Noteworthy: 11/22/2013

Tall Guys Shooting:
Particularly great day of basketball for 7 foot guys and their jumpers. Spencer Hawes' game tieing three, Channing Frye hitting 5 threes in helping the Suns over the Bobcats, Sam Dalembert going 8 for 8 (although most of these were gimmes around the basket), oh and Spencer Hawes one-legged three at the buzzer.  I had to say it again cause it was that nice.  Here it is in slow-mo:



Pau Gasol had himself a nice night as well.  Prior the game, Pau had pledged to donate 1k of every one of his points to the US Fund for UNICEF's relief efforts toward those affected by the typhoon in the Philippines.  This basket was pretty sweet cause Pau had Andrew Bogut faked out of his sneakers.



Pau's last two points on the night were particularly nice too, as he swooshed a fallaway jumper in Bogut's eyeballs.  People on twitter were getting kinda carried away saying that the shot looked like Kobe's but honestly, it was probably more like Marc Gasol's.

Confident:  Paul George is playing really well right now.  His trust in his jump shot is a little show-offy but it did make for a cool-looking vine vid.



Worst:  One of is the worst part of watching sports is seeing the players you root for not being physically able to do what they are best at.  Marc Gasol, Derrick Rose, Andre Iguodola all left their respective games last night with injuries. Terrible.  Praying that their injuries are nothing serious.

Impact Players:  The two hottest teams in the league right now have got to be the Pacers and the Blazers.  The reason for these teams dominating this season is due to the growth of Lance Stephenson in Indiana and the play of Wesley Matthews in Portland.

Stephenson recorded his second triple-double of this season tallying 10 points 11 rebounds and 10 assists along with 4 steals and only 1 turnover.  The Blazers have been winning behind the team's strength in knocking down the three point shot in bunches.

Leading the three point barrage this season has been guard Wesley Matthews.  For the year, Wes is shooting a scorching 54% from the field and 50% from three point land.  Matthews led the Blazers in their win over the Bulls last night with his 28 points and 4 threes.

Fact:  Nick Young is the most entertaining player in the NBA when taking into account his on and off the court antics.

That's my opinion of course and hopefully I'll have the opportunity to show off the majority of my repository of photos and gifs involving Swaggy P.   Here is a creative step-back three from last night:

Other:  This kid is pretty excited to sit next to Rihanna at the Laker game...Amir Johnson shook ref Danny Crawford's hand after getting a technical for hanging on the rim...Marcin Gortat destroyed a towel.

Noteworthy: 11/21/2013

Unfair:
Usually Blake Griffin will guard guys who aren't as big as him or someone who just isnt as skilled.

Kevin Durant is taller and longer than Blake.  Also, he can shoot the heck out of the ball.  Please don't let this matchup happen too often, Doc.

Thunder led from beginning to end on the Clipps probably because they were shooting 52% compared to the 41% by the Clippers and also because once they had the lead they could just give the ball to KD who as I have already said, can score anytime he wants as long as his teammates (lookin at you Russ and Reggie Jackson) give him the ball.

On the brightside:  Chris Paul's double-double record continued for another night and Deandre Jordan swatted the heck out of Russ Westbrook

Slowly but surely:  Derrick Rose is still struggling to get his groove back, but he showed flashes last night that he's still ridicously athletic.  Example, Rose jumping off the wrong leg, probably because he's not completely confident in that left knee yet, and doing a double clutch layup like this.



It didn't help that Luol Deng (3-18) was ineffective and Jimmy Butler is out with a big toe injury probably cause he's still wearing those 15 year old technology crazy 8's.

Other:  Steven Adams is cool if you don't shake his hand, he'll shake his own...the rims in OKC must be really soft cause another guy hit a half-court shot...Shaq took a tumble on TNT last night...

Noteworthy: 11/20/2013

This weekend I called a guy in my men's league Bismack Biyombo because the only offense he played was tossing the ball at the hoop when he was less than 1 feet away.

