The Phoenix Suns are glad to have brought in Shaquille O’Neal into the team as he has shown tremendous signs of improvement in every game that he has played for the Suns and is now looking very healthy and has attained back his dominant nature. The Phoenix Suns have registered five straight wins for the first time in the 2008 season. Phoenix Suns are currently one win short of attaining the lead in the Western Conference.

Shaquille O’Neal made 15 rebounds, 5 assists and scored 16 points in the Suns win of 111-98 over Portland. The Suns coach D’ Antoni said that all his players played good basketball and when it mattered the most, his big man, O’Neal did the tidying job. Amare Stoudermire is the top scorer for the Suns this season as he made 25 points in the game and was closely followed by Nash with 22 points.

Antawn Jamison, the forward of the Wizards has been announced the Eastern Conference Player of the week by NBA for the week that started from March 10th. He is currently playing his tenth professional season and this is his first honor in his career as the player of the week. Jamison has reached 37 double –doubles in his career last week and is behind only to Dwight Howard of Orlando in the total tally of double –doubles in Eastern Conference. He led the Washington Wizards with 23 points in the win against Milwaukee and made 17 points in the game against Cleveland.

The greatest achievement for Jamison was the win against the Los Angeles Clippers. He made a double- double effort for an overtime win, scoring 36 points for the team. Seven points out of 36 were made in the last 9.7 seconds of regulation time and six were made in the first couple of minutes of overtime. Wizards won the game 119-109. The electrifying performance of Jamison has made the Wizards to climb above the .500 mark after this February 5th. Philadelphia’s Andre Iguodala, Atlanta’s Joe Johnson, Cleveland’s LeBron James and Orlando’s Rashard Lewis are the other players who were nominated for the Eastern Conference player of the week award.

The Houston Rockets are in such sublime form in the NBA lately that they have now recorded their 20th straight win as they beat the Atlanta Hawks 83-75 on Wednesday night. The Rockets coach Rick Adelman said that he was pretty pleased to see his team win the match despite a poor outing and game display. The Rockets have now become the third team to win 20 consecutive games or more in the history of the NBA and are behind Milwaukee Bucks with 20 games and Los Angeles Lakers who have 33 straight games to their credit. Tracy McGrady of Houston played exceptionally well and scored a total of 28 points of which 21 came in the second half.

McGrady said that the Rockets are happy to win this game even though they did not showcase a thoroughly professional basketball game in the first half. He accepted that the shooting was very poor against the Hawks and it was the defense that saved the Houston team at the end of the day. The Rockets last tasted defeat at the hands of Utah in January 27 and McGrady acknowledged that he is honored to be in a team that has won 20 games consecutively.

Shaquille O’Neal lived up to his expectations as he played some tremendous basketball in the final six minutes of the game to seal a victory for the Suns by 94-87 against their arch rivals Texas Spurs. This probably explains why the Suns were determined to have O’Neal in their side. Shaquille O’Neal finished the game with 14 points and had 16 rebounds and he along with Stoudemire helped in sealing the victory for the Phoenix Suns, who now are the only team in the NBA to have not lost a game in their last three appearances this season.

The Spurs who have always had the better hand against the Suns in the past, were not able to penetrate the defensive set up of the Phoenix Suns this time and it shows in the result as they had just 30 field goals and 44 boards to the 52 the Suns had. Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni said that this was like a playoff game and his team had jelled well in bringing home a win. Steve Nash was the leading scorer of the game for the Suns with 19 points and he said that the team is slowly getting a grip of things and was excited to see the Suns beat the Spurs.

The 10,000 to 12,000 odd Cleveland fans, who had fought through snow and bitter cold to get to the stadium, were thrilled with joy to watch their team make a clean sweep of the Indiana Pacers with a 103-95 victory last Saturday. Cavalier’s LeBron James who scored 38 points in the game said that he wanted to make sure that the efforts taken by the fans to get to watch the game must not go waste and thanked for the fans to come and watch the game even at times of adverse weather conditions. The winter snow was so bad in Cleveland that it covered the cars unto the doors.

Cleveland Cavaliers maintained their home winning streak as they have won their fifth consecutive game on home soil. The main players for the Cavaliers were West who scored 14 points, Wally with 11 points, Joe Smith with 12 points, Varejao with 15 points as well as 16 rebounds and of course James, the top scorer with 38 points. James acknowledged that he was in top of his game on Saturday and wanted to be aggressive throughout the game. Cavaliers continued their domination over the Pacers as they have won 10 of their last 11 meetings.

