Random Other NBA Teams Discussion

Bogan >> Laker >> 2-10

 

I immediately thought the same thing when I saw Bogan's numbers from tonight's game.

BTW: Malik Beasley with the Bucks this year: 46.4 from 3. In his most recent game 12/11: 5 for 8. On the 6th he went 6 for 10 vs. Knicks. In the last 4 years, with 4 teams, Malik:
T-Wolves 37.7% from 3
Jazz: 35.9%
Lakers: 35.3%
Bucks (so far this year): 46.4%

Has there EVER been a player whose numbers were the best with the Lakers and were - even slightly - worse with other teams? I doubt it. Then: why???

So far, the best I can come up with is: you're playing for the Los Angeles FREAKIN' Lakers: don't be nervous, just 'cuz Hollywood wants to see you splash bombs from deep! (And then guys are nervous enough about the Lakers thing their shot is a bit off.) This hypothesis feels inadequate to me, though. What? You're playing with the Bucks, so who cares? It's just a bunch of Wisconsonites rooting for you, so you can relax? And this also applies to road games? What?

Someone needs to get to the bottom of this.

 

Mind bottling!

 

meanwhile, bojan bogdanovic (the target of half the league's trade fantasies for a full year), is a 35 year old who's played 4 games this year. when it rains, it pours if you're the detroit pistons.

detroit's gm right now: "extend his contract, they said...you'll definitely get a first rounder + for him, they said...he'll help you make the playoffs, worst case, they said...."

 

Ja Morant in court now over the incident at his house where he punched the kid in the altercation during the pick up game.

https://theathletic.com/5132008/202...ng-teenager-punch/?source=user_shared_article

Grizzlies’ Ja Morant testifies he punched teenager who was in ‘a fighting stance’

 

GSW falls to PHO, who were playing w/o KD. They are now 10-19 and last in the Pac Division.

GSW up 5 in the 3rd when Draymond, for some reason, looked like he just wheeled around and b****-slapped Nurkic in the corner. Flagrant 2. I don't see any reason why the league won't give Dray at least a game suspension for it. I mean, seriously, give him at least 5 games. Again. 10?

I live around GSW fans who are also rabid Laker haters. And even their fans are sick of Dray's stupid moves. Like this one. ('Sheed Wallace recently said Draymond learned his on-court thuggery by watching the Pistons. Draymond was a friend of Joe Dumars's kid and was in the "Bad Boy" Pistons' locker room in the 90s. 'Sheed said he thinks Draymond can break his own - 'Sheed's - record for ejections: 29. Rack up another one, Dray! He now has 18, so a ways to go to beat Rashid Wallace, but ya never know at this point.)

GSW is in free-fall. Not like HOU or WAS or any of the truly bad teams. But they're losing all the close games. They lost by 3 tonight, to a KD-less PHO.

In their previous game they lost by 2 to OKC.

Before that they were lucky to get a 2-point win at home against rebuilding POR. I talked to a Warriors fan I know: hey you got a win!

"Yea, baby!"

"Okay: quick like a bunny: name a Blazers player."

At least 5 seconds went by.

"Uhh... that...Simons. Anthony?"

"Anfernee. Good. Now: another one?"

No answer.

Before that GSW lost to the Clips by 1. They beat the Clips in SF by 6.

SAC beat GSW by 1. A lot of these are games GSW should've won, but they made uncharacteristically dumb plays in crunch.

GSW beat the Spurs, in SF, by 6. Hey, good for you.

Going back: lost to PHO by 8.

Beat the Rockets by 5 in SF.

GSW lost the previous 6 straight before that: 2 to MIN and 2 to OKC, 1 game to DEN and CLE. The margins in those 6 straight losses were 3, 8, 6, 3, 19 and 7. And those teams are all good. But they were only blown out in 1. They didn't have what it took in the other 5.

I think they're done. I really do. They might make some moves before the deadline.

