karl facepalm
George Karl doesn't care about missing out on
his 1,000th career coaching victory. Really.

The New Jersey Nyets: Apparently, all the Atlanta Hawks needed was for their 119 Million Dollar Man to have elbow surgery and miss a month. After stealing New Jersey's lunch money, the Dirty Birds are now 4-1 without Joe Johnson. Now imagine how good they'd be if they'd spent their cap space on Darko Milicic instead of Johnson. Talk about Manna from Heaven.

Behind Josh Smith's season-high 34 points on 14-for-16 shooting, Atlanta shot 60 percent from the field and scored a whopping 23 points off only 13 forced turnovers. But hey, let's talk moral victories. Because losing 116-101 to the Hawks is somehow better than losing 100-75 to the Celtics...or something.

Said Avery Johnson: "WE HAD MUCH BETTER FIGHT IN US. I KNOW STATISTICALLY, WITH THEM SHOOTING 60 PERCENT FROM THE FIELD AND THE AMOUNT OF POINTS WE GAVE UP, IT DOESN'T LOOK GOOD, BUT I THOUGHT OUR EFFORT WAS MUCH BETTER TONIGHT THAN IT WAS ON SUNDAY. OUR GUYS TRIED. UNFORTUNATELY, WE PLAYED A BETTER TEAM TONIGHT."

The Nyets have now lost five in a row and are 2-10 on the road.

Devin Harris, quote machine: "We just couldn't score and we couldn't stop them from scoring."

Those are two pretty important parts of the game.

The Cleveland Cavaliers: In Freddy vs. Jason, Freddy Krueger was blown up, had his arm ripped the hell off and shoved through his exploding chest, and then got his head lopped off with a machete. And even that doesn't quite compare to the savage beatings being put on the Cavaliers lately. Check out their last five games:

Lost 106-87 to the Boston Celtics
Lost 118-90 to the Miami Heat
Lost 129-95 to the Minnesota Timberpoops
Lost 102-92 to the Detroit Pissed-ons
Lost 117-97 to the Philadelphia 76ers
To sum up: Five double-digit losses -- three to sub-.500 powder puffs -- by a combined total of 111 points. Man, it's like LeBron tore out what was left of the Cavs' hearts, jammed them into a Magic Bullet and hit "liquify with extreme prejudice...while laughing".

Regarding the last three losses -- in Minny, Detroit and Philly -- Cleveland coach Byron Scott woke up from his nap long enough to say: "I'm very disappointed with this whole road trip. We're getting beat off the dribble like we're not even there. Pride has to come into it. Guys go right down the lane for easy layups and nobody seems upset by it. Everybody has to do a lot of soul-searching."

Sorry, Byron. LeBron swallowed their souls Evil Dead-style.

Doug Collins, coach of the year candidate: Regarding his instructions to Thaddeus Young: "I told him that 3-point line is like the electric fence that you put in your yard with a dog. You get across and it shocks you, so stay in front of it."

Thaddeus Young, quote machine: Young, who scored a season-high 26 points on 11-for-12 shooting, found himself wishing NBA games lasted longer than 48 minutes. For, you know, stat padding. "I definitely wanted it to keep going. If it kept going, I get to 40 [points]."

The Denver Nuggets: Here's some sad face action from the AP recap:

Everything pointed to a storybook night for George Karl. Sitting at 999 NBA wins, he was back in North Carolina where he played in college and coaching against buddy Larry Brown.

Karl even joked before the game of missing the postgame flight to Boston and drinking wine with Brown to celebrate becoming just the seventh coach to win 1,000 games.

Instead, Karl was slumped in a chair at the end of the night dressed in a Tar Heel sweatshirt debating a late-game decision and lamenting the end of the Denver Nuggets' seven-game winning streak.
That "late-game decision" the recap was talking about came down to this: Down two points with less than 10 seconds left after a Stephen Jackson airball, Karl didn't call timeout, instead watching Chauncey "Mr. Big Shot" Billups dribble down and miss a fadeaway at the buzzer. Bobcraps win...Bobcraps win.

Said Karl: "It was a tough number. We rebounded at 7 [seconds] or something like that. The initial bust out I thought was good. At the end, we didn't have enough guys flooding the rebound, flooding the lane and trying to make something happen. I'm sure I'll look on film and I'll probably think I'll want to call timeout."

