lebron screaming
Huh. I guess God really does see everything.

The Miami Heat: Miami has used a pretty simple formula to turn things around after a slow (compared to expectations) start: A three-man scoring attack and some stingy-ass defense.

Well, they got points out of Dwyane Wade (31), LeBron James (27) and Chris Bosh (26), although James and Bosh shot poorly (a combined 17-for-41). And of course the Heat got their standard production out of fellow starters Carlos Arroyo (4 points on 2-for-5 shooting and only 1 assist) and Zydrunas Ilgauskas (2 points in 22 minutes). Then there were three goose eggs off the bench (from Erick Dampier, Juwan Howard and Mike Miller), a total of three points from "sharpshooter" James Jones (0-for-3) and backup center Joel Anthony (2 rebounds in 25 minutes), and a nearly competent game from Mario Chalmers (12 points on 4-for-12 shooting).

Oh, and Eddie House got another DNP-CD.

But the defense. Oh the defense. The Clippers scored 44 points in the first quarter. That was not a misprint or typo. They scored 44 points and outscored Miami by 18 in the first 12 minutes. I bet Vinny Del Negro soiled himself out of sheer joy.

Said VDN: "It's one win. We don't get extra wins for this game. I'm more concerned about the growth of the team. These wins give us confidence, but we have another game on Friday."

Okay. Maybe not.

Said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra: "It was too much for us to overcome. They absolutely blitzed us to start the game. It looked like we were running in mud."

The Other L.A. Team finished 111 points on 50 percent shooting. Their 44 first quarter points and 68 percent shooting in the first half were season highs. They had 18 fast break points and outscored Miami 58-46 in the paint. Blake Superior had his 30th double-double of the season (24 points and 14 boards), Eric Gordon lit it up for 26 points on 8-for-15 shooting, and B-Dizzle added 20 points and 9 assists. The Clips were up for this game. The Heat...not so much.

Said Griffin: "I'm sure they were a lot more hyped up for that Christmas Day game against the Lakers and not us."

By the way: Blake motherf**king Griffin:

(H/T Karc)

The Clippers have now won three in a row and eight of 11. As Basketbawful reader Jonesy asked: "Are the Clippers now turning into the team we didn’t think they were???"

Maybe. Just mayb...nah!

Update! From Basketbawful reader Vincent: "HEAT LOSE AND THE COUNTDOWN IS AT 0!! JEFF VAN GUNDY...YOU...ARE...WRONGGGGGGGG (Lex Luther/Kevin Spacey STYLE)!!"

LeBron James: He shot poorly. He committed three of his team's seven turnovers. He apparently sprained his ankle midway through the fourth quarter and that supposedly limited his aggressiveness and effectiveness. And he lost...to the Clippers. All I can say is...

...karma's a bitch, baby!

Wait. I didn't type that. Somebody else did it. It wasn't me. I swear.

See what I did there? I contracted my statement. Otherwise known as "pulling a LeBron."

From Wild Yams:

LeBron's backtracking from his huge missteps is always the funniest part about his enormous ego. His explanation for the "karma" tweet yesterday? (emphasis mine):

"It's just how I was feeling at the time. It wasn't even a comment from me, it was someone who sent it to me and I sent it out. It wasn't toward that team. It definitely wasn't a good showing by that team last night, I know they wish they would've played better.

"I don't think there was intent at all. I think everyone looks into everything I say. Everybody looks too far into it. No hit toward that organization. I've moved on and hopefully that organization is continuing to move on. But I'm happy where I am as a Miami Heat player."

As always, LeBron takes no blame for anything he does. Just like he didn't know what "contraction" meant, he didn't come up with the thing he tweeted. My favorite part of the article was this: When asked to clarify his confusing comments, James and the questions were cut off by a member of the Heat public relations staff.

Wise move, Heat staff.
Ah...the old "It wasn't me" trick, also referred to as The Shaggy Defense. Works like a charm. Like when Charles Barkley said he was misquoted in his own autobiography.

Added AnacondaHL:

You know the funny thing about his retraction? a) it's not like he's never re-tweeted anything ever, and just happened to delete the "RT" this time. b) It says right there he created the tweet from Ubertwitter, a Blackberry twitter client. Meaning only his phone could have created and typed out that message.

