Hoop - ology

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Noteworthy: 11/26/2013

Reaction:
Nets won last night and Jason Kidd's reaction shows that their 2-point win against the lowly Raptors was one of those rub-the-forehead-in-relief victories.

Switching Places: While Obama is in L.A., the Lakers went to D.C. and lost a close one.

John Wall hooped pretty well and backed up the idea that if you're going to ignore two wide open teammates on a fast break, you better do a 360 or something.

Overshadowed
Arron Affalo is quietly having a really nice year averaging 22 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast, and a sniper-ly 2.7 threes/game. Last night he scored 26 points on 4 threes, and 2 steals as the Magic beat the Hawks.

Why aren't people really noticing double-A? Probably cause he has a rookie teammate dunking over multiple members of the other team.

Quote
Warriors won last night, ending their 3 game losing streak, against the Pelicans.

New Orleans' coach, Monty Williams, described his team's one point loss pretty well, saying "all those 'my bad' plays just added up tonight". That is a really hip way of describing perfectly the struggles of a team whose all-star point guard is turning the ball almost four times a game. Also, a barely-20 year-old Anthony Davis is still learning how to become this team's leader and command the ball down the stretch in close games all whilst sporting a unibrow, so the Pelicans have got plenty of growing up and probably waxing to do.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Noteworthy: 11/25/2013

How are you doin', Champs?

Dwyane Wade hammin' it up while Lebron is getting interviewed. Hmm, so much for all that pressure of 3-peating eh?

Just One: Roy Hibbert is leading the league in blocks, but he only had one last night. Out of nowhere and really fierce, but just one block.

The Suns are pretty blog-worthy:
Not content to let Gerald Green have all the highlights and the mentions on the ole blogblog.

Miles Plumlee had a two-handed rejection and then fast break yammed it. Also, one of the Morris twins literally dunked it on the tippytop of Birdman's head.

Not sure if this is already a thing, but I feel like 'good grief, Markieff' is a pretty fun chant for when Markieff Morris comes stomping down the lane.

Brandon's
Two guys, Jennings and Knight who share the same first name and were traded for each other this past off-season played each other last night. Other than those facts, not much in common between the two. Brandon J. had a well-rounded double-double (15 pts and 13 asts) and was able to restrain himself from getting too shot happy despite playing against his former team. Brandon K was just coming back from retweaking his hamstring, so it was just nice to see him running the Bucks offense again.

95-96 finals teams except theyre both bad right now

Jazz and Bulls both badly needed a win for their really loyal fan bases. Since the game was in Utah, glad that the Jazz pulled together the win. More sad times for Bulls fans who saw Joakim Noah airball one of his free throws that could have won it in regulation.

Reminder:
Paul George is more than just a hyper efficient offensive talent who has the length and agility to guard any player in the league for 48 minutes.

He can also throw down a pretty nice fast break dunk.

I'm a fan:
I've been a Koufos supporter since he came into the league a couple years ago. I think he throws a mean outlet pass, and I'm glaf he finally got an opportunity to start and play key minutes against the Rockets last night. Made me proud to be an OG member of the Koufos bandwagon as he grabbed13 rebounds and scored 8 points in place of the injured Marc Gasol.

Party Poopers:
Nuggets go to Dallas and beat the Mavs as Dirk passed Kevin Garnett on the all-time scoring list and Reggie Miller on the all-time free throws made list.

Niiiiice: So still early in the season, but the Blazers just won their 11th game in a row. Two dunks by Lillard to celebrate.

Other: This is Andrew Bogut's tweet about why he's not playing in tomorrow's game against the Pelicans..Two Former Pac-10 guys (Derrick Williams, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute) were traded for each other last night.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Noteworthy: 11/24/2013

Tough Loss, Guys: Joe Johnson had his best game of the season scoring 34 points on 12 of 18 shooting and knocking down 8 threes. Sad to say that all those swishes were not enough as the Nets were beat by the Pistons who got 27 points from Rodney Stuckey.

The Bulls got whooped at Staples as they played their first game without Derrick Rose. They didnt lead once and put up a grand total of 9 points in the fourth quarter. Tom Thibideau got a lot of fight out of these Bulls last season when they expected Drose to be out, but the team that got walloped by the Clippers yesterday afternoon definitely looked like one that hadn't quite yet recuperated from learning that their best player was done for the season.

Is this really fair?

In case the timing and pass looked too perfect than my answer is thats cuz the pass was thrown by one identical twin (Marcus) to another identical twin (Markieff). Almost want to say that this is biologically too dominant of a tandem but the Suns are 7 and 7, so maybe its not all about genetics.

Gettin' Kind of Old?

Not for me, but I feel like I've seen Gerald Green do about one of these every other game.

A super rare behind-the-back-through-the-leg-of-your-own-teammate assist

Impressive but as a fan of the solid chest pass, I have to ask for what reason was Jared Dudley trying that pass on the baseline and how come Deandre Jordan who is so good at catching lob passes while running at a gazillion miles an hour could not grab a silly pass while standing still. Good thing JJ Redick is really good at that jump shooting thing or else this would have just been a wacky turnover.

Restin': Russ Westbrook had the night off and Durant and Serge Ibaka both rested for most of the 4th quarter against the Jazz. There must have been some disappointed Thunder fans, but they chose to go to the game where the Thunder was playing a 1-13 team, so they reallt couldn't have expected the Thunder dudes to have to sweat this one out too much.

Not a Happy Weekend: After losing a close one to the Clippers on Saturday afternoon, the Kings got beat on the same court to the Lakers on Sunday night. This one wasn't as close as the Clippers game, but some similarities included: Demarcus Cousins getting another technical foul and the other' team's starting point guard playing really well. Example, Steve Blake with 12 assists, including this clever dish.

Other: A new Beats commercial starring KG which seems kind of realistic for all the bad reasons...Andray Blatch scoring on his own basket...Cam Newton did Lebron James' stompstomp dance.