Archive for the ‘Things of Note’ Category

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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Ballin: 35 points, 15 rebounds, six assists, a steal, two blocks, just three turnovers and one game-winning shot for Kevin Durant, who is awesome. Most surprisingly, those 35 points — which are a lot — are the second-fewest Durant has scored in the five games since Russell Westbrook went down with a knee injury.

Not so much: You know how the Grizzlies have those awesome big guys and how that makes Serge Ibaka hugely important in the Oklahoma City-Memphis series? He went 1-10 and had just five points and five rebounds in nearly 29 minutes of play. But he’s on a team with Billy Ballin over here, so it’s not too big of a deal for one game.

Trilogy: And since this is the third time I’ve mentioned it already, here’s Kevin Durant’s game-winner already geez.

I know you’re thinking that looks like a fast break basket, but that’s only because the Thunder did the smart thing against one of the best defenses in the league — they didn’t call a timeout to let the Grizzers set up their defense, which led to Tayshaun Prince backpedaling the entire time a 6-foot-10 bro with one of the wettest jumpers in the league was coming at him which led to an easy shot for Kevin Durant. Watch it at normal speed if you want. Too easy.

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Ballin: It’s not weird that 21 rebounds is Andrew Bogut’s career playoff high, because that’s a lot of rebounds. It is weird, however, that 14 points is the most he’s ever scored in a postseason game because even Toney Douglas has scored 14 points in a playoff game. But Bogut did both of those last night, while adding five blocks, in the Warriors’ closeout Game 6 victory.

Not so much: Well, at least Corey Brewer didn’t go 1-11 from the floor again. Unfortunately for the Nuggs, he did go 1-8 and miss one open shot so badly that it got stuck in the rim, so not too much better really.

Yeezy taught me: Kris Humphries and boisterous personalities from Chicago-based people just don’t mix.

This was not the only sick thing Nate did on the evening.

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Ballin: Through the first four games of the Rockets’ first round series with the Thunder, James Harden had made four threes in 25 attempts. Last night, in Houston’s big win to take things back home for a Game 6, Harden hit his first seven threes on the way to 31 points. Beardo also added eight rebounds and three assists, while turning the ball over just three times despite handling it a ton. Good stuff.

Not so much: J.R. Smith backed up all his trash talk with a trash game, going 3-14 from the field while not making a shot until there was only three-ish minutes left in the fourth quarter. Must have been too busy thinking about golf.

Wanker: Here’s another good choice for Not So Much — Jordan Crawford, who didn’t play a minute in Game 5 and then started talking trash to the Knicks.

Pretty easy to see what Jordan Crawford said and therefore pretty easy to see why the Knicks were so mad. Game 6 should be wild.

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