Very interesting day in the NBA. The tale of two great starts. Of course, the thing most people will be talking about is CP3 beating THE 3. While, of course, amazing and great and all that, what's more remarkable is that it's becoming less surprising what the Hornets are doing. The beginning of the season is usually bizarre, filled with teams in first that won't be in 3 weeks or so, and top teams still working out the kinks. But here's who the Hornets have beaten so far: Milwaukee, Houston, San Antonio, Denver and Miami. Every single one a playoff team, or in the case of Miami, not a playoff team yet, but expected to contend for the finals. This don't seem to be a flash in the pan. Ariza really seems to have upgraded their defense (5th best in the league), and Okafor is playing like a new man. Can't wait to actually see them play, but from a distance it's hard to argue with their wins.
A little closer in, both to my heart and geography, the Warriors beat the Jazz tonight to go to 4-1. Here's the thing: This was more than just an average win. The Warriors haven't beaten the Jazz for more than a year, and they outrebounded them (which probably hasn't happened in an even longer time). I'm going to repeat this in case you didn't catch it: The Warriors outrebounded the Jazz. In fact, they shot horribly, but made up for it with....yes, you guessed it, REBOUNDING! Lee and Biedrins had 35 rebounds just between the two of them, which I think is more than the entire team got in the first 5 games last year. Ellis had 7 steals, and not coincidentally, Deron had an uncharacteristic 8 turnovers. It's more possible the Warriors are fluke as this was the first real challenge of the year, but they aren't playing that way. Some wins have been gritty, and they don't seem to collapse down the stretch like last year. Maybe not having a lunatic screaming in your ear and pulling you out of the game everytime you scratch your ass might have something to do with that? David Lee has turned out to be the perfect player for them. It's true, he's not a very good defender, but he's not as horrible as advertised. And he makes up for it by being absolutely relentless on the boards. 5 games, 5 double doubles! I think he could be even better offensively, as they figure out more pick and pop plays with him, but for now he's getting most everything on his own off the boards. Beautiful.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Wade-ing In
Just as many times as I read Bill Simmons and say "Man, he's saying just what I'm thinking!", I am also quite sure that he is completely wrong. It's what made his book ultimately too exhausting for me to finish, and I think I've finally narrowed down the problem. When looking at NBA trends, shifts in basketball hoodoo and the way people are appearing on the grand stage, he's unmatched. When it comes to evaluating actual players and how teams work, he is more often so blinded (somewhat self-deprecatingly so) by his own prejudices, Celtics upbringing and skittering-instead-of-throrough thinking, that he is just out of the bounds of reality.
A great example is his recent article about Lebron James and Dwayne Wade and the new Heat. While making a great gut-feeling evaluation about the atmospherics on the floor, of the seeming joylessness of the team and their rough transition from beloved to hated, he makes an essential misjudgment about the actual basketball dynamics. He claims that the only way that team can win is if Wad realizes that Lebron is just better, and agrees to be his secondary player. It's stunning how quickly Simmons can pivot from the thoughtful to the completely inane. There are several levels at which this is completely off-base, the most obvious being what Wade did to prove him wrong in the 2nd and 3rd games of the season.
A great example is his recent article about Lebron James and Dwayne Wade and the new Heat. While making a great gut-feeling evaluation about the atmospherics on the floor, of the seeming joylessness of the team and their rough transition from beloved to hated, he makes an essential misjudgment about the actual basketball dynamics. He claims that the only way that team can win is if Wad realizes that Lebron is just better, and agrees to be his secondary player. It's stunning how quickly Simmons can pivot from the thoughtful to the completely inane. There are several levels at which this is completely off-base, the most obvious being what Wade did to prove him wrong in the 2nd and 3rd games of the season.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Playing Hoarse
Oh man...Wednesday was probably one of the top sports nights of my life...We watched the Giants game at Oracle (they opened early) in a little side area, surrounded by an ever-growing group of fans who, by the 5th inning were chanting loudly, and screaming our brains out. Meanwhile, shootarounds were happening just below, and the opening day excitement was growing. Brain felt nearly torn in half at times. In fact, we didn't make it to our seats until half way through the second quarter, and Monta already had 20 points! We finally decided it was ok to leave with the 9th inning, and a 7 run lead. We stopped for a hot dog, and on our way in, saw that Texas had already scored a run and had 2 on with no outs. Come on, let us watch some fucking basketball! We watched for a sec, as Ramon finally got an out, then went inside and watched the rest of the 2nd quarter while refreshing scores on our iphones. Meanwhile, on the court, wait a minute...a rag tag team of castoffs with a couple brilliant homegrown talents from the Bay Area was scoring at will against a defensive-minded team from Texas...wha??? Where am I?
