Is it just me or does this look more like ballet than basketball?
Man, what a horrid pair of games that was last night. The Hawks had one great run near the end of the first half, but then just got obliterated the rest of the game. They made it look like they were the ones who had played the day before, when in fact it was the Magic who were on the second night of a back to back. Maybe it was the new 'ATL' jerseys they were using, I don't know. Then the Bulls came out and got flattened from start to finish against a Jazz team that's hovering around .500 for the season. My guess is that by this point the Bulls are feeling like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and can't wait to get the hell home. Unfortunately for them they gotta stop in Milwaukee first before their Circus Trip comes to a close.
On to tonight, and it seems fitting that we've got these games up for 'Black Friday' as it looks like some pretty horribly lopsided events are lined up for this evening.
Nationally Televised Games:
Wizards Generals at Heat - The Wiz look for their second road win of the year (and for a chance to shed that "Generals" tag) against a Miami team that were last seen beating the Magic on a possible offensive goaltending call.
Bucks at Thunder - Kudos to ESPN for having the pre-season foresight to decide to broadcast this one, as it looks like a much better matchup now than it must have looked back in September or October. Update: Turns out they didn't have such foresight after all (good catch, Anon).
All The Other Games:
Hawks at 76ers - Just one of the many potential blowouts on tap for this evening, unless the Hawks are as tired tonight as they looked yesterday.
Crabs at Cats - Sorry, couldn't resist saying "Crabs at Cats" for this Cleveland v. Charlotte beatdown game. Who knows, Shaq might even put in a rare appearance.
Raptors at Celtics - On paper this one looks like it could get ugly, but then again Boston's coming off of a 3 point win over the lowly 76ers and a buzzer beater OT win against the horrendous Knicks (not to mention a loss at home to Orlando), so maybe this one will actually be competitive. Tune in and see.
Clippers at Pistons - After the Clips epic performance against the Pacers the other night, I'm tempted to dub this the Basketbawful Game of the Night just by default, but I think there's a worse one on tap just a little further down...
Mavericks at Pacers - The potential for one-sided games continues with this matchup. Look for Dirk du Soleil to lead Cuban's boys to an easy win tonight.
Spurs at Rockets - San Antonio still doesn't have a road win this year, and Houston is still scrappy. At least the Spurs are getting healthier, thought they'll most likely still be without the seemingly always-injured Manu Ginobili tonight.
Knicks at Nuggets - This one could get ugly. Who am I kidding? My guess is we'll be seeing at least two quarters of garbage time in this one.
Suns at Timberwolves - In Kurt "Clothesline" Rambis's first turn as a head coach, he started off going 11-1 (with the Lakers in 1999). My guess is after tonight, his second stint as head coach is gonna be marked with a 1-15 record. It's looking like Phoenix already has more wins this season than Minnesota will get all year.
Grizzlies at Trail Blazers - See what I mean about there being a ton of potential beatdowns scheduled for tonight? Still, Marc Gasol's playing pretty good this year, so the Oden Watch will definitely be in effect for this one.
Nyets at Kings - Ahhh, last but not and least, it's tonight Basketbawful Game of the Night!
Saturday's Games:
Bobcats at Wizards - Odd that the Basketbawful Game of the Night is the only one that's being broadcast nationally (on NBA TV). Maybe one of the readers here is a program director over there?
Mavs at Crabs - Drew Gooden returns to the place where he attempted to popularize the back of the neck goatee (what the hell was that thing called?). If that's not enough to get you to watch, there's always the annual Shaq vs. "Erica" Dampier drama (provided either one is healthy enough to play).
Magic at Bucks - Look for Stan Van Gundy to be extra grumpy about having to spend Thanksgiving weekend in Milwaukee.
Trail Blazers at Jazz - Ostertag is still retired, and Mehmet Okur's almost entirely a perimeter shooter, so the Oden Watch may get a night off for this one.
Lakers at Warriors - Stop the presses, it's a Laker road game! Too bad this one isn't nationally televised, otherwise we'd all be able to tell our grandchildren we were actually around to see the Lakers play on the road during the 2009-2010 season.
Sunday's Games:
Celtics at Heat - We're actually gonna get a chance on national TV (NBA TV) to see if the Celtics are really struggling or not by having to play a road game against a better than average team.
Hawks at Pistons - The Pistons are starting two guys (Ben Wallace and Jonas Jerebko) who combined average less points per game than any single player in Atlanta's starting lineup averages by himself. Might be a bad sign.
Grizzlies at Clippers - As if there was any doubt, this is your Basketbawful Game of the Night.
Suns at Raptors - Steve Nash returns to Canada where we'll get to see if he, like Dracula before him, has extra super powers when he's on his home soil.
