2011-12 NBA Season Thread Pt. 2: Linsanity is on the clock because the playoffs start in like five minutes

first half flew by didn't it?

Free League Pass is back through 3/4! I can feed my Kings and Wolves addictions.

― Playoff Starts Here (san lazaro), Tuesday, February 28, 2012 2:40 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^important information that needed to get carried into this thread

thank you hibachi god

for some reason they give us free league pass on basic cable, it's so awesome

when league pass is free, of course

wait what? that's nuts

have you hopped on the bulls bandwagon at all since you've moved to chicago? i can't imagine being a miami fan makes one very popular around there

fuck no

i'll watch the bulls when they're on WGN but god that's a boring team and i want to lose all the time

i mean i've long been on the #pointgod bandwagon but other than that...

haha yeah i didn't mean switching sides obv, and it'd be kind of hard to have your second fav team be your favorite team's primary rival

hey dudes.

forgot there were games tonite.

free league pass, is that streaming or just for cable subscribers?

you could stream it the first time

kevin u r acting under the impression that jordan is not just a bandwagon heat fan, which he is

it should be noted that i'm not a bandwagon heat fan but a longtime lebron homer, altho my interest in the heat was amplified by the fact that it's my hometown team, even tho i always did have a distaste for the wade era

didn't know you'd moved to chicago, j0rdan, congrats.

thx! it's pretty cool

alight i just got some league pass broadband login info from a friend, my life is over, and did u know gerald greene is playing for the nets i shit u not

just signed after his fine showing in the d-league all-star game

ah

some madness going down in washington-milwaukee

wall made a crazy running teardrop to go up by one with 7 secs left, then ilyasova got the tip-in off a jennings miss with 2 secs left

and a roger mason travel to seal it. of course.

dallas cheerleaders are p raw, they were dressed up like sexy nurses earlier no joke

'french big men trading crazy shots here' the tv guy just said

dallas cheerleaders are p raw, they were dressed up like sexy nurses earlier no joke

―lag∞n,Tuesday, February 28, 2012 7:31 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

As always cubes knows what's up

Forgot that the last Clips/Wolves was the "Passion of the Love" 3-point finish. Also pretty chippy, iirc.

blake with 18 & 5 in the first q

martell Webster has funny hair

stars cardigans are back everyone btw

these ads for the nba on tnt are all abt shaq being an oblivious egomaniac WHICH IS FUNNY BECAUSE ITS TRUE

griffin embarrassing love atm

I kind of love the Kings now that were in the zeke 2.0 era

I don't know how the hell Thomas finishes like this. He's like a tiny derrick rose.

i know blake and cpaul are oscar tired but twolves still look p sharp

yeah what the hell happened in this game??

wolves second five are +22, +26, +17, +17, +22

Beasley and Williams both blew up, I think the Wolves hit their first 11 shots in the 4th quarter.

Williams may be figuring things out, finally

had to lose when Williams and super cool Beas are hitting contested pull up 3s

btw both the twolves and clips unis last night were tiite

god the highlights of that game were fucking hilarious

williams was on freaking fire and clips didn't really try to lock him down...vdn is getting better on defense but i don't think he actually knows what a doubleteam is

i won't fault him for refusing to double team derrick williams

also i kinda sorta know who derrick williams is when i remember that he was the second pick from arizona and an awesome scorer in college, but that's like the most generic name for the nba right now

yeah i wouldn't go crazy game-planning for derrick williams either but dude was straight torching them

super cool beas was great too

it seems kind of redundant to have both of those guys though

yeah i don't think they have much invested in beasley

http://i.imgur.com/dTqH1.jpg

my 4 fav celebrities

Jay-Z being racist with that bad Tiger Claw kung fu gesture.

they r discussing whether to invite lin to the illuminati

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/02/28/delonte-west-was-homeless-slept-in-mavs-locker-room-at-start-of-season/

man I know we like to clown on delonte but feel sorry for the dude, stay upright man

poor guy

chicago should try to get gasol i feel, move noah, need a third team in there tho

i feel like they could win the title with the team they have but i wouldn't begrudge them moving gasol

er, getting gasol or w/e

yah i think they can too, but theyd have a better shot w/a more dynamic offense imho

fyi the trade machine should be able to do real trades starting tomorrow

yeah def, and the heat can still go small vs them cuz noah's not really a threat on offense and miami has enough smaller guys that can rebound... the heat would prob have to keep a center on the floor if gasol was out there

thunder/6rs bulls/spurs blazers/nugs wolves/lakers quality 2nite #leaguepasslyfe

so glad i have an exam tomorrow

williams was on freaking fire and clips didn't really try to lock him down...vdn is getting better on defense but i don't think he actually knows what a doubleteam is

― doc has never told me nothing that wasn't true (agent hibachi), Wednesday, February 29, 2012 5:45 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Williams was hitting step back threes, nothing you can do really.

btw Wes Johnson: still the starting SF for the Timberpuppies

well u cant give the spot to super cool beas cause he some sort of hateful person who everyone hates and you cant give it to williams because im not sure why so its settled

i'm so sick of wes starting, but williams doesn't think he's a 3...and beas is one of those guys like you watch him night in and night out, he pulls a game like this out of his ass but goddamn he can be THE WORST for the next 5 games

its true but wes johnson is also terrible is the thing

wes johnson is easily one of the five worst players in the nba, but i'm not sure they have anyone else

think they should look to deal for someone at the deadline

just start super cool beas fuck it who cares be cool be super cool

if they could somehow murder wes johnson and michael beasley and trade derrick williams for a competent two guard, they'd be much better off

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/7631141/source-los-angeles-lakers-reject-minnesota-timberwolves-trade-offer-michael-beasley ha everyone h8s super cool beas why

they would be better off right now if they had drafted paul george in 2010, but as much as i wanna kill kahn for picking wesley johnson, that draft is kinda dreadful, and it's kinda hard to hate on him for not picking monroe or cousins seeing how pekovic has turned out

i don't see what use beasley would have to the lakers

paul george was also like 2 feet shorter at the time of the draft

the world wouldve benefited from kobe glowering at beas all game every game, why r u so selfish la lakers

man super cool beas and mwp in the locker room, can you imagine

you look back at some of these drafts and it's almost hard to fault kahn... like even in the flynn/rubio draft, the flynn pick was obviously a complete disaster but no one besides steph curry deserved to be taken at no. 6 and that wouldn't have worked out.

like, they'd be better off if they'd had taken gerald henderson at no. 6 in that draft but kahn would've been an even bigger laughing stock than he already was

i think derrick williams will end up being a super sixth man a la harden tho certainly not as good. he should really be a four in the mold of josh smith but shouldn't be starting over love or pek, so he should be pretty okay riding the bench and it allows them to get a little creative with their line ups.

Metta World Beas woulda been awesome.

reminds me of a cool hollinger piece from a lil while ago that we never discussed

The secret to Jeremy Lin's success
'BAD' rating shows key to Linsanity for New York Knicks (PER Diem: Feb. 16, 2012)
By John Hollinger

There's the one obvious side to the Jeremy Lin story -- I'll trust that you've heard it by now -- which is that Lin is a far better basketball player than anyone imagined.

