no love
Yes, Kevin, your shooting gives us headaches, too.

The Minnesota Timberwolves: Believe it or not, the Timberwolves were in control for most of the game and had a double-digit lead in the second half. Oh, and Kevin Love finished with almost as many rebounds (24) as the entire Celtics team (30). By the way, that broke Dikembe Mutombo's record for most rebounds in the TD Garden, set on March 11, 2001.

But my favorite Clippers-related saying -- "They are who we thought they were" -- can certainly apply here. Love -- who went 3-for-11 from the field -- chucked up an airball that would have given Minny a one-point lead with just over a minute to go. Seriously, as a shooter, Love is like a fat kid who's mouth can't hit a piece of pizza. It's crazy.

Anyway, with about 10 seconds left, Minnesota had the ball out of bounds and a chance to take the lead. Enter Luke Ridnour. Apparently, there was a disturbance in the force, because Luke had a clear path to the basket but got called for traveling. As if that wasn't humiliating enough, Ray Allen swatted the hell out of Ridnour's would-be shot attempt anyway.


Cracked Doc Rivers: "I knew Ray had it. All the way. Yeah, we put Ray back there to protect the basket."

Said Ridnour: "It wasn't a travel. At least I didn't think it was. Ray made a heck of a play to block it anyway, but I think it should have been our ball. I'm not going to criticize the referees. At that junction of the game, it seemed like a tough call to me."

Added Michael Beasley: "I'm not a referee. That's how they decided to call the game."

I dunno, guys. It looked pretty three-steps-without-a-dribble to me.

But whatever. The call stands. And the Timberwolves have now lost eight games in which they held a double-digit lead. They are 9-26 on the season and 2-18 outside of Minnesota.

Kevin Love: You make Jermaine O'Neal feel young.


Shaq the King's Squire: From the AP game notes:

O'Neal carried Rondo into the locker room before the game, cradling the 6-foot-1 point guard in his arms before gently putting him in his chair. O'Neal then asked: "Anything else, King Rondo?" Rondo said, "No, that's all for now."
The Golden State Warriors: I'm telling you, nearly every AP recap for a Warriors game will talk about some player setting a new season or career high against them. In this case, Hedo Turkoglu had the third triple-double of his career: 14 rebounds, 10 points and 10 assists. And yes, I do believe that Hedo could average a triple-double for an entire season.

Assuming he played every game against the Warriors.

Fresh off an epic collapse against the Heat, Golden State suffered another (though admittedly less epic-y) faceplant against the Magic. During the first half, the Warriors outrebounded Orlando 25-17 and built a 53-44 halftime advantage. During the second half, they were outscored 66-37 and lost 110-90.

And that was despite the Magic giving up 25 points off 19 turnovers.

Said Golden State coach Keith Smart: "Maybe we can just play a half and go home. We played very, very good basketball against two elite teams and for whatever reason, didn't come out in the second half and play at the level necessary to win."

In related news, Louis Amundson and Vladimir Radmanovic are starting for the Warriors, who are now 13-21. That makes them 7-19 since their 6-2 start.

Jumping back to Turkododo for a minute, I got a chuckle out of this article by Magic Insider Brian Schmitz:

Money can't buy happiness, even NBA money.

Turk tried hard to make that deal. It just didn't work.

He wasn't good at being a mercenary.

An unhappy Turk is an unproductive, unmotivated Turk.

Toronto is beautiful, even if it's stuck in Canada, and Phoenix is a desert resort. But Hedo did not like working at either place, and it didn't take those franchises long to realize he wouldn't be employee of the month.

The Magic also feared what might happen if they gave him $50 million over five years. They shipped him to Canada with the loot in a sign-and-trade, and Hedo had to like the exchange rate if nothing else.

"The one thing that's better with Turk was he was out of shape for all the years he was here and now he's like 8 percent body fat, which is the lowest since he's been alive," Dwight Howard said.

"It's great. He's shooting the ball well, he's passing more and he's more dedicated than he was before he got traded, which is great to see."

The Magic are getting Turk back at the right price and at the right time.
The right price? Uh, Hedo's making over $10 million this season (most of which will be paid by the Magic) plus almost $35 million over the next three seasons. So, ultimately, Orlando will end up paying, what, over $40 million of that $50 million they were afraid to pay? But never fear. He's dedicated now. And I'm sure his dedication will remain static over the next three seasons. Yep. No problem.

