Archive for the ‘Things of Note’ Category

Ballin: 18 points, six rebounds and five assists is sometimes a half for Dwyane Wade, so his overall line from last night’s series-clinching Game 5 isn’t really that big of a deal. But I think you’d have to agree that Fourth Quarter Dwyane Wade –six points, 3-3 shooting, three rebounds, a block on a Jimmy Butler step back three-point attempt (what) and a frustrating ability to make every play look awesome — was the best player on the floor during either of last night’s games. If he’s that healthy, well, congratulations on your second straight championship, Miami Heat.

Not so much: Kevin Durant went 5-21, missed a game-tying jumper with five-ish seconds remaining, and saw his No. 1 seed Oklahoma City Thunder eliminated in the second round. Bad night for Kraft Dinner, but it’s kind of weird that the online basketball community immediately went in to “If you criticize Kevin Durant for not carrying the Thunder to the conference finals by himself, then you’re an idiot and didn’t watch the game” mode. Has any semi-smart person been saying he choked? Or is it really just people saying that no one should say he choked even though no one given any credence has said he choked?

Charlos: Here’s the definition of Carlos Boozer’s defense.

You might think the Booz Cruise fell for a pass fake, but when you watch the slowmo replay, you’ll see that Slow Norris never once gives any sort of indication that he’s passing. Nope, he was just the beneficiary of some vintage Boozer defense.

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Ballin: 25 points and 10 assists for Tony Parker in the Spurs’ Game 5 beat down of the Warriors. Plus, he made more shots (9) and attempted fewer (16) than Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson together (6-22 shooting combined). Oh, and TP also played fewer minutes than either of the Warriors’ starting guards, if you’re wondering just how badly he outplayed them.

Not so much: Knicks players who attempted more than one shot while still missing every attempt — Iman Shumpert (0-6), Kenyon Martin (0-3) and Jason Kidd (0-2). In related news, the Knicks shot 35.6 percent in their Game 4 loss.

Length: Not the best night for highlights, but this Kawhi Leonard cram was pretty legit.

At the very least, it’s nice that Harrison Barnes knows what it feels like now.

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Ballin: Is it possible that Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph came from the same zygote? I know it would be a very bizarre separated-at-birth story, but both of them scored 23 points in the Grizzlies’ Game 4 overtime victory, they shot 8-18 and 8-17 respectively, they grabbed 11 and 12 rebounds respectively and they were wearing the same clothes with just a minor change all night. If that doesn’t scream twins, I don’t know what does.

Not so much: The Chicago Bulls scored 65 points in a home playoff game. It was gross.

And Tyler too: Check out Ol’ Tippecanoe Marquis Teague over here.

Considering the video comes from the NBA and is labeled “Marquis Teague’s accidental tip-in on his own basket,” we know that Marquis Teague is technically the one who tipped the ball in even though Chris Andersen gets the points. That means Marquis Teague scored more for the Heat than he did for the Bulls. It was gross.

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Ballin: No real crazy lines last night, but Jarrett Jack made the midrange jumper relevant again by knocking down five of the least efficient shots on a court during the fourth quarter and overtime of yesterday’s Game 4 Warriors win. JJJJJJJJJack shoots 48 percent from 10-23 feet though — far above the league average of 40 percent from that zone — so it’s chill.

Not so much: In a similar vein, Manu Ginobili didn’t have a horrible game — 8-18 shooting, 21 points, three assists, three steals, two blocks, two turnovers — but he did airball a wide-open three in overtime that sent Gregg Popovich’s face in to blink mode, so he’s your underperformer of the day.

Achy breaky: Even though he missed this shot, props to Mananu Ginobili for making a guy fall down.

You might think the worst part of this clip is Manu blowing the three after a great move, but it was really the refs blowing the out of bounds call and giving the ball to the Warriors on the rebound. Oh, and that came after another blown out of bounds call that went the Warriors’ way a couple of possessions before, so maybe those refs are the real Not So Much.

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Ballin: 34 points, including 8-9 from three, for Klay Thompson, who set his career-high in Golden State’s series-evening Game 2 win. I don’t even care that he only scored five of those points in the second half and that he didn’t score at all in the fourth quarter. Eight threes is pretty persuasive.

Not so much: The Bulls lost by 37, which is the worst playoff loss in franchise history. Now I know how the 1998 Utah Jazz felt after Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Bleck.

Angry Bulls: Want to see two-thirds of the Bulls’ big man rotation go nuts and get kicked out of a game? Sure, you do.

Easily the most F-words I’ve seen in that quick of succession since “Blue Velvet.” Probably a few more coming once Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson get their inevitable fines.

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Ballin: Mike Conley had a solid first half, going for seven points and dishing out seven assists while the Grizzlies eked out a three-point lead. In the second half, Conley went off, scoring 19 points on 8-12 shooting while handing out another couple of assists. He also grabbed 10 rebounds on the evening and would have been able to lock in that triple-double if Tony Allen had been able to finish a wide-open layup that Conley set him up for on a backdoor cut. Instead, Tony tried a reverse on the side of the rim he was running away from. It didn’t work and he actually kind of got hurt trying it. Consider this an unofficial triple-double.

Not so much: With 3:09 remaining in the third quarter, the Indiana Pacers led the New York Knicks 64-62. They lost the next 15 minutes by a score of 43-15.

A dunk, part 1: Someone should get a body on Iman Shumpert, maybe.

Just a quick reminder that he suffered the same injury as Derrick Rose on the same day as Derrick Rose. Every situation is different, obviously, but you try telling that to Twitter.

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Ballin: Stephen “Fastest Rising Star” Curry went for 44 points, 11 assists, four rebounds and two steals last night, almost sinking the Spurs with his long range shooting exploits and general fieriness. However…

Not so much: … we also have to mention that Steph didn’t score from the 5:33 mark in the fourth quarter until the 1:15 mark in the first overtime, which is exactly when the Spurs went on their game-saving 16-0 run to tie things. Then Steph didn’t score again until the 1:00 mark in the second overtime when he hit two free throws, which by the way were the only attempts he had on the night despite his team needing any sort of scoring to stop the Spurs from an amazing comeback.

Screen-the-screener: Want to know how you get two wide-open threes with less than three seconds on the game clock? Set a pick, then pick for the guy who just set the pick.

Then do it again.

On the first play, Jarrett Jack didn’t switch until it was too late. On the second play, Jarrett Jack did switch but Harrison Barnes didn’t. I’m not sure what the defense was supposed to do, but I’m pretty sure it’s neither of those things, unless the Warriors are really in to giving up wide-open threes when the opposing team needs them most, which it kind of seems like they are.

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