Lol. Just to nip this meme in the bud:
1. That was referring to next season, when he’ll be 35;
2. Point is that at that age (or even his current age) he’s a big, not a wing who chases other wings and guards around the perimeter — so, not a guy who should optimally play alongside two other bigs in today’s NBA. By the standards of a big, I’m sure he’s still quite fleet-footed, especially on offense.
* Only having some fun with this but...…
1. People have been talking about his decline for several years now. He'll still be this LeBron next season just as he is this season to those who doubted him last season. He'll slow down some when he's 38-39.
2. He was defending Eric Gordon on the perimeter last night. When the game is on the line he'll be the one defending the opponents best perimeter scorers.
1. Aging doesn’t happen all at once. LeBron has already declined a fair bit from his peak in terms of quickness and defense; that's likely to continue, gradually, over the next 4-5 years (and beyond...)
2. Eric Gordon is the Rockets' best perimeter scorer?
None of LeBron's top 10 lineups this season feature two other bigs. That's wise, imho, and unlikely to change in his age 35 season or beyond (so: feel free to pair him with AD or Boogie, but optimally not both).
2. Eric Gordon is the Rockets' best perimeter scorer?
None of LeBron's top 10 lineups this season feature two other bigs. That's wise, imho, and unlikely to change in his age 35 season or beyond (so: feel free to pair him with AD or Boogie, but optimally not both).
Pels up 13 at the half on the Pacers. Julius Randle with a huge opportunity these last 20 games
That is real awful awareness on Lowry’s part not recognizing he needs to establish himself inbounds prior to touching the ball.
Gives the ball back to the Spurs with 1.1 left and a chance to win.
Edit: Refs blow an obvious backcourt call now. Earlier Mark Davis called 2nd T on Nurse when he wasn’t even involved in the arguing. Not the best night for these NBA officials.
Edit2: I’m usually up to date on the rules but momentum allowing a player to take the ball into the backcourt in the final 2 minutes......that’s a new one to me.
Gives the ball back to the Spurs with 1.1 left and a chance to win.
Edit: Refs blow an obvious backcourt call now. Earlier Mark Davis called 2nd T on Nurse when he wasn’t even involved in the arguing. Not the best night for these NBA officials.
Edit2: I’m usually up to date on the rules but momentum allowing a player to take the ball into the backcourt in the final 2 minutes......that’s a new one to me.
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Didn't realize Bruno Caboclo was getting some run with MEM. He must be a year away from being a year away by now.
The NBA is so bad with the last two minutes, between review, the asinine ref report, and apparently this even more asinine rule change.
I looked quick and can’t even find this rule change. Did the commentator make this up? Lol
I seriously could watch OKC play Utah 17 game series or even more. And Paul George is playing basketball at another level right now. Westbrook also having one of his best shooting nights of the season.
Paul George is making his MVP case on both ends of the floor at the right time. He is just on another level right now.
50 minutes, 45 pts (17-31 fg, 6-6 ft), 9 reb, 7 ast ... *zero turnovers.* Incredible.
For me he’s still #2 by a hair after Giannis just due to the disparity in team records, but I could totally see him getting it with a strong finish by him and his team (along with some slight scuffling by the Bucks and Rockets). My top six right now...
Giannis
George
Harden
Curry
Jokic
Durant
For me he’s still #2 by a hair after Giannis just due to the disparity in team records, but I could totally see him getting it with a strong finish by him and his team (along with some slight scuffling by the Bucks and Rockets). My top six right now...
Giannis
George
Harden
Curry
Jokic
Durant
That is entirely fair except I might actually put your boy above Harden at this point, if only because Giannis, PG13 and Beard are all obscuring what is a completely sick line by Wardell. 45% from three on 11.6 attempts per game is...shit I cannot wrap my head around that. Its a double Westbrook in terms of efficiency (Hi Kliq - I love Russ and he was great tonight btw). I mean, George is shooting just about as many 3PA as Curry and is hitting at a stellar 40% and not even he can sniff Steph's rarified air.
In other news, IT0 came back from the break and rumors of his hip-degenerated demise may be a bit exaggerated. 16 points in 15 minutes on 5-11 shooting (4-7 from deep) with three boards and two assists. If he can do that for Denver every night, they become a bit more dangerous. Yes, he is a huge defensive liability but Denver has the players and scheme to cover for him like Stevens did in Boston.
Steph also leads the league in +/- and the warriors are 5-6 without him and 37-10 with him. His mvp case is overlooked because he plays with the guys he does.
Yeah, 29 ppg on .663 true shooting is decent — only NBA players ever who have sniffed that level are 2015-16 Curry and 2017-18 Curry.
Biggest knocks on him from an MVP perspective are (1) 11 games missed; and (2) that Durant guy, who not only (knocking wood) has played in 58 of 58 games, but is also for I think the first time as Warrior (at least in the regular season) slightly edging out Steph in terms of net rating. It's insane how 28 pts / 7 reb / 6 ast on .628 true shooting with a net on-off of +18.7 is just ho-hum for him. He also (ho-hum) had 7 blocks in the last game v SAC, basically owning Marvin Bagley who owned anyone else who tried to guard him.
For entertainment purposes only, here's the current NBA top five in cumulative plus-minus:
+508 Durant
+487 Antetokounmpo
+462 George
+450 Curry
+433 Danny Green
That actually tracks pretty well with my "best player in the NBA right now," at least up till Danny Green, lolz. Fwiw, for all his sound and fury, James Harden is #69 at +115. (And no, I am not saying the Beard isn't a stud...)