There was a sequence in the fourth quarter with Curry and Monta going off simultaneously that just left you breathless. Holy shit. Curry hit about three of the prettiest jumpers you'll ever see, with increasing levels of difficulty, stole the ball, dished to Monta, drove for a great layup and then Monta took over and hit two nearly impossible shots. You had a feeling like, maybe the reason Monta thought they couldn't play together is because nothing like this has ever happened before. There just may not be a precedent for two guards like this, and suddenly it clicked in his mind that maybe that wasn't a problem. Maybe it was going to drive opponents bezonkers. Watching the Warriors right now is as exciting as it's ever been for me. Like the Giants, they made a thrilling run a few years ago with a bunch of players who were brought from other places. An exciting and improbable first round victory, but nonetheless, this is different. Monta, Curry and Biedrins are Warriors from the beginning. Lee is still young, just blossoming. That core is basically our team for the forseeable future, and we're gonna get to watch them discover who they are under a new coach, a new ownership team. And Curry and Monta have nearly limitless potential. Again, like the Giants' run, you get the sense that being able to say you saw Monta and Curry in those first couple years will be something touched with awe for grandchildren. They scored 73 points between the two of them on opening night. Curry had 11 assists. Monta was 16-24. That's the baseline.
And as for the Giants, yeah, what can you say at this point? I finally had settled myself in for understanding what to expect from the Giants. A couple runs, some intense pitching, a huge hit and that's all she wrote. Now that they've scored 8 runs on the best pitcher in postseason history, it almost hurts. Like, oh my god, we have to hope for that too now? On Freddy's last hit, I actually fell to my knees, asking for mercy...is this possible? Do we have to take our fandom to yet another level? I don't know if my psyche can handle it!
Suffice it to say, that last night was beautiful. I still get shivers thinking about it. I actually think many people here would openly weep if the Giants won the series. When I saw them in their first playoff run at Pac Bell park, against the Mets, and JT Snow hit the game-tying 3-run homer that just crawled over the fence in left field, amongst the jumping and screaming I saw a man actually weeping behind me. Of course, we'd all be weeping the next inning when the Mets went back ahead and won, but still. That was nothing compared to a World Series, with these guys, now. For the first time I've actually had to confront the possibility that they might win this thing. I haven't, I don't think, allowed myself to dwell for even a moment on them going any farther than each round they've been in. But the winner of game 1 of the World Series has won 6 of the last seven series', and beating Cliff Lee is just a devastating blow. Doesn't mean the Giants are going to win by any means, they are certainly no sure thing, but the POSSIBILITY they might win is finally undeniable. I can no longer exclude it from my mind, which kinda sucks. Like the most beautiful woman in your class finally taking a long, luscious look at you and you finallly realize she might actually be interested but now that means you have to believe and maybe get hurt and say something stupid and oh my god.
There was a sequence in the fourth quarter with Curry and Monta going off simultaneously that just left you breathless. Holy shit. Curry hit about three of the prettiest jumpers you'll ever see, with increasing levels of difficulty, stole the ball, dished to Monta, drove for a great layup and then Monta took over and hit two nearly impossible shots. You had a feeling like, maybe the reason Monta thought they couldn't play together is because nothing like this has ever happened before. There just may not be a precedent for two guards like this, and suddenly it clicked in his mind that maybe that wasn't a problem. Maybe it was going to drive opponents bezonkers. Watching the Warriors right now is as exciting as it's ever been for me. Like the Giants, they made a thrilling run a few years ago with a bunch of players who were brought from other places. An exciting and improbable first round victory, but nonetheless, this is different. Monta, Curry and Biedrins are Warriors from the beginning. Lee is still young, just blossoming. That core is basically our team for the forseeable future, and we're gonna get to watch them discover who they are under a new coach, a new ownership team. And Curry and Monta have nearly limitless potential. Again, like the Giants' run, you get the sense that being able to say you saw Monta and Curry in those first couple years will be something touched with awe for grandchildren. They scored 73 points between the two of them on opening night. Curry had 11 assists. Monta was 16-24. That's the baseline.
And as for the Giants, yeah, what can you say at this point? I finally had settled myself in for understanding what to expect from the Giants. A couple runs, some intense pitching, a huge hit and that's all she wrote. Now that they've scored 8 runs on the best pitcher in postseason history, it almost hurts. Like, oh my god, we have to hope for that too now? On Freddy's last hit, I actually fell to my knees, asking for mercy...is this possible? Do we have to take our fandom to yet another level? I don't know if my psyche can handle it!