He is right on one thing though, it wasn't towards the "team"...or the "organization"...it was towards Dan and all the Cavs fans.
Now King Crab has an ankle injury...which makes his status "iffy" for tonight's game in Denver.

Said LeBron: "There's no damage, I got an X-ray after the game. The doctor told me it's day-to-day so I'll see how I feel tomorrow. I don't have to be a hero in the regular season if I'm not close to 100 percent."

Note that James and Bosh both played 40 minutes and Wade logged 41. And 'Bron has a tender vag, er, ankle. It'll be interesting to see what happens against the Nuggets...

The Golden State Warriors: The Warriors shot better than 50 percent, drilled 13 threes and even had a 14-point lead on the defending champions.

But, since we can't say it about the Clippers right now, I'll say it now: They are who we thought they were.

The Warriors got outrebounded 47-27 -- including 18-7 on the offensive glass -- and gave up 46 points in the fourth quarter. During that final 12 minutes, Mamba scored 17 of his 39 points, Lamar Odom had a stretch in which he scored 10 straight, and Ron Artest knocked down a key three-pointer with just under two minutes to play.

Defensive fail? Hey, it's the Warriors.

Kobe Bryant, quote machine: "It don't matter who's on me. When it's go time, it's go time."

Ron Artest, quote machine: "He always has that look. Nine times out of 10, he's successful. Actually, it's like 9.5 times out of 10, he's successful."

Monta Ellis, quote machine: Ellis -- who nearly matched Kobe with 38 points despite a bout of the flu -- said: "Just two players trying to get a win. I've known for the last three years I'm going to guard him. It was a great test for us. We gave it our all."

The Chicago Bulls: Let's just call this "The Tyrus Thomas Revenge Game" and be done with it. Please. Thanks.

The Dallas Mavericks: After last night's 102-89 loss to the Pacers in Indy, the Mavericks are 2-6 without Dirk Nowitzki. And I just have to ask...

Said Dallas coach Rick Carlisle: "I'm not answering any Dirk questions."

Yeah, but coach...

"We don't have Dirk, so it's not a topic that's worth discussion. We've got to win with the guys we have."

Whoa. Saucer of milk, table one, please.

So, coach, what does the team need to...

"For us, the key word is precise. We just have to be so precise with everything we do. Everything that happens, every possession, is precious on both ends of the floor. We just have to keep pushing."

I hear, you, Rick, but even without He Who Must Not Be Named, the Pacers are, well, they...

"Granger's an All-Star, their bigs are really good and solid and they are going to get better, and their wing players -- they ripped us tonight. And their point guards are good, too."

Okay then. No more questions.

The Sacramento Kings: Boston has been bumbling and stumbling without Kevin Garnett. Jermaine "The Drain" O'Neal sat out with a sore knee. And Shaq basically missed the game due to foul trouble. It didn't matter. Even a hobbled and out-of-synch Celtics team can clobber the Kings of Bawful.

Bottom line: The Celts shot 52 percent, led by as many as 28 points, and won 119-95. None of Boston's starters played a single second of the fourth quarter.

Said Kings coach Paul Westphal: "They were primed for a good effort [to] get the bad taste of the last game out of their mouths."

And if there's anybody who knows about games leaving bad tastes, it's Westphal.

The New York Knicks: Said Deron Williams: "We had success in the past playing [a fast tempo] against them. They run hard on the offensive end and are a little susceptible on the defensive end. We used that to our advantage."

Did they ever. The Jazz didn't score many points in transition -- they finished with 9 fast break points -- but they hit nearly 60 percent of their shots, drilled 10 threes, scored 21 points off 14 forced turnovers, earned 39 free throws and scored 54 points in the paint en route to a 131-125 win.

Seven Jazz players scored in double-figures, including reserves C.J. Miles (24 points on 10-for-15 shooting) and Mehmet Okur (10 points on 4-for-5 shooting in 10 minutes of PT).

Said Mike D'Antoni: "They got a lot of young guys. It's the first time we've seen that."

The first time...you've seen...a lot of young guys? Really, Mike?

The Toronto Craptors: A season-high 36 points for Jamal Crawford? Check. A go-ahead three-pointer by Mike Bibby with 8.2 seconds left? Double check. The fifth lost in seven games and 14th in 19 overall? Triple check.


