Ah, the weekend. And for some of us, a long weekend at that. Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Aside from the racial equality connotations we're all familiar with and thankful for, this also means we get three TNT games on Monday night! We need to celebrate. Lucky for us, if there's one thing we can always count on from professional athletes, it's that they will appear in really bad local commercials. Birdman Andersen is no exception. (And yes, I am legitimately disappointed the place was called "Mattress King" instead of "Sofa King" -- it's nice when the jokes write themselves)
Before getting into basketball/basketbawful talk, a couple awesome links on the late night TV wars. First off, want to buy the Tonight Show? It's on Craigslist. Also, Jimmy Kimmel went on Leno's show last night and absolutely killed Leno. (Second video down)
And yes, I am aware that I did not give you the promised NBA 2K10 update this week. My bad. Busy week, and I'm on a second wave of meds trying to crush the sinus infection that has slowed my body to a Shaq-like pace. It will be written soon, and I will try to make it worth the wait.
Worst of the Night in Pictures:
Nationally Televised Friday Games:
Suns at Hawks: I'm going to watch this game and be entertained by the Suns run-and-gun fun. And then they'll give up a 20-4 run and break my heart. It's just too predictable.
Magic at Frail Blazers: At what point do we need to have a federal investigation to find out why so many Blazers get injured on a regular basis?
All The Other Friday Games:
Kings at 76ers: If the Paupers piss away a fourth quarter lead in this game, somebody better make sure Chris isn't near any windows or sharp objects.
Spurs at Bobcats: You know, the Bobcats have been looking kinda frisky lately. The Spurs aren't that good on the road. Could we see an upset here?
Bullets at Bulls: I still cannot believe that the Bulls are actually playing good basketball again. Didn't see that one coming.
Hornets at Pistons: The Hornets are a pretty terrible road team. However, the Pistons are just plain terrible. See the difference?
Pacers at Nyets: Oh, my God. Basketbawful Game of the Weekend right here. Just terrible.
Raptors at Knicks: I'm sorry, it just makes me sad to think these two teams are somehow in playoff contention.
Timberwolves at Grizzlies: Memphis is on a hot streak at home, but the only really interesting thing I noticed about this game? The Grizzlies are over .500, but have given up more points than they've scored for the season.
Thunder at Mavericks: Would you believe that Kevin Durant only averages 13 points a game against the Mavs? The way the Mavs defense has looked lately should give that number a boost.
Heat at Rockets: Can D-Wade pull another ridiculous shooting performance out of his ass with a sprained wrist? If not, the Heat probably lose this one.
Bucks at Warriors: As noted by RT last night, Monta Ellis can execute one badass handshake, and "maybe if the NBA were based more on handshakes the Warriors would be better than 11-26."
Clippers at Lakers: Well, I'm sure this meeting of two rivals will provide us with an epic battle... yeah, I'm sorry, I couldn't even say that with a straight face.
Nationally Televised Saturday Games:
Suns at Bobcats: You know what? Just go up and re-read what I said about the Suns-Hawks game on Friday night. Or ask AnacondaHL. He'll tell you all about it.
All The Other Saturday Games:
Hornets at Pacers: That was awfully nice of the Association to let the Hornets play back-to-back road games against relatively crappy teams!
Kings at Bullets: Back-to-back road games for the Kings leading to potential sloppy play, and any sort of game for the Bullets? I'll pass, thanks.
Knicks at Pistons: What do you get when two teams known for throwing up lots of bricks combine forces in a down-on-its-luck city? Charity! They'll put up enough bricks to build affordable housing for laid off auto workers.
Heat at Thunder: Fun fact: this year Jermaine O'Neal is getting paid more than 50% of what the total Thunder roster will make.
Spurs at Grizzlies: You all should know by now that I don't like back to back road games for the Spurs. They're talented, but they're also chronologically challenged. And I don't see DeJuan Blair having another 20/20 game this time around.
Bucks at
Crabs at Clippers: There are two reasons why this game could end up closer than it should be: 1) The Crabs just won't get up for this game, or 2) The Crabs' bench will see significant playing time, and that will be uglier than the fat girl that tried to fight Snooki.
Nationally Televised Sunday Games:
All The Other Sunday Games:
Mavericks at Raptors: Can the Mavs remember how to play defense by this game? Stay tuned.
39 Comments:
Word of the Day
Previous Posts
Worst of the Night: January 14, 2010Bawful After Dark: January 14, 2010
Worst of the Night: January 13, 2010
Bawful After Dark - January 13, 2010
Worst of the Night: January 12, 2010
Bawful After Dark: January 12, 2010
Worst of the Night: Quick Hits edition
Bawful After Dark: January 11, 2010
Worst of the Weekend: Pouty Lips edition
Bawful After Dark: January 8 Weekend Watch
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On the plus side, Dragic and Barbosa seem to be playing well together.
I was talking to my dad earlier in the first quarter of the Suns game. He asked "Who the hell is this Dragic guy?" Immediately after that, Dragic drove to the basket for a two-handed dunk and blew his mind.
R-Lo has been playing good this game too. STAT can suck my vajazzle. Letting him walk and kidnapping David Lee next season would be p cool.
And I'm going to check hoopdata after it's over, just to confirm if the Suns actually shot under 40% at rim this game, because seriously, fuck.
And oh my God, one point game with 3 seconds to go. Argh!
btw that pic made my weekend
Toronto pulled a bitchslap fight and nearly lost it in NY. Nets lose as usual.