The Charlotte Bobcraps: Here's a big ol' sad face from the AP recap:

Charlotte played without starting forward Gerald Wallace (ankle) and center Nazr Mohammed (knee) the same day tests revealed backup big man DeSagana Diop is lost for the season with a ruptured Achilles tendon.

With Kwame Brown the only healthy center, the Bobcats fell apart offensively, missing 18 straight shots bridging the second and third quarters.
Let me put this bluntly. When the words "with Kwame Brown the only healthy center" are used to describe a team, that team is f**ked on a truly epic scale. Sure enough, Charlotte shot 38 percent as a team and received facials from both LeBron James (38 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists) and Dwyane Wade (31 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists).

Forget the fact that two starters (Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Carlos Arroyo) finished with only 2 points each, or that the bench contributed only 12 points on 3-for-16 shooting, or that Chris Bosh (11 points on 4-for-9 shooting) was the only other Miami player in double figures...if King Crab and Pookie can combine for 70 points a night, the Heat will be in pretty good shape.

Said Bobcraps coach Paul Silas: "When Wade is going and LeBron is going, you have to call it a day."

Way to concede the game, coach.

LeBron James, quote machine: On Coach 'Spo: "Everybody was talking about him being on the hot seat in November to being coach of the month in December. It's kind of funny."

Well, things really turned around after Erik stopped playing LeBron 45+ minutes. That was too much PT, and Coach 'Spo knew that.

LeBron James, gag-inducement machine: The Heatles? Really? Yes, really.

The Heat is referring to itself as the "Heatles" -- as in the Beatles -- these days because of the large crowds it receives on the road, said James.

"I see we sell out 99.1 percent on the road, so we call ourselves the Heatles off the Beatles, so every time we take our show on the road we bring a great crowd," James said.

The obvious question: So who's Paul McCartney and who's John Lennon?

"I knew that was going to be a question," James said. "We're just the Heatles, man."
Update! An anonymous commenter correctly pointed out that Kevin Garnett dubbed the Celtics "The Ceatles" back in 2007 -- "We're the Ceatles...Ceatles...like the Beatles? We the Ceatles. And I'm Paul!" -- so LeBron wasn't even being original.

Another update! A different anonymous commenter directed me to The Heat Index, which provided a link to this Tweet from SI.com's Chris Mannix:

Here's why LBJ's "Heatles" line rang a bell. In '06 Drew Gooden told me DG, LBJ & Damon Jones called themselves "The Cleatles." Not kidding.
So there you have it.

The Philadelphia 76ers: They had a real shot at winning this one. Actually, they had a lot of shots. And they missed most of them.

Despite trailing by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter, Philly cut the lead to 78-75 with 3:09 to go. Then they bricked their next six field goal attempts and the game was essentially over.

It was that kind of night for the Sixers. After a sweet 26-point first quarter in which they shot 11-for-22, Philadelphia couldn't break the 20-point barrier over the final three quarters. During that stretch, the Sixers went 19-for-66 from the field. That's a 28 percent rate of inaccuracy. For the game, they shot 34 percent, including 5-for-23 from downtown.

Said Philly coach Doug Collins: "We did all the things we would like to have done, except we couldn't make a shot."

Sadly, making shots is still one of the key elements of the sport, Doug.

Spencer Hawes: He missed the game after straining his back. During warmups.

Trevor Ariza: The line: 2-for-11 from the field and 0-for-4 from beyond the arc. You could definitely use the words "pure shooter" to describe Ariza. As in "he is not one."

The Houston Rockets: Kevin Martin scored 8 points on 15 shots and the Nuggets made 40 trips to the free throw line as the Rocketeers fell two games below .500.

Said Shane Battier: "We didn't do a very good job of keeping him off the line. It's tough to play on the road and overcome the 40 free throws they had as team. We just have to do a better job on them without fouling them."

Added Houston coach Rick Adelman: "We played hard. We just couldn't keep them off the line."

More bad news for Rockets fans: Their next five games -- versus the Frail Blazers, at Orlando, versus the Jazz, at Boston and versus the Thunder -- are going to make it pretty hard to sneak back over .500 any time soon. Or, more likely, any time this season. On the bright side, Brad Miller (10 points and 11 boards) had his first double-double of the season. Yao who?

The Detroit Pistons: Going into last night's game, the Pissed-ons hadn't beaten the Jazz since March 13, 2005. And, boy oh boy, what a bawful game that was. The final score was 64-62 and Detroit won despite shooting 31 percent as a team and scoring only 6 points in the fourth quarter. During those final 12 minutes, the Pistons went 0-for-15 from the field.