It also would have helped if his team hadn't shot 42 percent for the game.

As for Billups, he doesn't regret taking the shot that lost the game: "I had [D.J.] Augustin on me, who I knew couldn't really affect my shot. I got a good look, just didn't knock it down."

Huh. Anybody keep track of how many game-losing shots this guy has?

Carmelo Anthony, quote machine: Now this is a guy who looks like he's being kept in Denver with one of those electric fences you put in your yard with a dog. They're called "motions" and this guy is going through them -- 22 points on 21 shots and a game-high 4 turnovers -- but he's still churning out quotes. Regarding his coach's chance to win 1,000 games (via Murcy): "You've got to win a lot of games to get to 1,000. And you've got to know a lot of basketball to get that chance to get to 1,000."

In related news, you need a lot of fingers to count to 1,000. If you're 'Melo.

Stephen Jackson, quote machine: "We have to start winning games now, so we don't have to use so much energy at the end of the season to be in the position we want to be in."

The Golden State Warriors: On the one hand, they kept pace with the Mavericks -- winners of 10 straight games -- and barely lost a winnable game. On the other hand, Ian Mahinmi, who had logged only 39 minutes before last night, played 21 minutes and finished with 12 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. What's more, Mahinmi had 10 free throw attempts...compared to 13 for the Warriors as a team. Meanwhile, Alexis Ajinca -- who began the day with three total minutes played -- put in nine minutes of PT and grabbed a career-high 6 rebounds. Did I mention both men are French?

Look, all I'm sayin' is that I've lost count of the number of times I've seen the words "season-high" or "career-high" used to describe player performances against the Warriors the last few seasons. In related news, Golden State has lost four in a row and nine of their last 10 games. Their current record is 8-13.

Brendan Haywood: The reason Mahinmi and Ajinca were even playing was because Tyson Chandler was sick with -- you guessed it! -- flu-like symptoms. Now, you would have thought Chandler's absence would have opened the door to a big night for Haywood. Only Haywood picked up two quick fouls and ended up playing fewer minutes than Mahinmi. But that's not all: Mahinmi's eight free throws matched how many Haywood has made all season.

Keith Smart, coach of the year candidate: "We're not getting the results as far as the wins we need, but we're playing hard. When we put it all together, we'll be a good team. Our hearts are in the right place. We practice hard and compete. We're right there with a lot of the top level teams. We'll turn the corner if we play with this kind of effort."

Alexis Ajinca, quote machine: "I guess French guys don't like Golden State."

The Detroit Pistons: Knee-Mac returned to Houston -- a.k.a. The Second Team Tracy McGrady Failed To Lead Out Of The First Round -- and had his best game of the season: 11 points on 3-for-6 shooting to go with 5 fouls, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 turnovers and a steal. And the Pissed-ons were even +4 during Knee-Mac's 23 minutes.

Yet Detroit finished -15 to the still Aaron Brooks and Yao Ming-less Rockets.

Said McGrady: "It really wasn't as strange as I thought it would be. I felt like I was going to come out here and, whatever [happened] I was going to have a good game. ... I'm never surprised [by getting booed]. You never know what to expect. Some cheers, some boos. I've seen it, heard it."

Especially the boos.

Bonus stat: Detroit's 83 points (on 41 percent shooting with 18 turnovers) were a season-low for a Rockets opponent.

Richard Hamilton: Rip scored 6 points on 3-for-9 shooting and played only 15 minutes because he earned double techs and an automatic ejection in the first half. It's the second time this season Hamilton has bitched his way into an early exit.

Said Detroit coach John Kuester: "We can't afford to lose him anymore in a game because we need him. He's been in this league long enough, and he needs to -- like all of us -- be able to adjust to the whistle."

kuester primal rage
The Primal Rage of John Kuester. Fear it.

Kuester has a point. But here's another: With the way the Pistons have been playing this season -- they're eight games under .500 and only 2-10 outside their own miserable city -- you can't really blame him for wanting to leave early. On that subject...

Tracy McGrady, quote machine: "I'm accepting my role on this team and I really enjoy trying to make my team better."