But for the Knicks there's a second, equally important side, one that has played just as large a factor in their going from 8-15 with Lin on the pine to 7-0 with him playing. And that factor provides a kernel of hope to several other teams in similar predicaments.

That side is the dismal point guard play New York was getting before Jeremania struck. Toney Douglas (PER 6.55), Mike Bibby (6.43) and Iman Shumpert (10.63) all were somewhere between replacement-level and close-your-eyes awful before Lin took over. In fact, Douglas and Bibby are 59th and 60th, respectively, in PER out of the league's 62 qualifying point guards.

And this, paradoxically, provided the Knicks with a real opportunity: If they could just replace the terrible players with somebody halfway decent, it would improve the team significantly. Replace them with a star, and you get Linsanity.

It's uncommon for a team to have a rotation player with PER marks in the single digits for any length of time, especially for players who aren't elite defensive specialists. The Knicks, however, had Bibby and Douglas combining for over 30 minutes a game while both were working on train-wreck caliber seasons. Thus, there was a huge opportunity for the Knicks if they could find a quality replacement.

Conversely, it's very different if you have a team full of average-to-good players like, say, Denver, which has had very few minutes this season come from under-performing players. As a result, changing out any Nuggets player with another isn't likely to greatly alter the team's fortunes -- even adding a player of Lin's caliber wouldn't have nearly the same impact that it's had on the Knicks.

Along similar lines, Linsanity wouldn't have had anywhere near the same impact in Golden State or Houston, his two former clubs -- replacing Stephen Curry (PER 21.57) or Kyle Lowry (19.71) with Lin would likely have generated only a small change in said team's fortunes. Even using him as a backup would have been a far lesser improvement than the one the Knicks saw, as Golden State (with Nate Robinson) and Houston (with Goran Dragic) already get good production from those spots.

Which takes us to today's project: The BAD rating.

BAD stands for Below Average Dependency, and what it shows is how much non-production teams are getting from replacement-level or worse players.

A high score in BAD represents both a problem and an opportunity. The problem is that a lot of crappy players are dragging the team down, but the opportunity is that replacing them with just an average player will cause the team to dramatically improve -- perhaps not as much as Lin improved the Knicks, but enough to cause a wave.

To calculate BAD, I started with every player with a PER below 12. I subtracted his PER from 12, and multiplied by his minutes played. For example, a player with a PER of 10 and 200 minutes played would add 400 BAD points for his team.

I then summed the BAD rating across all the players on the team, so that all 30 teams had a rating. And what it found, not surprisingly, was that the Knicks were among the teams most ripe for a Linsanity situation: They're seventh in the league in BAD overall, and their point guard position rated as the second-worst of any individual spot.

BAD: Worst by position
Team Position Players BAD
Nets Small forward Stevenson, James, Sha. Williams, Owens 7,856
Knicks Point guard Bibby, Shumpert, Douglas 5,794
Kings Small forward Salmons, Garcia, Outlaw 5,663
Lakers Point guard Fisher, Blake, Goudelouck, Morris 4,925
Timberwolves Small forward Johnson, Webster 4,749

Looking at the chart, you can see that New York point guard was one of the league's greatest turnaround opportunities. Plugging in a decent player would improve the Knicks greatly, and plugging in a star would more than offset the loss of Carmelo Anthony, and that is what has happened.

Lin could have had a similarly outsized impact with the Lakers, but otherwise the weak links around the league are at small forward. As with the Knicks' point guard situation, this speaks both to a real problem for the Nets, Wolves and Kings and to potential for sudden improvement should they find even halfway-decent solutions.

The good news for each is that help may be on the way. Minnesota may eventually have an answer in Derrick Williams or Michael Beasley, while the Kings and Nets are both likely to have high draft picks. As for the Lakers' point guard hole, that one seems a bit thornier to solve.

Speaking of which ...

BAD: Worst by team
Team BAD
Lakers 12,499
Magic 10,565
Nets 10,020
Timberwolves 9,392
Pistons 9,205

If you're wondering how the Lakers are 17-12 despite having three of the best players in the league, here's your answer. The chart shows that the Lakers lead the league in BAD, with only four players having a PER above 12. Metta World Peace leads the way with 3,553 BAD points (fifth league-wide), but the point guards and frontcourt reserves are also major contributors. In their infinite wisdom, the league's coaches decided to punish Pau Gasol for this by keeping him off the Western Conference All-Star team.

Orlando ranks second, with horrid point guard play the main reason, although the Magic have at least begun to remedy a bit of the problem: Larry Hughes, with a horrid minus-4.84 PER in 114 minutes, was one of the worst offenders but has been waived.

Unfortunately for Dwight Howard, the grass on the other side of the fence may not be greener: New Jersey is right behind the Magic in this category, with its phenomenally bad small forward play the main culprit. The Nets' BAD from small forwards is worse than that of 18 other entire teams.

In each case, this represents an opportunity too. If L.A. or Orlando could just acquire a league-average point guard at the trade deadline (coughRamonSessionscough), it might improve their chances considerably.

BAD: Best by team
Team BAD
Bulls 0
Nuggets 478
Rockets 1,078
76ers 1,264
Spurs 1,844

Alternatively, we can look at teams with the lowest BAD to see those that are a bit "maxed out." Take the Bulls, for instance, who amazingly don't have a single minute played this season from a player with a PER below 12. (At the moment, at least -- Ronnie Brewer and Brian Scalabrine are very close.)

Similarly, Denver, Houston, Philadelphia and San Antonio are four of the league's deepest teams and have benefited from that bench strength this season. The glass-half-empty look at their depth, however, is that there isn't the opportunity for the kind of explosive improvement from a single move that we saw from the Knicks with Lin.

In the big picture, none of these teams can expect a Jeremy Lin to burst onto the scene. What's happened with him is a once-a-decade phenomenon at best. But for the likes of Minnesota, New Jersey, the Lakers and Orlando, their heavy use of under-performing players comes with the opportunity for a micro-version of Linsanity that can catapult them significantly forward.

it'll be interesting to see if they have anything in malcom lee... dude looked pretty decent in college and they signed him to a multi-year deal before he even played a game in the nba so they must like him. maybe he can turn into a legit 2 for them.

Larry Hughes, with a horrid minus-4.84 PER in 114 minutes
Larry Hughes, with a horrid minus-4.84 PER in 114 minutes
Larry Hughes, with a horrid minus-4.84 PER in 114 minutes
Larry Hughes, with a horrid minus-4.84 PER in 114 minutes
Larry Hughes, with a horrid minus-4.84 PER in 114 minutes
Larry Hughes, with a horrid minus-4.84 PER in 114 minutes
Larry Hughes, with a horrid minus-4.84 PER in 114 minutes
Larry Hughes, with a horrid minus-4.84 PER in 114 minutes
Larry Hughes, with a horrid minus-4.84 PER in 114 minutes
Larry Hughes, with a horrid minus-4.84 PER in 114 minutes
Larry Hughes, with a horrid minus-4.84 PER in 114 minutes

NEGATIVE 4.84

the problem was that larry hughes was still in the nba in 2012

which coincidentally happens to be no longer true

yah that's why I used the past tense of IS

man i was just riffing jeez

its cool, its super cool in fact

'jus riffin'

