Hoops 13-14

[Keyrock]

Nice triple double for Steph Curry at MSG last night.  Also, while this happened a few days ago, I only saw Manu's disintegrating shoe this morning.  It might be my favorite highlight of the season.

 

Edit:  Also, Ibaka breaking LeBron's nose might have been the worst thing possible for the rest of the league.  I thoroughly expect LeBron and the Heat to continue trouncing teams while LeBron wears the Batman mask.

 

Edited March 1, 2014 by Keyrock

[Guard Dog]

Whenever I play basketball, people tell me to stick to hockey. 

In the military we used to play a kind of "full contact" basketball. It was a long way from any rules I'd ever seen but it was fun. After 20 minutes if the score was 10 to 8 it was a high scoring game.

[Guard Dog]

Bummer of a loss last night for the Grizz. Durant is just a monster. He almost scored more points than our starting five combined. For real. It was still close for all that since OKC is sort of a one man show. But when that one man is that good, it's enough.

[Volourn]

^{Durant isn't even the best player on his team.}

[Guard Dog]

^{Durant isn't even the best player on his team.}

 

 

 

just in case you weren't kidding

 

://www.nba.com/thunder/stats/2013

 

nuff said

[Keyrock]

I don't think Volo was serious.  I mean, he (I'm assuming Volo is a guy) didn't even bother to underline, italicize, or boldface his font for that post.  

 

Anyway, nice to see Russ have a decent game.  It looks like he's shaken a good bit of the rust off.  It will be a few more games until he's back to playing at 100%, though.

[Leferd]

I don't think Volo was serious.  I mean, he (I'm assuming Volo is a guy) didn't even bother to underline, italicize, or boldface his font for that post.  

 

Anyway, nice to see Russ have a decent game.  It looks like he's shaken a good bit of the rust off.  It will be a few more games until he's back to playing at 100%, though.

Well, Volo did use a smaller font...

[Keyrock]

 

I don't think Volo was serious.  I mean, he (I'm assuming Volo is a guy) didn't even bother to underline, italicize, or boldface his font for that post.  

 

Anyway, nice to see Russ have a decent game.  It looks like he's shaken a good bit of the rust off.  It will be a few more games until he's back to playing at 100%, though.

Well, Volo did use a smaller font...

 

That he did.  But doesn't smaller font mean less emphasis/ quieter?  I'm not 100% on my internet font, tell me if I have it right:

 

smaller font = quieter

 

larger font = louder

 

italicized = inflection

 

underlined = emphasis

 

boldface = emphasis & louder

 

ALL CAPS = 12 YEAR OLD OR A-HOLE

 

Is that about right?

[Guard Dog]

No, I get Volo's humor... you can't always be sure though

[Leferd]

Dang.

 

Never considered Volo's textured usage of nuance. I've always figured his preferred posting style was as sharp as a bag of hammers.

 

...

 

Manu's shoe incident was hilarious.

[Leferd]

Lebron.

 

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201403030MIA.html

[Hurlshort]

8-10 from 3pt range, nice.

[ShadySands]

poor Bobcats

[Keyrock]

LeBron was straight up beastin' last night.

[Volourn]

LAST NIGHT? he's beastin pretty much every night.

 

How anyone clan claim he isn't the best player and mvp is insanity.

 

It's plain fact that if  Lebron was as selfish as Durant is, he could easily score more points than The Pretender.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Volourn

[Keyrock]

Oh ****, italics!  Volo means srs bzns!

[alanschu]

LAST NIGHT? he's beastin pretty much every night.

 

How anyone clan claim he isn't the best player and mvp is insanity.

 

It's plain fact that if  Lebron was as selfish as Durant is, he could easily score more points than The Pretender.

I think it's clear that it's beastly "for Lebron."

 

Pretty much every night is typically Lebron being normal Lebron, which is beastly for other players, but not for Lebron. That's normal for him.