Joe Dumars: Remember that rebuilding plan that centered around getting rid of Chauncey Billups and spending $90 million on Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva? I hate to keep bringing this up, but Gordon scored 9 points on 3-for-11 shooting in 37 minutes of lacktion and Villy didn't even play. So...yeah.

The Phoenix Suns: Steve Nash -- 24 points, 10-for-16, 15 assists -- finished with a plus-minus score of +5. Unfortunately, every other Suns player was in the red. Even more unfortunately, Phoenix wasted a nine-point fourth quarter lead by letting the Frail Blazers outscore them 37-24.

Said Nash: "We struggled to score at times, and that was it. They did a better job than us defensively."

In possibly related news, Neil Paine of Basketball-Reference says Nash is the second-most one-dimension player of all time. Behind Kiki Vandewhatever. Without bothering to sort through a bunch of meaningless numbers, I would argue that Nash's one dimension is so good it's equivalent to at least two or three dimensions. Movin' on...

As is often the case with the Suns, turnovers were as much their undoing as their defense. Phoenix gave up 19 points off 19 turnovers. And they managed only 2 fast break points.

Hedo Turkododo, Josh Childress and Hakim Warrick: The Suns' three big offseason acquisitions combined for 35 minutes, 13 points (4-for-9), 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and a plus-minus score of -10. And did I mention that Earl Barron is STARTING for the Suns? Yeah, I'm looking at you, Hedo and Hakim.

The Washington Wizards Generals: Check out this section of the AP recap:

The Lakers have abandoned all hope of stopping Nick Young from throwing himself a raging homecoming party whenever the Washington Wizards visit.

Yet Los Angeles still muddled through a victory that could have been a whole lot smoother without the hometown kid causing so much commotion.

At times during an otherwise dispassionate game, Young seemed to be the only player having any fun. The former USC guard hit a career-best six 3-pointers while scoring a season-high 30 points for the Wizards, who closed the third quarter on a 16-1 run to make the two-time defending champions uncomfortable.

"We know when Nick Young comes to town, we're going to give up 25 points," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said admiringly. "This kid is going to come back to L.A. and have a great game."
So the Lakers are basically conceding to the fact that Nick Young -- Nick Young! -- is going to light them up. Young's a shooting guard, right? Kobe Bryant's also a shooting guard, right? And Kobe makes the All-Defensive First Team year after year, right? Am...am I missing something?

Anyway, the Andray Blatch-less Generals actually did play the Lakers tough -- a jumper by Gilbert Arenas made it a four-point game with 57 seconds left -- but L.A.'s inside play was too much: Washington gave up 22 offensive rebounds and was outscored 58-30 in the paint. Regarding those offensive boards, Pau Gasol had as many of them (9) as the entire Generals team.

Random extra: Note the bonus bawful in this line from the AP recap: "Young carried Washington during the first half, scoring 19 points with three 3-pointers while rarely passing the ball."

I swear I'm not writing for the AP...

Lamar Odom, quote machine: "Sometimes we need to do a better job of keeping our intensity at a high. When we focus, we've been really good this year, but when we lose that focus, teams have been able to sneak up on us and give us trouble."

FS West announcher, unintentionally dirty quote machine: On Kobe / Pau / Lamar, via Basketbawful reader Sophie: "Those guys are looking to get each other off tonight."

Well, as Wormboy pointed out via e-mail, man-love does improve team performance.

"Tough Guys" Andrea Bargnani and Mike Dunleavy: Shayan e-mailed about this, er, heated exchange from Monday night's Raps-Pacers game: "Bargnani elbows Mike Dunleavy, then Dunleavy 'retaliates,' to which Bargnani says 'Wow, that's it? That's your best shot?'"


The New York Knicks: Some potential future bawful from Basketbawful reader Kaan:

Now that the Knicks have won 10 of 11, everyone is talking about Amar'e this, Amar'e that, look at Felton, oh Fields is a jewel and all that. They may be right. But please look at this schedule. Who did this? Is this schedule even legit?

10 of 11 wins: Sacramento, Golden State, LA Clippers, Charlotte, Charlotte, Atlanta (they lost obviously), Detroit, New Jersey, New Orleans, Toronto, Minnesota...