I feel bad that larry hughes was in the nba in 2012 and not AI, give AI another chance so he can pay back his bills

otm free ai

once otis smith gets fired i really hope someone compiles a "10 worst moves of the otis smith era"

we could probably do that now tbh

should prob wait til after the howard trade

aw ai is so outdated

http://i.imgur.com/VRPk5.png

i feel like any howard trade would prob have to be left off the list seeing as how his hands are pretty tied, but if they don't trade him and lose him or make some utterly insane trade, it could get on the list

lol @ free ai myspace layout

free allen iverson ringtone :(

i feel like any howard trade would prob have to be left off the list seeing as how his hands are pretty tied, but if they don't trade him and lose him or make some utterly insane trade, it could get on the list

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, February 29, 2012 5:59 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

im just gonna go ahead and pencil it in

http://i.imgur.com/1GTFY.jpg

me irl

http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/story/_/id/7629215/michael-jordan-9-bed-home-full-court-going-29m

I hope MJ didn't gamble all his money away

naw michaels hella rich, prob just wanted o move or w/e

probably selling it to cover a bad flop

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/7631532/darrell-bailey-says-los-angeles-clippers-asked-refrain-using-clipper-darrell-name

lin vs kyrie

they would be better off right now if they had drafted paul george in 2010, but as much as i wanna kill kahn for picking wesley johnson, that draft is kinda dreadful, and it's kinda hard to hate on him for not picking monroe or cousins seeing how pekovic has turned out

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, February 29, 2012 10:39 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dude it wasn't pekovic, it was because of Darko remember

"he passes like Vlade"

haha

late bloomer like chris webber

you look back at some of these drafts and it's almost hard to fault kahn... like even in the flynn/rubio draft, the flynn pick was obviously a complete disaster but no one besides steph curry deserved to be taken at no. 6 and that wouldn't have worked out.
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, February 29, 2012 10:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Rubio and Curry would be awesome!

man westbrook is so rad, f the h8rs

durant and evan turner are fighting lol tuff guys

a. jamison can still score. kinda want him around next year for the cavs

yah but who is gonna be the magic player to make the cavs better

lebron

jesus this bos/mil game is dire, when is thunder halftime over

baron davis looks like this big lumbering st. bernard, it's v unsettling

overfed chipmunk

did Lin break his nose or wut

been out forever

I think lin died after casspi clocked him on the head, rip linsanity

maybe somebody can start a new thread now that linsanity is dead

baron with the cavs last year was nice- he used to bring me brandy

lol kg is v mad at john leur right now

does he think leuer is European

ha prob

did kg clap and woof at him yet

who is "larry sanders" and why is he getting into it with kg

it wasnt leuer it was "larry sanders"

w/e its all euros

Stoudemire always has 1 rebound at halftime

amare is so bad its sad

€

gibson draining threes like the mississippi drains the upper midwest

booooobie gibson

remember when the cavs hired byron scott to entice lebron to stay

normally I am a fan of knee high socks except when they are white and worn by j.r. smith

westbrook looks like e.t.

uh why does westbrook have 11 rebs rn

cavs first pick for head coach was tom izzo. he would've been a disaster imo

because hes awesome xp

westbrook could have a triple double if he were a real point guard who passed the ball

pfft dont need to pass when u can just dunk every play

shumpert just dropped the hammer on the entier cavs

god i love watching harden play

he's just getting beaten by a bigger guy down near the block, posts him up anyway, gets the ball and spins around in an instant, then jukes himself into a semi-open jumper.

shumpert dunk was nuts, STILL WORTH ONLY TWO POINTS

::reveals Bobby Knight social security card::

Joe Johnson looks like he's playing this game super baked

lol durant draining a pull up 3 on the run w/four sizers back and no thunders under the basket like nbd

after having like no fgs in the second half

tbf he had one on the previous possession

sixers are getting penetration and then taking all kinds of wacky shots

xp tru

sixers have a ton of good players none of whom are pure scorers, hard for them to get too much of an offensive flow

Casspi is so dumb, ugh

casspi

thunder have three sick offensive players and a bunch of other guys who cant score at all

game is going to slip away

yeah thunder desperately need someone who can get 12-14 a game without having any plays run for him

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/7631532/darrell-bailey-says-los-angeles-clippers-asked-refrain-using-clipper-darrell-name

― ploppawheelie V (k3vin k.), Wednesday, February 29, 2012 7:34 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

WTF at this. way to repay a fan who showed enthusiasm for one of the worst franchises in the league history.

sixers can't buy a fg

lol brand passed up an open 15 footer then ended up taking a contested turn around j from the same exact spot 2 seconds later

yeah he looks rough out there on the offensive end

no mobility at all

sixers should trade from their stockpile of quality dudes for harden and then he could just close games for them

cavs are the worst scoring around the basket

feel like Dan Gilbert should write a letter about it

brownie I admire your dedication

i attended the loss that set the record for most consecutive losses in sports history last year

Luis Scola just almost dunked. The Rockets bench went totally bananas

ha awesome brownie

the very last row in the Q

those tickets go for 45 dollars

cleveland not so bad this year tho, irving is super legit obvs

it's true that every bucket i have ever recalled luis scola making has been a swarthy lay up

with kyrie and tristan isolde i feel the sky is the limit

sky = 35 wins

Damn tickets in Portland are so much cheaper than in Cleveland. Top level of the upper bowl tix are like $15. And the blazers are v popular here, whereas I imagine the cavs are not so much.

spurs cheapies are like...10, 12?

comic sans is a very expensive font to license

yeah, the cavs market 10 dollar tix. they don't exist afaik

xpost

yah knicks games theres literally one row of seats thatre $15 then the ones in front of them are $50

xactly

i refuse to even go to Magic games unless I sit close enough to hurt Hedo Turkoglu's feelings

its a reasonable expectation

i dunno, i'd go a Magic game

i mean they're not terrible

"steve novak has taken over the ballgame"

cavs are now in a spiral

cad are u watching the cavs pbp?

xxxpost lol I just can't stand waiting basketball from the nosebleeds. I got spoiled back when Dwight was new and nobody wanted to go to their games and I could buy tickets for $30 cheaper than face value from street sellers.

cuz the cavs announcer just said that

xpsot

I'm watching the MSG stream and I miss the soft dolce voice of walt frazier... or maybe it is still walt

Ha during the dark years of zbo and nothin else I'd get a set of six seats in the fifth or sixth row oftener lower bowl in the rose garden for free. Went to just about every game for years, pretty much to check out the other teams.

i p much agree re bad seats, id generally rather watch on tv, recall once at a celtics game was in the last row and i realized i didnt have to move my head at all to watch the game i could just see the entire court

haha yeah league pass has the cavs feed brownie

nice, austin carr is a trest

treat

One thing I think doesn't get mentioned enough about Lin's effect on the Knicks is that it's opened up Steve Novak to do his thing. Novak is a great shooter who really needed a decent point guard

Tyreke Evans has taken 100 shots between 16 and 23 feet this season. He's shooting 26% on these shots.

lol

welp

former rookie of the year and one time drive by shooting driver tyreke evans ladies and gentlemen

One thing I think doesn't get mentioned enough about Lin's effect on the Knicks is that it's opened up Steve Novak to do his thing. Novak is a great shooter who really needed a decent point guard