Suffice it to say, that last night was beautiful. I still get shivers thinking about it. I actually think many people here would openly weep if the Giants won the series. When I saw them in their first playoff run at Pac Bell park, against the Mets, and JT Snow hit the game-tying 3-run homer that just crawled over the fence in left field, amongst the jumping and screaming I saw a man actually weeping behind me. Of course, we'd all be weeping the next inning when the Mets went back ahead and won, but still. That was nothing compared to a World Series, with these guys, now. For the first time I've actually had to confront the possibility that they might win this thing. I haven't, I don't think, allowed myself to dwell for even a moment on them going any farther than each round they've been in. But the winner of game 1 of the World Series has won 6 of the last seven series', and beating Cliff Lee is just a devastating blow. Doesn't mean the Giants are going to win by any means, they are certainly no sure thing, but the POSSIBILITY they might win is finally undeniable. I can no longer exclude it from my mind, which kinda sucks. Like the most beautiful woman in your class finally taking a long, luscious look at you and you finallly realize she might actually be interested but now that means you have to believe and maybe get hurt and say something stupid and oh my god.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Um, this game tomorrow might be worth watching
A quote after the Magic beat the Wizards by nearly 40 points:
"Honestly, I'm sick of listening every hour about Miami -- Miami that, how great they are, how big they are, what kind of record they gonna have," said backup center Marcin Gortat, who had eight points and seven rebounds. "I get every day interviews back in Poland, people calling me about Miami, Miami, what you think about Miami? What you think about Big Three? I'm going to say the same thing: they are a great team, they have three superstars, they got a couple good role players on the team.
"They looking good on the paper, but they got to start winning."
"Honestly, I'm sick of listening every hour about Miami -- Miami that, how great they are, how big they are, what kind of record they gonna have," said backup center Marcin Gortat, who had eight points and seven rebounds. "I get every day interviews back in Poland, people calling me about Miami, Miami, what you think about Miami? What you think about Big Three? I'm going to say the same thing: they are a great team, they have three superstars, they got a couple good role players on the team.
"They looking good on the paper, but they got to start winning."
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
A new era
Well, watched a good portion of Miami vs Boston and a bit of Houston vs Lakers to celebrate the start of NBA season, which really gets underway tomorrow with Dino and I at the Oracle after being tortured by the Giants for a couple hours!
A couple random thoughts...
Firstly, Miami looked almost exactly like Cleveland to me. I know they all have to play together more, and Wade has to get into game shape and all that, but it really felt eerily similar. Good, scrappy defense, no real offensive flow, and the revelation that any team is going to be at least close at the end with Lebron. They really put a scare into Boston after looking dead in the water to start, but ultimately the Celtics dragged a win from the swamp of fairly ugly basketball. I imagine at some point we'll start oooing and ahhing at the Heat, but this wasn't one of those nights. Perhaps when they play the Wizards, or someone else that doesn't match up so perfectly with them.
Also, I was really baffled by Rondo's play. I think that dude is seriously altered in the head. He's so immensely talented, and yet I think, like Artest, that part of his edge comes from being erratic. There is not a player on the Heat who can come close to slowing him down, and yet he was remarkably passive. I mean, it's hard to call a 17 assist game passive, but a lot of those assists came from just dealing to Ray Allen off of screens. Part of that was Wade playing defending him from about 20 feet sagged under the basket, but I also wondered about the psychology of being cut from the FIBA team. Is he sulking? Or perhaps confidence hurt? In fact, why WAS he cut from the FIBA team in the first place? Couldn't beat out Eric Gordon fer chrissake? This a a guy who was one of the 5 most terrifying players in the playoffs last year. Anyway, he didn't have a horrible game, but he just looked out of sorts some how. Weird.
I realized after Dino's post about the Heat a little while back, that I am, in fact, a hater. And the more I thought about it, I realized I have always been a Lebron hater. "Hate" in the street sense, of course. I don't actually HATE the guy. I just have always been skeptical, and almost always have been proven wrong. I really like the Free Darko Almanac piece about him, and I think maybe that's what turned me off a little. He has Jordan's dedication to business and himself in a way that feels a little hollow. I never got hooked into rooting for his improvement. But I also think it's something about me, that I can't really get behind obvious prodigy genius. I need someone to be a bit ragamuffin, to work harder, like choosing Beethoven over Mozart. I've always rooted for him to fail. There, my secrets out.
A couple random thoughts...
Firstly, Miami looked almost exactly like Cleveland to me. I know they all have to play together more, and Wade has to get into game shape and all that, but it really felt eerily similar. Good, scrappy defense, no real offensive flow, and the revelation that any team is going to be at least close at the end with Lebron. They really put a scare into Boston after looking dead in the water to start, but ultimately the Celtics dragged a win from the swamp of fairly ugly basketball. I imagine at some point we'll start oooing and ahhing at the Heat, but this wasn't one of those nights. Perhaps when they play the Wizards, or someone else that doesn't match up so perfectly with them.
