The Swamp

I know it was the JAzz, but damn the Cavaliers looked great last night. It was the attacking, fast breaking, long outlet passing, alley oping offensive machine they were supposed to be from the get go.

JR Smith really fits in with that team, strange as it is to say.

Whatever the NBA record is for wins on League Pass, the Hawks are going to blow it away this year.

And by the way, how is it that Jeff and Stan Van Gundy are brothers? Are they adopted?

Yes. It's something of an open secret around the NBA that Stan's biological father was Bill Russell. To prevent presidential embarrassment, Jacqueline Kennedy was whisked away to a hospital in France where the birth took place. Then he was adopted by the Van Gunday family.

So apparently I missed a historic thing due to sleeping early and not using my league pass for the Warriors/kings game.

37 points for klay Thompson in the 3rd period on 13 of 13 shooting with 9 of those being 3s. New nba record for points in one period.

tennbengal wrote:So apparently I missed a historic thing due to sleeping early and not using my league pass for the Warriors/kings game.

37 points for klay Thompson in the 3rd period on 13 of 13 shooting with 9 of those being 3s. New nba record for points in one period.

Holy cow - the Warriors "only" had 41 points in that quarter. How did this happen?

http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/1/2 ... nt-quarter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is how--NBA Jam became reality last night.

Sportscenter showed every basket he made in the quarter, including a three after a whistle that obviously didn't count. What I found even more impressive was he didn't score in the first two minutes of the quarter.

Play-by-play says Thompson first scored with 2:14 gone in the quarter and scored 29 points in the final 6:03. He also assisted on the only other field goal of the quarter.

He went to the line once in the quarter. How do you not smack him around when he does that to you? Otherworldly, never seen nothing like that.

They were playing the Kings, where D stands for Dysfunction. They're not masters of sophisticated concepts. The coach told them to go to a box and one, so they sent a ballboy out to get some KFC and a beer for each player.

Just realized that I was watching the Celtics-Jazz game (we get League Pass).

Why?

Pruitt, I'm calling the upset this week because my team has been so overachieving (and I lose a game from Cousins)! That said, terrible luck to you, sir.

Giff wrote:Pruitt, I'm calling the upset this week because my team has been so overachieving (and I lose a game from Cousins)! That said, terrible luck to you, sir.

You're a Kings fan?

I'm confused because your avatar would indicate that you support a decent franchise.

The field for this year's 3-point contest should just be repeated for the next 10 years and the cumulative winner gets a Congressional Medal of Freedom

Pruitt wrote:

Giff wrote:Pruitt, I'm calling the upset this week because my team has been so overachieving (and I lose a game from Cousins)! That said, terrible luck to you, sir.

You're a Kings fan?

I'm confused because your avatar would indicate that you support a decent franchise.

This is fantasy trash talk and Boogie's on my team.

Giff wrote:

Pruitt wrote:

Giff wrote:Pruitt, I'm calling the upset this week because my team has been so overachieving (and I lose a game from Cousins)! That said, terrible luck to you, sir.

You're a Kings fan?

I'm confused because your avatar would indicate that you support a decent franchise.

This is fantasy trash talk and Boogie's on my team.

Sorry - my team is SO putrid that I missed the reference.

I have three Knicks.

I'll concede now.

Watched the Cavs-Blazers game last night and it was great. Irving and Aldridge putting on a hell of a show.

But Cavs' colour man Austin Carr is very hard to listen to.

Pruitt wrote:Watched the Cavs-Blazers game last night and it was great. Irving and Aldridge putting on a hell of a show.

But Cavs' colour man Austin Carr is very hard to listen to.

You ain't kidding. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but for guys who aren't first name basis superstars, it gets annoying to call them by their first names and he is notorious for that.

I'm also not convinced he knows Mozgov's first name is not "Timothy"

AB_skin_test wrote:

Pruitt wrote:Watched the Cavs-Blazers game last night and it was great. Irving and Aldridge putting on a hell of a show.

But Cavs' colour man Austin Carr is very hard to listen to.

You ain't kidding. I don't know why it bothers me so much, but for guys who aren't first name basis superstars, it gets annoying to call them by their first names and he is notorious for that.