Out of the 10 wins they had, only New Orleans is over .500 and they are sinking like the Titanic...but how can you put together such awesome bawfulness of a schedule.

Wait it gets better.

Knicks play Toronto and Washington next. So 12 out of 13 is not out of question. Then we'll hear that the Knicks are contenders, they might be better than the aging Celts, dysfunctional Heat and ready-to-melt Magic...

But keep an eye on what's to come afterwards. If you put together all the crap teams one after another, that means you're just postponing the ineviteble big boys.

After Toronto and Washington, here is the Knicks' next 14 games. Hey don't despair I saw a Cleveland game in there...

Denver
Boston
Miami
Cleveland
Oklahoma City
Chicago
Miami
Orlando
Indiana
San Antonio
Phoenix
LA Lakers
Portland
Utah and the beat goes on....

This is one weird schedule and one media frenzy to keep an eye on...
Chris's Lacktion Report:

Nyets-Hawks: New Jersey's Ben Uzoh headed a brick in just 21 seconds for a +1 suck differential and a Mario!

Pistons-Rockets: Brad Miller scrapped his way to 3 boards in 13:12, but bricked six times and fouled and lost the rock twice each for a 4:3 Voskuhl. Also lacking it up for Houston was Jared Jeffrise, whose one giveaway in 10:50 netted him a +1.

Generals-Lakers: Hilton Armstrong blocked one shot in 8:22, only to ring up one foul via room service for a 1:0 Madsen-level Voskuhl. Alonzo Gee gave up his Castlevania cartridge after 26 seconds for a Mario.

For Los Angeles, Derrick Caracter captured a board in 5:28, and also fouled twice and bricked thricely for a 2:1 Voskuhl.

Labels: , , , ,

42 Comments:
Blogger Onandonymous said...
Mike Dunleavy's "retaliation" is like the aftermath of the Larryland brawl.

Dunleavy: "You may be saying I got my butt kicked, but he's feeling SO MUCH PAIN."

Bargnani: "Ahhhhh, my elbow..."

Blogger Unknown said...
In related news, you need a lot of fingers to count to 1,000. If you're 'Melo.

Well, he's been giving plenty of fingers for a while now, if you know what I mean. Can't wait until that mini drama is over. I've liked him for a while but his chain of "The time to make a decision has come"-style quotes followed by no decision wore thin months ago.

Off topic, I was fooling around with the Internet Anagram Server yesterday (http://wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html) and you won't believe some of the results for Donald Sterling:

- Saddening Troll
- Slandering Dolt
- Slanted Lording
- Dollars Tending
- Gnarled Old Snit
- Tangled Lord Sin

Okay, the last one is a bit of a stretch but the rest work pretty damn well. I also got "Engorged" for Greg Oden and "Herald Jam Icon" for Michael Jordan. Fun times.

Blogger Dan B. said...
Dunleavy's "retaliation" elbow is just too perfect. It's like he said to himself "I just got embarrassed. How can I make myself look even worse?"

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
NY's SRS is -0.53, despite being 13-9, so yeah they've played lots of crappy crap.

I'm loving all of this NY media going crazy over STAT, thinking he'll be the savior of the Knicks, it makes me chuckle in preparation for the biggest "I told you so!" I've got waiting. Honeymoons are honeymoons for a reason.

Blogger AnacondaHL said...

Blogger Unknown said...
AnacondaHL: Ah jeez, "Three Legged Greg" is great too. I'd heard of ShamSports but hadn't bothered to check them out.

Blogger Solieyu said...
Copyright infringement! By Billy Witz of Foxsport's bawful Heat or 3Peat feature: http://www.foxsportswest.com/12/08/10/Despite-win-questions-still-linger-for-L/landing.html?blockID=368772&feedID=3709

Dastardly theft: "It was so, so easy. Or precisely what might have been expected when the Washington Generals, er, Wizards come to town and proceeded to get run out of the building by a Lakers team that was rested and rejuvenated after three days off."

That's right. Ripped off by a Lakers fan, even. Aptly enough, my Captcha is "weanger"

Anonymous The Other Chris said...
You wanna talk about going through the motions, how about Rip Hamilton and Tayshuan Prince for the Pissed-Ons right now.. Yeesh.