Love this comment from Basketbawful reader The Other Chris:

Quote from Jamal Crawford after the Dirty Birds dispatched the flailing Dinos:

"This Raptors team is playing a lot better," Crawford said.

Ummm:

Toronto has lost five of seven and 14 of 19.

Better than what? Cleveland? A pile of dogshit that's on fire?
The Orlando Magic: I knew it. I saw this coming. As soon as I saw a sidebar headline for this article titled "Magic on fire since blockbuster trade," I knew the Magic were gonna cool off. During their nine-game winning streak, Orlando averaged 107.7 PPG and had six games of 110 points or more.

Last night, the Hornets threw a wet blank on all that fire.

The Magic shot 39 percent from the field and finished with only 89 points. And, mind you, this game went to overtime. It's like they were possessed by the spirits of the Milwaukee Bucks or something. But hey, they were in it, right?

Said Dwight Howard: "We know how to win games, so instead of losing our composure and allowing a team to get in our heads and get us frustrated ... we did a good job of getting back into the game. I never thought we were going to lose this game at all."

And yet you did, Dwight. Speaking of which...

Dwight Howard: Pumaman had an Animal Style double-double (29 points and 20 rebounds) and, with 11 seconds to go, he stepped to the free throw line to attempt two foul shots that could turn a one-point deficit into a one-point lead.

Do I even need to tell you what happened?

Said Howard: "You can't just look at it as the [missed] free throws lost the game. There were a lot of plays down the stretch that we didn't make. We didn't play as hard as we're supposed to play and they got easy buckets. ... There was a lot of mistakes that we made to put us in that position."

Way to take responsibility for your misses, Dwight.

The Milwaukee Bucks: Stop me if you've heard this story before: The Bucks shot 39 percent, scored only 84 points, and lost. The only thing that ever changes is the opponent (the Spurs in this case) and the location (in Milwaukee).

One extra bit of bawful on this one: Matt Bonner went off for 17 points in the second half...and made the Bucks look silly in the process.

Said Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles: "Nothing against Matt, we're Matt Bonner fans, but we know he's going to pump fake and go right. He pump-faked and went right over, and over, and over again. He made us pay."

The Detroit Pistons: Detroit coach John Kuester unveiled a new starting lineup of Chris Wilcox, Tayshaun Prince, Greg Monroe, Tracey McGrady and Rodney Stuckey. Richard Hamilton went to the bench...and never got off of it.

The explanation?

Said Kuester: "Don't read anything into that. We shortened the rotation and changed the lineup. That's it."

Prince had an alternate explanation.

Said Tayshaune: "Buffoonery. Do you all know what that means?"

Added Rip: "I think that's the first time in my career that I've put on my jersey and didn't play," he said. "No one warned me about it. I was completely surprised. Do I think it was a level of disrespect or unfair or anything like that? I'll leave that to y'all. I can't control that, just like I can't control my playing time. I'm just going to keep doing the same thing I've done for nine years -- get ready to play for the Pistons. If they don't play me, or they trade me, there's nothing I can do about that."

And there's nothing the Pistons can do about, well, pretty much anything. Zach Randolph played like the Incredible Hulk (34 points, 10-for-17, 14-for-17 at the line, 17 rebounds) and the Pistons lost at home to the Grizzlies.

Destination: Doom.

The New Jersey Nyets: All I really have to say about this one is that, if the Suns had lost, you'd be reading about my suicide this morning.

Chris's Lacktion Report:

Hawks-Raptors: Atlanta's Josh Powell skated into the life of a man in full after garnering an entire exact 1 trillion!

Purple Paupers-Celtics: Even against the West Coast's worst excuse for a basketball team, The Big Voskuhl, ahem, Shaq, strike again with a 7:3 ratio in a 13:25 stint as starting center, ountering one board and field goal with four fouls and three delicious apple turnovers.

Knicks-Jazz: Toney Douglas dabbled in the construction of masonry next to the corner of Exchange Place and Broadway, adding on a giveaway at ZCMI in 4:03 for a +2 suck differential.