[Keyrock]

Nice triple double for Russ last night.  It's good to see him back to (almost) 100%.  Also, KD had 42 and 9 in 3 quarters of play (I'm pretty sure Russ only played 3 quarters too).  The Thunder were up by a crazy amount after 3 so there was no reason to play either KD or Russ any further at that point.

 

With roughly 20 games left to play, it looks like both the East and West are two horse races.  I don't really think it's a huge deal who gets the 1 seed for any of the teams except Indiana, so I don't expect any team except the Pacers to go crazy trying to get that top spot.  I would expect the Heat, Thunder, and especially the Spurs to prioritize making sure everybody is healthy and rested going into the playoffs.

 

Further down the standings, the Raptors and Bulls are scrapping for the 3 spot, and in the west the Rockets, Clippers, and Blazers are locked in a deathmatch for that same seed.  The race for the 3 spot in the west is going to be really entertaining to watch.

[Leferd]

How come no one told me it's Boogie Week?!?

 

http://www.hickory-high.com/category/boogieweek/

 

Boogie and Isaiah Thomas playing together make the Kings very watchable for me.

[Keyrock]

How come no one told me it's Boogie Week?!?

 

http://www.hickory-high.com/category/boogieweek/

 

Boogie and Isaiah Thomas playing together make the Kings very watchable for me.

Oh wow!  Things like this are important events that I feel we should be informed about ahead of time.  I feel like the internet let us down.

 

In other news, El Heat are in a bit of a funk right now and the Blazers have fallen back to earth, like most of us predicted, though a lot later than I thought they would.  The Thunder have been inconsistent on D since two of their better defenders, Perk and Sefolosha, went down with injuries.  Luckily, both guys should be back for the playoffs.  The Rockets got hot for a while but cooled off right quick, the Clips and Spurs are streaking, and both Brooklyn and Chicago are looking good as we head down the home stretch.

[Leferd]

Actually, I can only blame myself. Not doing enough due diligence regarding grass roots internet basketball trends.

 

That recent Indiana meltdown was pretty fun to see though. Exposes the significant holes in their offense when their defense wasn't firing.

[Keyrock]

So, if you're a fan of El Heat, no need to panic, but you gotta be a bit concerned, right?  LeBron will be fine, even superstars go through rough stretches, but they don't stay in slumps for long, he'll be back to being dominant soon, but, outside of Birdman, the supporting cast isn't helping the main guys very much.  Ray Allen has been looking this year like Father Time has caught up to him and Shane Battier looks like he has nothing left in the tank, nada, zip, zilch.

[Volourn]

That's what people said about Battier last year too.

 

Anyways, here we ago again, Miami goes in a slump loses some games and people write them off as also rans. Until they go another streak. Just make Lebron mad his opponents will be the ones who suffer come playoff time. Plus, let's not forget, Lebron's 'slump' is still numbers mere mortal players would love to have,

[Keyrock]

Sure, LeBron's numbers since after his epic 61 point night would be good numbers for just about anyone not named LeBron James or Kevin Durant, but it's definitely been a significant dropoff for him.  But, like I wrote, he'll be fine and back to dominating soon.  I guess my biggest question mark is Ray Allen.  He had a good shooting night tonight, but overall this year he's been ice cold, shooting a paltry 36% from beyond the arc.  If he can flip a switch during the playoffs and be back to burying 3s then it's all good.  I guess only time will tell.

[Leferd]

Miami's problem are as follows:

 

1) Defense - they are not playing their unique helter-skelter, trapping, blitzing defense with the same ferocity as they've done earlier in the year.

 

2) Wear and Tear - Wade, Allen, and Battier are just not as good anymore. Age and injuries do play a factor; especially if you are a small ball, high intensity team like the Heat.

 

3) There are a lot of good teams that can actually beat them.

 

That said, I think they'll be fine for the playoffs. Maybe Spoelstra should consider giving his vets some of the Popovich rest treatment. Works very well for the Spurs