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I thought the first offensive foul call was more dubious, for what it's worth (I haven't seen particularly good replays of that one); by the second play, Harden was frustrated, and it showed. (He risked getting a technical before the play even began, shoving Smart first with his forearm and then with the ball. Instead, Brothers came over and broke it up -- a reasonable decision, especially at that point in the game.)
I agree it seemed clear with the enthusiasm the ref had that the emotion got to him. He was like Leslie Nielsen there.
The travel was absurd, and one of the worst cases of the shuffling pivot I've ever seen.
I can think of a couple of other guys...
The Spurs would never practice the dark arts. Shame on you!
Man, Smart v Harden is the ultimate Refs nightmare, isn't it?
I will confess to
1) always wondering what % of three-pointers these guys make in practice, and
2) never in a thousand years have guessed it could be this high. My God!
5. Jazz, 964
4. Lakers, 928
3. Rockets, 856
2. Mavericks, 826
1. Spurs, 48
This is really incredible.
btw, this is kind of similar to how the hawks won 60 games a few years back. there are some differences, but not all of them are unfavorable to the bulls.
Now, watching Utah-Cleveland. Utah is very easy to like.
[LBJ seems exhausted or uninterested. Not looking to shoot, even when guarded by Mitchell. And clearly frustrated with teammates.]
Butler shot 15-22 from 3. That's quite helpful for winning.
It is mind-blowing to me.
there's a ~30% chance the sixers traded this stud PG and jayson tatum for markelle fultz.
goddamnit.
And if he can maintain this level of play, he might deserve to win it too. Just taking off his horrendous first five games (and yes I know they matter) he's at 20.0 PPG/3.5 AST/3.5 REB/1.7 STL/2.06 TOV shooting .460/.374/.851
Most unfavorable is the Bulls 3-20 start with a league worst -12.9 net rating. To go from that, to 10-2 with a +5.8 net rating is unfathomable. Only conclusion to draw is that Niko is the real MVP (but still available for a first round pick or 2). On the positive side, I'd say the fact that most of the Bulls players are quite young and improving vs perhaps a perfect storm of a bunch of guys peaking and being better as a group than individually.
I mean, I stick with what I've said before - I wouldn't predict any of the guys on the team to be a perennial All Star or anything, but they have at least a couple probable above average starters (and maybe Markkanen can continue to surprise and actually be a great player, he does seem to have quite the skill set).
simmons is only averaging 13, 7 and 8 in december, with more than 4 turnovers per game. if simmons continues to play that poorly, mitchell won't just win ROY, he'll deserve to.
on a semi-related note, dario saric is averaging 16, 8 and 4 in december, on 46/36/90 shooting.
<troll>
I saw this kvetching and had to look to see if Suns beat the 76ers. They didn't. Bummer!
</troll>
<lurker>
if you watch this video of simmons getting blocked at the rim last night, you can kinda see he thought he'd be able to dunk, and he didn't have the spring to do it.
lucky for the sixers, super dario made an appearance, putting up 27, 4, 2, 3 and 1, shooting 9/13 from the floor.
---
Should I post a new thread?
That is incredible. Given 100 practice shots I'd probably hit 10. I might have a better chance of beating Giancarlo Stanton in a homerun derby than Steph Curry in a 3 point contest. Though the chances of either are microscopic.
I was just thinking of this exchange earlier today (note the dates):
I'd still go with the 3 point contest vs Curry, because I physically can (and have!) hit NBA distance 3 pointers before (albeit at a very, very low percentage). I doubt I could hit an MLB distance HR, even facing batting practice pitching.
What if the guy is throwing 95? Isn't there a chance that if you got lucky and hit one solidly the pitcher would provide a lot of the power?
No idea. Never tried hitting pitching that fast. Nor have I tried to measure the distances of my furthest homers (at random park fields). But hey, they look really damn impressive on Little League fields! (as an adult)
Are MLB fences short enough down the lines that a normal guy could reach them? No clue whether the average 330' or whatever is within the range of Joe's Schmoe's like me.
