Kawhi only played 16 minutes, but most of them were early. Did he re-aggravate the injury, or did they just pull him to rest him?
2017-18 NBA Regular Season Game/Observation Thread
- Thread starter DeJesus Built My Hotrod
- Start date
1.5 games. Kings are 6th at 9-18 whilst the Lakers are tied 7th at 10-16.
(edit: you're right, it is 2 1/2 games. For some reason I keep thinking 2-6 conveys rather than 2-5)
They've got a brutal schedule though for the next 4 games through the 22nd: @Cle, GS, @Hou, @GS before some respite the following night at home against the suddenly reeling Blazers.
Basketball reference has them at 33.9 wins for the season which would put them 7th - 1/2 a win more than Memphis and 1/2 a win less than Orlando. 538 has them tied-7th (with the Nets) at 32 wins, 2 wins more than the Mavs and 4 more than the Griz.
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History alert! Against HOU on Monday, Jrue Holiday shot 16-for-21 and E'Twaun Moore shot 15-of-20 (130-123 loss), which according to Elias is the first time in NBA history that a pair of teammates each made 75 percent of their looks while taking 20 shots from the field. http://www.espn.com/blog/elias-says/post/_/id/1759/elias-says-dec-12-2017
Moore is shooting .473 from 3P land. I'm sure some of us didn't think he could do that in an open gym when he was drafted by Danny.
Moore is shooting .473 from 3P land. I'm sure some of us didn't think he could do that in an open gym when he was drafted by Danny.
There is no truth to the rumor that the open gym contested more shots than the Rockets did that night.
OKC ekes it out in Indiana, 100-95, after Thad Young clangs a potential game-tying FT with 40 seconds left.
Big three a combined ... 10-45 fg (PG 3-14, Melo 4-14, Russ 3-17).
Impressive feat to pull out the win, I guess?
Big three a combined ... 10-45 fg (PG 3-14, Melo 4-14, Russ 3-17).
Impressive feat to pull out the win, I guess?
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Donovan Mitchell goes for 32 on 15-26 shooting (he was only one of seven from behind the arc). Kid is easily going to lead all rookies in scoring if this keeps up.
Rockets dropped a 25-0 run on the Hornets between the 1st and 2nd quarters.
63-49 Rockets at the half.
63-49 Rockets at the half.
At least Lyles looks like a player. To Denvers credit, quite a few other teams passed on Mitchell too.
They are capable of simply blowing out any team they play on a given night given their penchant for the triple. They took 22 in this half alone. Bombs over Toyota Center.
I know there are a few posters in this forum who find the social media musings of NBA stars to be distasteful. They should read no further.
When it comes to NBA IG/Twitter all-stars, there is Joel Embiid and then there is everyone else.
For those on mobile, Embiid posted a picture of him blowing by Towns last night with the caption "Euro stepping our way through Minnesota and we ended up raising the cat last night #TheProcess"
to which, Towns responded "That caption was as trash as your picture quality"
to which Embiid responded "Better quality than your defense"
When it comes to NBA IG/Twitter all-stars, there is Joel Embiid and then there is everyone else.
For those on mobile, Embiid posted a picture of him blowing by Towns last night with the caption "Euro stepping our way through Minnesota and we ended up raising the cat last night #TheProcess"
to which, Towns responded "That caption was as trash as your picture quality"
to which Embiid responded "Better quality than your defense"
NBA = National Bromance Association. Thank god we have Emperor Embiid to get us back on course.
The Thunder continue to prove a cautionary tale for the next GM thinking of trying to build a superteam to challenge the Warriors. Anthony, George and Westbrook a combined 10 of 45 from the field last night ... Josh Jackson 0-7 for Phoenix; good thing the Celts didn't trade down to the #4 slot. His shooting percentages are atrocious: .375 FG and .227 3P ... and if you were thinking of putting together a "sophomore jinx" list of NBA players who had flashes of promise last year but who are backsliding this year, who would you pick? I think Marquese Chriss and Thon Maker (and maybe Skal, based on his strong finish last year) would be in the running.
I don't really the backslide from Chriss in the numbers fwiw, though I'm not gonna claim I've watched much Phoenix.
While the Rockets continue to prove an encouraging one...
Lots of hoops to play for all of them, of course. Will be interesting to see how well D'Antoni's tight nine-man rotation holds up as the season heads into the dog days. They currently have only nine guys with over 180 total minutes played, whereas the Warriors (partly due to injuries to key guys, but also partly due to Kerr's more Popovich-ian approach to roster usage) have fourteen, with eleven guys over 300 minutes.
