Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Raza's Worst Of The Night: March 12, 2012
By chris at 3:49 PM
23 comments


(Thanks again to guest author Raza for stepping up in the clutch, in other words, not being John Starks.)


"Dear Lord, thank you for letting me continue being one of the most overpaid players in the league.  And especially for those Luke Walton photos from our summer getaway."  


New Jersey Nyets:  Have a 29-11 free throw advantage at home? Check  


Manage a 13 point lead? Check  


Allow one of the least efficient volume shooters in the league (Brandon Jennings) who barely cracks shooting 40% from the floor go for 34 points on while shooting 52% on the floor thus losing the game?  More Checks


Well, what can I tell you folks, the Bucks were on a back to back, no Stephen Jackson (their most clutch player), no Bogut (their best big man), no Mbah Moute (their best perimeter defender) and no Shaun Livingston (their best waterboy).  To make matters worse they let the world's most repackaged and re-gifted player in the league (Drew Gooden, on his 9th team in 9 years) go off for 23 points on 11-19 shooting.

I guess to entice Dwight Howard the Nets wanna say "Hey, we got Deron Williams and a top 5 pick in the draft!"


New Orleans Hornets:  Yikes! Losing to a team that shot 0-12 from the 3 point land and only had 3 players hit double figures (highest of which was just 15) is bad enough.  But when I tell you that the team they lost to was the infamous Charlotte Bobcats.....well then, you can see why Eric Gordon has given up on the season with injuries so he can write his own version of Weezer's "Pinkerton" instead of spending another minute in uniform for the woe are we Hornets.  

If Lamar Odom is reported to be so depressed about playing for Dallas, what would he have done had he been traded to New Orleans?  Wait, don't tell me, cause I would hate to see Khloe and Lamar get canceled for good.



New York Bricks:  Well folks, I don't even know where to begin.  It felt like only yesterday the Knicks were on a 7 game win streak and D'Antoni was saved from the bread line at Trinity's.

And then this guy happened:




No, wait, had Carmelo been doing that for 48 minutes a game the Knicks probably would have continued winning and Lin would have been the face of the next 10 Disney films.   Melo shot 34% from the floor, which was worse than virtually every single one of his teammates that took at least 2 shots from the floor.  To maker matters worse, Lin continues to struggle a bit, Amare looks bored, and the Knicks have become.......well the Knicks we've known for years.

"(I try to) be an energy guy," Jimmy Butler of Chicago said. "It's easy to do when you see Taj. He played extremely well for us tonight. When you see the expression in his face and (Noah's) face, that rubs off on me. The energy, it comes from everybody."

Not sure if he was talking about the facial expressions during the game, or just in the locker-room showers afterwards.  I'm assuming it's the latter.
I get that losing to Chicago is nothing to frown about (even though they were without Deng) but this team is in such disarray that rumors have been reported about the team trying to offload Melo, Amare (non-insured contract, good luck with that!), and perhaps even Chandler (though it would probably take a Howard type player to make that happen).  But, at least the signing of JR Smith was a good idea right?  Especially when you have to deal with him doing this before and after games.


It makes you almost long for the days when Isiah Thomas was in charge.  At least those Knicks were just bad from the start.




Wizards Generals:  Speaking of teams who were just bad from the start, after coming back from a 21 point deficit against the Lakers, theWizards Generals came out and showed us exactly who we thought they were.

Playing what looked like some of the worst defense any team has played all year, they allowed the Spurs to race out to an 18 point lead before halftime.  And then it only got worse from there.
I mean, JaVale McGee missed not one but two dunks, and judging by his top 8 plays of all time, that could be the norm:




Somebody sign him up the 'Bawful HOF.



LA Clippers:  Well, maybe the battle for mediocrity in LA isn't as wide of a gap as I thought with the way the Clipps have been playing lately.  They have now lost 6 out of their last 9, and went from Lob City to Flop City.

They shot 37% from the field, at home no less, and just 21% from the 3 point land, in an ugly loss to the Celtics.

"I can't stand to lose. It's not acceptable," Paul said. "We talked about it after the game, that everybody has got to do their part. We're going to watch film and figure it out. There ain't no moral victories around here. I've been in this league too long. You've got to win, or you lose."

So what have the Clippers learned during this bad stretch?  That if you don't win then.....basically you lose.

I can see why you're a top 3 PG in this league Mr. Paul!



Nationally Televised Games:
Heat at Magic:  Both teams 2nd match up in as little as 6 days, and quite possibly Howard's last matchup with the Heat in a Magic uniform ever

All The Other Games:
Craptors at Cleveland:  Gotta love the Eastern conference, where you can go on a 6 game slide in one week, win 3 in a row the next, and find yourself just half a game out of the 8th playoff spot.  Judging by the matchup for the Cavs, something tells me that win streak will continue.

Blazers at Pacers: The Pacers try to avoid their second five-game losing streak in the last month Tuesday night when they host the Trail Blazers, who hope to win back-to-back games for the first time in seven weeks.  It's gonna be a long night folks.