Anonymous AK Dave said...
RE: Bargs and _unleavy:

1) Dunleavy drew a foul on the initial bump/elbow

2) It looked to me like MD was fucking with Bargs with his little nudge and not trying to "retaliate". He just drew a cheap foul on a flop, and he touched him with his elbow as if to say "Ha-ha, I got one over you, sucker."

Furthermore, I highly doubt that Bargs said "Wow. That's it? That's your best shot?" He probably was cursing in Italian or something; frustrated because he got tooled by Mike Dunleavy.

I also find it telling that this clip was from a Raptors blog.

Blogger Dooj said...
This is the second time that Billups went coast to coast and shot a stupid shot without passing to win or tie the game.

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
ShamSports is great, salary info, sarcastic anagrams, and fun stuff shared on Twitter such as Pau needing to take a little less reed and Duncan groovin'.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
It's actually already the 3rd time Rip has been tossed for yammering this year.

Anonymous greg said...
In regards to the Knicks: I would just like to point out that it was about this time two years ago when Devin Harris fatefully said "we knew we were going to be a playoff team." We all know what happened next.

Blogger DC said...
Nobody on the Knicks has said anything whatsoever about making the playoffs or being an elite team. Only some overexcited media and fanboys are claiming that they're a playoff team a quarter-season in.

In fact, the Knick players and coaches have been rather guarded about their success, given the team has undergone almost a decade of pure fail. (This is as opposed to Harris, who was traded to a Nets team that always made the playoffs with Jason Kidd leading them...only the trade was for Jason Kidd.) They know they are beating crappy teams, but guess what? If they're supposed to beat these teams, and they're succeeding in what they're supposed to accomplish, then I'm okay with it. Of course, the true test will be coming very soon, and I'd like to see how the Knicks handle it.

Real Knick fans, the ones who have followed the team through thick and thin, know that this Knicks team looks solid so far. But the fans also know that they team is still very young, and still have a bit of the stench leftover from the Isiah-Brown-Layden Knicks.

Anonymous John said...
the Pistons didn't make a field goal in the last 6 and 1/2 minutes of the 1st half. truly bawful

Anonymous Anonymous said...
"Young's a shooting guard, right? Kobe Bryant's also a shooting guard, right? And Kobe makes the All-Defensive First Team year after year, right? Am...am I missing something?"

Yes, you clearly didn't watch the game. Young scored the bulk of his points against Barnes. When Kobe matched up with him in the second half, he actually did a very good job of slowing him down.

Blogger Basketbawful said...
Yes, you clearly didn't watch the game.

God, I fuckin' hate when people spout this "you didn't watch the game" crap.

My POINT is that, with Young going the hell off, shouldn't Mr. All-Defense have said, "I'm shutting this guy down...NOW"? Yeah. Yeah, I think he should've.

Anonymous phrizzo said...
haha miami team bus
so perfect
http://yfrog.com/gzosg0j

Anonymous Marc d. said...
What in holy moses happened to Rip Hamilton? It was not so long ago that he was considered one of the best SGs in the league (certainly the best moving without the ball).

If I were a contender, I'd be looking to pick that guy up for dirt cheap.

Anonymous Tree said...
@AK Dave - it looks pretty clear that he does in fact say that. But you're right - I think that was _unleavy's intent with that 'elbow'. It looked a lot like a Costanza "get a load of this guy" elbow (in this case, the 'guy' being the idiot ref that bought the flop). Either way - when Bargnani is busting on your toughness, you're either a corpse or, apparently, Mike Dunleavy.


And Bawful, how soon you forget Knee-Mac's illustrious career on the Craps. He wasn't a 'leader' per se, but his justification for leaving was that he should be 'the man'. In his lone p/o appearance in TO, he was swept and shot 38% from the field ... as a co-leader in minutes with Vag "No Heart" Carter.

Anonymous kazam92 said...
Is it fair to discredit any winning streak including the Knicks? It's not their fault 75% of the teams in the league are craptastic this year.

Blogger Basketbawful said...
What in holy moses happened to Rip Hamilton? It was not so long ago that he was considered one of the best SGs in the league (certainly the best moving without the ball).