Beyond the MVP race, one stat chase that will be fun to follow down the stretch is Harden v. Curry for the leader in threes made. The Beard currently has a 278-248 lead (thanks to nearly 200 more attempts, lol), which seems like a tough gap to close till you see how effortlessly Steph can drop 10 in a game. They'll get to snipe away mano-a-mano tomorrow in Oakland.
Crazy to think that in the 1998-99 season (just 20 years ago, or the year before TB12 was drafted), the season leader in threes made was ... Dee Brown of the Toronto Raptors with 135.
Crazy to think that in the 1998-99 season (just 20 years ago, or the year before TB12 was drafted), the season leader in threes made was ... Dee Brown of the Toronto Raptors with 135.
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You remember correctly! And 183 of those 241 attempts were by Bird and Chris Ford. The rest of the team combined for 58 attempts total, which is like a good game's worth for the 2018-19 Houston Rockets.
Weirdly, I remember ML Carr as a half-decent three-point shooter, yet somehow that season he hit ... wait for it ... *one three pointer*, on 14 attempts?? I must be thinking of the season before, when he went 12-41, or the season after when he went 5-17, lol. I guess since 1979-80 was the first year of the three-ball era, and the first year I was old enough to follow hoops closely, threes just made an outsized impression on my psyche on the rare occasions they occurred. IIRC, there was one game that year where the Cs were down late and seemingly finished, and somehow the ball got kicked out to the corner to ML Carr who drilled either a game-tying or game-winning three, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing and jumped around the house. Anyone remember exactly which game that was? Somehow in retrospect, that precise moment marked both the beginning of the excitement of the Bird-Magic era and the (early) beginning of the three-point age.
One of those pairings is not quite like the others. Reminds me of Tony Delk and Terrence Ross being in the 50 point club.
I assume you're referring to Towns/Wiggins but this is purely about points scored and each have a greater career scoring avg than Pippen. That really isn't close to comparable to Delk and Ross who are 10ppg career scorers while being second unit players the majority of their careers.
I'm (supposedly) an OKC fan, but I fell asleep at halftime. Seems like I picked the wrong time to be tired.
Nader doesn't get many minutes, but he usually provides quality minutes. No doubt, he'll get some playing time tonight, given how exhausted everyone else will be.
Your team is fun AF (as the kids say). They are a LP team for me and worth missing sleep for. Also, OKC has the best home crowd in the NBA right now imho. Utah is right behind them which makes their awesome games vs one another even better.
He was decent in his first game too. Denver is so loaded at the guard position. Jokic, Plumlee, Millsap and 472343 guards. Kinda ridiculous, but it works in today's NBA. Or it works because of Jokic. Beasley has to be approaching/is in the Jaylen Brown/Ingram/Ball group.
edit: Is Marvin Bagley in that group? Group right below it? He doesn't get much fan fare and he's having a solid rookie year especially for a 19 year old.
I think Bagley’s ahead of all those guys based on what he has shown so far compared to their rookie years.
With Luka’s transcendence, Ayton, JJJ and Trae’s flashes of brilliance, All-Star potential of WCJ and SGA, and some solid play from guys like Okogie, Kurucs, Melton, Knox, the Bridges, and Huerter, this is looking to live up to its hype as a really good draft class. That’s not even considering a bunch of high upside guys who haven’t seen much time- Bamba, Time Lord, Porter Jr., Zhaire Smith, Lonnie Walker, Mitchell Robinson. Tons of talent entering the league.
Looks like Cleveland is going to hold off Memphis on the back of Kevin Love's 32 points and 12 rebounds on 9/15 shooting and 6/9 from 3. 8/8 from the line.
Just checked the score of the Min/Mil game thinking it was close to over at 107-105 Milwuakee with 35 seconds left... Oh yeah, it's 2019. Still 3rd quarter.
Thunder have made a pretty big comeback too and are only down 4. Westbrook's shooting percentages are creeping up towards his career norms of late too.
Thunder have made a pretty big comeback too and are only down 4. Westbrook's shooting percentages are creeping up towards his career norms of late too.
OKC is putting it upon Sacto in the 4th quarter. Currently tied with just over a minute left.
Russ called for a charge down 2 with 11.5 seconds left. That'll be an interesting one to see on replay.
Add Houston to the list of teams that plays GSW tough, and in Oracle. Their path to the finals isn’t going to be as easy as people think.
Yeah, doing it without Harden tonight too. Still some time left though.
To be filed under the, "If a tree falls in a forest category . . . ," Kemba and D.Russell had a pretty nifty battle in BRK. Kemba with 26 points in the second half; D.Russell scoring BRK's last 12 points and 40 overall.
Every time I watch D.Russell, I can't help but laughing at LAL for using him to jettison a bad contract.
Every time I watch D.Russell, I can't help but laughing at LAL for using him to jettison a bad contract.
CP3 was so shook up that he scored or assisted on every Rocket fourth quarter point in a big win against the Ws, sans Harden. Houston three wins, GS zero this season..
It was a huge win but we’ve been playing some shitty ball. I’m hoping Harden loses his streak pretty soon because it’s impacting his game, especially in the 4th.
We aren’t afraid of the Ws but it’s going to be tough if we have to play them in the 2nd round.
We aren’t afraid of the Ws but it’s going to be tough if we have to play them in the 2nd round.
Last night all the traps were out. You had the Warriors exhale with the announcement Harden was out as they look up seeing they are down 15-0, the Lakers feeling like they could coast to a win in NO without AD playing, and then the Celtics in an ultimate trap game versus a team they beat by 56-points sandwiches in the middle of the Bucks and Raptors games. This league is so unpredictably predictable.
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There was no value judgement from me on Paul's performance last night with that Tweet. I just thought it was a particularly vicious screen. And Houston played great last night - Morey's retooling of that roster on the fly has been something to behold.