― simulation and similac (Hurting 2), Wednesday, February 29, 2012 9:41 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i do think this is interesting; novak is obv not a fit on every team but he's a perfect situational player for d'antoni

rondo with a 15/10/11, b jennings went 2/11 with 8 ast and 2 rebs

pwn

lin has 5 minutes left to get 5 turnovers, can he do it

god, spurs/bulls finals would be so cutthroat

third trip dub for rondo this year

we want novak we want novak

marc gasol is beasting

horrible ending

feel bad brownie

i will let it wash over me

already planning a two bottle saturday

kyle korver been spending some time in the tanning booth eh

lin had 19/13 with just one turnover

lol end of half, noah calls for the ball and then refuses to take the 15-footer resulting in shot clock violation

I can't find lakers-wolves in my channel guide wtf

huh, i see it in mine. first league pass channel.

ok it's total anarchy in the directv guide, "title not available" is the nuggets game

Love is out tonight. Pek-Dwill-Beasley combine for 70 pts, book it.

man Rubio's beard is getting hefty

kobe in mask--terrifying

ken faried has 13/10 in 15 mins O_O
when will the faried-afflalo-brewer era be over miss u nene & gallo
amazing that birdman still gets no PT when nene is out

Faried was a huge steal for the Nuggz

if Faried keeps this up, Nene is kind of expendable!

Jeremy Lin: 33 minutes, 6-12, 19 points, 5 boards, 13 assists, 1 turnover
Baron Davis: 15 minutes, 2-4, 4 points, 2 boards, 8 assists, 0 turnovers

Gary neal

Timothy Duncan

fuck, Derrick rose

haha Bynum is a huge Pekovic fan

Pekovic got an offensive rebound and shoved Pau out of the way with a vicious elbow and then layed it in and Bynum just laughed

feel like if the spurs had found jeremy lin (say tony parker went down for the year) we would have an amazingly different narrative

pekovic is hilarious, this is the first time i've really seen him

classic game from the nuggets tonight... 34 combined points from hamilton, faried and koufos

http://www.nba.com/video/games/sixers/2012/02/29/0021100512_okc_phi_recap.nba/

watch the move jrue holiday puts on russ at 1:12 O_O

iggy was playing w/a lot more zest and pizazz than i recall

http://espn.go.com/boston/nba/story/_/id/7631850/sources-boston-celtics-aggressively-trying-trade-guard-rajon-rondo

man if the celtics could get curry that'd be aamazing

they should trade all the rest of their players too

lol rumors celtics are gonna trade a bag of chips for sc beas

I fully support this proposal

rip rondo, u were just too crazy and mean.

rajon rondo, pure evil

http://www.sportsgrid.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Kobe-Mask1--628x349.jpg

hahaha i just imagined rondo beating mark jackson to death in gs

all according to plan

lol cad

anyway this being out there should make him easy to trade

The Celtics find Rondo's personality to be too high-maintenance and his clashes with coach Doc Rivers remain an off-court distraction, sources told Broussard

sweet baby jesus kobe really looks like a serial killer in the mask

i was so busy gorging on free league pass i couldn't even read this thread last night

yeah trading rondo is probably gonna be rough and i'm sure pierce will enjoy playing next year with someone's third rate rotation player and a couple of second round picks

oh and westbrook is awesome, fuck the haters, he's unbelievable and he's only 23 and has only been a point guard like four years

okc does need that 10-15 ppg guy though because they always have 1-3 guys who absolutely cannot score on the floor but i'm not sure it really matters that much when you can get 50 out of durant and 40 out of westbrook and some change out of harden when you need it

matters this season anyway, i mean

playing ibaka and perk together is kinda ridiculous in this day and age

i read somewhere (either haberstroh or zach lowe) that OKC's starting line up (russ-thabo-kd-serge-perk) is the worst offensive line up in the nba by ppp

not worst STARTING line up mind you. straight up worst group of five players as far as PPP goes.

PPP?

yah three big time non scores on the court at once is nail, of course harden gets more burn than sephalosha

points per possession

i can't believe they still start thabo.

i mean they should have harden coming off the bench but they need someone who is not thabo.

yeah it's crazy

they're winning games despite that starting lineup though!

i think the thabo thing is basically let's let kd & westbrook go nuts early and three out of five spots on the floor will be clogged defensively; maybe this was more important when most of the west had a 2 guard who was a focal point of the offense early in games and it was important to keep that guy from going off early

but that kind of only applies to matching up with the lakers now? (and maybe spurs if/when ginobili)

i guess?

did anyone read the oral history of the palace brawl on grantland? stephen jackson is prob the most thoughtful person in it!

stephen jackson is a smart dude I dunno why ILH clowns on him

well we don't call him stupid

being a smart, thoughtful dude and being presently terrible at nba basketball are not mutually exclusive things

also not being that smart at evaluating the current quality of yr game

and being p clearly quite insane for yr entire career

lol

eh, I feel like he's always been underrated, and I dunno why ya'll were clowning him for wanting to play for a contender in the other thread, I think it's quite a natural impulse!

1 a he wanted to play for the nets
2 he was complaining abt not getting enough minutes/touches when all he does these days is jack up 20 fters
3 he thought the nets w/him would be a contender

with him and dwight and deron! I think that'd be a pretty good team

he has a ring already though

but c'mon, you can't blame a guy for wanting out of the milwaukee bucks

your argument does not at all reflect the logic the known insane person stephen jackson was putting forth

dayo he was saying that he wants to play for a team that doesn't even exist, and if you read b/w the lines he was basically positioning himself as part of a big 3 in new jersey with deron and dwight which is utterly insane

yah but that's only cause any rumors w/ dwight are gonna be insane

cool big three w/the 2nd, 15th and 200th best players in the nba

I feel like he could turn it up if he were motivated

and 5 years younger

age is just a feeling, man

feelin p old tbh

eh, I feel like he's always been underrated

When he wants to be he can be a great defensive player, and he's a good passer and rebounder, but his shot selection has always been atrocious. He shot the W's out of so many games back when he was here, and that was when he was GOOD.

And when things weren't going his way he would self-destruct and stop caring. It was hard to watch.

sounds like a guy the C's would be interested in

yeah a team that goes to two finals in three years is sure to be full of those sorts of guys makes sense

sjax sounded still really bitter about artest destroying the pacers

he'd have fit right in w/ nate rob

don't think it's a coincidence that s jax hasn't played for a good team since he left indy

i can't believe they still start thabo.

Coaches believe in wins. OKC is winning. That's why Thabo still starts.

^haha aimless that's the point i was hamfistedly trying to make above

that indy team really was a finals contender before the brawl, the jermaine-artest-jackson core was great

s jax is also mad about not getting a long term contract! at age 33! like you can be mad that you're on the bucks or you can be mad about not having a long term deal...being mad about both at once is crazytown

yah that indy team was legit

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/5-on-5-120301/nba-lebron-james-all-time-greats

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/PERDiem-120301/lebron-james-having-greatest-season-ever

lalalalalalalala cant hear u

so much stupidity from those 5 writers, ugh

enjoyed this tho

Once the Dallas Mavericks hoisted the trophy last June, we all sought out diagnose the ills of the Miami Heat, and inevitably the masses blamed LeBron James, whose production bizarrely fell off a cliff after dominant playoff performances against the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls. Of course, James certainly deserves much of the blame, while Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh weren't exactly sensational, either.