Oh wait, you all think I'm not still angry at the Suns? NOPE. Hoopdata says the Suns were 18-37 At Rim. That's 48.7%, thanks largely to Grant Hill and Amundson. So minus them, that's 11-28, or 39.3%. I can't believe my exaggeration became prophetic.
Same timeframe, believe it or not, there's actually one instance of a guy with 7 PF: Cal Bowdler in 1991 for ATL at POR, but this was due to a referee's error. A few others in the 50's had 7 and even 8 PFs, according to this post.
He took his anger out by getting in a tussle with Blazers enforcer Steve Blake, at one point looking like he was going to pick Blake up by his jersey.
For reference Aldridge had 14-14.
I do wonder though if Martin rejoining the fray will finally stop the bleeding. At least when 'reke is triple-teamed, he has an option now...
The .500 record was illusory, as it came before the stretch of the schedule in which they played the Crabs, Nuggets (twice), Lakers (twice), Orlando, and Team Iverson (twice).
Also, like the frog in water, you should document this process as a Kings fan, culminating in Rubio's return in two years and him saying "yea, I could have done this earlier, but I got drafted by a bunch of stupids." So the current state is transitioning from "a nice cool bath" to "hrm, I felt a warm draft, did someone pee in the water?"
No? Disagree?
And what do you think about Amar'e being traded to The Weapons for Jamison, Oberto, and Blanche it all matches up cash wise and I'd much rather see that than have to sit through STAT bust my balls about where he's going or not going in the off season.
"ET phones home?" for the Joakim Noah pic?
i'm curious as to whether that's a pace-related aberration, or just lousy defense.
or am i crazy in thinking this doesn't happen all the time?
If it doesn't work by February, if both of them simply will never play well together? Then it doesn't work and Petrie and the Maloofs can truly center the team around Tyreke. Whatever. Just make something work out here, it's not exactly like there's a championship legacy to uphold.
---
Speaking of the Kings...
I forgot to address this yesterday, but I was listening to 1140AM when they were discussing the new arena thing, the planned land swap with Cal Expo, etc. That's all nice, but one thing I kept hearing was...
"Hey, everyone has to give a shout out for David Stern because of his support in this process..."
"Nobody ever wanted the Kings to leave from everything we heard, it wasn't like Seattle."
Um...
Yeah, it's nice that the Kings are getting backed by the Association for a new project here - good luck - but come on, it's obvious as day that the primary reason that fans didn't show up at the KeyArena was a protest against Clay Bennett's regime and his desire to have a new building primarily funded by taxpayer money. How is their situation any different? Does Stern and the rest of the crew feel obligated to Sacramento for some reason that they didn't with a city that won an NBA title? Hmm? Maybe they're feeling guilt over 2002?
If it took Seattle losing their team for the Association to "realize" that Sacramento was an "important market" (like that is their actual rationale), then...uh...yeah, Seattle still got hosed.
Jim -- Glad to hear you enjoyed a link we posted. Now I'm just curious which one you meant. :)
99.9 pts/g league average this year, which is made by league pace average 92.9, and ORtg average is 106.8. So compare to 03-04, aka the Pistons handcheck year, Pace 90.1, ORtg 102.9, and 93.4 pts/g.
Chicks dig the 3-digit box score.
Besides, the Maloofs dropped the Monarchs, so that should free up about $1.57 for a new arena.
Martin isn't the answer. He's not a leader, which is what the Paupers need. They'll have wait on Evans for that.
LA is now 20-3 when Gasol plays.
m: To think, I always thought that "offensive goaltending" is a positive euphemism for dunking. Most of the time. wow.
Davros: Cal Expo has a unique ownership arrangement (and I think this is where they're hoping they can sell to some private developers that will make the Arden Fair area even more clogged with traffic) that may make all this work, but it does lead to the question I have asked from the beginning: why can't the Maloofs contribute more of the cost for this project, instead of shouldering it directly OR indirectly on the public?
And, ugh. The paupers got shot down at the range, er, Phonebooth. That is all.
CAPTCHA: "boozoo," i.e. "If the Kings continue to play down to their opposition, pretty soon Arco Arena will be a boozoo and Gavin and the family will be looking at Las Vegas again."
chris - I finally got around to reading the proposal, and it's a fucking scam. Kamilos the Liar is supposed to fund the project by the development the Cal Expo site. With the huge surplus of vacant commercial and residential space in CA, how is that going to work? Who's going to buy in? (Kamilos the Liar is trying to sell a similar scheme down here on the West Side.) As they said on the Wire: "He's worse than a drug dealer, he's a developer."
As for the Maloofs, the fact that they couldn't keep alive a team in the WNBA, which is more heavily subsidized than ethanol, seems to suggest they don't have any money to spend. But hey, maybe they will when they "retire" that $68 million loan from the city. It may be a boozoo sooner rather than later if people start to look into this.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/games/2010011728/photos;_ylt=AjzZY2O_KZXncrtYtvs1DNKQvLYF?slug=24fd1f2ced794bbf9a7c102d01d7da08.mavericks_raptors_basketball_chy115&prov=ap
http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2010/01/ny-knicks-blame-poor-play-on-ghostly.html
Now, while there is a glut of real estate in this area certainly, Cal Expo/Arden Fair HAS always been a pretty successful part of town. I suspect also that infill will be a better sell than trying to build yet another partially-occupied development in Natomas, but...that assumes there's anyone interested in infill in the first place, which is debatable.
BUT HEY DAVID STERN IS ENDORSING THIS!!!!!!!!!!!
Strigoi: I think it was in an earlier WOTN...
jim: Antoine Walker would be proud.