Watched Brooklyn @ CLE. Cavs won 105-100, and it was kinda insane. Both teams on a BTB: Cavs annihilated GSW and Nets lost a rough one in OT to the damned Bags. 1st Q: Spiderman hit at least 4 3s. CLE's D looks really good. They were up 15 early and I figured, ya know, damn these guys are fer real and might actually make it 11-0 for the season. Then, they lost focus and looked like trash about midway through the 2nd and for the entire 3rd. Nets go up 14 and it's about time CLE lost a game, let's face it. They either ran out of gas or...who knows. They suddenly looked as flat as a flash card. Where they shot the lights out in the 1st Q they went for long stretches where they couldn't buy a bucket. Mitchell had that look that I remember Kobe having: Imma take over this game and get us back in it, but every shot rattles around and out. Just not to be. So far this season CLE only had one quarter in which they didn't score 20. They finished with 13 in the 3rd. 82-70 Brooklyn going into the 4th. Cavs looked done. Cavs outscored 'em 35-18 in the 4th to win the game. Wow. They clamped down on D, which all elite teams do. In a furious last 5 mins, they caught the Nets, passed them, and won. Guys on both teams were throwing their bodies on the court for possession, but CLE's defense was incredible. Ty Jerome at times reminded me of Vando. Mobley defended the rim like Bill Russell. Darius Garland was clutch when they had to have it. BTW: how does a guy who looks like Georges Niang have an NBA career? I mean, I get it: he's 6'7" but with no muscle definition, a couple of fat rolls on the back of his neck...and he's a good player. To me, he looks more like the boring head of Human Resources at some subsidiary of Megacorp. He only looks slightly more in-shape than Will Ferrell's "Jackie Moon" character. My whole life I've marveled at NBA players like this. Remember Jared Dudley? Zach Randolph? Jason Kapono? JJ Barea? Raymond Felton? Robert Traylor, who was 6'9" and 305 at one point? Hell: Steve Nash? Anyway...(Yea yea yea I know: Joker/Zion/Barkley...) Damn. CLE looks for real. Final observation: Cavs are still employing Austin Carr as a color commentator and he's really a drag. He talks a lot, says NOTHING interesting, uses every cliche you can imagine, and makes dumb or obvious comments and then laughs at his own utterances. There was nothing funny there, Carr. At least four times the Cavs scored and he immediately yelled "That's what you need!" Yikes.I know: this could fit most homer color commentators, but man: this guy is really exasperating to listen to. Cavs fans deserve better, but they probably love him. As fans do.
the cavs look like i expected them to look last year, when they were extremely disappointing, imo. they made very few changes to the roster, and they look great.
Saw Chet's nasty fall vs. GSW: had to be helped off the court: pelvic fracture. GSW gave OKC their 2nd loss. Chet will miss a slew of games and the team announced he's "expected to return this season." Not good. Bad for NBA fans. This kid was looking even better this year. Also significantly hurt NBA impact players: Ja Zion, Herb Jones, CJ, and Dejounte: very very bad luck for Pels Porzingis Lonzo (but of course!) Aaron Gordon Kawhi (no surprise at this point) (Breeng me the head of) Paolo Banchero Maxey KD Jarred Vanderbilt
Jokic's playing at his highest level. And it's incredible because we're talking about the best NBA player of the last 3-4 years, it's insane that he's able to improve his game year after year. Denver has a short rotation and they've decided to bring Westbrook in. No sense.
Watched OKC beat Clips in OKC 134-128 in a tight game despite having no bigs at all. Not even close. Chet is out, Hartenstein still out. Jaylin Williams (6'9") is still out with a hammy. Clips tried to feed inside to Zubac and when he got it, he was covered by Jaylen Williams, Lou Dort, or Caruso: 6'5"/6'4"/6'5", respectively. When Zu was out there it looked like a HS game where one team had a kid who was already 6'10" or whatever. Zu is 7'0". When Zu got the ball down low, he looked unstoppable, but they collapsed on him and tried to deny him the ball. You'd think he'd get 50, but managed only 22 on 9 for 12 shooting. He only shot 6 FTs, making 4. Good coaching by Daigneault, but they can't keep this up for long. OKC had no starter over 6'6". Norman Powell turned into a scoring machine in the 2nd half: 29 of his 31 in the 2nd half, but he fouled out on a dumb play that really hurt the Clips in crunch. SGA: 45/3/9 with 5 steals. He's still getting away with that little forearm shiv, but opposing coaches are all harping on this to the refs and I'd expect something to be done before the season's out. SGA drove the lane in the 4th and made a wild shot in traffic and got away with a left elbow to Beardie's chin that had him on the floor for 2 mins before getting up. Beardie: 5 for 15 shooting but 11 boards and 9 dimes. But they need more from him. I'm gonna say the OKC D had a lot to do with it. We'll see how well OKC fares w/o ANY bigs at all. They looked a little stunned after Chet limped off yesterday in the loss to GSW; they gave up 128 to the Clips but managed to stretch their record to 9-2. I'm not sure you can play that small and win consistently, though. I'd say the Clips should feel embarrassed, but we're talking the Clips here.
Spo was one of the last coaches I'd guess who'd blow the game that way. Very weird. Also: a lousy way to lose a game in OT. Spo took full blame afterwards, too. I wanna say it's a stupid rule if it costs a team a game, like this did. But man, that's why your assistants check in with you. "Yo, Spo: we out of time outs."
ATL went into BOS w/o Trae Young (achilles strain) and were down 7 going into the 4th and won by 1 point, 117-116. Who did the scoring for ATL? 21 yr old Dyson Daniels: 28 Larry Nance Jr: 19 Jalen Johnson: 18 (always watch out fo dem Jalens!) Capela: 18 Onyeka Okongwu: 15 BOS got 88 from Jaylen/Tatum/Derrick White. All other Bags players contributed 28 pts. My point is...C-Bags LOSE! Making today a "good day" by definition.