Now: my point was they're losing a huge number of close games, which would suggest they could have won those. In less than 5 weeks they've lost 5 games of 3 points or less. Maybe they can make adjustments? Yea. Maybe. But when I watch them - as great as Steph still is - they look "end of the line" to me. We'll see. Maybe what I'm seeing is biased on my part and based on the overwhelming bandwagoning I've seen since GSW first won it all (in the Modern Era) in 2014. That, and combined with the unbridled Laker-hatred: I root for them to lose always, though I appreciate Steph/Klay/Dray and even Kerr. Their local TV broadcasters are way-above-average nauseating homers. Every local team's PBP and/or color commentator are homers, but these two - Bob Fitzgerald (esp this a-hole!) and Kelenna Azubuike - have helped make me into a diehard GSW hater.

May GSW not even make the play-in! Then we'll see who's a real fan around here...

 

So hold on....

First,


Portis ready to go


then the Pacers steal Antetokounmpo's game ball?



Thoughts?

It was a career night.


That's an amazing line. Could be the best he'll ever have. 1) petty as f*** for the Pacers to take the ball. 2) can you see any other player with 64+ chasing that ball? Baylor, Barry, MJ, Wilt, Kobe, Pete, Book, Robinson, Mitchell, Dame, Thompson? ... OK Book would've chased it until the double came then he would've hid under the bleachers. Point is, that's not a good look either. Send your brother. Your the only reason he's on the team.

 

This is a first in my 30+ years of watching hoops. It's a f***ing ball. Dame can give you one of his game balls. He's got plenty.

If Bron did this... he'd get killed here, much less externally.

 

Pistons at 21 straight losses. Upcoming games: @PHI, @MIL, @ATL (could they break the streak here? I don't see it); home vs. Utah. If they don't win any of the games before Utah, they'll go into that game against the Jazz with a 24 game losing streak. And lots of talk about them being worse than the 1972-73 76ers, who went 9-73 (a very entertaining book by Charley Rosen: Perfectly Awful, covers that beyond-disastrous season).

Hey, maybe they just keep losing. And maybe San Antonio does, too (although I don't see it): SA comes into DET on Jan 10th: someone's gotta win! At that point, the Pistons would be on a 34 game losing streak, which seems unfathomable. The Spurs conceivably could go into that game with a 30 game losing streak.

One year the 76ers (not the 9-73 team!) and Cavs (just after Lebron took his talents to South Beach) lost 26 straight. These dismal streaks were in different years. This year, two teams could break that record. Yikes!

Mother of mercy!

Spurs are at 18 straight losses. Upcoming games: Lakers (we better win that with Lebron back and play D in the 4th Q!); Pels (I could see Spurs stopping their streak there...maybe); @MIL, @CHI (maybe?), @DAL. Then the Jazz come into SA: Spurs could win that and snap what would be a 23 game losing streak at that point.

It's bad for the NBA to have teams lose 20 in a row. After we beat the Spurs I'm rooting for both DET and SA to knock off one of the other good teams.

Top 25 worst NBA seasons ever since the 82 game schedule.

 

dallas throws up a stinker at home every once in a while. if the spurs don't beat us friday (nationally televised game, second straight at their place), i'd say the dallas game is the next most likely.

the giannis game ball thing is weird, and i don't think he did himself favors in the explanation, which was essentially "i'm great and deserve stuff and others don't--i get that they think they do, but they don't".

all that said, the nesmith wrap up was egregious and dangerous, imo, and probably added some to giannis's annoyance.

nb4 "the 80s and 90s were tougher". sorry, don't want a league where rick mahorn is an important player again. go watch football if you want that. giannis torched him and was about justifiably dunk on his head and got tackled instead. fans don't want to see giannis get tackled. they want to see him cram on nesmith's head. if nesmith wishes not to see this, don't get torched on the initial move.

 

Demanding Haliburton go get his ball is insane. That's not how best player on team A typically speaks to best player on team B. Pretty bad look if you ask me.

Loved the look on Dame's face. I think the exact translation is, mother****** it's just a ball.

 

Both teams are abominations.

My assessment of each team and this is only based on their play against us, I'm not a masochist there's no way I'm watching either of these teams just cause, is that the Pistons are a better team with a roster of better players. Spurs have the best player and better coach, but a lot of their players are flat out bad and they're trying to lose. Pop isn't playing a point guard out there. Pistons are at least organized offensively. I don't think the Pistons are trying to lose and I don't get how they're this bad with Monty. I know the goal is development > win now but DAMN you'd think you would accidentally fall a** backwards into a win every 10 games or so.