Here's more from the original AP recap:

The futility wasn't limited to the Pistons, however. It was the lowest scoring game for each franchise, and the teams combined for an NBA-record 18 points in the final period, beating the 19 points by Miami and Toronto in the fourth quarter on Feb. 2, 2004.

"That's as ugly as it can get, but our defense held on long enough to win the game," said Detroit's Chauncey Billups, who scored just one point in the second half. "It was like a lid was on the basket. We got some good looks -- we got some great looks -- we just couldn't knock them down."

Detroit led 58-50 at the start of the fourth quarter, and its six free throws were enough to hold off the Jazz. Utah shot 4-for-20 in the fourth.

"We kind of shot ourselves in the foot, especially late in the game," Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. "That's just the way it goes sometimes."
How's that for a little Basketbawful History?

Anyway -- despite a scoring outburst from Tayshaun Prince (26 points on 11-for-19 from the field) and a near triple-double from Knee-Mac (11 points, 11 assists, 9 rebounds) -- Detroit still hasn't beaten the Jazz since March 13, 2005. I guess you can consider their 11 straight losses in this series karma for winning such an ugly-ass game way back when.

Credit the Pistons, though, for making the game close. There were 15 ties and 11 lead changes. And Knee-Mac could have knotted the score at the end...but he shanked the potentially game-tying three. And that was Game Over.

Jerry Sloan, quote machine: Regarding the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks hosting a home playoff game: "Are they supposed to apologize?"

Actually, yes, Jerry. They are supposed to apologize.

Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant, quote machines: Regarding Kobe's take-it-over-ism during the Memphis game:

"We all are familiar with [Bryant's] game and his ability to score and his ability to take over games. It's sometimes a double-edged sword because it can keep you in the games and even sometimes win you games, but it can also lose you games. I think we're more effective and we're more successful when our offense is balanced and everybody's contributing. We all know that. We're in good shape when everybody's 10-plus points and just getting good looks because the offense will do that for you.

"From my perspective, maybe because I'm one of the inside guys, we should be pounding guys every night no matter what and then play off that. I don't think me and Andrew [Bynum] are guys [who] will always have the need to shoot and get over 20 attempts a game, but if we can set the tone early...it keeps defenses having to adjust, and we put guys in foul trouble."
Chris's Lacktion Report:

Heat-Bobcats: Zydrunas Ilgauskas continues to demonstrate his championship-piggybacking skills, this time by countering a field goal and board in 12:42 as Miami's starting big man with three fouls and a giveaway for a 4:3 Voskuhl.

Warriors-Magic: Dan Gadzuric gathered up a board and two field goals in 9:26...but also fouled out for a 6:5 Voskuhl. For Stan Van Gundy's crew of tricksters, Quenton Richardson made a NES cartridge appear out of a hat after 52 seconds for a Mario.

Labels:

41 Comments:
Blogger Cortez said...
"Said Ridnour: 'It wasn't a travel. At least I didn't think it was.'"

What we have here is a reverse hardwoodparoxysm.com moment.

There has never been a clearer traveling violation in the history of sport.

"You make Jermaine O'Neal feel young."

That was a travel too. Albeit, one that I would never call.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Could LeBron's quote be subtly hinting that he thinks he's more popular than Jesus?

Anonymous Anonymous said...
No sweet-sweet lacktion?

Blogger Basketbawful said...
No sweet-sweet lacktion?

I have not received Chris's report yet...

Blogger Dan B. said...
Bawful -- He e-mailed it out later than usual this morning, and I guess Yahoo hadn't put it in your inbox yet. I've added it to the post.

Anonymous Aaron said...
Wait...did the AP recap on the Pissed-ons game write "....said Detroit's Chauncey Billups, who scored just one point in the second half...."

Blogger Basketbawful said...
Bawful -- He e-mailed it out later than usual this morning, and I guess Yahoo hadn't put it in your inbox yet. I've added it to the post.

Ah. Many thanks.

Wait...did the AP recap on the Pissed-ons game write "....said Detroit's Chauncey Billups, who scored just one point in the second half...."

Yes, but that was from Detroit's last win against the Jazz back in 2005.

Blogger stephanie g said...
So Spoelstra is talking about himself in the third person now? Did LeBron replace him with a pod person?

Blogger chris said...
There has never been a clearer traveling violation in the history of sport.


I thought the Crab Dribble was the most obvious one, even compared to what Ridnour pulled off (or attempted to pull off) last night...

