Random Other NBA Teams Discussion

Random schedule question . Since when two teams of opposite conferences are playing each other more than twice a season ?

Grizz played against the Nets 3 times this season .

 

I don't think I've ever seen this: DET@SAC:

DET down 3 with 3 secs left, Ivey hits a 3 from the corner to tie it.

Okay, we've all seen that. We saw it happen to us on Xmas, with 7 secs left: Steph hits a 3 to tie it.

But: Fox fouled Ivey on the 3. Ivey hit the FT: DET wins by 1. To me, it's a questionable call. Fox goes for the pump fake and sort of jumps into Ivey, but Ivey also leans to his left to get more of Fox's body. Props for hitting the shot and then the FT, but man: rough call with everything on the line. Still: you have to contest but not give the refs any chance to call you for a foul. Ah, well.

Fox is Goat. Sounds like a book you read to your pre-schooler, don't it?

SAC is gonna be hungry in Crypto: they're on a 5-game losing streak and this latest one was a back-breaker. If it was a back-breaker, I hope we make it even worse.
Step on their throats?

 

Fox actually put his hands on Ivey’s shoulders

 

I think there is a concerted effort to cut down on travel, so maybe this is happening on occasion to help accommodate certain schedules

 

Yea. Fox uck-fayed-up-fay. And his own coach didn't hold back on the criticism. Mike Brown:

“If you’re up three and guys are going to the three-point line, there should be no close-out opportunity,” said Brown in the same report. “We were OK with them (Pistons) scoring a two at the rim so you should not be in a position to help at all. You should be hugged up to your man at the three-point line. Everybody should.

"Why was there a close-out by Fox? I’m not sure." (source)

EDIT: soon after posting this I found out SAC fired Brown. I wonder how De'Aaron Fox feels right about now?

 

NBA Cup s***

 

Jeeez: "sources" say Luka is out at least a month?

Damn. Let's see that the rest of the Mavs are made of. Can Kyrie - now doubled much more - dish like Doncic? I doubt it.

 

bigger concern is cascading injuries, imo. will kyrie get hurt from carrying too much load?

 

Just got around to watching C-Bags @ ORL from 4 days ago. Tatum was sick and out after a 43 point trip-dub win over CHI, so it was up to Jaylen to lead the scoring, which he did, with 35.

BOS up 15 at halftime. The calamitous injuries had finally set in for the Magic. Well, Paolo is ramping up to return, so at least there's that for them.

Then: ORL owns the 3rd, 36-21: tie game going into the 4th. They go up 10! I was impressed. Bags make a run late (because of course) and with 34 secs left Horford's 3 couldda tied it: but he couldn't knock it down. Tristan da Silva (am I making that name up?) hits a 3 for ORL with 10 secs left to get the win.

Bags LOSE!

Speaking of names of players, I always have a Top 3. For years Zaza Pachulia was my runaway fave. This year it's a dogfight for my #1, between Precious Achiuwa (who helped the Knicks beat ORL earlier today) and ORL's Travelin Queen, with Queen currently in the top spot. Not that anyone asked.

I'm a big fan of saying "Kristaps Porzingis" too.

 

MEM has put up 287 points in less than 30 hours, counting today and yesterday.

And then Ja runs right into a German wall in Theis, and, to paraphrase Howard Cosell, "Down goes Morant!"

Possibly a shoulder injury. Ja just didn't see Theis's pick and ran right into him, going down hard. Possible shoulder injury.

At first the refs called Theis for a moving screen but he instantly did the "roll the tape" gesture and they did: not a foul on Theis.

In BTB games MEM has put up 155 and then 132. BOS put up 142 in beating IND today. The Cavs beat DEN 149-135 today. So: not a lot of defense is being played at the end of the year.

OTOH, the Spurs went into Brooklyn today and put up only 11 points in the 1st Q but came away with the win, 96-87. Wemby had 6 blocks and I don't see how he ever ends up with less than 10 blocks in a game.
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Meanwhile, the Suns are starting to unravel: they're 6-13 over their last 19. And in the 3rd Q tonight against DAL, Nurkic got Gafford with an elbow, and Gafford went down: offensive foul. Nurkic starts back the other way, then stops. Naji Marshall runs up and confronts Nurkic, and Nurkic gave him a little "get the hell outta here" swipe on the right side of the head, but Naji retaliated with a punch. I didn't see what PJ Washington did, but all three guys were kicked out of the game, and I'm thinking Naji gets at least a game suspended. Nurkic's thing wasn't a "punch." But Naji's thing definitely was.

DAL won their first game after it was announced Luka will miss significant time.
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GSW is 3-12 over their last 15, and after being down 49-43 against the Clips, they got torched in the 3rd Q 32-19 and the 4th was chippy AF. GSW started the 4th down 19, cut it to 3, then were gassed and didn't have much left after Kerr just didn't play Wiggins, Anderson or Schroder much at all in the 2nd half, going with Kuminga (37 points off the bench), Podziemski (who got into some very physical play and had the Clips fans booing him every time he touched the ball), TJD, Lindy Waters III, and Moses Moody. Steph was out with knees, Draymond with a back thing.