For the beboppers, Francisco Elson found one foul note along a turnover in 4:30 for a +2 that also gathered up a +2 that was also worth a 2:0 Voskuhl. Kyrylo Fesenko syncopated one foul in 1:31 for a +1 and a 1:0 Madsen-level Voskuhl.

Lakers-Warriors: Andris Biedrins once again volleyed off a Voskuhl as East Oakland's big man, countering three boards and a field goal in 24:43 with two lost rocks and a foulout for an 8:5 ratio.

LOL El (Oh El) (thanks, AnacondaHL) Heat-THE CLIPPERS: Erick Dampier certainly dabbled in the lifestyles of the rich and infamous tonight, garnering a 1.3 trillion (1:18) in royalties for the "Heatles" in Donald Sterling's playground.

Labels:

35 Comments:
Anonymous kazam92 said...
Really enjoyed actually watching Blake Griffin. He has some man-sized spin moves


And yeah, the supporting cast blows. I think Ilgauskus has been dead since December

Anonymous JJ said...
Go Clippers! Make your playoff run!

Anonymous Aaron said...
Teams I want to make playoffs in the West:

1) Suns
2) Clippers
3) Houston

Teams I don't want:

1) Denver
2) Portion
3) New orleans

I can probably switch Houston with New orleads

Just saying....

Blogger Basketbawful said...
Go Clippers! Make your playoff run!

Somebody mentioned this the other day, but check out their schedule. The Clippers begin an 11-game road trip on February 4. There are four sets of back-to-backs including a stretch of four games in five nights.

The opponents (in order): Hawks, Heat, Magic and Knicks back-to-back, Cavaliers, Raptors and Bucks back-to-back, Timberwolves, Thunder and Hornets back-to-back, and finally the Lakers.

I give the Clips a solid shot at beating the Cavs, Craptosaurs and T-Wolves. But that would make 'em 3-8 on the trip. And that's my best case scenario. But we'll see.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Suns shouldn't make the playoffs because they'll get swept the first round. I'd rather get a decent draft pick then sneak into the playoffs only to get manhandled by the spurs or mavs.

btw, did you intentionally ignore last night's PHX-NJN game?

Anonymous chapster said...
the media keeps stroking lebron's ego (among other things), even when he loses.

check out the game notes from yahoo:

"Notes: Miami has scored at least 90 points in 18 straight games. … The Heat fell to 6-1 against the Pacific Division this season, and had their 11-game winning streak against the division dating to last season end. … Miami’s road win streak was the second-longest in franchise history."

all they talk about is how great the heat are!! my hell, if you've got to discuss something about this game, make it blake griffen

Anonymous kazam92 said...
No he didn't ignore it. He said something along the lines of

"If the Suns had lost this game, you would've found my suicide note the next day"

Anonymous JJ said...
Bawful,

Yep, that schedule looks prety rough (btw, up to $100,000.00 for Clippers at Miami regular season game??? WTF?). Still, I've strongly believed since the beginning of the season that Clippers will be a dramatically improved team this year (probably my man-love with Griffin has blinded me). I'm counting on a combination of Clippers getting to around .500 and other potential playoff teams (namely Denver and Portland) falling apart. It'd be pretty sweet to see Griffin do some damage in the playoffs!

At first, I thought it's nonsense, but wins like this against Heat are showing that it's possible. If they make it, I called it first! LOL.

Anonymous The Other Chris said...
@Bawful

Given that the Clips are - I hesitate to even say it - playing very well these days, aren't the likes of the Bucks, Hawks, and Knicks potentially beatable?

I guess we'll see if the Clippers really are getting better or if it's Hornets-style "fools gold"?

Blogger chris said...
If the Clips do reach the postseason, it suddenly makes it that much more embarassing to be a non-playoff team, don't it.

Yeah, not exactly reassuring as a Purple Pauper fan (five years without a postseason and counting!!!!!!!!!!!).

Blogger Basketbawful said...
@JJ and The Other Chris:

The Clippers have been playing a lot better. But teams that really aren't all that good tend to struggle on the road.

They have three road wins this year, against the Pistons (awful), Bulls (first game w/o Noah) and Kings (worst team in the league).

On paper, I'd give 'em a shot at beating the Bucks (because of their shoddy offense) and maybe the Hawks...but only on paper. I think the Clips are gonna fall apart on this roadie.

