The Swamp

Jerloma wrote:Love didn't seem to have that problem.

Nope. But he was never going to have that problem. While James is the the best player, he's also probably the most versatile as well. Love is there to rebound and shoot. James is there to do everything else that needs to be done at any given moment and it will take some reps to figure out.

Jerloma wrote:

Johnny Carwash wrote:In case anyone is interested, LeBron is having a really shitty game in his re-debut with the Cavs.

Yeah, I watched most of that game. He was fucking horrendous. Completely out of sync with his teammates.

No doubt he played like crap. He looked exhausted and nervous, to be honest. But I'm sure with all of the media commitments before the game, all the hype with the local fan base and the fact he had a kid last week, he has a pretty damn good reason to be exhausted.

And like AB wrote, Blatt is going to need some time to figure out the rotation. I wouldn't be surprised if the Cavs get killed tonight in Chicago, but it's better to take these losses early in the season than in the spring.

I figure Lebron will have an Eff You game tonight.

Speaking of Love, is it me or is he a lot thinner than he was in college?

Ryan wrote:The Thunder is/are fucked

I always use the plural when talking about the team nickname, and singluar when using the city: "Oklahoma City IS fucked". Unless were talking futbol.

Tangent. What about bands? If its a "The ___s", it's clearly plural, like "The Beatles WERE Innovative", "The Rolling Stones ARE touring again", "The Pogues SHOW up on my 80s Pandora station a lot".

If it's "The ___", I usually do plural too. "The Clash WERE influential", "The Verve WERE plagiarizing". "The Greatful Dead ARE a band that sounds better when you are high".

But if it's just a name, I tend to do more singular, regardless of whether there is a plural name or not. "With all due respect to Layne Staley, Alice in Chains SOUNDS pretty close to what they used to with William DuVall". "Pearl Jam IS releasing a new album". "I don't think it's blasphemy to say that Nirvana RECEIVES some bonus acclaim because Cobain died young". But then "Foo Fighters WERE on 60 Minutes this past weekend".

It should probably always be plural, right?

So Kyrie Irving played 45 minutes, as ostensibly the point guard, and had ZERO assists. I think, while early, it's fair to say that he's not fully on board with having to share the ball.

The whole team had 6! First time in the basketball-reference database (since 85-86) that a team had 6 or less assists but still scored 100 points. The previous high was only 84.

Ryan wrote:The whole team had 6! First time in the basketball-reference database (since 85-86) that a team had 6 or less assists but still scored 100 points. The previous high was only 84.

It seems nearly impossibel to log that few assists. I'd wager that my rec league beat that easily and we only scored 50-60 per game.

I think there is some fricition going on between Irving/Lebron, in my way too early to tell analysis. And that wont end well for Irving. Rajon Rondo to the Cavs rumors can start now!

2 players have games with as many assists, blocks, and steals as the Cavs last night - Michael Jordan and Andrei Kirilenko

What's Mo Williams up to these days?


Anyway, Lebron has never played with a distributing PG and it wouldn't make sense to put him in an offense like that. The larger issue they have is defense, or more specifically, the fact that neither Irving nor Dion Waiters plays any of it.

This is important:

http://www.msg.com/teams/knicks/clyde-soundboard.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yeah, I don't know what the hell is going on with the Cavs. That first game could have been put down as a case of jitters and expectations, but some things just look seriously wrong, especially those stat lines mentioned above. It could be that (a) a coach widely presumed to be a genius despite not having coached an NBA game may not be an actual genius or (b) this is an early-season anomaly, they will hit their stride soon and things will be OK.

It may have been mentioned above, but there are some parallels to LeBron's first year with the Heat, when they were only around .500 after a few weeks, and there were hand-wringing stories about how the team was dysfunctional and the players did not like or respect Spoelstra. We saw how that turned out.

Something I saw yesterday: Brian Windhorst, who from what I gather is normally a respected NBA reporter, put forth the seemingly bizarre theory that LeBron's lackluster play so far is actually part of an elaborate mind game to get his teammates to buy into his mindset.

Yeah, that's a weird theory. I read that article...and if that's the case, it's really odd on Lebron's part. I know it's cliche to compare him to Jordan, but there is NO WAY Jordan would have let a team fail deliberately to prove a point, and to some extent Lebron did take over that Chicago game at the end, and even last night he was the reason they got close late. I know Windhorst has better Lebron access than anyone and it's entirely possible that he knows what he is positing to be true, but it might just be a way to minimize the criticism for Lebron early doors.

Lebron hasn't played particularly well by his standards and he isn't attacking the same way as he has - either in scoring or creating shots for his teammates. I wonder if the weight loss might be affecting that a bit as well...slight no-foul knocks in the lane might be affecting his shot more than when he was bigger.

After Denver tomorrow, the Cavs play 9 out of the next 11 at home, with the two road trips being Boston and DC. So I suspect this is the last time we talk about how crappy they are until the playoffs.

Rockets are first team in NBA history to score 100+ and hold their opponents under that mark in the first five games. The chemistry on this team is already unreal when compared to last year. And I somehow love the nickname Athreeza.

Fun fact. Teams who score 100+ and hold their opponents under 100 are undefeated in NBA history.

Giff wrote:Rockets…chemistry on this team is already unreal when compared to last year.

So, Jeremy Lin was the cancer.