Anonymous Barry said...
You can see the Minny coach mouthing "Ray????" after the block. At least that´s what I want to see.

Blogger Will said...
In regards to the Heatle quote: someone on deadspin made the astute observation "Forget who's Lennon or McCartney, who's gonna be Mark David Chapman?"

Blogger Cortez said...
"I thought the Crab Dribble was the most obvious one"

That one was quite obvious too. The only difference being James was in traffic and could actually make it to the rim from that distance without traveling.

Ridnour, on the other hand, was in clear view of everyone in the building and couldn't possibly make it to the basket from that distance unless they moved the games to the earth's moon.

Blogger Basketbawful said...
So Spoelstra is talking about himself in the third person now? Did LeBron replace him with a pod person?

Man, that was MY friggin' bad. That was a LeBron James quote machine and I brain-farted it to Coach 'Spo. Fixed.

In regards to the Heatle quote: someone on deadspin made the astute observation "Forget who's Lennon or McCartney, who's gonna be Mark David Chapman?"

Dan Gilbert?

Blogger Dan B. said...
Ridnour, on the other hand, was in clear view of everyone in the building and couldn't possibly make it to the basket from that distance unless they moved the games to the earth's moon.

Okay, now I want to see basketball played on the Moon. May require some rules changes though. For example, would dunking from behind the 3 point line still count as 3 points?

Blogger Basketbawful said...
Okay, now I want to see basketball played on the Moon.

SPACE JAM!!

Anonymous Anonymous said...
KG come up with the Ceatles 3 years ago. I don't blame LeCrab for going the copycat route. Every original thing he's said or done lately has been extremely dumb or very douchy.

Knew the Timberpoops were going to lose the lead. If it wasn't Ridnour brainfarting it would have been someone else. These teams find new ways to lose each night

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Facepalm

Anonymous Angry, oversensitive Canuck said...
What's up with that Orlando Sentinel douche?

"Toronto is beautiful, even if it's stuck in Canada"

Uh, we're the same landmass, similar climates (in the north, anyway), similar demographics...so what't the problem? The idea of a foreign country is so upsetting to some Americans? Sheesh. Oh and we have a stronger economy and some last vestiges of public health care too. What does Orlando have? Oil balls from the Gulf?

Anonymous kazam92 said...
You've all demonstrated to a degree why Kevin Love is overrated, but I will go further


Rebounds are seen as the boon of "giving effort" in basketball. There are no bad rebounds, and Kevin gets a ton of them. Yes he is an elite rebounder.

But the way people slobber over rebounds now I believe is getting a bit much. Its not always an indicator that the guy gives a crap. Have you seen Kevin Love's D???? Atrocious atrocious defender


and I watched that 4th quarter of that Minny Celts game, Kevin Love isn't a 20 pt scorer (despite the averages). He'll get most of his off putbacks and inside stuff, and sometimes the open longball (he's a good shooter but big man, get in the paint!). He cannot be someone who you can ask to "get me a basket" down the stretch. That would be Mike Beasley, who admirably dueled Paul Pierce down the stretch, hitting jumper after jumper.....but god Ridnour, Minny has to have the worst guard play in the NBA.


So please hold of on "Kevin Love All-Star" talks please. He's a good rebounder and slightly above average scorer, who plays no D. He's this years David Lee really only he has Zach Randolph-like leaping ability

Anonymous Orlando Sentinal PR department said...
@ Angry, oversensitive Canuck:

Canada is way better than Orlando, Florida. I think the reporter was just referring to Canada as being a *backwoods for professional basketball* - not a terrible place or a place that is otherwise deficient in non-NBA-fan-related things. Orlando has the Magic and little else; and so I'm guessing they're more enthusiastic basketball fans than in a city that has the frickin' Maple Leafs competing during the fall/winter/spring.

Anonymous Patrick said...
Other band names for the Miami Heatles:

"Back Stabbath" - this refers to L. James leaving Cleveland

"Erik and the Dominoes" - instead of Derrick; refers to their guaranteed (by me) collapse against the Boston C's in the playoffs.

"Nirvana": Remember when Miami was supposed to set a win record? "Oh well, whatever, nevermind."

I got a million of these, fellas.