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
Well it really should be the El (Oh El) Heat.

Anonymous Weakside D said...
That wasn't mud the CHeats were running in...

Anonymous The Other Chris said...
But teams that really aren't all that good tend to struggle on the road.

This is true.

First prize here goes to the Generals: 0-18 on the road. Only twenty four more for a perfect season!

Blogger Bakes said...
This is not meant to be a tribute to Kobe or anything, it's an honest question.

Nearly every arena he's played in, Kobe has heard MVP chants. I can even remember years back before the Celtics became a force again that there was a smattering of MVP chanters in BOSTON of all places. There are some cities *today*, however, where that won't be happening whatsoever (I can think of Utah, Boston, and probably San Antonio off the top of my head).

I ask this only due to my limited knowledge of the older generations of players (and because I, foolishly, only started to very seriously pay attention to the sport about 5 years ago) but how many players have ever had this sort of fan reaction? Where they and their team have at least a small following in (nearly) every city? I can't name any other players today, especially not Lebron post-Cleveland, who can still get the chant in virtually any arena (though sadly I can't watch every game to verify). I don't like using hyperbole outside of humor, but to me, this is one reason why I'd label Kobe as "transcendent".

How many other players has this happened with? It's a pretty impressive fact to say the least, and should give at least a little pause (not just for Kobe but for any player this applies to).

So who else before Kobe has had this level of deism?

Anonymous Shrugz said...
it's funny lebron's comment
"It was my feeling at the time"
but some how
"I don't think there was intent at all"

So a man FEELS like beating someone up and then does it but it wasn't his intent?
his use of words hurts my eyes (cuz I rather not hear him talk)

Anonymous ZooTiger said...
Griffin's 24th straight double double. Rookie of the year, hands down......

Anonymous Al James said...
Joe Dumars' Billups for Iverson trade I think could be considered the worst move in NBA history. I mean has one move ever crushed a team so thoroughly and quickly? The Lions won 4 games in a row to finish their season. The LIONS. I don't think the Pistons have won back to back games all season.

Anonymous ZooTiger said...
Also, Not one mention of the Clippers beating "Three's Company" on NBA.com front page, nothing... Instead. Sticking Together.."A 9-8 start had some doubting the Heat. Now Miami is enjoying life as the naysayers eat crow." brought to you by the power of Stern....

Anonymous JJ said...
Bawful,

Good point and I thought the samething... except if you notice, all their road wins started to come recently. In fact, since December, they're 3-3 on the road (the wins do come with an asterisk like you mentioned, but a win is a win, right?). Not too shabby, I think, by Clipper standards. I'm taking it with a grain of salt, but I do feel like they have a better chance than people think. I'm pretty curious to see how that roadie will turn out.

Blogger chris said...
AND...

As I note in this tweet, Shawn Kemp is TRENDING ON TWITTER.

All because fans compared him to Blake Griffin.

Wow.

Blogger Bakes said...
@ ZooTiger

Yeah, I noticed the same thing two days ago. The Lakers made history in more than one category by smearing the corpses of the Cavs all over the court and the Washington/Sacramento game had a ridiculous score of 136-133, but the major story, in more than one place, was about Lebron's tweet. I can sort of understand the lack of front page story for a game regarding teams like the Kings and the Generals even taking the retarded score into account, but the Lakers/Cavs game made history and set new records in more than one category and yet there was nothing at all, except the usual one line of text in the "headlines" to the right. The main story was Lebron and his tweet.

Blogger Wild Yams said...
That Kobe quote about it being "go time" makes me think of this picture. Also Monta Ellis' performance last night made me think of this picture from doc funk.

The Heat tonight are in almost the same situation that caused Popovich to sit Duncan, Parker and Ginobili two years ago. I'm looking forward to seeing the Heat begin a new road streak with their second consecutive loss :)

Anonymous Toby said...
Someone on the Heat's public relations staff needs to have someone on the Heat's medical staff sew Lebron's mouth shut.

Blogger Michael Hsu said...
To my knowledge Kobe is the only player in NBA history to get MVP chants in opposing arena's. The broadcasters talked about this a couple years ago so I'm not sure if it's happened after that for maybe Lebron. Lebron may have had chants of MVP to try to lure him to their town.

