Not to get too far into the L'Affaire Kyrie, but one interesting tidbit is that I was musing here the other day that his behavior and career are starting to remind me of Stephon Marbury, and who should appear last night in his corner but Starbury himself. Probably not the strongest endorsement of the reasonableness of one's position.
Missed some of the game so watching now... at the tipoff Carmelo pushes JTA from behind far enough that he goes into the ref who just threw the jump ball, LOL.
First play of the game, Poole jumps away or laterally (it is definitely not toward the ball) to disrupt Carmelo's shot, and Carmelo clearly jumps into Poole with his knees out to get a 3pt foul. If the call is that Poole was too close to Carmelo on the ground before jumping, they need to make the difference clear. If the "we're not going to call fouls when the shooter jumps into the defender in an unnatural motion" officiating change is YET ANOTHER place where the refs can use discretion to call it completely differently based on who the shooter is, we need to riot, imo.
Not looking forward to seeing that called completely inconsistently all year, so at the very least is there clarification from the refs on what they're actually looking for?
Do yourself a favor and skip the Kyrie stuff (which is good but not exceptional) and go straight to the Ben Simmons content starting off at 11:40, which includes a live and very entertaining read of a blistering Philadelphia Enquirer piece.
1st quarter: He was a little tight and over-reliant on the outside shot which wasn't working. Generated some decent looks for others which didn't go in. Was terrible on defense. Kerr wasn't happy and kept him on the bench the rest of the half.
3rd quarter: Looked like MVP Poole again. Attacked the rim and got to the line as well as putting up some of his trademark floaters. Broke down his man with some sweet dribble moves on multiple occasions. Confidence was back and 3pt shot started falling again in that order. Kerr yelled at him and he started playing defense ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Did a quick scan of Wiggins' total rebounds in a game for his career and I think last night was his best rebounding night (from a box score standpoint) in his entire career? He's had more than 9 rebounds before but in only 22 minutes?
There's little reason to think it's not a fluke, especially since he pulled down only 1 rebound in 16 minutes against Portland. But still noteworthy I think.
Went to bed at halftime but recorded the rest. Seems like I need to see Third Quarter Poole so I have something to keep me tided over until the final preseason game!
- JP2 seems to have inherited the ‘death third quarter’ mentality. He knows that sometimes he has to carry the team on his shoulders, and knows how to do it: that’s the way to All Star Game minimum target.
- Chiozza excellent team pacing: I forgive him for stealing Nico’s place (also on account to be ‘paisà’)
- GP2 excellent for 15th spot, in which, after all, his duties will be only to be fan’s dunking and pickpocketing pet
- Iggy in such physical shape and confidence is A PROBLEM.
- found JTA’s weak spot: when he’s angry he forgets how to basketball
- Otto Matic Corner the genialest nickname so far, even over Soft Rock Loon. (OMC sounds good)
- Our lineup and bench are WCF level, but our garbage-time special team are title contenders
Give me some MITTEN. He was aggressive on D and reads the offensive actions really well. Plus who doesn’t like a good ole dunk? Caveat, unless it’s Dwight dunking then it’s just obnoxious.
Another late-night thought: Over the course of two seasons Poole went from arguably worst player in the league, to dependable rotation player, to looking like the second coming of Stephen Curry. If he somehow makes another leap of that scale this next off-season he'll be legitimately an MVP candidate.
What if Bazemore's actually a secret agent sent by the Dubs organization to bring the Lakers down from within by signing to a highly-coveted roster spot and then cursing his teammates with bad luck?!
(It makes about as much sense as Kyrie's belief system)
Not to get too far into the L'Affaire Kyrie, but one interesting tidbit is that I was musing here the other day that his behavior and career are starting to remind me of Stephon Marbury, and who should appear last night in his corner but Starbury himself. Probably not the strongest endorsement of the reasonableness of one's position.
Euphemism of the Year Award, early front-runner: "“You’ve got a lot of names that have been around,” Stephen Curry says of the Lakers"
https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/warriors/warriors-are-real-threat-lakers-loaded-western-conference
I woke up early and headed to the barber to get a Dwight Howard pink pony tail. Getting lots of admiring looks already.
Missed some of the game so watching now... at the tipoff Carmelo pushes JTA from behind far enough that he goes into the ref who just threw the jump ball, LOL.