I'd still rather take my chances in the 3 pt contest. I know I can at least occasionally hit those.
I'm always smugly satisfied when a pro has a game so bad that I can confidently say, "I could've done that." Like when a pitcher gets pulled after giving up multiple runs in the first inning without recording an out, or when a batter goes 0-4 with 4 K's and commits multiple errors in the field. Or in hoops when a sub comes in for just a couple minutes, misses all their shots, commits a few turnovers and gets torched on D before heading back to the bench. I could totally do all those things.
WE'RE DOING IT !!!
I can only speak for myself, but I would get the ####### bat knocked out of my hands.
I would likely just keel over, dead.
LeBron is pretty covered.
The big talker is ass down on the ground. Whoever is playing umpire calls a strike. Big talker looks at himself, at the plate, at Tekulve. Reaches in his pocket and takes out ten bucks and says, you win.
Whether the story is true or not, it probably captures what most people would do against serious MLB pitches. Me, certainly. Hitting against the pitching machine dialed up into the eighties is one thing, but this is different.
I've never seen that happen before. I am amazed. I can't stop watching.
If I have a longbox full of basketball cards from the 90s, is there anything in particular I should look for in regards to possible random value? Companies, players, anything?
Are ANY Basketball cards worth anything?
I played on an IM basketball team at Chicago with a guy who'd been a scholarship player at Iowa. We lost in the playoffs to the law school team with a guy who, as an undergraduate at Michigan, had played on the IM team that had beaten the team with Rumeal Robinson and Glen Rice. Jay Reed was as helpless against that guy as I was against Jay Reed. It put things nicely in perspective for me.
Imagine if it had been the East German "women's" team!
The dreaded SEGABABA where you lose an hour changing time zones and had game 1 go to OT. I'm impressed that they kept the game close for so long, until the Cavs' bench went on a 13-0 run early in the 4th to take a 104-91 lead.
On a related note, did Cleveland put the best bench lineup ever assembled on the floor last night? IT, Wade, Korver, Jeff Green, and Tristan Thompson: an All-Star in his prime, a former superstar now moonlighting as a really good 6th man, a couple starter-level role players, and Jeff Green, who never lived up to his draft pedigree but is playing maybe the best ball of his career. They entered the game with a combined 2,439 career starts in 3,679 regular season games.
Ha ha. Reminds me of the Norm McDonald joke at the espy awards...
David Beckham has a lot for someone as famous as him. US goalie Tim Howard has a ton. Beckham Howard
The second is a little weirder. I was in Hermitage PA for Spring Break because that's where my room mate lived and I didn't have the money to get home or go anywhere. His dad owned a print shop and was entered in some kind of local small business sports competition, one the sports being basketball. They didn't have a lot of people to play so they asked me to be a body on the team and so I did. I show up for the game and everyone on my team is dead certain we were going to win even though the other team looked far better than we did. I was probably the 3rd best player on our team and I am very, very terrible at basketball. But we had one paunchy white dude that everyone kept whispering about. He played college ball. He had been something like an NAIA All-American. The stories kept getting more outlandish, topping off with the story he'd beat Chris Mullin in a pick up game (this is the height of Run TMC, by the way.) I didn't believe any of it, especially that part about Mullin. I was a huge Mullin fan and couldn't believe this paunchy white guy had even played him. But damn, once the game started this guy was amazing. We just fed him the ball and he'd sink 25 footers or drive to the basket at will. He was bizarrely competitive for the context, too. He barked at the refs, he talked crap to the other team and he was unstoppable. I still don't believe he could beat a prime Mullin but he was a real baller. He could have easily played division 1 ball but he seems like he just fell through the cracks for whatever reason.
Go!
I mean Dirk = David Robinson, basically. Both were fully formed by the time either guy got there, both helped win a championship, etc.
