 cards containing at least 30 autographed cards, including one from among Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant or Bill Russell and a dual-signed autograph, as well as at least 20 memorabilia cards and one card containing a piece of real 14 Karat gold, the members were understandably excited on the day of the break, 12 May 2012. At 10 a.m., in Bishan Community Club, the break began, and there was a palpable buzz filling the air as the ping pong balls were drawn out of the bag. I got the 22^nd pick and, like everyone else present, quickly racked my brains trying to figure out which team to pick.

The member going first picked the Los Angeles Lakers, and the one going last was left with the New Orleans Hornets (and Team USA too!), and in between, I decided to go with my personal favourites, the Milwaukee Bucks, which was kindly traded to me by the participant with the 16^th pick. And then the unveiling began!

Treasure after treasure tumbled out of the gold bar-shaped boxes, beginning with a Chris Paul jersey card. The last big hit was the promised Kobe Bryant autographed card, but that was by no needs the only big hit in the case, as it yielded a dual-autograph by Jerry West and Bryant, as well as autographed cards from George Gervin, Robert Parish, Oscar Robertson, Paul Pierce, Joakim Noah, John Wall and Jalen Rose, among others. The 14 Karat gold card featured LeBron James, and the event featured a lot of smiles, euphoria with some groans and more than a few high-fives mixed in, as the participants enjoyed their haul thoroughly. Me? Well, I was the lucky guy who picked up the Oscar Robertson autographed card, making me the happiest (and perhaps only) Bucks fan in Singapore!

Upon the conclusion of the group case break, every member could hardly wait to get home and log onto the forum to showcase their cards. Before long, the topic that resonated throughout the forum and its Facebook page featured one simple question:

When’s the next group break?

If you are interested in joining us for any future group breaks, or in collecting basketball cards, which tend to be rather hard to locate in our tiny nation, feel free to join the forum at www.premierhobby.sg! Even if you are simply interested in looking at cards, there will forum members who will gladly fulfil your request.

If you would like to purchase individual cards and/or packs at a physical location, do head on down to Toy Outpost at Plaza Singapura, where a few members have rented lockers for that purpose. If you are interested in larger purchases, you can contact head honcho Ivan directly as well, at Ivan@premierhobby.sg.

Basketball lovers, do join us in this exciting, blossoming new hobby today!

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Mason scored a season-high 19 points and helped guide the Wizards to a 99-89 win over the New Orleans Hornets — but he also suffered an avulsion fracture in his left index finger. He played the next 18 games despite the injury, wearing tape over his injured finger and scoring in double digits eight times, but the pain suddenly became too unbearable.

After scoring just three points in a loss to Cleveland on Saturday, Mason elected to have surgery to and effectively end his season. Mason said he would have the procedure on Monday in New York, while the Wizards plan to waive the eight-year veteran shooting guard and use his roster spot to add another back-court player for the final six games of the season.

“I didn’t want anyone to hit it so I kept it quiet,” Mason said in a text message. “Plus I wanted to keep playing thru it to show young guys toughness and leadership.”

Back with his hometown Wizards after spending two seasons with the team from 2006 to ‘08, Mason had to wait a while before settling into the rotation.

When he did, Mason regained his shooting touch and finished averaging 5.5 points and 1.3 rebounds while shooting 38.3 percent (59-154) from three-point range in 52 games. Mason made a season-high five three-pointers last week in a win over the Charlotte Bobcats.

The Wizards (14-46) also signed forward James Singleton for the remainder of the season. Singleton signed a 10-day contract on April 5 and averaged 9.8 points and 7.7 rebounds in six games for the team.

Via (WashingtonPost)

Via (SlamOnline)

DO’S

• Plan your re-hydration during your training runs.
• For long runs, consider using sports drink to replenish salt and glucose levels.
• Experiment with different sports drinks – taste is unique to individuals.
• Weigh yourself before and after each long run – you should keep your weight loss to less than 2% of your body weight.
• Drink regularly in a race. It is easier for the body to absorb the fluid in small regular amounts.
• Do start re-hydrating early in the race, not when thirst sets in.
• Replace your water loss by 150% in the next 6 hours after a race.

DON’TS

• Undo your efforts in training by leaving your re-hydration to chance – no matter how well trained you are, dehydration will rob you of your performance.
• Drink alcohol or caffeinated drinks during recovery as this promotes fluid loss through the kidneys.
• Experiment with re-hydration drinks during the race – settle your choice during the training runs.
• Drink too much – you should only drink enough to maintain your weight loss to 2%.
• Leave it to your thirst – camels know how much to drink instinctively, we don’t.

Dr Jason Chia Kok Kiong
MBBS (Singapore), MSpMed (Australia), DFD (CAW)
Consultant Sports Physician
Head, Sports Medicine and Surgery Clinic
Tan Tock Seng Hospital

The surgery, called ablation, was performed at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital by Drs. Jaspal Singh and Eugene Crystal.

Gray is expected to return to action in two weeks.

The Raptors signed the four-year NBA veteran as a free agent on December 11. He appeared in both of the club’s preseason games and totaled nine rebounds.

Gray averaged 3.1 points and 4.2 rebounds in 41 games for New Orleans last season. He was selected by Chicago in the second round of the 2007 draft and has averaged 3.6 points with 3.5 rebounds in 190 career games.

Via (Toronto Sun)

Not just that the Clippers trampled the Lakers in a preseason game, or that the media scrum outside the Clippers’ locker room after the game dwarfed the crowd waiting to get inside the Lakers’ inner sanctum.

Not even Donald T. Sterling, inside the Chick Hearn Media Room after the game, lecturing his guests about the virtues of making basketball a physical — not a cerebral — contest.