Houston at OKC:  Kinda sad when you already have the next day's 'Bawful post with the heading "Houston Rockets" before this game is even played.  Still waiting to hear back from Kevin McHale about that mining trip to find the Rockets' mojo!

Lakers at Grizzlies:  The Grizz are just half a game back for the 3rd spot in the West, and judging by how the Lakers have looked on the road lately (7-14 on the road, back to back losses to the Pistons and Wizards Generals) I wish to congratulate the Grizz in advance.

Wizards Generals at Mavs:

Dirk:  You see Doc, we've been really struggling lately, I don't know if I'm going through a championship hangover, or if we're just clearing space to get Howard/Williams on board so this season is a wash for us.  Either way losing sucks.

Doctor:  Losing you say eh?  *whisks through filing cabinet for remedies*

*pulls out the game preview against the Generals*

I got just the thing!

Hawks at Nuggets:  Josh Smith has repeated his request to be traded, meanwhile the Hawks keep remembering that they're the Hawks (losers of 6 out of their last 11).  Don't expect Smith to change his mind after this one.

Warriors at Queens:  I don't even know if these guys care about this game.

Chris's Lacktion Report:
Bucks-Nyets: Larry Sanders showed two fouls in 28 seconds for a +2 and 
a Mario.

Knicks-Bulls: Josh Harrellson negated a board in 9:02 with a brick and 
two fouls for a 2:1 Voskuhl, and JR Smith bricked once in 9:15 plus 
lost the rock twice and fouled once for a +4.

Meanwhile, Brian Scalabrine mooed in just 90 seconds with a brick, 
foul, and turnover for a +3.

Generals-Spurs: In 95 seconds, Washington's Kevin Seraphin and San 
Antonio's James Anderson became opposite-team investment experts with 
1.6 trillions!!!

Celtics-Clippers: Sasha Pavlovic produced a new copy of Deadly Towers 
in just 55 seconds for a Mario, and Keyon Dooling lucked out with a 
fortune of 4.2 trillion (251 seconds).

Lob City's Eric Bledsoe fouled thricely and lost the rock once for a +4 
in 210 seconds.




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Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Worst of the Night: March 15, 2011
By Basketbawful at 7:51 AM
35 comments


mcgee ball

The Milwaukee Bucks: Another night, another 85 points, and another crippling-for-their-playoff-hopes loss for the Bucks. Last season at this time, opposing teams were Fearing the Deer. This season, the Deer are Fearing the Headlights.

After being held to 56 points by Boston on Sunday, Milwaukee was shut down and lit up in Atlanta. Joe Johnson dropped 36 -- including 28 in the first half -- on 13-for-19 from the field and 6-for-9 from downtown. Josh Smith shot 8-for-12, Al Horford went 7-for-12, Marvin Williams went 7-for-9, and Kirk Hinrich and Damien Wilkins both went 3-for-3. As a team, the Hawks shot 63 percent from the field and 11-for-19 from beyond the arc and finished with an Offensive Rating of 120.8.

Hey...I thought the Bucks were supposed to be good at that "defense" thing.

Said Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles: "It's just another one of those games where we didn't play very well."

That's one bummed-out-sounding coach.

Status check: In their last two games, the Bucks have scored a combined total of 141 points (70.5 PPG) and been outscored by 56 points (28 PPG). And at 26-40, they're...only 2.5 games out of eighth place in the East?! Jesus Christ.

Update! Andrew Bogut, quote machine: From Basketbawful reader Dan:

"I think we focused too much on scoring today and not enough on defense," said Milwaukee center Andrew Bogut.

I guess scoring 30 more points than against the Celtics is focusing on offense, but that's just sad.
The Washington Wizards Generals: How low are the expectations for the Generals? The Bulls beat them by 19 points despite being without both Carlos Boozer (sprained ankle) and Joakim Noah (flu-like symptoms!) and commenters in ESPN's Daily Dime Live chat were wondering why the Bulls weren't up by 30 at the half.

What's more: The Bulls held Washington to 79 point on 43 percent shooting and scored 22 points off 16 forced turnovers. The Generals managed only 33 points over the final 24 minutes. And yet Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau expressed near-disgust with his team's defensive performance.

Kurt Thomas nailed a buzzer-beating three at the end of the first half. It was Big Sexy's first three-pointer since April 10, 2005.

Oh, and did I mention that Keith Bogans drilled five triples and dropped a season-high 17 points?

You know you suck when...

In all fairness to the Generals, they were missing Rashard Lewis (knee), Cartier Martin (knee), Josh Howard (knee), Andray Blatche (shoulder) and Nick Young (more flu-like symptoms!). So, yeah, they were undermanned. Or whatever.

Said Washngton coach Flip Saunders: "We started three rookies. We had a lot of opportunities to fold, especially the games we've played the last week or so. I thought our guys played hard. We just ran out of gas."