Spurs have to draft a PG, either Topic or Collier cause you can't tell me Pop is serious with this Sochan nonsense. He's bored in a mandated tank year and is looking for ways to entertain himself.

 

Poor Giannis
B/R Sources: Initial explanation from one member of Pacers to Bucks players as to why they took the game ball from Giannis Antetokounmpo: They wanted to give it to a rookie who scored his first career basket.
Oscar Tshiebwe - the basketball player converted 1 of 2 free throws and thus scored the first point of his career

It is worth noting that Tshiebwe took to the floor in the finals of the in season tournament and also scored 1 point from the line, but that meeting was not included in the official statistics, according to the regulations.
But that's not all

 

Not even 24 hours after the game, Pacers getting ready. They play the Bucks 2x in early Jan

 

Just guessing that this is one guy Draymond won't be effing with. Coincidence? Y? N?

 

Okay, so the Spurs are out of the race to top the all-time losing NBA streak of 26. They finally won a game! Against...some team...I forget.

As I write this though, today, the Pistons took a 21 game losing streak into PHI. Only down 4 after the 1st Q, 76ers outscored 'em 35-17 in the 2nd, and that was pretty much it for them: 22 straight. Next up: @MIL tomorrow.

What. A. Nightmare.

 

Jalen Brunson had a game against PHO on 12/15: 50/6/9 with 5 steals in 35 mins. KD/Booker put up 57 points between them in Suns loss. Bradley Beal is - shocker - injured again.

9 for 9 from 3.

Luka's first-half triple double with 25 pts is still the best game this year, but AD's 41/20 in the game that didn't count is way up there too.

Re: Brunson going 9 for 9 from 3: it's jaw-droppingly hot, and then I remembered Klay was 9 for 9 from 3 in ONE QUARTER that game he scored 37 points in the 3rd Q against SAC.

 

Klay said after his 37 points in one quarter game that he was going to keep shooting until he missed, that he remembered taking about four "heat checks" and they kept going in. “I don’t know what to tell you. I just got into a zone and it was the best zone I’ve ever been in.”

Brunson was 12 for 12 in the 2nd half of his game yesterday and "I had no idea," Brunson said about his perfection from long range. "I was just playing free."

When Kobe scored 62 in the first three quarters against DAL in 2005, DAL only had 61 points. Kobe sat out the 4th. Here's what he said to a Times reporter after scoring 30 in the 3rd: “I didn’t realize what kind of quarter I was having,” he said. “I just went out there and kept attacking and attacking. It was just a feeling of willfulness, just attack these guys.”

This mental state that Kobe, Brunson, and Klay were in - "flow", "the zone", whatever it is: we all want that in our own lives. Whatever we do that we like to do regularly, to get better at every time out, having fun while "practicing"...we lose track of time and stop "thinking" and just find ourselves doing stuff effortlessly and focused, and it seems to me it's really what we are all after. There's been tons of research on this, and maybe the best source is the psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi - "Mike" to his friends and colleagues. His study of this state of mind suggests musicians, gardeners, chefs, writers, chess players, artists and others can all get into this blessed zone. We can't summon it at will; it comes to us every now and then. Until then: practice and have fun getting a little bit better and cherish those times when you feel like you're performing WAY above your normal level. I won't get into the neurophysiological theories, but they're there if you wanna study this jit.

When I'm watching a game and a guy suddenly gets into this zone, it's a thrill that transcends being a Laker fan. We all saw Kobe do it a number of times. I saw Bird do it a few times. I watched Donovan Mitchell's 71 game last year. I've now witnessed maybe 200 games where guys just exploded with crazy flow and unstoppability. Hell: Ja went off on us in a quarter last year: he was literally unstoppable, and it sucked, 'cuz we were getting torched by this little skilled thug. Still: you gotta marvel.

 

great post, zoyd. love mihaly's work, and it has so many applications both mundane and sublime.