dunk contest_Column: Dunk contest relieves 'dog days of February'

Nowadays, every time I drive I’m scared that Blake Griffin’s going to appear out of nowhere and dunk over me.I guess it’s worth it though, considering that the best overall Dunk contest in recent memory helped relieve the monotony that plagues the NBA season around the halfway point. In baseball, they call it the “dog days of August”— that time in the season when the games seem to pile on top of each other and fans try to close their eyes and wait patiently until late September. In the NBA, it hits us sometime around early February. Don’t get me wrong, the games are still exciting and, being a dedicated fan, I watch. But I would be remiss not to admit that at some point I start to yearn for the All Star break, a fun little vacation from the conformity of daily life.

And so, last weekend the NBA’s All Star weekend in Los Angeles showed up to save the day. We had John Wall throwing never-before-seen bounce passes, a fundamental of the game that I didn’t think could be revolutionized. We had Blake Griffin soaring through the air as camera flashes attacked him from all angles, and Javale Mcgee dunking three balls at once and getting robbed nevertheless. Oh, and a basketball game on Sunday. All things considered, we had sweet relief. So, as we head into the stretch run with renewed vigor, what do we have to look forward to? We’ve learned a lot so far (like how to boo Miami in one, unified, resounding voice), but a number of questions that will determine our future champions remain woefully unanswered. For example, who are the Los Angeles Lakers? The back-to-back defending champs have shown flashes of greatness thus far, but at other times have seemed surprisingly unmotivated and lazy, especially on defense. We know this team has the talent and sheer size to three-peat, but where’s the effort? A 2-5 record against the likes of Boston, Miami, Chicago, and San Antonio can’t be ignored. They also lost to the NBA-worst Cleveland Cavaliers, a team that has taken the attitude of a middle-aged guy whose extremely attractive girlfriend left him, and now mopes around and wears sweatpants all day. A slip-up of that magnitude can only be attributed to a lack of attention and focus.