Bird flu

brian wrote:Fun fact. Teams who score 100+ and hold their opponents under 100 are undefeated in NBA history.

And who could argue with that?

He may be pretty tough, and he may be able to score at crunch time, but they may need to change his name to Emar Erozan, cause that kid has no d.

(And Kyle Lowry is rapidly becoming Toronto's favourite athlete.)

Rex wrote:After Denver tomorrow, the Cavs play 9 out of the next 11 at home, with the two road trips being Boston and DC. So I suspect this is the last time we talk about how crappy they are until the playoffs.

How soon everyone forgets the Heat started 9-8 in Lebron's first season there, huh?

howard wrote:

Giff wrote:Rockets…chemistry on this team is already unreal when compared to last year.

So, Jeremy Lin was the cancer.

Is there irony in someone named Howard saying this?

DSafetyGuy wrote:

Rex wrote:After Denver tomorrow, the Cavs play 9 out of the next 11 at home, with the two road trips being Boston and DC. So I suspect this is the last time we talk about how crappy they are until the playoffs.

How soon everyone forgets the Heat started 9-8 in Lebron's first season there, huh?

But the Heat had less offensive talent to integrate/subordinate and more experience on the court. It may take the Cavs longer to get there. It may also take trades to get the right role players.

How long has Ernie Johnson been going with the bow tie? I like him, but there's no way to make a bow tie your default look without coming off as creepy or willfully villainous.

Johnny Carwash wrote:How long has Ernie Johnson been going with the bow tie? I like him, but there's no way to make a bow tie your default look without coming off as creepy or willfully villainous.

Ken Rosenthal is a saint!

howard wrote:

Giff wrote:Rockets…chemistry on this team is already unreal when compared to last year.

So, Jeremy Lin was the cancer.

I think the consensus seems to be that all three "subtractions" from last year's team would qualify.

6-0!

Johnny Carwash wrote:but there's no way to make a bow tie your default look without coming off as creepy or willfully villainous.

100% disagree. Body type & glasses style is key to pulling off the bow tie as your regular go to

wlu_lax6 wrote:

Johnny Carwash wrote:but there's no way to make a bow tie your default look without coming off as creepy or willfully villainous.

100% disagree. Body type & glasses style is key to pulling off the bow tie as your regular go to

OK. I'm amenable to change, but need to see proof. Show me a guy in a bow tie (tuxedos don't count) who doesn't look creepy or evil. (Note: it isn't Ken Rosenthal.)

The play by Irving at :20...how is that not a travel?

Jerloma wrote:The play by Irving at :20...how is that not a travel?

At full speed, it looked more or less like a proper jump stop. In slow mo though, you could see him shuffle his feet. Traveling.

Just a little bitty NBA shuffle. The refs must see this stuff, but they are trained to let it go.

Being intractably old school, it's hard for me to watch. These are great athletes. If they were required to dribble without palming and traveling, they would still make brilliant plays with the ball. By letting this kind of thing go, the NBA is in a position of selective enforcement. The refs decide when essentially equivalent rules infractions are actually called. That's not a good way to run any kind of sporting event. Too much depends on the motivations of the officials.

DC47 wrote:Just a little bitty NBA shuffle. The refs must see this stuff, but they are trained to let it go.

Being intractably old school, it's hard for me to watch. These are great athletes. If they were required to dribble without palming and traveling, they would still make brilliant plays with the ball. By letting this kind of thing go, the NBA is in a position of selective enforcement. The refs decide when essentially equivalent rules infractions are actually called. That's not a good way to run any kind of sporting event. Too much depends on the motivations of the officials.

People have been complaining about NBA refs ignoring traveling and palming for years. This is not a new phenomenon.

The one thing I give the NBA over college ball is that (until the last two minutes of a close game) it rarely devolves into a stop-and-start contest because refs do give them more leeway with things like this.

Apparently, the Napoleon Complex is real!

http://online.wsj.com/articles/study-sh ... 1415046039

But nothing to get too worked up over -

What they found was that each additional inch per crew resulted in .017 fewer personal fouls per 48 minutes. That means the shortest crew, at 8 2/3 inches shorter than the tallest crew, calls .147 fouls more per game, or a 3.6% increase from the league average.

Giff wrote:

DC47 wrote:Just a little bitty NBA shuffle. The refs must see this stuff, but they are trained to let it go.

Being intractably old school, it's hard for me to watch. These are great athletes. If they were required to dribble without palming and traveling, they would still make brilliant plays with the ball. By letting this kind of thing go, the NBA is in a position of selective enforcement. The refs decide when essentially equivalent rules infractions are actually called. That's not a good way to run any kind of sporting event. Too much depends on the motivations of the officials.

People have been complaining about NBA refs ignoring traveling and palming for years. This is not a new phenomenon.

So true. I believe it is getting even worse. What the superstar royalty could once get away with can now be done with impunity by the guys who carry their crowns to the court on puffy pillows.

How about Joe Harris getting crunch-time minutes for the Cavs tonight? I love me some Joe Harris, but I never would have guessed he'd be on the floor - both ends - at the end of a very close game this early in the year.

Kobe was 1-14 last night. He is shooting .367 from the field on the season while still shooting enough to average 25 ppg.

Johnny Carwash wrote:Kobe was 1-14 last night. He is shooting .367 from the field on the season while still shooting enough to average 25 ppg.

But that veteran leadership, intangibles, fiery will to win etc. etc.