The only GSW starter who scored in double figures was TJD. That's something you never thought you'd see.

LAC 102; GSW 92: GSW out-rebounded the Clips 47-39, which is odd, because they lost. But what's really weird is GSW had 19 offensive boards to the Clips' 6. And they lost! They find ways to lose that are really remarkable. They broke their own team record for most 3s made in a game a couple weeks ago, and lost the game.

No love lost here for struggling PHO and GSW, but an overflow of schadenfreude, I admit.
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Cavs went into DEN and won 149-135: CLE put up 80 in the first half. Since the Cavs inexplicably lost two in a row to ATL, they're 10-1. Cavs got 117 from their starters. The Joker had 27/14/13 with 3 steals in yet another loss. He's having an MVP season again, but his teammates have let him down. They're now 16-13. Brick played 30 mins: 11/4/7 with 4 turnovers and 5 for 13 shooting. If I'm Malone I stop starting Brick and give Peyton Watson the mins, but hey Malone, ya Laker-hater: you do you.

 

Wemby is averaging 25/10/4/4 at 20 years old.

that's pretty crazy.

Hope he has a long healthy career and we get to see what he's capable of over the long haul. Might be breaking more than a few records.

 

I second this motion. His game is beautiful and improving every day.

He. Is. 20. He has a birthday and can drink 7 days from now, as I post this.

When I was a child just becoming aware of basketball, Kareem had just graduated from UCLA. I had seen clips of him playing and it was almost magical: a thin giant who was so graceful on the court, and just dominated with some - almost ballet-like style. And his dunks were so dominant it actually caused a rule change at one point. I think his freshman squad at UCLA beat the main squad, who were the current NCAA champs?

Bucks get the pick: Kareem. They went from last place to championship in, IIRC, two years. Big O's only ring, with Kareem.

I'm an 11 year old and my team, the Lakers, just won their 20th straight game. Then: 30th. 33 straight: longest streak in NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB.Ever. I listen to every game on AM radio, called by Chick Hearn. I watch every game they're on (channel 9 at that time?).

Then they played Milwaukee. Kareem torched them and ended the Lakers' streak. A video link

Wemby reminds me of Kareem. And I agree: hope he has as long a career as Cap, may Allah bless him. It would seem to require a lot of luck if he does last as long as Cap. May Wemby have it.

 

lol of course green and curry sit against the clips. the league should add 5 wins to our total every year due to persistent strength of schedule differences. imagine instead of having curry hit running blindfolded 35 footers, you have lindy waters going ofer and the whole team shooting 7-38 from three. we'd have gotten to rest the starters.

 

lol
Bulls And Hornets Tie Their Own Record For Most Missed 3-Pointers In An NBA Game
The Bulls and the Hornets have done it again, tying their previous record for the most three-pointers missed in a game

The Chicago Bulls went 10-43 (23.3% 3P), missing 33 three-point attempts, whereas the Charlotte Hornets went 18-60 (30.0% 3P), missing 42 three-point attempts.

In their previous game against each other, the Bulls went 14-51 (27.5% 3P), missing 37 of their three-point attempts. While the Hornets went 8-46 (17.4% 3P), missing 38 of their three-point attempts.

 

18-60 ... good lord. Yeah Silver your league has a problem.

 

Silver addressed the 3 game now epidemic in the league at the Cup game in Vegas, but it was around how teams are copying each other and now playing the same style. It's like: the crowd likes the 3-ball. But it is creating a less-dynamic game. What to do? Silver was "We're thinking about it." Like: what would you do? He wouldn't consider moving the arc.

Yea, but imagine paying hard-earned money to see a team jack up 60 3s and only 18 go down. That's sheer lousy..."style", as Silver puts it.

In general I'm against the league imposing new rules.

 

widen the court and move the line back. the nba has changed the size of the lane and moved the three point line before, so i'm not sure it's really messing with the purity of the game or something.

 

I've often thought of widening the court, but mostly it creeps up on me while I'm watching a game: a sort of claustrophobia. The players today are faster, bigger, and more athletic and it feels like widening the court would make the game less...cramped. If Silver says - and he did in Vegas - that he doesn't want to move the arc back, widening the court a a bit would probably be a good move, overall.

"Purity of the game" ideas. "Purity" arguments tend to make me laff in general, because they pose as a mask for something else. In general, "purity" will tend to be BS.

What we do want is a higher quality of play. The players are already as good as it gets. What else can you do? Make tiny tweaks. But fer crissakes please don't get desperate, like Rob Manfred, commissioner of MLB: no defensive shifts based on Big Data! No more 15 inning games: put a guy on 2nd in the top of the 10th. Pitchers can only throw over to 1st 2 times. Make the bases larger to encourage more stealing. A reliever has to face a minimum of two hitters in order to speed up the game. People have things to do. Stop being so 19th century out there. It's a new world. Etc. It all smacks of desperation. Economic desperation.

The pitch clock? I will concede: it was a good idea.

NBA: how about shots made from beyond the 8 second line equal five points? (I'm kidding.)

 

hold your tongue. "because there are no 4s" is a threat.