The difference between Carlisle and Pop is that Pop developed 3 HOF guys. Tony Parker, Ginobili and Duncan all have spent their whole career with Pop and he made them who they are.
By contrast the most notable guy Carlisle has developed has been ... JJ Barea? Devin Harris? Maybe that's just a lack of opportunity, but Pop's taken guys at the middle and end of the draft and turned them into MVPs and Allstars. Carlisle hasn't done that.
Ehhh, that's more of an argument for Phil than anything.
Last 10 years, Spurs exits:
2017: WCF
2016: Second Round
2015: First Round
2014: Championship
2013: Lost Finals
2012: WCF
2011: First Round
2010: Second Round
2009: First round
2008: WCF
Pop's lost in the first round more often than he should have, really.
Pop meanwhile has been in one place forever which I think makes longterm success easier (though not easy, or everyone would do it). He also walked into a spot where they were going to be good out of the get go with Duncan, which gave him a lot of time to grow into the role and put his system/culture in place. And it's hard to know how much credit others in the organization should get (as it is with all front offices in sports), but it's safe to assume that San Antonio has a lot of good people beyond Pop. There's also probably some luck in things like Kawhi's development, etc.
I'm extremely reluctant to put anyone in Pop's league just because of the way his teams have evolved. Early when Robinson and Duncan were both great, they played a pretty typical style for that era and those players. Slow pace (usually in the bottom 5 or so), physical, defensively focused. Offensive efficiency was up and down. They played that way through the mid-00s, and at that time I thought he was a very good coach but I could understand (and even believed) the skepticism of is he really all that without Duncan.
Around 2009 or 2010, the team moved for a few years to be much more offensively focused, passing the ball, player movement, cutting, pace increased, their defense wasn't as good (they got rid of some of the offensive zeroes like Bowen and Duncan wasn't the force he'd been before). Then for the last 5 or 6 years they've been exceptional and been great on both sides of the ball, a few of those years with no real stars, and the last few with Kawhi's incredible development. They handled losing Duncan like it was nothing, which I think people were skeptical of here. A lot of people thought they'd really struggle without Kawhi the first third of this season, and while they weren't playing like a contender they were playing like a 50-55 win team which was pretty remarkable.
Carlisle's had some lean years, and at this point it's really hard for me to envision that happening with Pop and the Spurs. Whomever they run out there is going to usually compete. Whether that's growing players, playing philosophy, or identifying talent (I think it's a bit of each) I am not comfortable putting Carlisle in that class.
I get your larger point, but Dirk never had anywhere near the two-way impact of The Admiral.
For development purposes, you probably should sub out Duncan for Kawhi. I don't know how much credit to give Pops for Duncan considering he was pretty much fully formed from the get go (and was also seen as a generational guy going into that draft). That's not to say I don't want to give Pops any credit either, just, it's not so clear. Also, Manu was 25 when he got to the league, although he did improve a bit after he was here.
You can see the progress that Dunn and Markkanen are making, and even Denzel Valentine is improving. Plus, Niko is still improving his trade value. The overall season numbers for the team and the individual players are still mostly terrible looking though.
don't force it if your heart's not into it. we can't all be 57i66135.
at what point is a regular fan allowed to get excited about dario saric? over the last 10 games, he's put up 18, 7 and 4 on 49/43/91 shooting. 22% usage, 63% true shooting. small sample size and selective endpoints caveats apply, but that's pretty close to what i pegged as his best case scenario (he's still a little light on the assists and the usage, and his defense needs to get better).
It's mostly tongue in cheek. During the games, I'm rooting for a win like any regular fan, but more specifically looking for good play from the young guys (and Niko). After they lose, I accept that the loss is better for their chances for Doncic*.
*I'm all in on him, if only because he looks like he'd be a perfect fit on this team (Dunn/Lavine/Doncic/Markkanen), at least for maximizing entertainment (defense will be TBD).
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