Dude needed a change of scenery a year ago. He's sick of Detroit -- at this point, who can blame him? His minutes are getting yanked around and the team is a mess. My hope is that the Bulls can get him for 50 cents on the dollar. They could use an SG, and his injury history fits real well with Boozington and Deng-A-Ling.

Blogger Japes said...
Rip on the bulls? Scary...

That Bargs video was hilarious. Actually it's kinda hard for non craptors fans to believe this but Bargnani is actually a pretty tough guy. He's just an SG trapped in a centers body, hence his low rebounding numbers.

Anonymous Czernobog said...
@Japes: There are a lot of misconceptions about Bargs, but I think you're the first person to ever accuse him of being tough.

Blogger Wormboy said...
I'm really tired of the press jumping on bandwagons. Wow, the Heat are on a 5-game winning streak! LeBron solved everything by beating the wimpy and terrible Cavs in Cleveland!

(Read the Dec. 7 ESPN Dime if you want to see some serious journalistic fellatio: http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime)

OK, so I looked at the Heat's schedule for this fasntastic 5-game winning streak.

12/6: @Milwaukee W 88-78
12/4 Atlanta W 89-77
12/2 @Cleveland 118-90
12/1 Detroit 97-72
11/29 Washington 105-94

Uh, I'm going to call BS on the press. We've got one (1) decent team in here (Atlanta at 15-6) and one back to back, where the Heat faced the astoundingly decrepit Pistons. This is news? This is worth hoopla? FFS, tell me when the Heat beat two good teams in a row. :scowl:

Anonymous Tree said...
@Japes: as a Torontonian and Raps fan, I can only think of one response to that: WHAAAA?!? My friends and I call him 'Limp Noodle' because of his frightening aversion to contact.

I once sat at a table beside him at Bellini's, and even his bowl of pasta was mocking him.

Anonymous The Other Chris said...
@Bawful

Who would you give up for Rip? Obviously the Pistons are in full-on "tear this fucker down!!" mode, so they're not going to take back anyone over 25 or with a contract.. CJ Watson, Brewer.. Asik? (obviously James Johnson is completely expendable at this point but does anyone want him... Pretty sure the answer is no) Would you sacrifice Taj Gibson?

Also, does Rip's contract concern you? That's gonna scare away a lot of people..

But then again, as a basketball fan, a starting lineup of D. Rose-motivated Rip-Deng-Boozer-Noah is pretty damn terrifying (for the other teams in the L). A little undersized with Boozer at the 4 but talent-wise.. Only Lakers and Celtics are in the ballpark.

Blogger matt said...
http://www.truthaboutit.net/2010/12/friday-night-pictures-when-portland-came-to-washington.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TruthAboutIt+%28Truth+About+It+-+Washington+Wizards+Blog%29&utm_content=ESPN

the man love here is amazing.
notable are the camby and yi pics.

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
Wormboy - While your annoyance with the press is understandable, it's their presentation that is wrong, not the concept.

If they were skating wins by 1 or 2 points against these bad teams, that would be a different matter. But they are blowing them out, meaning getting the job done, meaning adding to their quest of 31 blowouts of 10+ points over bad teams typically shown by championship teams during the regular season. So this streak is important, not only for their improved chemistry, but showing them exhibiting actual characteristics of a championship contender.

Anonymous Bryan said...
Anon - "Young scored the bulk of his points against Barnes. When Kobe matched up with him in the second half, he actually did a very good job of slowing him down"

Bawful - My POINT is that, with Young going the hell off, shouldn't Mr. All-Defense have said, "I'm shutting this guy down...NOW"? Yeah. Yeah, I think he should've.

Not trying to take sides but if Nick Young scored 19 in the first half to lead all scorers and then Kobe picked him up in the second half and slowed him down didn't Kobe say "I'm shutting this guy down....NOW?"

Blogger Basketbawful said...
Who would you give up for Rip? Obviously the Pistons are in full-on "tear this fucker down!!" mode, so they're not going to take back anyone over 25 or with a contract.. CJ Watson, Brewer.. Asik? (obviously James Johnson is completely expendable at this point but does anyone want him... Pretty sure the answer is no) Would you sacrifice Taj Gibson?

