Jack Sikma (left) and Elston Turner (right) have greatly differing reactions when Rick Adelman (center) wonders "Is Rick Adelman gonna have to choke a bitch?"
If you wondered how the Celtics lost to the Magic, I'm sure this had something to do with it
Larry Brown threatens to tickle the hell out of his team with The Claw unless they get their act together
(Kinda Sorta) Nationally Televised Games:
Wizards Generals at Spurs - It's on NBA TV. I don't get this channel, despite having Insight Cable's sports package and HD package. What the hell? Then again, Insight also doesn't offer the NHL channel, or the NHL season pass. And it carries Versus, but NOT in high definition. Oh well, I'm not missing much in this game. The Wizards General against the old and creaky and severely injured Spurs? Really? This is your "national" TV broadcast for the day, Commish Stern?
All the other games:
Knicks at Nyets - A 2-7 team on the road against a 0-12 team. This is where basketball goes to die. This makes the Washington at San Antonio game look appealing. And since the Knicks had the smarts to tell Iverson to get lost, I don't even feel all that confident about the Nyets having a shot at their first win today. I do have confidence, however, that we'll have something to say about this game come Monday morning!
76ers at Crabs - Both teams are on the second night of back-to-backs. Both teams had to travel immediately after playing hard-fought games. And King Crab hasn't scored 30 points against this Philadelphia team in seven games. The odds are pretty good that this will be a painful game to watch.
Hawks at Hornets - This is actually a compelling game. Atlanta is on the road in a back-to-back against a fresh Hornets team that won its last game against Phoenix. It's still looking like the Hawks are for real this year, but this game isn't sounding very good for them. The Hornets last loss was against this very Hawks team. Revenge game, anyone?
Bucks at Grizzlies - Did you know the Grizzlies are on a three game winning streak now that they're cured of The Cancer? Did you know that nobody really cares since it's freaking Memphis? Same goes for Milwaukee being 7-3 so far. Who knew? Oh, and this is yet another game where two teams coming off back-to-backs, which usually is not good for anybody, including the fans. Thank God Memphis and Milwaukee don't have many fans to let down.
Kings at Rockets - The Kings are fresh off a two point loss to the Mavs, and the Rockets are fresh off a two point loss to the Hawks. This game will either be really good, or really, really horrendous. There is nothing in-between. Fun fact: the Kings have won four of six since Kevin Martin was injured. I hate to sound like a broken record (especially since that phrase is so dated), but I'm just sayin'...
Bulls at Nuggets - Okay, so I was a little off on my prediction last night on that Nuggets/Clippers game. The Clippers weren't who we thought they were, for at least one night. Show of hands: who honestly expected the Nuggets to get thoroughly handled by the freakin' Clippers? Embarrassing. While the Bulls will be on fresh legs, could we see the Nuggets trying a little extra hard tonight to gain back some respect? And we all remember their last game, when Brad Miller's last-second shot was ruled to be after the last second.
Pistons at Jazz - Detroit has dropped three straight games. Utah's won three of its past four, losing only to Cleveland. The Jazz have won eight straight games against the Pistons. Throw in the fact that they're on the road, and things don't look so hot for Detroit tonight (or at all this year).
Timberwolves at Blazers - Oh my God. The Wolves are just a bawful team. Their only win was their season-opener against the Nyets, and they're now on an 11-game losing streak. Do you really need me to say anything else about this game?
Labels: Bawful After Dark, Brian Scalabrine, God the Nyets suck, man love, NBA TV, Rick Adelman
captcha: brack = the sound issuing from Larry Brown's mout in the above picture.
How about I pronounce 'Iranian' like I pronounce 'fuck off, asshole'? I should start sending emails to every team about commentary pronounciation. "I didn't like the way they said Ginobli. It offended me."
The loss could put more pressure on Nets coach Lawrence Frank, who won his first 13 games after he was promoted in January 2004 and now has a losing streak that matches it.