After the Heat face-planted in dramatic fashion, a common question rippled through the NBA community: Will the Heat go only as far as their Big Three take them?

The star trio was supposed to be more than enough. But the Finals proved that depth -- something the champion Mavericks boasted -- is an essential ingredient for the championship pursuit. In an effort to improve the Heat's depth, team president Pat Riley made two significant roster additions in the offseason: signing Shane Battier and drafting Norris Cole. Furthermore, coach Erik Spoelstra overhauled the offense to emphasize the Heat's open-court game and athleticism. The Heat rolled to a 27-7 record at the All-Star break, marking the franchise's best start.

But do they have enough surrounding the Big Three? Or can they get by on the Big Three alone? The more one examines the Heat's body of work, it is clear that not only is the Heat's supporting cast much-improved, but so are the Big Three.

The Missing Duo

Spoelstra can't stress this enough: Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem didn't play last season -- or at least they were shells of their former selves due to a laundry list of injuries.

"The reality is that we had two major components that were missing the majority of the regular season," Spoelstra said at Wednesday's practice. "They were warriors and they did come back in the playoffs, but they were shadows of who they really were physically."

Even a casual NBA observer could tell Miller and Haslem were there, but not really. Miller was recovering from multiple surgeries but played anyway, and Haslem played through a shredded foot, because the Heat desperately needed some life rafts. The team will tell you now that the injuries the two suffered were of the season-ending variety, but Haslem and Miller played through them. The Heat had little choice but to throw them out there.

If the injuries were supposed to be season-ending, it showed in the numbers. Miller, one of the finest shooters of this generation, shot 29.7 percent from downtown in the playoffs. Haslem? His rebound rate was practically sliced in half (from 18.3 percent to 11.3 percent). Miller and Haslem represented two of the Heat's five most valuable players, and each was stripped of his greatest asset: shooting and rebounding, respectively.

Now, they're healthy and playing like it. Miller, with his thumbs reattached to his body, now leads the NBA in 3-point shooting (51.7 percent) and his player efficiency rating has almost doubled since the playoffs (8.4 PER to 14.1 PER). Elsewhere, Haslem has struggled with his jump shot this season, but he, too, has seen his strongest asset return to form. In fact, Haslem sports the eighth-highest rebound rate in the league this season, despite being the size of a small forward. Just like that, the Heat quietly now boast -- at least statistically -- the top 3-point shooter in the league and one of the best rebounders.

The changing of the (point) guard

Every Knicks fan is coming to grips with what Heat fans learned last season: Mike Bibby might as well be a cardboard cutout at this point. It's worth repeating that in a title quest, the Heat played Bibby, the least productive player in NBA playoff history, for a whopping 415 playoff minutes. Bibby's primary value on the court is his ability to knock down open shots, but like Miller, that weapon completely vanished when the Heat needed it most.

Bibby started every game of the Heat's postseason except for the final one, and he shot a dismal 25 percent from the floor while posting a historically terrible 3.6 PER. Many will point to James' shortcomings, but few people remember that, with Bibby, the Heat absorbed one of the most hollow postseason performances we've seen in our lifetimes.
Now, enter Mario Chalmers and Cole. Replacing the ghost of Bibby is a two-headed creature that has spearheaded the Heat's up-tempo attack. Chalmers, who was inexplicably buried behind Bibby on the depth chart in the postseason, has erupted in 2011-12, posting a 16.0 PER while earning his spot in the 3-point contest this past All-Star Weekend. Exchanging last season's Bibby for this season's Chalmers is like a big-game hunter upgrading from a cap gun to a rifle.

And then there's Cole. Many will be surprised to learn that Cole boasts the Heat's top usage rate outside the Big Three, meaning that the rookie owns the largest share of scoring responsibility than any of the Heat's supporting cast. Sure, he could be more efficient with his shot selection, but the Heat swear by his abilities to fearlessly lead a scoring attack and single-handedly change the tempo. With youngsters spearheading Miami's new high-octane attack on both ends of the floor, the Heat have rebranded their style of play to reflect their athleticism. In the process, Chalmers and Cole have erased any memory of the Heat's previous era at point guard (the slow-footed Bibby, Carlos Arroyo and Eddie House).

Lightening the load

Looking at the Heat's glut on the wing, the offseason signing of Battier didn't make much sense on the surface. But Battier can effectively play each of the positions of the Big Three. The logic held that if James, Wade or Bosh needed a breather, the versatile Battier could fill in with little trouble. Thanks to Battier and a series of blowouts, Spoelstra has been able to shave over eight minutes off the Big Three's combined minutes-per-game total in this lockout-shortened season (112.3 in last season's regular season to 104.1 this season).

After the Big Three sputtered on fumes in the Finals, managing the trio's minutes remained a top priority for the Heat brass. It's safe to say they're already reaping the benefits. With more rest on the bench, James is off to the most efficient season the league has ever seen by PER standards, averaging a mind-blowing 27.4 minutes, 8.1 rebounds and 6.8 assists on 55 percent shooting while sitting out about a quarter's worth of basketball in each game. Wade has watched his PER somehow climb from 25.6 to 28.1 (second in the league behind LeBron) while playing in five fewer minutes per game than in 2010-11. And Bosh? His production has held remarkably steady from last season, despite the otherworldly play of his two teammates.

With double-digit wins in their past eight games, the Heat are rolling on all cylinders. Deploying a new offense that caters to their strengths, the Big Three have watched their numbers skyrocket. The trio's combined PER stands at a gaudy 80.2 figure, and the league's next-highest trio checks in at "just" 71.9 (Oklahoma City's formidable trifecta of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden). Last season, the combined PER of the Heat's Big Three stood at a league-leading 72.3, yet they've managed to increase that figure by more than 10 percent.

But the Big Three's uptick in productivity has coincided with the sharpening of the supporting cast. Looking at the No. 4 through No. 9 players in minutes per game, the Heat have watched the average PER of their supporting cast rise from 9.8 last season to 11.7 this season, which as a percentage doubles the jump we've seen from the Big Three. The "little six" are not so little anymore.

So yes, if the title is the goal, the Heat might get by on the outstanding play of their star trio alone. But if the Big Three aren't up to the task down the stretch again, the supporting cast should be well-equipped to have their back -- something the Heat couldn't say last season. With newfound depth to the roster, the Heat have effectively -- and quietly -- turned a weakness into a strength.

yeahhhh nelson can't guard westbrook

lol who can?

blatant walk by turk there

I had the horrible realization today that until Gallinari comes back the Kings are my favorite team.

oh god why

lol what matt

league pass rehab for matt

guys its noche latina again! EL MAGIC

christ Fratello thinks that was a charge wtf

pek v gortat is kind of a hilar match up

channing frye is trying to guard love right now

or was, he already has two fouls

the wolves color guy is saying some dumb shit right now

he called jerry colangelo the "class of the nba" and said that joe johnson leaving the suns was "the beginning of the end"

haaaaa

that's a terrible 3 second call on pek

Wes Johnson is such a great example of a guy who only plays, and only is in the league because he got picked high.

like what's the difference between gerald green and Wes Johnson?