Nope, nosiree, no folding here. In probably unrelated news, the Generals are now 1-30 on the road this season. According to the AP game notes, only one team has gone 1-40 on the road since the NBA went to an 82-game schedule in 1967-68: The 1990-91 Sacramento Kings. C'mon. You knew I was going to work in a Kings reference, right?

JaVale McGee and the Quest for the Triple-Double Last night, McGee threw a block party in the United Center. He stuffed 12 shots...the most swats by an NBA player since Keon Clark registered 12 rejections back on March 23, 2001. It was also the most shots any player has had against the Bulls in a regulation game.

McGee ended up one block shy of the franchise record for blocks in a game set by Manute Bol, who returned 15 packages to sender for the then-Bullets on February 26, 1987.

Said McGee: "I had three [blocks] the first quarter and I was trying to match that in the second quarter and I had seven, so I was like I'm going to try and get 14. It was working for me tonight. I was blocking so good in the first half people were starting to hesitate and were more afraid to go up and it was easier to block shots."

Note JaVale never once said anything about his team in that quote.

Anyway, with the game way out of hand in the fourth quarter, the final few minutes were consumed by a) the United Center crowd's desire for free Big Macs and b) McGee's mad quest for the final point he needed for a triple-double. And JaVale got it on a dunk with 18 seconds left...then celebrated by hanging on the rim and screaming.

Said McGee: "That was the hardest one point I ever tried to make in my life. It was crazy, but I got it. It was a dunk of relief."

Note again that he didn't say anything about his team in that quote. In possibly related news, the Generals were down 18 at the time. And McGee earned a tech for his masturbatory celebration, and Kyle Korver knocked down the freebie, so McGee's dunk ended up being a net gain of only one point for his team. Kept 'em from losing by 20, though.

Here's video of McGee's sad end-of-game quest. I've seen WoW addict less desperate to lose their virginity.


Bad as that was, it was only the second-most pathetic attempt at a triple-double in Washington franchise history:


Looks like I need to update my old Worst Evers: Triple-Doubles post.

The New York Knicks: Okay. This one hurt:


But forget Danny Granger's heroics. What really killed the Knicks was letting Tyler Hansbrough score a career-high 30 points. Mind you, Psycho T's previous career-high of 29 points was established in New York last Sunday.

Reality check: Hansbrough averaged 10.5 PPG on 46.2 percent shooting. In back-to-back games against the Knicks and Mike _'Antoni's _efense, he scored 59 points on 65 percent shooting (24-for-37).

Said 'Melo: "We all know what he was capable of doing. I don't think we made adjustments to him at the top of the key. Especially after the game he had in the Garden, I would think we would make some adjustments after that. He's played great these last two games."

Added Shawne Williams: "It feels bad. We know we got to get it going, some kind of way. I feel like we all got to take a good look in the mirror and redefine ourselves. We got to take more pride in defense."

In possibly related news, the Pacers scored 119 points on 52 percent shooting.

By the way, the Knicks are 5-6 in their last 11 games, including two losses to the Cadavers (12-53) and back-to-back losses to the Pacers (29-38). It's true what people have been saying: The Knicks are back! The bad Knicks.

Amar''''''e Stoudemire, poster boy: Apparently, STAT things his offense is his interior defense.


The Dallas Mavericks: Last Wednesday, the Mavs choked away a seven-point lead in the final 1:13 of a 93-92 loss to the New Orleans Hornets, after which Dallas coach Rick Carlisle called his team "soft." Jason Terry was pissed. Caron Butler, who's not even playing at the moment, added, "I think this team is far from soft."

One week later, and the Mavericks (after thumping the increasingly defenseless Knicks) have lost back-to-back gut check games against the Lakers and Frail Blazers. And last night's loss in Portland was a particularly bitter pill to swallow, considering Dallas shot 59.7 percent from the field and got a Beast Mode game out of Dirk Nowitzki (28 points, 9-for-14 from the field, 9-for-9 from the line, 11 rebounds, and, of course, 0-for-1 on a potential game-winner).

Dallas gave up 15 offensive boards and got outscored 48-36 in the paint. But remember what Butler and Terry said: They ain't soft.

However, the Mavs have now lost four of six after winning 18 of 19, and the Lakers have leapfrogged them for second place in the West.

Chris's Invincible Lacktion Ledger:

Bucks-Hawks: Josh Powell chained himself to the ledger tonight despite a board in 6:06 by losing the rock twice for a 2:1 Voskuhl, while Zaza Pachulia put two assists aside in 11:49 with three fouls and a turnover for a 4:0 Voskuhl.

Generals-Bulls: Mustafa Shakur bricked twice (once from the Sears Tower) in 2:20 for a +2, a suck differential matched by THE Brian Scalabrine in 4:12 from Congress Street! Also recording lacktive marks for the heifers were Omer Asik, who negated a free throw and board in 9:36 with two fouls and a turnover for a 3:2 Voskuhl, and new Chicagoan Rasual Butler, powering up a Virtual Boy in 57 seconds for a Mario.

Mavs-Frail Blazers: Dallas's Brian Cardinal produced one piece of masonry for a +1 in 4:48.

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