Give up Taj? No way. We need insurance at the PF position, particularly since we can count on Boozington to miss 15-20 games per season.

I'd give up J.J., Brewer and a first round draft pick, and, hell, Bogans too for that matter. Whatever is sitting at the bottom of our scrap pile to make the numbers work.

Sure, Rip's contract worries me. But when he's on the court, he's been a consistent producer. With the rest of the weapons the Bulls have, he wouldn't have to carry the load.

Anonymous KHayes666 said...
Let ESPN go gaga over the Heat and Knicks...neither one of them are going to be in the finals.

I knew the Lakers were going to win but it sure was fun when Arenas hit the jumper to bring Washington within 4. The SEC 140 Laker fans were all like "wtffff???"

Anonymous The Other Chris said...
If I were a Pistons fan, that kind of pu-pu platter would make me a sad panda..

Blogger Will said...
I think Knee-Mac was just celebrating Birdmas in his own little way with that stat line. 3FGs, 3 Rebs, 3 Asts, and 3 TOs. Of course it would have been ideal if he scored 33 points, but this McGrady I'm talkin about.

"we can count on Boozington to miss 15-20 games per season"
so you've already come up with pet nicknames for Boozer already?

Blogger Basketbawful said...
If I were a Pistons fan, that kind of pu-pu platter would make me a sad panda.

Think of it as...addition by subtraction...

Blogger Michael Hsu said...
I would give deng up for rip. At least rip can drive and create a shot.

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
If anything the Bulls should be trading for OJ Mayo, who is too good to be coming off the bench now. It's like Michael Heisley is telling Hollins "hey, yea, so I kinda screwed up that contract thingy this summer, so to make up for it, can you like put Henry in the starting lineup and give him more minutes for better PR and like stuff? thx."

Anonymous Fafnir said...
[i]If anything the Bulls should be trading for OJ Mayo, who is too good to be coming off the bench now. It's like Michael Heisley is telling Hollins "hey, yea, so I kinda screwed up that contract thingy this summer, so to make up for it, can you like put Henry in the starting lineup and give him more minutes for better PR and like stuff? thx."[/i]You really think Mayo is good? His shooting has been bad this year and so far he's been a Ben Gordon type of player. Very one-dimensional as a SG.

Blogger Wild Yams said...
Mr. Bawful - If it makes you feel any better I didn't watch the game either. I'm downloading it as we speak though :)

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
Fafnir - While that may have been true in years past, lately he's actually been giving a shit, particularly on defense, and it's not like his 3 ball has gone anywhere. It's worth a cheap shot at trading for him, with all the team options in his contract anyways if the Grizzlies won't play him.

Blogger Wormboy said...
@ Anacondahl: Good point. My main complaint is that the press has been waiting to anoint the Heat all season. A 5-game streak against 4/5 teams that are poor doesn't impress me (especially since the one winning team is ATL). The strong win last night against Utah is much different.

The problem is this: as a scientist, my reaction is that blowing out bad teams may be a necessary trait for a contender, but is it sufficient to be a contender? We've seen plenty of high-octane offenses that look like they've run into a buzz saw when they've come up against a real contender. But how do they do against top teams? And James still has no new game to punish good opposition defenses: imagine what he'd do with a good post-up game on the same court as Wade? But while two top-tier slashers will crush inferior opponent defenses, I don't buy it against contender competition.

Look at their schedule for the rest of December: Dallas and Lakers are the only serious challengers (and is Dallas really a contender, or just a faux contender like every year but 06?). If the Heat compete well in both of those (not win, compete), then I think they're a real contender. I'm betting the Lakers kick their ass. The Heat have nothing for Gasol, Bynum, Odom if his brain is in the building (debatable with all the Christmas candy). Thus, I'm going to stand by the Heat being a second tier team. Cleveland may have had only one real offensive weapon with James, but their defense was very good. The Heat have a marshmallow middle, and that excludes them from contention (this year, that is). Of course, I'd counsel a trade for a good defensive center, and the equation changes radically.

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
The other types of wins, like blowing out good teams or winning/losing close games, just have a much lower correlation to defining contending teams. Most are described in the link I already posted. It's the same story with point differential in general over win-loss records.