NBA Live 09

One-for-four! After three early misses to open its Xbox 360 career, EA Sports finally swishes a basket with its pro-hoops franchise, and boy, we couldn’t be happier. And fans should be happy as well.

First and foremost, NBA Live 09’s core basketball action is well-rounded and impressive. Both defense and play-calling have been given their due attention this year. Using the left stick, stay close to your man on D to lock down your opponent, and on the other end, hold LB to bring up a quick menu of your team’s most frequently run plays — which are then painted on the floor so you know how to execute them.

For those that don’t know a pick-and-roll from a pick-your-nose, the new Academy mode runs you through plenty of offensive and defensive scenarios, like fast breaks and postups. They’re mostly awesome, but they just don’t go far enough in teaching you exactly how to accomplish each task. Where are the floor-painted icons from the core game?

A clear-cut highlight, though, is the pick-and-roll system. The old Malone ’n’ Stockton specialty has been given new videogame life in Live 09. Simply pull LT and a teammate will come out and set a screen for you. Keep the trigger held to keep your man in place, or release it and he’ll roll to the basket or step back for an open look. It couldn’t be easier to use, and it works perfectly. Too perfectly. We got easy dunks with Nash passing to a slashing Stoudemire 90 percent of the time — until we cranked up the difficulty. Only then could the defense stop us.

On Superstar difficulty, then, the game plays great, and the experience is complemented by NBA Live 365, a long-held dream come true for sports-gaming aficionados. Basically, the game connects to Xbox Live every time you fire it up and downloads all of the latest NBA player transactions and trends, meaning that if T-Mac has been on a tear in real life, he’ll have the hot hand in your game, too. All sorts of player and team tendencies are tracked. We want to see this in every other pro-sports game, stat!

Also new are online clubs and leagues, complete with five-on-five play. Though it’s not as immersive as NHL 09’s implementation — we suspect because Live 09 lacks the RPG-like create-a-player mode in which you can get invested — it’s still a treat to challenge an all-human team with four of your friends.

With EA’s focus finally in the right places, Live 09 is like the New Orleans Hornets of the videogame world. It performs surprisingly well this season, and with a little more experience next year, it could be a title contender.