I don't think it's too early to consider the Rockets a legitimate title contender, though. They've been fantastic, and unlike the desultory Thunder already have a distinctive and well-defined identity, style of play, and playoff rotation. A third of the way into the season, they have the #2 ranked offense and #5 ranked defense in the league, just a shade behind the Warriors on both counts.
With Chriss, it's partly the sense I had late last season that he was about to turn a corner -- much as Jaylen has -- and he doesn't appear to have. For instance, in March he had three 20-point games, and one in April. For those months, he shot .487 and .491 from the field. This year he's had zero 20-point games, is shooting .402 from the field and .303 from three (which is lower than last year's .321 for the season). Also he's averaging about 20 minutes per game, while he was at 26, 27 minutes for the last two months of last season -- which seems to indicate the coach has less confidence in him maybe? He just seems to be coming up small this year.
Still, like you, I haven't seen him much in action lately, so there may be something I'm missing.
There were strong cases made that OKC gave up the better player for a worse player at this stage of his career and a worse fit in Carmelo which Oladipo is confirming this season. I'm not sure how that trade is relevant to talent not winning out in the NBA......that much has been proven for decades.
It is so impressive how they have not only brought out the best in each other but the best in all of their role players as well. Eric Gordon is the poster child for not labeling a player as a "loser" or "numbers guy on bad team" when he never had the opportunity to be anything else due to the awful teams he's played on early in his career.
I don't think either of those 3 players have taken a backslide, I just think they are walking sideways. They haven't shown much improvement year over year from last season.
edit: I'm also not nearly as impressed with Brandon Ingram this year as others are, but he has shown some improvement.
I thought Oladipos contract was horrible I’m eating crow on that but to be fair, I didn’t know he was going to go on a testosterone and stem cell diet this summer.
I went to see the magic once when he was playing there. he was one of the only players that came over and signed autographs for people that wanted them.
I went to see the magic once when he was playing there. he was one of the only players that came over and signed autographs for people that wanted them.
The amazing thing about the Rockets is that in a world without the Warriors we wouldn't be talking about them as a title contender, we'd be discussing their potential to be a historically great team. Not only are they on pace for 69+ wins, but their current point differential is +11. They are 2nd in offensive efficiency and 5th in defensive efficiency. Those types of number put you in the conversation with the '71 Bucks, '72 Lakers and '96 and '97 Bulls in terms of wins and margin of victory. Unfortunately for them it's probably unlikely that they even make the Finals.
OKC gave up Kanter and McDermott for Melo. And while Melo is currently sucking, I don't think either of those two are bettter players
I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that Kanter at 25 is a better basketball player than Melo at 33. As long as they're both negatives on D, give me the guy pulling twice as many rebounds and putting up .641 v. .499 true shooting, at similar scoring volume.
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If we're searching for reasons OKC has been mediocre (and maybe we're not), some the blame also has to fall with Westbrook, whose FG% is sub 40. His usage, even with these guys here, is still absurd. The team is as good defensively as they've been since 2013-2014 by DRTG and are second in the league, in fact. Efficiency on offense shouldn't be a problem, but there they are.
Well yea, if we knew that Kanter was going to continue to be that good, and Melo was going to continue to suck. But there was hardly a big outcry that OKC was getting the worst player in that deal. There wa stalk about how they would lose depth, and Melo probably is a bad fit, but it certainly wasn't "oh my god they gave up Kanter!!"
Lonzo just had a sensational play against Cleveland. Grabbed a rebound off a miss by Lebron. Gorgeous near-full-court pass to Ingram who was cutting to basket. Right on the money, two points. Can emphasize how effortless it looked.
He just threw a perfect dime to Kuzma too. But prior to that he completely bricked a three with his trash form. He is a conundrum.
What's the conundrum? He has elite vision and instincts, but he's a below average NBA athlete with a broken shot.
Well, given that he was the number two pick in the draft and is expected to be one of the key building blocks of the Lakers resurgence, I would argue that the attributes you just attributed to him do, in fact, make him a conundrum.
For some unknown reason, I've watched a bunch of NYK this week and Ntilikina has beem impressive. He's very poised for his age; has a good stroke; plus doesn't seem to o a lot of dumb things even though he's playing PG on the Association as 19 yr old.
Lot of talent in last year's draft.
Lot of talent in last year's draft.