The strangest moment of the night was more basic than that. It was the sensation of looking out on the floor at Staples Center and seeing the two most trustworthy guards in basketball manning the backcourt for the Clippers.

That’s because the defining characteristic of Clippers fandom has always been fear. Fear that basketball possessions would be squandered carelessly by players without the talent or inclination to get the job done. Fear that the organization would choose caution over risk and fumble an opportunity to change course. Fear that supernatural forces would conspire against the Clippers … just because that’s what supernatural forces do.

That fear wasn’t present Monday night, and its absence was the most profound epiphany during an entertaining preseason game from which very little about basketball could be gleaned.

We know the Clippers are a dangerous unknown — only a tad less unknown than they were 24 hours ago. Their regular season opens on Christmas Day in Oakland against the Golden State Warriors, after which they’ll play the Bulls, Lakers and Heat at Staples Center over a 15-day period. How do we know if the Clippers are for real? Here are some guideposts to follow:

Have Chris Paul and Blake Griffin developed mental telepathy?
All this talk of seismic cultural shifts in Los Angeles boils down to one essential ingredient: the level of havoc these two All-Stars can wreak in the pick-and-roll.

Everything else is just scene-setting.

We saw what Paul was able to do with an exacting partner like David West in a pick-and-pop game. Now Paul will have the most explosive power forward in a generation at his disposal. How quickly can they get into their dance steps? When opponents play Griffin for his signature spin, or when the entire defense sags and drops into the paint, how can the dynamic duo make them pay? Paul and Griffin’s proficiency will not only determine how lethally they can punish the league, but how many open spot-up jumpers can be generated for Chauncey Billups and how easily Caron Butler will be able to dart off down screens for quick looks.

It will take a little time, but once Paul and Griffin become fluent in their common language and the need for cues and verbal direction melts away, the true potential of this team will be much clearer.

How is Chauncey Billups acclimating to playing off the ball?
Billups is a combo guard by origin, but it’s been a long time since he was asked to defer ballhandling duties to a teammate and make a living off the ball. Last season before being moved to New York, Billups’ numbers as a catch-and-shoot threat were superb (1.36 points per possession). In 2009-10, Billups finished 15th in points per possession as a spot-up shooter for players with more than 100 attempts, and in 2008-09, he was fourth in the league.

Billups is prideful. Telling him that, at 35, the best way for him to extend a prolific and celebrated career is to go stand over there on the wing away from the action is easier said than done. Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro reiterated on Monday night that he doesn’t see 1s and 2s and 3s on a whiteboard so much as he sees “basketball players.” If Billups can buy into the practical implications of this and make himself comfortable as a floor-spacer and secondary playmaker, he can help the Clippers score a ton of points.

Is Vinny Del Negro the man for the job?
The big winner of Monday night?

Del Negro. Not because he outcoached anyone, but because what transpired on the floor suggests that Del Negro’s shortcoming will be mitigated by circumstance.

The league is moving away from systems and intricately choreographed play calls from the sidelines. Today’s NBA is about getting the ball up and finding clean looks at the basket before defenses can get set. And if you have a couple of floor generals such as Paul and Billups on the roster, there will be plenty of margin for error because they’re more than capable of manufacturing opportunities for themselves and others when the shot clock begins to tick down. The thickness of Del Negro’s playbook measures only a 10th of the thickness of what Mike Dunleavy toted to work every day. With this team at this moment, that might do the trick.

But sometime in late spring, a critical moment will arise. The Thunder will use Kendrick Perkins and Nick Collison to clamp down on Griffin. The Mavs will identify a fatal inefficiency in the Clippers’ defense. When it’s time for Del Negro to counter, will he have a solution?

Are the Clippers treading water with their reserve units?
DeAndre Jordan gets hit with two early fouls. Griffin walks off the court toward the tunnel for examination in the trainer’s room. These things aren’t worst-case scenarios — they’re inevitabilities in the NBA. Young, high-flying centers become overexuberant, and bouncy power forwards turn ankles.

A healthy Clippers squad is stacked at the guard spots. But right now, they have a frontcourt reserve corps of Brian Cook (a stretch-4), Ryan Gomes (a smart 6-foot-7 tweener) and rookie Trey Thompkins, who John Hollinger projects to be the next Brian Cook. None of the three can be fairly characterized as a banger, and the Clippers are likely to sign a brawny big man over the next 72 hours. That understudy could prove to be fateful for the Clippers. Small sample-size theater has never been more hazardous than in a shortened season, but whether you watch the progress of the Clippers’ five-man bench units on Basketballvalue.com, or just eyeball the team’s rhythm and flow when Griffin takes a seat, we’ll learn something about the Clippers’ prospects in late May and early June by how well those second units perform.

Will Donald T. Sterling stay out of the way?
Longtime Sterling consigliere Andy Roeser and general manager Neil Olshey have put the Clippers in a position to reverse decades of futility. Selling Sterling on the vision was likely every bit as challenging as swinging the deals themselves.

Whatever liabilities remain for the Clippers on the roster or in the locker room, they pale in comparison to the damage that could be unleashed if Sterling were to decide to meddle in the progress. He insulted Gomes and Randy Foye in August 2010, soon after the two veterans were acquired. He embarrassed himself, Baron Davis and the franchise by loudly heckling the team’s former point guard courtside.

With Paul and Griffin weighing their long-term options over the next 18 months, the Clippers can’t afford to have Sterling do anything to disrupt the aspirations of everyone involved in this project — not Roeser or Olshey, not the superstars, not the supporting players, nor the fans in Los Angeles. Sterling has earned several lifetimes of fortune. He can add to it by simply letting basketball people conduct basketball business and basking in the glow of the winter sun at the Malibu compound.

Via (ESPN Sports)