Remember Golden State is still in California so there are a lot of Laker fans all over the state. It was just really obvious since it was still in California.

The clipper fans also came up with BEAT THE HEAT!

Blogger The Dude Abides said...
Yep. Miami has the toughest possible "schedule loss" tonight, going from the West Coast to the Mountain Time Zone, playing at altitude (and losing one hour to adjust), and landing at an airport that's about one hour from downtown Denver. If their plane left at midnight last night, they probably arrived in their hotel rooms about 5AM, and you just know that Melo will be pumped, and JR Smith will have one of his occasional good games.

Blogger Bakes said...
@ Michael Hsu

Yeah, California arenas are much, much more likely to chant for Kobe because, well, California, yeah. Hearing it in just about every arena though is a pretty big statement. Maybe my lack of previous basketball watching/history makes no difference here, and Kobe is the first to get this treatment (and I'm sure he won't be the last).

Just an interesting thought.

Anonymous Tree said...
LeBron continues to amaze with his all-star obtusiveness. He first says "It was just how I was feeling at the time ...", but then follows that up with "I didn't even write it...".

So, to be clear - the tweet was just how he was feeling, but when the douchyness of them are made clear, they are comments that he didn't make ... huh?!?

People (outside Cleveland) are over the fact he's in Miami ... the hatred is not just directed at him, because there's nothing likable about him (outside Miami).

LeBron, the 'villictim'. It must be due to racism.

Blogger Tristan said...
Mr. Bawful: Note this down after last night's interminably long (due to Spoelstra and the Heat taking those last-minute time-outs, hoping they could pull a W out of their asses) but uber-satisfying victory by the Clips, punctuated by B-Griff's dunk...Mario Chalmers is a scrub. A f****ng scrub. Is this not the same clown that this site would well, clown, for posting one trillions and so forth in his illustrious bench-warming career? And he's talking shit to a one-time unanimous College Player of the Year, the eventual (hopefully) NBA Rookie of the Year, and one of the top 5 power forwards in the league already? Yeah, Griffin got the last word. Awesome.

Two more rants:
1) When the Lake Show visits Cleveland this season, Cavs fans should chant 'MVP' whenever Kobe's at the line; see how the so-called King tweets to that one. Pass the word; make it happen.

2) His acronym, LBJ. El Fellatio. The league, Nike, and the media's been like that since day one for him, anyway; why hasn't anyone clowned him about that one?

Go Lakers! Lol

Anonymous Drama said...
i was at the clipper/heat game last night and snapped a few pics of LeBitch dougie'ing prior to tip-off -
the way Bosh is looking at him is what really makes the picture though...after i took them the first thing i thought of was how Bawful this looks
if you guys are interested let me know!

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Tristan, I am also in the camp who thinks Chalmers should have shut up and let the big kids do the talking.

Anonymous Cetti said...
Drama, honour us with your fotobawful talents!

Anonymous tabman said...
@ Michael Hsu - there is no way Kobe is the only NBA player to get MVP chants in opposing arenas. Even a player as "not that popular" as Dirk Nowitzki got MVP chants in opposing arenas during his MVP campaign. I remember specifically he got those chants in Boston. I guess Boston was pretty down in the dumps those years and looking to cheer anyone on.

@ Josh - I also doubt that Kobe and the Lakers are the first team to have at least a small following in "(nearly) every city." This is pretty common for "transcendent" (and also hated) teams in many sports. Jordan-era Bulls definitely had at least a small following in nearly every city. And probably a pretty big one in most. Steve Kerr has even talked about how they were treated like "rock stars" everywhere they went during the 1996 72-win season. The Shaq and Kobe Lakers also had fans all over. As did Magic's Lakers and Bird's Celtics. In other sports, the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees, as much as they are also hated, also have fans all over the country. Lebron is a testament to that (he's fans of both, haha!). Of course, this is also what makes these front-runner teams/fans hated as well. Just as Kobe and the Lakers are today.

Blogger BJ said...
James: BALL!
Griffin: Kill.

Anonymous Drama said...
http://picasaweb.google.com/Dr.Gandhi.09/MiamHeatVsLAC#5561795510225984274

theres the link of LeBitch...
let me know what u guys think lol