i think he's played every second in the first quarter

some of these line ups put hate my in hart

wes + webster or wes + webster + williams can only be designed to drive people clinically insane

Derrick Williams is going to go back to sucking isn't he

i feel like there has to be multiple times a game where adelman closes his eyes and looks towards the sky and repeats "serenity now" while picturing in his head kevin love making a jumper

kevin love was just arguing with a ref when he realized he had a huge loogie hanging off his beard, then burst out laughing

watching hakim warrick play is the saddest thing for me

this is why I don't follow college basketball, you hear about all these dudes and then when they get to the nba, nothing

i was a huge syracuse fan at the time

lol at big baby btw

I mean I barely know what a college basketball is and I heard about hakim warrick

Warrick would be pretty awesome if he was 2 inches taller

i hope cp3 eats thomas alive tonight

https://mobile.twitter.com/WindhorstESPN/status/175420298986913793

https://mobile.twitter.com/WindhorstESPN/status/175420795722530816

wau durant

heat alley oops are really a game within the game at this point

the lebron one handed tomahawk oop just now was o_O

when the announcers are like o___________O you know it was sick

we are seriously so blessed to be able to watch these two play at the same time

feel a bit robbed that we're missing out on bosh vs aldridge

umm the heat look good

yurr

jesus, lebron is going to have a monster game

i think historically he goes very ham in the rose garden

i had no idea miller was shooting 52 pct from 3

jesus, lebron is going to have a monster game life

i think historically he goes very ham in the rose garden

― J0rdan S., Thursday, March 1, 2012 11:19 PM (1 second ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

something like 30.4 ppg career, second only to jordan

god, dexter pittman is ass

hey, luke babbit

even his name suggests shittiness...might as well be Dexter suckshit

let's see some eddy curry

reggie just said "familiaraity"

dwyane motherfucking wade

i'm still reeling from reggie turning "familiarity" into two words

ayyyyy harlan dropping PER

god shaq needs to get off of TV

kenny & chuck just openly mocking him

ayyyyy harlan dropping PER

― J0rdan S., Thursday, March 1, 2012 11:46 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this was nice

some really humiliating things are happening to Jimmer

aside from just playing for the kings?

what the hell was reggie just saying

^ new board description

Chris Paul ripped it away from Jimmer and the crowd groaned and by the time Paul was in the frontcourt Thomas and Thornton were already walking to the scorer's table.

solid 6-19 for Evans

http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/full/528787892.gif?key=480272&Expires=1330673987&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIYVGSUJFNRFZBBTA&Signature=MbC7b-sFJo8K5xmqiQzDOyw4ktyeD7HrC2mV9F4BcCdy0S-oIZG7JmsODRS6VwfMVcQlibAhUbzkciwmhxoT4QMYCSny1cpJbr~z6byuT8enBRSnOA9gPX82Gcmf~4nqokBL4YcsXQqt4OH2BXESNktM1wJPS3RPugeCi2SFvbM_

38-11-6-5-1 for lebron huh

and he effectively played center too? i didn't really watch that one other than a few minutes at the end...confirm/deny? espn says "James started at center defensively and power forward offensively, guarding Marcus Camby from the opening tip."

whoa

eh 'guarding' marcus camby isn't really 'playing center' its more 'a name for whatever james was doing on defense most of which wasnt guarding camby since he doesnt really require guarding'

"playing center field" morelike

ah alright

im weirdly obsessed with guys playing out of position and really want lebron to play one legit game at center since he's played every other spot

his stint as a point guard his first couple of years being kind of retroactively hilarious since he's completely big enough to dominate at power forward nowadays

lol tyreke is starting at SF now?

theyre slowly zoning in on his true possistion

hey do lamar odom's d-league stats this weekend count in fantasy

zing

kyrie is out tonight

there will be tears before tip-off

Tristan Thompson is gonna be good. Still should have picked Valanciunas or Biyombo I think but whatevs.

I'm not a big Derrick Rose fan but I absolutely love how he always gets a shot off before the end-of-quarter buzzer.

when Battier was with the Rockets he told them he would never take those shots because his 3p% was too important.

Faried is so good

Lolz at Zion Bank commercial on Utah Jazz home broadcast. Love League Pass local ads.

i hate norris cole

that off the ball call on miller might be the worst foul call I've ever seen

waaade

okay lebron

dexter pittman just banked in a free throw

lebron has hit like 5 leaning 18 footers this quarter

uhhhhhhhhhhh lebron

so, we're going to be hearing about bron's decision to pass. he made the right play, haslem bricked a 16- footer he normally knocks down

Ran into The Heat boarding charter bus yesterday (tall dudes), Rubio at sushi tonight (small, super friendly). Thx based smalltown.

i just want to give lebron a hug

i admire that he still passed even after the all star thing

that said i'm not sure it was the right decision... haslem was wide open but dude is shooting 41% this year and after the shots lebron downed in the fourth i'm not sure he shouldn't have just shot it

but with THAT said, there's only so much one guy can do to win. lebron was utterly unconscious in the fourth quarter and wade had two completely reckless fouls in the fourth and missed a free throw at the end of the game, so what're you gonna do

lakers game should be interesting tho, think the heat will lose if bosh isn't back

i'd be interested to watch bron guard gasol

you'd prob just see a lot of haslem and pittman like last night

looked like bron mightve had a driving lane going left but w/e

he should've just shot a jumper, dude had just drilled two nutso threes. just shoot it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIjdm5z1ClQ

yah couldve gotten a dece look if he pulled up at like 17tf

btw i did not know that josh howard was on the jazz. i almost fell out of my chair when i saw that.

he used to be really good

hasnt been healthy in years

this is v v cute!

https://mobile.twitter.com/KingJames/status/176040749828288512

honestly i think bron could have blown right through for a layup! he had a second or two left for an extra step and he easily could have covered that distance. i think that was a designed play though and a wide-open free throw line jumper is a good play down 1

hibachi that strikes me as being otm

that sideways dish to haslem was nice and bron totally saw that he was gonna draw all three defenders in the first step-- good vision basically, u win some u lose some

yeah what I don't get about all this bron criticism is that clearly it was a play designed to get exactly that shot. Blame Spoelstra if you must but I don't see why Lebron had to bust the play there.

it was a good play, sorta feel like maybe he should've kept that one in the bag for when they have bosh

bcuz i think bosh cans that

honestly i think bron could have blown right through for a layup! he had a second or two left for an extra step and he easily could have covered that distance. i think that was a designed play though and a wide-open free throw line jumper is a good play down 1

― doc has never told me nothing that wasn't true (agent hibachi), Saturday, March 3, 2012 4:20 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

both of these points are otm i think

Donald Sterling, ladies and gentlemen!

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/sterling-solicited-prostitutes-personnel-opinions-29983

Goin to see the Twolves tonight. V excited for real life up close view of famed ballin woodelf ricky rubio.

Nice! Enjoy the game.

http://www.sloansportsconference.com/?page_id=462

the thing is though, if bron takes the last shot and misses it, nobody will blame him for taking the last shot. but if he passes to haslem who takes the last shot and misses, everybody blames bron.

he might not be "blamed" but we'd get "OMG LOL Lebron chokes again" stories

this is all pretty funny because Wade totally pissed that game away.

