tonight in the nba

sports:  There were a couple of things that happened tonight in the NBA that needed to be considered seriously.  I know its only about eight or nine games in to the season for most teams, so the notion of having meaningful games is kind of insane.  A lot can change over the course of 82 games and people get injured and healthy and the course of a long season evens out to show who the best teams are (which is something that always happens.  over time we get a more true sense of what is real.), but tonight we saw two games that may have given us a glimpse of what the season has to offer.
The first was the Lakers vs. Suns game in L.A. tonight.  It has to be noted that the two big offensive games for the Lakers this season have been against two teams expected to be at or near the bottom of their conferences this year, the Pistons and the Suns.  But with Mike D'Antoni taking over as head coach of the Lakers this past weekend, watching the Lakers put up 114 points (with D'Antoni at practice but not yet on the sideline) must have Steve Nash licking his lips to get back in their and run the offense he was leading during the prime of his career with better starters around him.  Once again, I know its Phoenix, but with Nash in the system he has played most of his career and with Kobe and Howard and Gasol as an upgrade from Staudemire, Barbosa, and Diaw, one can only fantasize about that 114 turning into 140 and the fun that will be had over the rest of the season.  And don't forget that D'Antoni's teams weren't that bad on defense.  His Suns teams allowed more points than almost any team in the league per game, but were at or above average in defensive efficiancy (points allowed per 100 possessions) .  And with Dwight Howard roaming the paint instead of Amare Staudemire, the four blocks we saw tonight could become common place.
The other game of note tonight was the game between the Knicks and Grizzlies.  The Knicks were a surprise as the last undefeated team in the NBA, but the real story is Memphis.  In the past six days Memphis has beaten the Miami Heat - a team most people have already anointed as repeat champions, and the Knicks - who may not end up being quite as good as their early record, but hey, 7-0 is what it is, oh and they also handed the Thunder a double digit loss in Oklahoma City.  Memphis has done it by flying in the face of the current trend of NBA teams, thus exposing weaknesses.  That trend is going small.  Miami has no traditional bigs, starting Lebron at power forward and Chris Bosh at center and going with a small lineup that dots the perimeter with spot up shooters, and Dwayne Wade as a slasher.  While New York doesn't have the plethora of shooters that Miami has, they have done the same this year by starting Carmello Anthony at power forward (granted Anthony seems to be doing well there, his offensive effeciancy is up early this season and he seems to be committed defensively).  The Grizzlies, bucking the trend, have stuck with their rather enormous starting lineup, with both Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph starting.  In doing so they have been able to exploit smaller teams by pounding the ball inside and playing super physical defense against smaller opponents.  Keep in mind, this is not just a match-up issue.  Gasol and Randolph are two of the best big men in the league when healthy (Randolph, particularly, has missed games in recent years), Rudy Gay has been as consistent a small forward as there is in the league at both ends of the court, Mike Conley has turned into a very effective point guard, and Tony Allen is as good a defensive two guard as there is.  The match-ups with Gasol and Randolph are going to be viewed as the reason teams have trouble with them.  But make no mistake, this team can play.  And as long as they can have someone, even if it is a different person every night, come off the bench and provide a spark, they can beat anybody, which they have proven over the past week.  And with those two legit wins, a true contender may have been over looked.  Maybe this is the Grizzlies team everyone expected last year.