Dept of Did You See?: Watched a barn-burner: Knicks @ ATL: up and down for both teams, Knicks up 81-79 to start the 4th; 90-90 with 5:30 left. Nickeil Alexander-Walker (N A-W) hits a step-back 20 footer. Dude was en fuego for this game: 36 pts on 7 for 11 from deep. Hawks up 2 with 5:07 left. OG hits 2 FTs to tie it at 92 with 4:35 left. Dyson Daniels hits a shot; Josh Hart makes a bad pass and N A-W hits a 3: Hawks up 5 with 3:45 left. Brunson hits a floater and gets fouled: Hawks by 2 with 3:15 left. CJ hits N A-W for another 3: back up 5, just under 3 mins left. Brunson hits another little floater: ATL by 3. N A-W misses a driving layup, well-defended, ATL gets the offensive board, but Knicks get a shot-clock violation, then KAT dishes to Brunson for a deep 3: tied at 100 with 2:20 left. ATL crowd is totally in this, as their team has been very hot for the past 6 weeks and has moved way up in the East standings. They are believers in their team, even against the very good Knicks. ATL crowd thinks the Hawks can beat anyone; I don't think they can beat the damned Bags in a series, but WTF do I know? Brunson steals off CJ, makes a breaking layup: Knicks by 2. Snyder takes a timeout. CJ drives the lane and throws up a high-arcing floater we've seen a thousand times; it hits the back of the rim and bounces in. 102-102 with 1:54 left. What rhymes with crowd? LOUD. Brunson misses a 10 footer, Hart gets the offensive board, it gets kicked out to Bridges, who misses a 26 footer; Hart gets ANOTHER offensive board; with 1 sec left on the 14, Brunson drives for a layup: misses! Okongwu gets the rebound, ATL goes down and N A-W pulls up for a 25 foot 3: not "bang!": he misses. Still tied at 102, now with 51 secs left; OG scrambles for the rebound and Knicks work it around, lots of touches, Brunson hits a step-back 18 foot jumper. 104-102 with 29 secs left. ATL comes down, uses a set play (I think), and gets a good look for Jalen Johnson for a 10 foot bank, but it misses. Talk about heart-buhreak! Ya gotta hit that muthah, Johnson! 104-102 Knicks with 7.6 left when KAT gets the board and CJ fouls OG with 5.4 left. If he hits the first they're up 3. ATL still has one timeout left, so OG needs to hit both to seal it. OG is one with ice water in his veins: hits 'em both: Knicks up 106-102 with 5.4 left. Ballsy. The crowd sounds subdued, which means they're paying attention. Snyder burns their last timeout. Looks foregone. What a drag for ATL; they were up 10 at one point in this game, but what's 10 points these days, eh? CJ hits a wide-open 3 with 2.2 left. 106-105 Knicks with 1.5 left, Mike Brown takes a timeout, which is by the book. Daniels fouls Brunson immediately. Brunson hits both. 108-105. He probably should have intentionally missed the 2nd? Anyway, Hawks inbound to CJ, who takes two dribbles (one too many?) and banks in a 60 foot buzzer 3 to tie the game. Did he get it off in time? The crowd is bonkers. Replay shows the ball left his fingertips about 1/10 of a second late: game over. Did not beat the buzz. Josh Hart is seen saying "good game" to CJ and they both laffed. Whatever was said: it was a good game. At times I think: who's got the best Jalen? Hawks's Jalen Johnson had to hit that bank, and Brunson had something like 17 in the 4th, and when he was shooting those 2 FTs with 1.5 left, the Atlanta crowd was shouting "MVP"...maybe to psych him out?
In OT win vs. POR: Jokic 35/14/13 with 5 steals and 2 blocks in 43 mins. Adelman played Joker in 43 of the game's 53 mins. Guess he thought they HAD to have the win. Meanwhile, Wemby took an elbow to the ribs.
i really wanted us to get NAW last year, but i didn't expect him to be THIS. imagine him with luka and reaves... alas...who's this year's version (emerging role player with an even higher ceiling from winning team that can't afford him)?
NAW got off to a REALLY bumpy start too. Took him a bit to fit in with the Hawks, but he definitely figured it out. This year's version is Peyton Watson and I don't think it's all that close. Doc is such a f***ing clown. Most overrated coach this league has ever seen. The face, finger pointing and choking at historic levels every chance he gets is what really cements just how bad he is. League will be a better place next season with him gone and Mikey Malone locked in at UNC (LET"S GO DUKE! for Malone reasons). If Doc is already saying he needs to be closer to the grandkids, I think we should be able to avoid hearing that godawful voice calling/commentating on games when he gets fired again.
yeah, seems like it, though tbh his injury issues and some of my favored metrics have me less bullish on him than i was a couple months ago. don't get me wrong, still my prime FA target, but i think his price tag will be higher than NAW's and his impact might not be as high. on the other hand, i could easily see him having jaden mcdaniels type impact on a similar salary.