The Washington Wizards hosted their team’s fundraiser “Ballers Bowl” last Monday at the Lucky Strike Lanes. The fund raising event hosted by the Wizards gave their team sponsors and the season ticket holders to interact with the players. This event also gave a chance to the Wizards fanatics to bid for the players memorabilia in an open auction conducted at Chinatown’s Lucky Strike Lanes. The proceeds of the Wizards fundraising event will go to the Washington Sports and Entertainment Charities, Inc.

It is such an entertaining event for the players as they will get some time off their busy playing schedule and will get to play another sport called bowling and enjoy the evening with gigs and laughs. This event also gives them an occasion to talk to their team sponsors and their fans. The Ballers Bowl gave enough opportunities for the skilled basketball wizards to showcase their skills in bowling. After the bowling game, the Washington wizards enjoyed the whole night dancing to the tunes of the DJ Bigg Trigger and the Wizards player, Andray Blatche, also tried his hand out on the DJ table. The players acknowledged the fact that the event gave them the chance to enjoy with people outside their workplace.

Ronald Murray, who played his debut with Indiana Pacers, showed some sparkle of his talent. Not long after the start of the game,

Bobby Jackson who traded to play for Houston Rockets last week, did exceptionally well in his first game for the Rockets as he along with Tracy McGrady was instrumental in the Rockets defeating the Bulls 110 – 97. Houston won its 12th straight game of the season and 14 points of the total score of 110 by Houston Rockets were scored by Jackson. The Rockets are a formidable side in the NBA this season as they have lost only one of their last 16 games.

The Chicago Bulls were in the match for the first three quarters, but in the fourth quarter the Rockets had a sudden spring in their step and their shooting skills left their opponents out in the cold. The Rockets coach, Rick Adelman, who was the coach for Jackson when he was playing for Sacramento, feels that the energy that Jackson brings on the playing arena will transform his teammates to play well. It was the coach’s intervention that led to the smooth transfer of Bobby Jackson from Sacramento to Houston Rockets. Bobby Jackson believes that the best part of his basketball career has occurred during the five seasons he played for Coach Rick Adelman. The 34 year old player is hoping to prove his mettle for the Rockets this season.

The Sacramento Kings defeated Atlanta Hawks in the returning match of Mike Bibby. Though Bibby was given a warm welcome by the fans, the Kings were not at all affected by the presence of Bibby in the opponent’s team. Kings made the home victory by beating the Hawks 119-107, under the able guidance of Ron Artest. He was able to score 29 points and Kevin Martin, scored another 26 points for their team. Bibby also played well and did his trademark jumping to score 17 points for the Hawks, but it was not enough to prevent the sixth straight lose and the 8th consecutive lose in Sacramento by the Hawks.

The efforts of Artest are commendable as he made nine perfect hits out of the 12 shots and 10 of his 14 free throws were fruitful. Beno Udrih who has replaced Bibby in Kings contributed his share by scoring 18 points. The team coach believes in the ability of Beno as a defender and his ability to make fast decisions. Bibby later admitted that he was nervous as well as anxious before the match and was suffering due to an injury in his right heel. Sheldon Williams who was taken from Hawks by the Kings scored 8 points for Sacramento Kings.

The NBA All-Star point guard Jason Kidd has been signed by Dallas Mavericks with a single agenda of winning the NBA championship. This latest trade off by the Mavericks has shocked the entire NBA fraternity and Kidd said that he will try all his best in order to win the championship for his new team. Kidd returns to his debut franchisee after serving 8 years for New Jersey and the trade off was carried out in an unexpected and unique fashion. The Mavericks coach Avery Johnson hoped that Jason Kidd will be able to close the games for them and hopefully seal the playoffs as well.

Jason Kidd, along with his New Jersey teammates Allen and Wright will be donning the Maverick colors for their game on Wednesday at the Southwest division. The Mavericks were short of an All-Star point guard since their best point guard Steve Nash and Kidd with his experience, strength and durability is expected to do wonders for the team. Kidd feels that he is mentally and physically prepared for the season and the success of the team will depend on understanding all the new team members. The Maverick fans are also hoping that the former New Jersey point guard will be the guiding force for the team to lift the championship this season.