Pekovic's ok-ness at defense really brings Love's awfulness into focus

love watching the grizz broadcasters, theyre so enthusiastic!

portland's perimeter defense is shockingly bad

minny is 7-8 from 3 and I think 7 of the 8 attempts were wide open

Minny bombin away

nice game from Odom

U guys this game is nuts. I am 7 rows behind the wolves bench. Martell's hair omg.

Rubio 0 points 10 assists in the first quarter.

<:)

this close in pekovic seriously looks like the muscle in a comedy russian mob parody.

Gerald Wallace is routinely blocking out love for offensive rebounds. Playing v v hard after getting called out for clearly not giving a fuck the last few weeks. Jekyll & Hyde with this guy.

as bizarre a half of basketball as I've ever seen. Portland put up 42 in the second quarter I think? Minnesota had 40 in the first. Minnesota by 1 at the half.

rad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpCiJyf0Blk

damn

did u know pekovic's tattoo is the single most metal tattoo in the NBA, edging out Duncan's Merlin tat.

also Joel Przybilla just very intentionally teabagged Rubio if I am not mistaken.

god, love is owning aldridge

he really is.

lol and then LA fouls out.

that was so pimp

back you down, and 1, and you foul out

oh damn, josh smith dropped the hammer on perk tonight

not a good year for perk in the poster dept

oh n/m it was ibaka, and i see matt already posted it

oh damn, drik went hammer tonight, too

just.... don't try to block josh smith

john wall and kyrie pretty much played each other to a draw tonight

kyrie: 20 pts, 6 ast, 1 reb, 2 stl, 3 to, 8-14 fg, 2-3 3 pt

wall: 24 pts, 5 ast, 5 reb, 2 st, 1 blk, 3 to, 8-17 fg, 0-0 3 pt, 8-10 fg

8-10 ft**

http://www.flickr.com/photos/psdlights/3907154263/sizes/l/in/photostream/

This is pekovic's tattoo.

shit love went 42-10 tonight

wow that is unbelievably metal xp

pekovic is one of the funniest players in the nba imo

http://p.twimg.com/AnHw0iHCIAAnXdu.jpg#twimg

This is Ricky Rubio leaving the locker room

rubio went 1-8 tonight

also Joel Przybilla just very intentionally teabagged Rubio if I am not mistaken.

Yes! Highlight of the game. Illa has no time for floppers. Take a screen like a mans or get teabagged.

lol, rubio's bieberpack v. KD's backpack

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/7642712/los-angeles-lakers-andrew-bynum-says-seek-retribution-miami-heat-dwyane-wade

lol @ headline, bynum you goon

he seems like not the smartest

http://www.flickr.com/photos/psdlights/3907154263/sizes/l/in/photostream/

This is pekovic's tattoo.

― Clay, Sunday, March 4, 2012 1:09 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

looooool

tr00 kvlt nba warrior of the frozen north

if bynum ever acknowledged he was going headhunting can you imagine all the teams that would be out there trying to kneecap the dude

fire only one: magic johnson or shaq

shaq.

Magic is a doof, but he's not twenty levels of talent below the guys on his show.

yeah shaq, they are both terrible but shaq is terrible and grandiose

and monotone

why would you want to fire magic

knicks D is pretty atrocious

i think magic is more actively idiotic but i appreciate EZ's implicit point that magic doesn't exactly drag his colleagues down

what idiotic things does magic say?

9 TOs between davis and lin

just your typical LCD sports pundit bullshit. said of lebron's pass "michael jordan takes that shot, kobe takes that shot, durant takes that shot." didn't occur to him that magic johnson probably makes the same pass lebron did. also said celtics shouldn't trade rondo "because he's their best player"

idk that doesn't strike me as too shocking

it's pretty clear to me that the public perception of what good basketball players and what good basketball play dictates basketball players do are two different things

like the public wants to see lebron/wade/kobe etc. iso'd at the end of every tight game when yeah, the statistically more successful move would be to run a set play

he's one of the five best players of all time, i'd like some more insight into the game out of him.

seriously you should watch him. he brings nothing to the table and has trouble forming coherent thoughts half the time. it's sad

idk chuck is the only guy who I rely on for good basketball insights. I only ask of the other dudes to be entertaining and I like magic's composure.

http://i17.tinypic.com/6ptj2ua.gif

i actually really like these blake griffin kia commercials

yeah they are great - really play to blake's strengths (or lack of)

stoudemire is the most depressing player to watch in the nba

Only fitting he's playing against the Celtics who are the saddest team in the league to watch.

The misery multiplier is exponential.

RONDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

really, really don't understand how the c's are only up 1 atm

Because they're old and sad?

pierce literally just fell down w/ no interference

Old and sad.

he just redeemed himself

great game

rondo trip dub machine

any other 15/15/15 games this season?

any other 15/15/15 games ever?

or 17/17/17?

Has anyone ever gone 20/20/20?

rondo entered some pretty exclusive territory with that 15th rebound

haha xps

Rondo wins the statlines thread

The celts are old, depressing... warriors

six ever by three players magic bird kidd

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pgl_finder.cgi?request=1&player=&match=game&year_min=&year_max=2012&age_min=0&age_max=99&team_id=&opp_id=&is_playoffs=&game_num_min=0&game_num_max=99&game_month=&game_location=&game_result=&is_starter=&is_active=&is_hof=&pos_is_g=Y&pos_is_gf=Y&pos_is_f=Y&pos_is_fg=Y&pos_is_fc=Y&pos_is_c=Y&pos_is_cf=Y&c1stat=pts&c1comp=gt&c1val=15&c2stat=ast&c2comp=gt&c2val=15&c3stat=trb&c3comp=gt&c3val=15&c4stat=&c4comp=gt&c4val=&order_by=pts

basketball reference is very slow right now...rondo broke it!

only one other 17-17-17 ever

Rondo is such a bizarre and unique human

magic got 24/17/17

basketball reference is very slow right now...rondo broke it!

― It's sad he was a blogger (symsymsym), Sunday, March 4, 2012 3:54 PM (33 seconds ago)

haha yes i also noticed this

sign of a truly great game

jason kidd pulled a 3x15 at age 22 ... and at age 36 (nearly 37)

and now the masked mamba

kobe on some hannibal lecter shit

magic got 24/17/17

― It's sad he was a blogger (symsymsym), Sunday, March 4, 2012 3:55 PM (6 minutes ago)

in 40 minutes!

alright kobe

18pt 1st qtr nbd

big 1st quarters never bode well for later in the game, I feel

v mad at self for blowing off celtics game today

it was pretty ugly aside from the 4th quarter

wade is secretly the biggest bitch in the nba

god, i love JVG

JVG is going so ham right now

god, udonis cannot shoot this year

the heat really miss bosh

spoelstra should be fined 5k for every minute juwan howard plays this year

juwan is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo unbelievably bad

i know spo's hands are tied a bit but not playing wade and lebron together in the second half at all is pretty retarded

honestly not sure it's possible for a big man to play worse than howard is today

lebron is working pau on defense in the post

lebron is an incredibly gifted passer

imagine him with some half-decent big men finisher types

wade fouling out with 5 mins left in the game is a pretty apt summation of the last two games for him

#kobemask wants to close this thing

lebron must be having cleveland flashbacks

no good players around him, mike brown in the building

haha

lol cad

imagining bron getting 'nam type hallucinations every time he looks at mike brown

oh great

lebron crushes some poor old woman and sprains his ankle

pretty sure lebron's ankles are made of titanium

haha thank u for the liveblog

fuck the lakers

league pass alert d-will has 45 points on 24 shots in 31 minutes

He's playing the Bobcats. Thanks but no thanks

just tied durant for the season high at 51

53 now

19-19 at the line

trade deadline is coming... both rondo and deron played big games

d will just turned the ball over after catching an inbounds and the bobcats hit a three. only up 2 with 3.5 left

"Luis has been struggling all night from the line. He's 2 for 3." -- clyde drexler

taj gibson just bricked two free throws that would have iced the game

matt i hear gallo and nene are back tomorrow

ha nash and jimmer are "guarding" each other

I hope the nuggz keep getting Faried minutes with Nene back

Ideally you would just start Nene at center but he's a wuss about that.

it'll be interesting to see if the nuggs try to make a trade before the deadline, they have so many assets and good contracts

nene is absolutely a center idgi.