Nobody in the Men's league I run in could throw down a dunk like the one that Biyombo had last night, but I definitely feel like a jerk for comparing any rec center bro to Biyombo. Clip below confirms that if he ever stepped on a court with me, he could/ probably would tear the rim off in my face. Nice dunk, and I'm very sorry.

Bad Loss: After three quarters, the Rockets were winning 101 to 87 and Dwight Howard was 11 for 11 from the field.  In short, the Rockets were literally getting dunks at the rims unguarded.

Also, they were getting all fancy like with this bang out, courtesy of Chandler Parson being good at sharing

Well, in the fourth quarter Dwight finally missed (he went 1 for 5), the Rockets were outscored 36-19, and ended up losing by 3.  Not much to laugh at if you were a Rockets Fan, but there were some really great fans you can smile at, and highted below.

Hahahaha:

Aside from this happening after Harden hit a big three in the fourth, not positive about what the meaning is of this.  Thats cuz i have no idea what loyalty a guy in a Lions jersey might have when he attends a basketball game between two Texas teams.  Point and stare on, matt-stafford-jersey dude!

Also, thumbs up to this guy for punching the basketball back at Dwight Howard; cause fans can't get T's, so go crazy, everybody.

Expected:  Lebron James making a really gorgeous move on the baseline followed by a slamma jamma.

Unexpected:  Beno Udrih looking like he is pretty good at shots taken after pivoting a couple times.



Back-to-Back:
After beating the Suns at home in Sacramento on Tuesday, the Kings withstood a 44 point barrage and won in Phoenix last night.  Big yahoo for Sac fans as the Kings doubled their season total for wins (4) in beating the Suns twice in the last day and a half.

Anthony Davis had 8 blocks in the Pelicans win against the Jazz.  That makes for two games in a row he has had 8 rejections as he also registered that total against the Sixers last Saturday.

History Books:  Chris Paul now has the record for most games (12) of at least 10 points and 10 assists to start the season, passing up Magic Johnson, with his 20 point 11 assist 4 steal effort in beating the T'Wolves.

Dirk is now 15th all-time in career points, passing up Reggie Miller, including 14 points in that big fourth quarter mentioned above.

Other: Nuggets are having a 80's night, so the players made a video with them giving 80's themed quotes...both Dwight Howard and Roy Hibbert made threes last night, but Roy's was counted as it beat the shot clock and Dwight's was called off, so basically a metaphor for how the season is going for the two of them...No team in the Atlantic Division is over .500 and the Raptors are leading the division...a blurry photo of Paul George shaking handsies with A$ap Rocky

The "We Are Warriors" Series

I know it's not all that clear what the #wearewarriors commercials are all about, especially after watching only the first of these videos (starring Bogut and Kent Bazemore up above).  However, I did some diligent googlin' and here are some informative deets from nba.com:

The “We Are Warriors” marketing campaign was created last season and is based on the concept that we ALL are Warriors, and everyone contributes to the success of the team. For this season’s television commercials, the Warriors held an open casting call on August 23 at the team’s practice facility, inviting fans of all ages and types the opportunity to show how much they love the Warriors. Fans selected to participate in the team’s commercial shoot were able to work side-by-side with Warriors players on the court and in other various settings that the players encounter every day.

So based on the first commercial, I've learned that the Warriors have some fans who hold down a really low stance on defense and look tiny next to NBA players.  I think there was a really big missed opportunity in choosing to make Bogut the funnyman when Kenneth Bazemore seems to be the one with the natural gifts as a comedian.

The makers of this series did a better job with the second #wearewarriors video, released this afternoon.  It stars Klay Thompson showing that he is a pretty awkward celebrator.



Overall, I'm liking the direction in which this series is going.  If we started with a 'haaaaah' at Bogut abusing a grown man in the post, Klay and his goofy hand guns was a definite 'heeeheee'.