Also, I was really baffled by Rondo's play. I think that dude is seriously altered in the head. He's so immensely talented, and yet I think, like Artest, that part of his edge comes from being erratic. There is not a player on the Heat who can come close to slowing him down, and yet he was remarkably passive. I mean, it's hard to call a 17 assist game passive, but a lot of those assists came from just dealing to Ray Allen off of screens. Part of that was Wade playing defending him from about 20 feet sagged under the basket, but I also wondered about the psychology of being cut from the FIBA team. Is he sulking? Or perhaps confidence hurt? In fact, why WAS he cut from the FIBA team in the first place? Couldn't beat out Eric Gordon fer chrissake? This a a guy who was one of the 5 most terrifying players in the playoffs last year. Anyway, he didn't have a horrible game, but he just looked out of sorts some how. Weird.
I realized after Dino's post about the Heat a little while back, that I am, in fact, a hater. And the more I thought about it, I realized I have always been a Lebron hater. "Hate" in the street sense, of course. I don't actually HATE the guy. I just have always been skeptical, and almost always have been proven wrong. I really like the Free Darko Almanac piece about him, and I think maybe that's what turned me off a little. He has Jordan's dedication to business and himself in a way that feels a little hollow. I never got hooked into rooting for his improvement. But I also think it's something about me, that I can't really get behind obvious prodigy genius. I need someone to be a bit ragamuffin, to work harder, like choosing Beethoven over Mozart. I've always rooted for him to fail. There, my secrets out.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Commence the Delusion
Last night they had Lakers vs Warriors preseason on ESPN, and man was it fun! Incredible to see the difference without Nelson there. The most noticeable thing is the obvious chemistry and coherence on offense. They run all kinds of set plays with multiple options, the ball whipping around unselfishly. One caveat on that, of course, Monta was having an unbelievable game and was justified in just taking the ball himself several times. 27 points, 2 missed shots in the first half.
I was really impressed with David Lee, too. He has a really complimentary offensive game, great passer in the style of Webber, sweet shooting touch from outside, and banged inside for a couple post moves too. He and Monta had a couple great handoff/cut/bouncepass/layup moments that just dazzled the Lakers. Curry was sitting out with a mildly tweaked ankle, so it was Monta's show, and he didn't disappoint. A reminder to everyone (like me) who've crowned Curry as the new king of the Warriors. Oh yeah, that guy is pretty damn good.
I was really impressed with David Lee, too. He has a really complimentary offensive game, great passer in the style of Webber, sweet shooting touch from outside, and banged inside for a couple post moves too. He and Monta had a couple great handoff/cut/bouncepass/layup moments that just dazzled the Lakers. Curry was sitting out with a mildly tweaked ankle, so it was Monta's show, and he didn't disappoint. A reminder to everyone (like me) who've crowned Curry as the new king of the Warriors. Oh yeah, that guy is pretty damn good.
Friday, October 22, 2010
last minute predictions
Regular season final standings (i think playoff predictions at the beginning of the reg season are a little insane)
East:
1. Chicago (#1 of my 3 'i'm so daring' picks)
2. Miami (a fair number of losses in the first half of season and a ton of wins in the second half)
3. Orlando
4. Boston (pacing themselves as usual)
5. Milwaukee
6. Atlanta
7. New York
8. Washington (it doesn't take more than wall, arenas and javale mcgee to get the 8th spot in the east)
West:
1. Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters
2. Houston (#2 - scola will kick booty, two headed center miller/yao will be solid, backcourt dangerous, chemistry great, adelman COY)
3. OKC (maybe not as amazing as expected thru reg season, but come playoffs...)
4. San Antonio (one last gasp for spurs cuz parker will return to form for contract year)
5. Dallas
6. Portland
7. Sacramento (#3 - big mean frontcourt, with a shot blocker, a pissed off rookie sensation, and tyreke avoiding the soph slump because of the new help)
8. Phoenix
MVP: Howard
COY: Adelman
DPY: Lebron
Saddest game of the year: Toronto vs Cleveland this Friday night.
East:
1. Chicago (#1 of my 3 'i'm so daring' picks)
2. Miami (a fair number of losses in the first half of season and a ton of wins in the second half)
3. Orlando
4. Boston (pacing themselves as usual)
5. Milwaukee
6. Atlanta
7. New York
8. Washington (it doesn't take more than wall, arenas and javale mcgee to get the 8th spot in the east)
West:
1. Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters
2. Houston (#2 - scola will kick booty, two headed center miller/yao will be solid, backcourt dangerous, chemistry great, adelman COY)
3. OKC (maybe not as amazing as expected thru reg season, but come playoffs...)
4. San Antonio (one last gasp for spurs cuz parker will return to form for contract year)
5. Dallas
6. Portland
7. Sacramento (#3 - big mean frontcourt, with a shot blocker, a pissed off rookie sensation, and tyreke avoiding the soph slump because of the new help)
8. Phoenix
MVP: Howard
COY: Adelman
DPY: Lebron
Saddest game of the year: Toronto vs Cleveland this Friday night.
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