I'm also not convinced he knows Mozgov's first name is not "Timothy"

There's a joke there that's hanging really low on the branch that's almost too easy. And a little racist.

L-Jam3 wrote:

AB_skin_test wrote:There's a joke there that's hanging really low on the branch that's almost too easy. And a little racist.

I was waiting for someone to figure how to word it.

I come here for some Grizzlies-Hawks smack talk and I get nothing??? Hey TB, congrats on all that uncalled mugging under the basket going rewarded!

Only saw the 4th. "Let them play" will always favor Memphis.

Yeah, that was my takeaway. A bad matchup for a finesse team like ATL. Still can't believe that a 1 vs 2 game and a 1 vs 3 game happened this weekend and both were on League Pass. But hey, three Clippers games!

Rex wrote:Yeah, that was my takeaway. A bad matchup for a finesse team like ATL. Still can't believe that a 1 vs 2 game and a 1 vs 3 game happened this weekend and both were on League Pass. But hey, three Clippers games!

National TV guys are clearly in hell with Atlanta, Golden State, Memphis and the like being the best teams. It is making me giggle.

Crazy NBA trade deadline today. Miami and OKC are both shaping up to be dangerous 7/8 seeds. Miami has no depth, but Dragic, Wade, Deng, Bosh and Whiteside is a nice starting 5. Also, I thought OKC did great at the deadline swapping Perkins for Kanter. The playoffs are going to be ridiculous this year.

Phoenix gets shed of one PG only to get another in Knight?

Are you a point guard?

You got traded.

Oh I see Suns traded thomas, too. Knight and Bledsoe are both combo guards, so I guess that may work out better than having Bledsoe/Dragic/Thomas

AB_skin_test wrote:Phoenix gets shed of one PG only to get another in Knight?

They also traded away Dragic, Isaiah Thomas (Boston), and Tyler Ennis (Milwaukee), who they have been shipping to the D-League and back this year. Three out, one in, unless I missed something while being befuddled by Philly's insistence on trying to field an entire roster of draft picks. Not a roster of players they drafted, but actual picks, like writing them down on pieces of paper (2015 2nd rounder from team X, 2016 2nd rounder from team Y) and putting the papers on bench seats.

When are they ever going to stop?

ETA: Timing.

Joe K wrote:Crazy NBA trade deadline today. Miami and OKC are both shaping up to be dangerous 7/8 seeds. Miami has no depth, but Dragic, Wade, Deng, Bosh and Whiteside is a nice starting 5. Also, I thought OKC did great at the deadline swapping Perkins for Kanter. The playoffs are going to be ridiculous this year.

Not any more with Miami. Hope Bosh is OK in the long-run, but that's some scary shit.

Giff wrote:

Joe K wrote:Crazy NBA trade deadline today. Miami and OKC are both shaping up to be dangerous 7/8 seeds. Miami has no depth, but Dragic, Wade, Deng, Bosh and Whiteside is a nice starting 5. Also, I thought OKC did great at the deadline swapping Perkins for Kanter. The playoffs are going to be ridiculous this year.

Not any more with Miami. Hope Bosh is OK in the long-run, but that's some scary shit.

Let's hope they get the Cavs in the first round. THAT will be fun.

Pruitt wrote:

Giff wrote:

Joe K wrote:Crazy NBA trade deadline today. Miami and OKC are both shaping up to be dangerous 7/8 seeds. Miami has no depth, but Dragic, Wade, Deng, Bosh and Whiteside is a nice starting 5. Also, I thought OKC did great at the deadline swapping Perkins for Kanter. The playoffs are going to be ridiculous this year.

Not any more with Miami. Hope Bosh is OK in the long-run, but that's some scary shit.

Let's hope they get the Cavs in the first round. THAT will be fun.

I don't see that happening. Miami could very well get the #7 seed, but I'd be very surprised if the Cavs move up to the #2 spot. They have a pretty tough second half schedule, and have 5 more losses than Toronto as it stands. (They'd also have to jump Washington and Chicago to move up that far.) LeBron's decision to take the first half of the season off could come back to bite them in the ass if they're unable to move up to at least the #3 seed. If they end up with the #4 or #5 seed, their path to the Finals might require them beating Washington, Atlanta, and Chicago in succession.

Bosh is probably out for the season. I don't see them making the playoffs.

