By Marty Gitlin
WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

There have been a smattering of disappointing teams this season in the NBA. New Jersey and Memphis certainly come to mind.

But neither has proven a bigger letdown than the Los Angeles Clippers. Last year’s Cinderella story has taken a depressing turn.

The Clippers reached the Western Conference semifinals a year ago, finally outdistancing the cross-town Lakers. But as Christmas rolls around in 2006, they are 11-15 and entrenched in the Pacific Division cellar. In fact, only Memphis and Seattle own worse records in the conference.

What’s happened? Most critically, power forward and 2005-06 Most Valuable Player candidate Elton Brand simply hasn’t played as well this season. His exhausting summer that included time with the U.S. National Team has been blamed for his slow start. He is averaging 18.9 points a game compared to 24.7 a year ago. His numbers have also decreased in rebounds, blocks and shooting percentage.

Brand is not alone. Chris Kaman, who emerged as one of the better centers in the NBA last year, is down significantly in scoring (11.9-10.1), rebounding (9.6-7.7) and blocks (1.4-1.1) this season. He hit 52 percent of his shots a year ago to just 42 percent this year.

Point guard Sam Cassell? His average of 13.3 points and 4.6 assists a game this year compares unfavorably to his 17.2 points and 6.3 assists a game in 2005-06. Ominously, he has also been slowed by a heel injury that might sideline him for a while. Cassell has played more than 25 minutes only once in the last eight games.

HOLIDAY SPECIAL: OK, so Miami center Shaquille O’Neal is out. And so is Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom.

That doesn’t means Monday's game between those two high-profile teams won’t spice up Christmas afternoon.

Anytime Heat guard Dwyane Wade and Lakers counterpart Kobe Bryant grace the same hardwood, folks tune it to watch. The Lakers appeared to be in for tough times when they began a long stretch of primarily road games. But they have won three of their last four away from home, including victories in Houston, Minnesota and New Jersey.

According to WagerWeb.com, the Lakers are 1.5-point favorites against the Heat.

DRIBBLES: The Hawks have lost eight of their last nine, greatly due to injuries. Forward Josh Smith has been out with a hernia problem that will require surgery. He will miss at least four weeks. Also sidelined for Saturday night’s loss in Detroit were center Zaza Pachulia (sprained elbow), backup point guard Tyronn Lue (groin injury), reserve swingman Josh Childress (foot) and starting point guard Speedy Claxton (back spasms). … Golden State high-scoring guard Monta Ellis will miss Tuesday night’s home game against Philadelphia after being hurt in a loss Saturday night at Miami. He injured his shoulder in a fall and will be evaluated on Tuesday.

WagerWeb Basketball

Hey guys & gals,

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One of our members with us works within a particular NBA organization and is good friends with many of the NBA players. We get alot of insider news before alot of the main outlets do and alot of candid insider interviews with these guys too. Its good stuff and info you won’t find elsewhere.

We're now trying to network with other places to see if we can entice peeps to come join, but also help build board communities for the lesser active boards at EBS. If any of you out there think you might be interested, let us know. We can’t guarantee a moderator positions immediately at EBS, but if you think you might have to time to help us out then within time a promotion is definitely feasible. We're also currently in the process of upgrading the lay-out and appearance of the site in which we are going to unveil later this summer, so take it with a grain of salt right now, but the changes should all take affect later this summer and hopefully before the start of next season.

Anyhow, if there are peeps out there that might be interested, come over to introduce yourselves.

No harm, no foul in asking ya’ll.

Come check out the site and let us know what you think and let us know if you'd be interested in helping us.

Link: http://www.ebsports.net/bbs/index.php

Cheers,

EBSports