Magic at Knicks - The New and Improved Eddy Curry (strangely similar to the Old and Unimproved Eddy Curry) gets to try out his new lean physique against Dwight Howard. Good luck with that, Eds.
76ers at Spurs - Luckily for Spurs fans, this game is being played in San Antonio, where the Spurs have actually won basketball games this year.
Rockets at Thunder - Trevor Ariza vs. Kevin Durant may not have the star matchup cache that Kobe vs. LeBron does, but give credit where it's due: these teams are two of the real pleasant surprises in the West thus far this season.
Timberwolves vs. Nuggets - I'm plagiarizing someone here (though I can't remember who), but this has all the makings of a snuff film.
Hornets at Kings - Peja Stojakovic returns to his old stopming ground and the home of his glory days. I'm sure that fact warms the cockles of chris's heart.
Nyets at Lakers - The league's only winless team could be looking to equal the Clippers' two 0-17 starts by taking on the defending champs. Either that happens or stephanie g will get her wish of seeing the Nyets narrowly avoid history at the hands of some epic failure by the Lakers. Also it should be pointed out that Staples Center gets to host the Grizzlies, Clippers and Nyets all in one day, due to both Clipper and Laker home games there on Sunday. That's gotta be some record of bawfulry which may park a black cloud over the arena for a while.Labels: Bawful After Dark, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Washington Wizards
http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/The_Baseline/entry/view/44751/espn_rushes_to_get_jennings_on_television
-BJ
The Kings are beating the Nyets by 17 points already in the 2nd quarter.
What's with Paul Pierce throwing a knee into Chris Bosh's man-region and then taunting him about it afterward? That's not nice, and that's The Truth.
Also, check out this picture from the ESPN recap of the Clippers-Pistons game. Jonas Jerebko and his "no photo available" status makes these fans very unhappy.
The Nuggets' last 3 opponents were the Nets (0-13 coming in), Wolves (1-13 with a win over the Nets), and Knicks (3-12 with a win over the Nets). Their next opponent is the Wolves (now 1-15). I think that might be the historically worst combined win percentage for 4 straight opponents in NBA history (not counting playing 4 winless teams in the first 4 games of the season.) Not surprisingly, the Nugs have a 4-game win streak going (tied with the Lakers and Spurs for best in the NBA right now.)
Watching these games has been bawful. Two blowouts against historically turribl teams, and then a close game against a hot-shooting Knicks team. How do you celebrate that? "Nice job takin' down the powerhouse Knicks, guys! Keep the win streak alive!"
- @ Lakers Sunday night to avoid tying the worst start ever
- Home vs. Dallas Wednesday to avoid breaking the record
- Home vs. Charlotte next Friday
- @ Knicks next Sunday
- @ Bulls Tuesday 12/8
- Home vs. Golden State Wed. 12/9 (would be 0-22 by this point)
- Some time in the next 5 games after that
- 0-82!!
On a positive note, they DO get Minnesota at home two days before Christmas. That might just do it.
Could you imagine if New Jersey went winless all the way up until that Minnesota game, and then beat a Timberwolves team that had lost all of its games since the season opener, being 1-and-whatever coming in? You'd have two 1-and-29-ish teams whose only victories were over each other. When can we demote them to the NBDL, Euro-soccer-style?
Friday - 4 fouls in 28 minutes in a loss against Memphis
Saturday - 5 fouls in 24 minutes in a loss against Utah
It should be pointed out that Portland trailed the Grizzlies by 29 at one point in their home loss on Friday, and they trailed the Jazz by 27 at one point in that loss in Utah last night. Methinks Nate McMillan is getting ever closer to being on the famed hot seat with what is going on up there in the Pacific Northwest these days.
I also noticed that the Nyets fired their coach. It's kinda like putting a cotton ball in a submarine hull-breach. Or ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife. Just once I'd like to see managers just fire themselves. At least then they could claim unemployment or secure themselves a nice severance...
The Lakers have now won six games in a row by double digits, and in all six of those games the Lakers have held a lead of no less than 24 points at some point in the 4th quarter. The Lakers get one more relatively easy game (Tuesday against the Hornets), but after that the schedule finally starts to get tougher for them (though they don't play a road game till December 12th).
(And I am still very disappointed we did not get a Hallway Series. Though, ironically, from 1984 to 1999, with some one-off exceptions, the Clippers were the only one of the LA basketball teams to play IN the city limits, the Lakers having left for Inglewood in '67...)
Some extra bawful for you: did anyone else see this horrendous play by Rajon Rondo today? He almost looks like he's been studying that infamous possession by Zach Randolph or something. Way to dribble the shot clock all the way down to one before attempting a contested turnaround fadeaway three from a few feet behind the arc, Rondo.
Sukhmani Sahib? 8-.