Blogger Basketbawful said...
But the way people slobber over rebounds now I believe is getting a bit much. Its not always an indicator that the guy gives a crap. Have you seen Kevin Love's D???? Atrocious atrocious defender

That's true, but it's not because he doesn't care. It's because he's slow a a sack of rocks and has no lateral movement. I posted a video of Love defending The Drain. You can see love is trying. He just doesn't have the speed or lateral quickness necessary to stop...anybody.

and I watched that 4th quarter of that Minny Celts game, Kevin Love isn't a 20 pt scorer (despite the averages). He'll get most of his off putbacks and inside stuff, and sometimes the open longball (he's a good shooter but big man, get in the paint!). He cannot be someone who you can ask to "get me a basket" down the stretch.

Neither were Dennis Rodman or Ben Wallace. But they were All-Stars. Of course, those guys were also elite defenders. I guess this is where I bring out the "Jamaal Magloire was an All-Star" example.

So please hold of on "Kevin Love All-Star" talks please. He's a good rebounder and slightly above average scorer, who plays no D. He's this years David Lee really only he has Zach Randolph-like leaping ability

Actually, he's more than a "good" rebounder. He's in the midst of a historic season in terms of rebounding. As of today, he could rank 7th all-time in Defensive Rebound Percentage and 12th all-time in Total Rebound Percentage (according to Basketball-Reference).

And as well as Beastly has played this season, Love has the edge in PER (23.5 to 17.4), True Shooting Percentage (57.2 to 53.6), every rebounding category (obviously), Offensive Rating (119 to 104), Defensive Rating (109 to 112), Offensive Win Shares (4.0 to .2), Defensive Win Shares (0.9 to 0.4), Total Win Shares (4.9 to 1.5) and Win Shares Per 48 Minutes (0.187 to 0.065).

Moreover, Love is first or second in virtually every rebounding category, 10th in Minutes Played, 20th in three-point percentage (42.4), 12th in Free Throw Attempts, 10th in Free Throws Made, 14th in Free Throw Percentage (87.6), 13th in Points, 19th in PPG, 10th in PER, 12th in Offensive Rating, 5th in Offensive Win Shares, and 9th in Total Win Shares.

Beastly is definitely the team's go-to scorer and Love definitely is not. But there are an awful lot of numbers there -- not just raw numbers, but advanced stats too -- that indicate Love is having a pretty major season.

As always, just sayin'.

Blogger Basketbawful said...
Oh, I meant to point out that, despite all the data I just vomited out, I have not at any point said that Love should be an All-Star, and I don't think anybody on this site has been pushing for it either.

Blogger Basketbawful said...
I got a million of these, fellas.

Then keep 'em comin'!

Anonymous JJ said...
Why is Shaq kissing "King" Rondo's butt? I thought he only cared about the "big 3"?

Anonymous kazam92 said...
Mehh...fancy statistics. Ok Love is an ELITE rebounder thanks to his brilliant feel for positioning and big hands. I believe I said that already. God bless him, Beasley is the only other halfway decent rebounder on the roster with Darko being a waste of 7 feet.


Not saying he's bad, but all the praise he got stemming from 30-30 vs the Knicks is just a tad bit much for me, considering his flaws. I won't protest him making an all-star team (like I did Horford last year) but "I'm just sayin."

Blogger chris said...
Orlando Sentinel PR department: Orlando has the Magic and little else; and so I'm guessing they're more enthusiastic basketball fans than in a city that has the frickin' Maple Leafs competing during the fall/winter/spring.


I think "competing" is a rather generous word to describe any activity that has occurred in recent months/years at the Air Canada Roller Rink.

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
It is unique how Kevin Love will even box out his own teammates to pad those rebounding stats.

Interesting History: Stan Van Gundy won Eastern Conference Coach of the Month for December 2004 after leading the Heat to a 14-1 record. A year later...

Finally, sorry I didn't post this earlier for the WOTN, but here's LeBron's birthday cake. His twitter is an amazing trainwreck, I really implore you all to follow it.

Blogger chris said...
YES!

SBNation declares Raptor Mascot Fail as THE best sports anigif entering this year. I agree.

http://www.sbnation.com/2011/1/4/1913006/best-animated-sports-gifs-of-2010http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/516980/2009_medium.gif

Blogger Preveen said...
Patrick, you might wanna consider WHO said the Heat were supposed to set a win record this year? Was it anyone on the Heat? And they are supposed to somehow live up to that?

LeBron leaving Cleveland? That is something you need to blame Free Agent LeBron. Not the Heat. The Heat did what it was supposed to do, sign Free agents. You know, people who are FREE to sign where they want?

Your fail guarantee? Maybe someone would care if you had a winning track record at the lottery.

Basically, all a FAIL.

Keep on hating, troll. That'll be all you have to fill in the emptiness.