Things aren't much better for the Knicks (3-9), but they're better than the Nets. New York won all three preseason games between the local rivals.
According to STATS LLC, there hadn't been an NBA game matching teams who had each played at least 11 games and combined to win so few of them since Dec. 3, 1994, when Minnesota was 2-13 as it hosted the 0-14 Clippers.
There were sloppy passes and errant shots, but at least it was fun for the kids, who got to see Dora the Explorer come on the court a few times and a half-deflated Elmo balloon hover over it during much of the second quarter.
And there were plenty of items tossed into the stands during giveaways -- not counting Chandler's pass that landed in the fourth row.
The worst start in franchise history had the Knicks considering Allen Iverson before ruling it out Friday.
Despite some ugly shooting that included two airballs by Gallinari and a shot by Eddy Curry that nearly went over the backboard, the Knicks led 29-24 after one quarter. The period ended with a livid Mike D'Antoni yelling at Nate Robinson, after the Knicks guard shot at the wrong basket after taking an inbounds pass with 0.5 seconds left, instead of just letting the clock run out. The shot went in just after the buzzer, nearly giving the Nets three points.
here's video
http://www.twitvid.com/A475C
I was gonna post about Nate Robinson making a 3-pt shot in the wrong basket just after the buzzer sounded (meaning, luckily for him it didn't count), but it looks like stormin Lormin beat me to it.
In any event, with the Nyets losing at home the Knicks and now falling to 0-13, they've got a really legit shot of equalling or surpassing the Clipper NBA record marks of starting a season with 17 straight losses (the Clips did it twice, if I'm not mistaken). Check out the Nyets next five games:
@ Denver
@ Portland
@ Sacramento
@ LA Lakers
home against Dallas
Winning any of those games would probably be a big upset for the Nyets (even that one against the Kings, seeing as how Sacramento is really surging right now). After those five games then the Nyets get a home game against Charlotte, but if they haven't won before that game then they'll be 0-18, which would be a new record. Also, for those who missed it on Thursday, Charles Barkley said if the Nyets were still winless next week, he'd bring in some Night Train or Thunderbird and have a drink on the air when they finally did win a game, so that gives us something to look forward to.
I dunno though, as excited as I am to potentially see such a bawful record like this get broken, it just doesn't feel right that a team other than the Clippers should hold it. I mean, doesn't it make sense when they show that graphic of the teams with the worst starts in NBA history and there are not one but two Clipper teams right there at the top? Being here to witness history in the making like this is definitely a little bittersweet.
I kid you not, my word verification is "milyc". As in, the Nets are getting the best of both worlds, because they're just being milyc.
They are apparently 1-35 against the Jazz at Engergy Solutions arena
Here are number of .500 or better games in the month of November for the 23 scorers with more PPG than Ariza:
Carmelo Anthony: 5/11
Kobe Bryant: 6/10
Lebron James: 7/10
Dwyane Wade: 1/10
Kevin Durant: 5/10
Chris Bosh: 8/11
Dirk Nowitzki: 4/10
Brandon Jennings: 3/9
Danny Granger: 3/8
Chris Paul: 6/8
Joe Johnson: 4/12
Gilbert Arenas: 1/8
Rudy Gay: 6/10
Ben Gordon: 4/10
Chris Kaman: 6/10
Monta Ellis: 3/10
Brandon Roy: 5/11
Amar''''''e Stoudemire: 8/11
Al Harrington: 2/9
Andre Iguodala: 4/10
Paul Pierce: 6/10
Zach Randolph: 7/11
Andrea Bargnani: 6/11
Each of these players at least delivered one game where they made half their shots or more. You'd think that in 11 games, at least once would Ariza make something like 9/17 shots. There are only 3 guys shooting worse than Ariza on the Rockets right now, and they've taken a combined 9 shots. There comes a point when you just have to step it down a notch. I don't think Daryl Morey's moneyball approach to roster construction builds around guys that shoot so poorly...
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4677766