If the season ended today, an eastern conference team with a winning record would be in the lottery (Philadelphia), while a western team with a losing record would be in the playoffs (OKC).
Love him. Love Ball. Love....dang...love so many of these guys. I will say that the guys dumping on both Nkit...whatever and on Ball are going to look stupid. I watched the Lakers tonight and vs the Knicks and the idea that Ball is not a great athlete is absurd. The only conundrum regards his shot and ridiculous form, the rest is outstanding for a 20 year old rookie point guard. He's exceptional. Have seen less of Frank N, but like Ball he looks to have instincts that just can't be taught/developed. It'll take a while, but my money is on both being excellent.
Any rumors on him being hurt earlier? Because I watched him 2x and I thought he was a below average athlete (for an NBA player). I never watched him in college so I didn’t know what to expect. He has an awful shot. He can really see the floor.
All I know is he rebounds better than his height/girth would dictate, plays defense remarkably with incredibly quick instincts and good steal stats, finishes well around the rim, and like you said sees the floor in an unreal way. I guess that to me = athletic even if he's not going to win a dunk contest.
And, also as you say, his shot is awful. He'll be a super interesting complementary player without a shot...if he develops/fixes his shot I think he's a star. No idea on that.
And, also as you say, his shot is awful. He'll be a super interesting complementary player without a shot...if he develops/fixes his shot I think he's a star. No idea on that.
I love Lonzo.
He is terrible at finishing though. And terrible at midrange. And terrible...
Bulls have one their last four, two of those without Markkanen. Mirotic has been a volcano. As HRB promised, Dunn is much improved on offense, and still a terror on defense. They get Lavine back in the next couple of weeks. They'll actually have depth, for god's sake, and be able to put it to use. Which might pull them out of the very bottom of the conference (Just thinking about Lakerspick, people).
If only they had Jordan Bell, who started last night for the champs, chipped in 8 points (4-5 fg), 6 rebounds and a Draymondian 8 assists in 24 minutes, and is currently leading the NBA in true shooting percentage (mostly on dunks and putbacks, but still...)
http://insider.espn.com/nba/hollinger/statistics/_/sort/trueShootingPct
Dunn, Markkanen, LaVine, Bell starts to look like a pretty intriguing young core. Hopefully they do something useful with the "cash considerations" they got for the Bell pick.
http://insider.espn.com/nba/hollinger/statistics/_/sort/trueShootingPct
Dunn, Markkanen, LaVine, Bell starts to look like a pretty intriguing young core. Hopefully they do something useful with the "cash considerations" they got for the Bell pick.
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There is a decent chance that if the Bulls did not trade that pick for cash, that they would have selected someone besides Bell. And that player probably would totally suck
I haven't watched a ton of Warriors games but those I have my impression on Bell would that he's much more effective in a system where he is when nobody is paying attention to him due to the attention placed elsewhere as opposed to any out of this world skill level that translates anywhere. He reminds me of how Powe and Big Baby played off KG/Pierce/Allen and took advantage of opportunities with effort and hustle. I'm not sure how effective he'd be in Chicago......would he even play at all with Markkanen, Mirotic, Robin Lopez, and Portis ahead of him at the 4/5?
I could only preach so much how Thibs screwed with this kids head last year. Watching him play the 2 and sometimes even the 3 so they could get Tyus Jones into the rotation made my head hurt. It's actually probably a good thing that Kris only got quick 5-6 minute bursts under those conditions even when he played the point and his job was to initiate the offense 35 feet from the basket while hiding in the corner similar to Rondo's first season with KG/Pierce/Allen in 2008.
Obviously, I'm happy this kid is in a great situation for him to grow as a still very young PG. He played the 2/3 as a freshman at Providence when it was Bryce Cotton's team after missing all preseason following shoulder surgery, missed all by a couple games as a sophomore after reinjuring shoulder, then had the Thibs experience as a rookie. This is only the 3rd year he's played as a full-time PG since leaving high school in 2012.
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By any traditional use of the word, Ball is not a good athlete. He can't jump off one foot; he doesn't look to be comparatively strong and his feet aren't as gifted as, say, Semi Ojeleye.
From what little I've seen, what he appears to have is elite anticipation. He knows what people are going to do and where the ball is going before anyone else does. Kind of like some white guy who used to play around these parts.
Does that make him a great athlete? I don't know. But it could make him a good to great basketball player, depending on how much his shot holds him back.
I'm still glad he's not playing for the Cs.