Nene must think he's Tim Duncan.

Nene can def. swing between the two but when you're getting 11m a year you need to shut up and play imo

seriously Faried is going to be better than Nene in like 2 years

OMG Faried!!!

I feel like the Bobcats franchise doesn't deserve Anthony Davis

gallo sighting!

what a beautiful human

wait t.j. ford is on the spurs? wauw

what the hell is birdman doing

I can't believe blake griffin is a subway spokesperson

dunk fresh

I feel like the Bobcats franchise doesn't deserve Anthony Davis

― Matt Armstrong, Sunday, March 4, 2012 11:14 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark

this is soooooooooooooo otm

the bobcats franchise deserves to be moved to seattle

ginobili needs to get some of that boozer ink hair

u guys kenneth faried

Paul Pierce needs some for his beard

faried is awesome

haha dayo

some of "that boozer"

is that on nbatv?

faried is fuckin awesome. nuggs have such a wealth of good players it's insane. I hope they win the west soooo bad

oh espn n/m

is this chris mullin? christ, i hate chris mullin

Duncan u lying douchebag

wtf is andre miller on crack

andre miller may hit 20 shots tonight

there was 11 seconds on the shot clock!

he's a pure point

your next question may be: why is andre miller taking 20 shots

wtf is this shit

ayo ty lawson is the best player on your team

i mean christ

it's not that hard

TY

don't have andre miller shooting fadeaways from the post with 11 seconds on the shot clock

Miller has been playing like an idiot for a month

wtf was afflalo doing too

what a game by lawson wow

TY LAWSON

give him that triple dub

despite all the injuries the Nuggz will finish the night tied for 7th

j0rd I think your stream is slow

don't think lawson has a turnover either

excellent shot by derrick rose!

ha, i'm watching on an actual tv dayo

lawson got stripped by parker once

it's possible that it's slow tho, shit comes thru on a bit delayed when it's going thru satellite

oh lol, I dunno why you were still going on about andre miller after ty already hit the jumper

haha, i was just really pissed that he took that shot

http://i.imgur.com/GJ6Tr.jpg

i didnt know wade was part white

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=87udqht

so my life goal atm is to get harden onto the nuggets. feel like okc still kinda gets the shaft on this one even if faired is probably undervalued by the trade machine. help!

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=77q7478

Cole Aldrich has a 17.8 PER?

in v limited minutes

oh hey there ilh can i just--

RONDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

that was one of the most amazing games by a basketball player i've ever seen and i also wanted to trade him when he couldn't hit a layup or a 10ft jumper several times in the 4th q, just such an incredible and weird human being

also i think if i were a contender i would be trying hard to trade for d-will right now or sign him this summer...dude is playing angry that he's on a terrible team and that he accidentally started linsanity and that everyone thinks he murdered jerry sloan. i love it

also, you could get him to a real barber

we really need to start a thread of bad nba haircuts

yeah i think there's something to the fact that he and boozer were both in utah and have um hair issues of various types

Bald Lake City

D will is just a strange looking dude with a weird head, not sure much can be done tbf.

His facial hair is more worrisome imo.

dwills style altogether is unusual, i hadnt watched him in a while then i saw a game the other day, i forgot how herky jerky he is, just overall not a smooth cool individual

yeah there's something very tank-like about the way he moves

but you know who is smooth and cool, monta ellis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xIXU_M9fvc

dwight + dwill would not be a cool smooth combo

needs some smooth cool beas to offset.

otm dream squad

i like d-will's style he's like a power running back of a point guard, or like mathcore metal where cp3 is like free jazz harmolodics

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=77q7478

― lag∞n, Monday, March 5, 2012 12:51 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

keller's analysis: wait a minute we are trying to make this team more fun and you traded nene for perk
VETOED

i was just to make a fair trade! tbh those teams are hard to trade between in a way that makes actual basketball sense because of their rosters like realistically youd have to get back nene gallo or lawson if you moved harden but the thunder are set at pg and sf and nene has a big contract and s older an injury prone so kinda nothing makes sense, maybe bring in a 3rd team idk

http://i.imgur.com/IZCPm.png

dwill's relentless herky-jerkiness always looks the same to me regardless of whether he's playing well or terribly. like sometimes he gets spectacular results and sometimes he misses a tons of shots and makes lots of turnovers, but it seems like they're just two sides of the same coin.

Nene returns

Gallo too

:)

Mozgov hurts his ankle every game, I don't get why he's playing

russ is still really frustrating to watch

dirk alert

three threes in the fourth, last one to put the mavs up three

omg another one Dirk I love you

btw Ric Bucher thinks Westbrook is better than Durant

i support this assertion, not because i agree w/it just because its a cool opinion

and I'm the one who gets called King Challop, smh

lol the minny crowd is booing the hell out of griffin and he seems kind of confused by it like what did i do

def wanted to see a dagger from dirk there, oh well

"you can't stop the white mamba, you can only hope to contain him" - wgn announcers re: scalabrine

Bucher is a ninny.

btw i have a league pass broadband question, so national tv games are blacked out as are local games but what if youre outside of the usa then what can you still get it, will any games be blacked out, cause im thinking what if one were to use a vpn to make it think you were in some other country would you get all the games then im sure no one knows

btw minny repeatedly wearing these aba throwbacks from a team that existed for only one year with whom they share no organizational lineage is really silly

dirk was wide open on the roll there?

love is a beast

love is top 5 player in the nba right now

hes just unstoppable

he's been absolutely on fire in the past month or so it seems

eh, more like 3 games IIRC

the minny announcers are talking abt per B-)

glad that he's pwning blake tonight

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4391/gamelog;_ylt=ApstbaqECWfd7KaAOYMavATQPaB4

love was getting literally anything he wanted when I saw him in person the other day. He looked 10 ft tall and 400 pounds.

I get really discombobulated by league pass broadcasts that update the score super fast

loooooooooooooooooooooool derrick williams

that was so close to being a four point play

lol

also martell webster turning over a sec ago

heh, naturally the clips are out of timeouts

gdamn it chris

i really wanted to see OT

Denver back to being the deepest team imaginable

okay, dying @ the denver announcers calling birdman "the bird"

Lawson looks like a complete point guard all of a sudden