Joe K wrote:

Pruitt wrote:

Giff wrote:

Joe K wrote:Crazy NBA trade deadline today. Miami and OKC are both shaping up to be dangerous 7/8 seeds. Miami has no depth, but Dragic, Wade, Deng, Bosh and Whiteside is a nice starting 5. Also, I thought OKC did great at the deadline swapping Perkins for Kanter. The playoffs are going to be ridiculous this year.

Not any more with Miami. Hope Bosh is OK in the long-run, but that's some scary shit.

Let's hope they get the Cavs in the first round. THAT will be fun.

I don't see that happening. Miami could very well get the #7 seed, but I'd be very surprised if the Cavs move up to the #2 spot. They have a pretty tough second half schedule, and have 5 more losses than Toronto as it stands. (They'd also have to jump Washington and Chicago to move up that far.) LeBron's decision to take the first half of the season off could come back to bite them in the ass if they're unable to move up to at least the #3 seed. If they end up with the #4 or #5 seed, their path to the Finals might require them beating Washington, Atlanta, and Chicago in succession.

I think the #3 seed is probably most likely, but I also don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that they get the 2. #1 is highly unlikely, which means 2/3 seed either one avoids the hawks until the conference finals. I think they will ration minutes for Lebron a bit, but with him I think they're the best team in the East.

Since Lebron came back, aren't they like 13-2? And without him they went 2(or 3)-9? And their starting five is more nuts than Miami's was going to be. They had three players who were better than any of Miami's five, arguably. They don't get a whole lot from their bench, to be sure, but in the playoffs the starting five matters a lot more.

AB_skin_test wrote:

Joe K wrote:

Pruitt wrote:

Giff wrote:

Joe K wrote:Crazy NBA trade deadline today. Miami and OKC are both shaping up to be dangerous 7/8 seeds. Miami has no depth, but Dragic, Wade, Deng, Bosh and Whiteside is a nice starting 5. Also, I thought OKC did great at the deadline swapping Perkins for Kanter. The playoffs are going to be ridiculous this year.

Not any more with Miami. Hope Bosh is OK in the long-run, but that's some scary shit.

Let's hope they get the Cavs in the first round. THAT will be fun.

I don't see that happening. Miami could very well get the #7 seed, but I'd be very surprised if the Cavs move up to the #2 spot. They have a pretty tough second half schedule, and have 5 more losses than Toronto as it stands. (They'd also have to jump Washington and Chicago to move up that far.) LeBron's decision to take the first half of the season off could come back to bite them in the ass if they're unable to move up to at least the #3 seed. If they end up with the #4 or #5 seed, their path to the Finals might require them beating Washington, Atlanta, and Chicago in succession.

I think the #3 seed is probably most likely, but I also don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that they get the 2. #1 is highly unlikely, which means 2/3 seed either one avoids the hawks until the conference finals. I think they will ration minutes for Lebron a bit, but with him I think they're the best team in the East.

Since Lebron came back, aren't they like 13-2? And without him they went 2(or 3)-9? And their starting five is more nuts than Miami's was going to be. They had three players who were better than any of Miami's five, arguably. They don't get a whole lot from their bench, to be sure, but in the playoffs the starting five matters a lot more.

They are 14-3 since LeBron returned, but against a soft schedule. In that 17-game stretch, they had one three road games against teams with winning records, and went 1-2 in those games. Although the Cavs have been a lot better since they made the trades with Denver and the Knicks, I would still put them behind Atlanta, and probably Chicago. Chicago is only 1.5 games ahead of Cleveland but supposedly Rose has been coasting a bit so far this season, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him raise his level of play from here on out. The Bulls and Cavs played in the last game before the break, and Rose badly outplayed Irving.

Raptors just crushed the Hawks in Atlanta.

What a difference two years makes.

All the ESPN hoops guys I follow on Twitter are reporting that Derrick Rose needs another knee surgery. He apparently re-tore his right meniscus, which is the same injury he had last season. Tough break for the Bulls.

Sad. He will be one of the great "What if" guys.

Grizzlies are laying down a fantastic season - should easily be their best in franchise history. And it looks like their reward for a possible #2 seed will be San Antonio or OKC.

I hate the western conference so much.