First play of the game, Poole jumps away or laterally (it is definitely not toward the ball) to disrupt Carmelo's shot, and Carmelo clearly jumps into Poole with his knees out to get a 3pt foul. If the call is that Poole was too close to Carmelo on the ground before jumping, they need to make the difference clear. If the "we're not going to call fouls when the shooter jumps into the defender in an unnatural motion" officiating change is YET ANOTHER place where the refs can use discretion to call it completely differently based on who the shooter is, we need to riot, imo.
Not looking forward to seeing that called completely inconsistently all year, so at the very least is there clarification from the refs on what they're actually looking for?
For whoever was asking about Westbrook's defense, there's more stuff like this than his fans care to admit:
https://twitter.com/nonsmoknlifboat/status/1448141595698630668
We totally outplayed their starters without our big 3 but missed a ton of threes, many of which were great looks for decent shooters.
The best thing about the game was that Howard pretty much stuffed Bjelica into a locker in the previous game but got nothing this time around.
https://www.theringer.com/2021/10/12/22722984/kyrie-irving-ben-simmons-zion-williamson-developments-plus-eight-people-to-keep-an-eye-on
Do yourself a favor and skip the Kyrie stuff (which is good but not exceptional) and go straight to the Ben Simmons content starting off at 11:40, which includes a live and very entertaining read of a blistering Philadelphia Enquirer piece.
Lakers so old they only show up for day games.
My analysis on Poole's play last night:
1st quarter: He was a little tight and over-reliant on the outside shot which wasn't working. Generated some decent looks for others which didn't go in. Was terrible on defense. Kerr wasn't happy and kept him on the bench the rest of the half.
3rd quarter: Looked like MVP Poole again. Attacked the rim and got to the line as well as putting up some of his trademark floaters. Broke down his man with some sweet dribble moves on multiple occasions. Confidence was back and 3pt shot started falling again in that order. Kerr yelled at him and he started playing defense ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Did a quick scan of Wiggins' total rebounds in a game for his career and I think last night was his best rebounding night (from a box score standpoint) in his entire career? He's had more than 9 rebounds before but in only 22 minutes?
There's little reason to think it's not a fluke, especially since he pulled down only 1 rebound in 16 minutes against Portland. But still noteworthy I think.
NBA preseason leaders, pts/36, min. 50 minutes (s/o Kelly Duke at Lauridsen’s Fastbreak blog):
1. Jordan Poole 37.4
2. Stephen Curry 33.7
3. Ja Morant 32.6
4. Bam Adebayo 30.9
5. Jordan Nwora 29.0
6. Otto Porter Jr. 27.8
7. OG Anunoby 27.6
8. Jared Butler 27.3
9. Tyler Herro 26.8
10. D’Angelo Russell 26.8
https://www.nba.com/stats/players/traditional/?sort=PTS&dir=-1&Season=2021-22&SeasonType=Pre%20Season&PerMode=Per36&CF=MIN*G*50
Went to bed at halftime but recorded the rest. Seems like I need to see Third Quarter Poole so I have something to keep me tided over until the final preseason game!
My Italian morning opinions:
- JP2 seems to have inherited the ‘death third quarter’ mentality. He knows that sometimes he has to carry the team on his shoulders, and knows how to do it: that’s the way to All Star Game minimum target.
- Chiozza excellent team pacing: I forgive him for stealing Nico’s place (also on account to be ‘paisà’)
- GP2 excellent for 15th spot, in which, after all, his duties will be only to be fan’s dunking and pickpocketing pet
- Iggy in such physical shape and confidence is A PROBLEM.
- found JTA’s weak spot: when he’s angry he forgets how to basketball
- Otto Matic Corner the genialest nickname so far, even over Soft Rock Loon. (OMC sounds good)
- Our lineup and bench are WCF level, but our garbage-time special team are title contenders
Give me some MITTEN. He was aggressive on D and reads the offensive actions really well. Plus who doesn’t like a good ole dunk? Caveat, unless it’s Dwight dunking then it’s just obnoxious.
Another late-night thought: Over the course of two seasons Poole went from arguably worst player in the league, to dependable rotation player, to looking like the second coming of Stephen Curry. If he somehow makes another leap of that scale this next off-season he'll be legitimately an MVP candidate.
What if Bazemore's actually a secret agent sent by the Dubs organization to bring the Lakers down from within by signing to a highly-coveted roster spot and then cursing his teammates with bad luck?!
(It makes about as much sense as Kyrie's belief system)