Yeah I only see Ayo and Ellis in that archetype of younger guy with talent that can explode in a new context with a bigger leash. Ellis had 19pts, 8ast and 0to on Monday with Harden/Don sitting. Found it interesting. He played along Schroder.
what the hell happened to orlando this year? i'm watching the box score of them losing to boston's c-team in a game that they probably would have preferred to win. they have 222m committed next year to 12 players. that's right at the second apron, with anthony black's extension looming. i get why they bought in--they should be way better than they have been. i imagine their eleven fans are pretty disappointed this year.
Wow. The Playoffs are such a different animal. If you guys didn't see it, PHO was up 11 in the 4th, at home, with 6:40 left, 100-89. Lawler's Law, right? Naw. POR immediately goes on an 8-0 run to cut it to 100-97, when Avdija hit a step-back. Dude went for 41 with 7 boards,12 dimes and 2 blocks. 15 for 22 from the field. Most underrated player in the NBA? (Don't mention his defense: I know.) His offense is really something, though. Then Clingan was charged with a flagrant on Sweet Dillon Brooks, who hit both: PHO up 5 with 4:14 left. Ball out of bounds to PHO on the flagrant, and Booker misses a 14 footer. Royce O-Neal steals a pass from Sharpe and Jalen Green hits a 26 footer: PHO back up 8 with 3:30 left. Lookin' good in the desert. O'Neal fouls Avdija shooting. He makes both: PHO up 6 with 3:17 left. Oghodaro makes a bad offensive foul. Ball back to POR, and Jeremi Grant hits a corner 3; PHO by 3 with just under 3 mins left. The crowd STFU real quick in PHO there. It's as if they feel their team is gonna choke yet again. Will they? Grant makes a stellar block on Green's drive to the rack, he gets the board, then Booker fouls Sharpe, who hits e'm both: PHO up 1. Booker gets fouled shooting and misses the first, makes the second. PHO up 2. Everyone in the building knows Booker's getting the ball for them. 2:12 left. Avdija drives into the paint, has 3 guys on him, dishes to Grant for a corner 3 again: POR up 1 with 1:54 left. I've always hated PHO, so that one felt good. With 1:34 left Booker has it, gets fouled, makes both, PHO back up 1. Whoever wins is in; whoever loses gets a shot at the winner of GSW@ToiletDome. With 1:10 left, Jrue makes a bad pass, O'Neal steals, Booker misses one of his 13 foot fadeaways. Man, PHO really needed that one to go down. Avdija gets the board, and 8 secs later, with 37 secs left, hits a 4 footer to put POR back up 1. He falls down after the shot, gets up, looks for the ref and yells for a foul, very Luka-esque; Avdija has his cucumber-cool teammate Jrue push him away from the ref. Lucky he didn't get T'ed up there. Suns timeout. Geeee, I wonder who Jordan Ott will call a play for? Yea, Booker has it...and hits a baseline-cutting Goodwin for a reverse layup and the harm! PHO back up 1. Clutchy, head's up play by Goodwin, nice pass by Booker, who fooled everyone. You, me, everyone thought he'd try a fadeaway. 32 secs left. Goodwin bricks the FT, POR gets the board, Tiago Splitter (good name for a baseball pitcher) uses a timeout, because of course. Avdija gets the ball, he's shaking and baking at the arc, dribbling between his legs, dancing, calling for his guys to clear out of the paint, and they do. He's 6'8" but moves like he's 6'4", he gets around his man, cuts into the paint, the defense converges, Dillon Brooks swipes at the ball and hits Avdija's arm, he makes the layup and was fouled by Dillon Brooks, who fouls out. Avdija hits the FT: POR up 2 with 16 secs left. Suns timeout. All-time ballsy clutch gimme the ball Imma score kinda thing by Avdija. Tight defense by POR, lots of touches by PHO players, every drive gets shut off, and Jalen Green gets it way out 26 feet away, puts it up 9 secs left: MISSES! Scramble, and Goodwin gets the offensive board but can't control it and Jeremi Grant steals it: PHO has to foul, but they can't catch anyone, Grant makes a dunk with 0.4 left and POR leaves the Suns fans sad. Grant's 3 probably wouldda won it for PHO, but it wasn't the play they were looking for. NOW: this was a very good game. But Miami at Charlotte? That game was totally insane. If you missed it, I feel bad for you. My lawd. It made the game I just typed about look like a damned bore. If you saw it you know what I mean. Man, I love the NBA.