Anonymous AK Dave said...
Are they supposed to apologize?

Seahawks are in the playoffs. First game will be at Qwest Field. Deal with it, bitches.

While this is the first time that an NFL team won a division or went to the playoffs with a losing record, it isn't the first time teams with better records piss and moan because they didn't get in. A couple years ago the 12-4 Patriots missed the playoffs. The Cardinals (from SB 2009) were 9-7 IIRC.

But they made it all the way to the Super Bowl, shittier record than New England and all.

How many times has a team from the Eastern conference made the NBA playoffs with a sub-500 record? The CELTICS made the playoffs in 2004 with a 36-46 record; a full 10 games under 500.

Should the Celtics have apologized?

Eh, maybe for having Antoine Walker on their team. But not for making the playoffs. That wasn't their call. It was the NBA. Them's the rules. Same deal in the NFL. Seattle didn't write the rules, all they did was win their division, like they're supposed to. The reason that Football is set up this way is because teams play a limited number of games and don't get to play every team. Furthermore, they play each team in their division twice. The league made the decision a long time ago that it was better to always send the division leader to the playoffs because that way nobody gets totally screwed over by drawing a super-tough schedule. Furthermore it adds diversity (and therefore fan interest) to the playoffs by preventing the same teams from the same divisions from going every year, as well as making sure that the country is geographically represented more or less equally.

Still, it's true that both Tampa Bay (10-6) and New York (10-6) both beat the shit out of Seattle this season. I can see why people are mad. I just don't care, and neither should Seattle. :)

Anonymous The Other Chris said...
@Angry, oversensitive Canuck

Deep breaths, dude. Who cares what some hack who's probably never been outside Florida thinks?

Raptors actually gave the Celtics a game for 3 quarters on Sunday. Then it turns out that the Craptors are the Craptors, and Boston has HOF'ers Shaq, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Oops.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
@Canuck:

Canadian "health care" consists of refusal to provide care and waiting for patients to die. Get off your high horse. Your health care system sucks balls.

Go Magic!

Anonymous kazam92 said...
AK Dave, those Pats were 11-5 and missed the playoffs due to the 11-5 Dolphins. There were about 5 or 6 tiebreakers used to determine the Dolphins won the division

Anonymous Anonymous said...
I hate to defend LeBron, but in 2006 he named his Cavs teammates the Cleatles. :( He's not ripping off KG.http://espn.go.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/

read the 3rd bullet :(

Anonymous Patrick said...
Guns 'N' Posers. (LeBron's decision to leave Cleveland: "Take me down to the Paradise City where the grass is green and the girls are pretty".)

Peter, Paul and Mary: you'd have to "Puff the Magic Dragon" quite a bit before you looked at Miami and saw a title winner. Will this collection of talent cohere for the playoffs? "The answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind."

The (B)Eastie Boys: It sounds lame, I know: but the team promised to be "intergalactic" is quite "planetary", thanks to a two-person combination as awkward as "Brass Monkey" (malt liquor and orange juice). Of course, they're too interesting not to benefit from the Stern Button, but "I'm tellin' y'all it's Sabatoge"!

The Pretenders: it's because, well...

Poor Cleveland. Opponents' arenas aren't the *only* thing Lebron sold out.

@ Preveen:

It's just a joke, man. I'm a Detroit Pistons fan, so cheering for Boston to beat these folks is really, really awkward.

Blogger plar said...
Ridnour traveled: whistle blows

O'Neal traveled: crickets.

Blogger Bing said...
LeBron unoriginal, I for one am horrified!!!
Even the thing he is best known for (I'm taking my talents...) was a rip of Kobe Bryant.
Down with the King.

Anonymous Matt said...
The main difference between the Celtics in 2004 and the Seahawks of this year is that, as crappy as the Celtics were, they were still better than any team in the Eastern Conference who didn't make the playoffs, as opposed to the Hawks, who are significantly worse than a couple teams in their conference who are sitting at home.

Now, if you want to argue that the NBA should just take the best 16 teams in the league and leave the rest of the pretenders at home, that's fine with me. Of course, that could mean that a first-round matchup might be between the Lakers and the Sixers (I know that's not what it would be if the season ended right now, but it's not completely out of the realm of possibility). That would be some pretty craptastic travel in the first round and would be a pretty serious handicap.

Anonymous AK Dave said...
@Matt:

The main difference? Shape of the ball :)

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Jermaine O'Neal's travel call (or lack thereof) probably falls under the 'respect the elderly' category.