I've noticed that there are sporadic threads for NBA games on a certain day, however, they are truly sporadic and fleeting. In the hopes of giving everyone (namely me) a place to channel our wayward NBA thoughts whilst watching basketball, I have started up this thread in the hopes that it will roll onwards.

TONIGHT: kevin love has made leaps and bounds in the name of white basketball as he recorded the first 30/30 since moses malone did it in 1982. The Thunder held on to defeat the middling trailblazers, even though future bull(?) rudy fernandez had a wide open three in the corner down two with ~5 seconds left... and now my travels have taken me to Los Angeles, where I'm continuing my penance, erm, NBA fandom by soaking in something like my 5th clippers game of the season.

will big ben gordon reach into his bag of torches and light up his old coach? will blake griffin continue to look like a man with a childish offensive game?

btw is it just me or is blake griffin a ginger half-black dude?

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tayshaun prince says that tonight's DET/LAC game is a "must win" for both teams so you're going to see a knock-down drag out fight of a game. this should play right into coach vinny's hands, as he absolutely thrives in these clutch moments.

blake griffin has 13pts 12rebs through 3 quarters. from what i've seen this year, he's clearly an athletic specimen who's got a solid head for the game (his passing skills are quite nice)... however he doesn't have any real polish to his post game, and like ~90% of the NBA the jumper could use some work.

i wonder WTF the pistons were trying to do in opening up the coffers to shell out big money for ben gordon and charlie villanueva? rip hamilton and tayshaun prince have minutes... they're still trotting the corpse of ben wallace out there, and like.... are you going to build a team around will bynum and chauncey stuckey? yikes. we all know bernsie's traditional definition of NBA hell, but i think the pistons are going to be there for a minute, seeing as i think they'll be good enough to avoid the top 3-4 picks for a few years barring some NBA love (see 1.7% chance)

just imagine if the pistons had drafted carmelo instead of darko. /methinks the power balance of the east would have been radically different for most of these last ~8 years.

edit: and garnett was totally right about charlie villanueva! the clippers announcers are re-assuring us that "coach del negro knows the importance of this game... no question"

must-win games ~8 games into a season? IMPORTANT GAMES VERSUS THE PISTONS?! yeah. i think everyone is basically saying that vinny knows he has to eventually win games against shit teams.

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wow... detroit had a timeout and a chance to win the ballgame with ~5-10 seconds left but the pistons didn't call it and now we're going to overtime.

i mean... wtf? do the pistons know the season is dead and nothing good could come of it? why the fuck would you not call a timeout and jack up a horrible brick at the end of regulation?

bad bad bad bad bad

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hahahah after the clippers failed to execute a few times down 4 with ~1min left in OT, detroit got the ball down the court and drew a foul. down ~5 the clippers PBP guy noted "the clippers are going to wait until they're down 6 or 7 points before they make their run"

cue another in-and-out 3, a miss by blake griffin from 5 feet away... damn. then tayshaun prince gets to the line up 111-105 with ~53 seconds left, and he misses both free throws.

it seems that fate doesn't want to give up on coach vinny and pals, even if common sense logic and gut feelings across america have.

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and wow. after the clippers missed so many shots they had the ball down 7 with ~45 seconds left. they inbound at halfcourt... vinny must have called no play because it was a disorganized scrum that wasted 5-10 seconds and then the ball went OOB. they get it back and inbound a short pass blake griffin had to jump for. blake griffin has no idea what to do here... does he step back and chuck it (yes) or go to the basket, so he gives it to someone else top of the key... and the guy sits there for another ~5-10 secs eventually losing the ball causing blake griffin to attempt an acrobatic save, but alas, his foot was on the line.

the clippers' announcers started up the excuse train, about how this team played so hard with "a gutsy effort" but with injuries (chris kaman) they lost to "a veteran team" in the pistons.

yeah, a team so veteran rip hamilton gets the ball in a tie game with 5-10 seconds left doesn't call timeout, instead opting to run down the court and shoot up a horrible brick that forced overtime, where the pistons outlasted the clippers... who did have some open looks at shots but couldn't convert...a nd then as i chronicled, when it came down to clutch playcalling out of an inbounds with even a slim chance at the game, the clips looked dazed confused and lost.

i don't know if he's john wooden redeux... larry brown reincarnate. pheeeeil v2.0, but like, i'm so glad to have thibodeau here with the bulls. i forgot how sporadically awful coach vinny's playcalling, or lack thereof, could be in the clutch.ccc

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the multiple posts sans response is very panther-esque

Bucks/Lakers has been very good viewing. Jennings is on fire.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

SO GOES JOHNNY FISHSTICKS, SO GOES THE MIGHTY MIGHTY DEER.

watching salmons try to guard kobe brings back some memories... shit. the lakers are starting to pull away from the bucks at the end of the third as the deer turn it over and over and over again.

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watching lebron flop is like watching picasso paint.

phoenix lost stoudamire and added turkoglu.... that should keep them quite competitive, eh?

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OMFG MCGRADY IS INJURED AGAIN!!!@ WHO KNEW?

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Please use the proper terminology. It's "redbone" or "high yaller".

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Phoenix getting absolutely smoked by Miami. Eddie House can't miss. Jon Barry can't stop slobbering over the Heat.

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i hate the heat's home court.... whatever screen/graphics/between-levels-ad-fare they have shows up on the court a whole lot, leaving a technicolour line on the bottom of the screen. it's not as bad as it was early on in the season (especially watching local streams on the non-national nights) but still, wow, they're milking this shit for all it's worth.

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can someone explain the purpose of nuggets basketball to me? they're the late game on TNT, with an epic matchup against the perpetually odenless trailblazers (bring back the glory days of the jailblazers! i loved that team!) and granted i think k-mart has been out, and they're obviously sans BIRDMAN!!!! (his name always needs to be proceeded by at least 2 exclamation points) carmelo notwithstanding, i don't see anything that really stands out to me as some sort of a hope that this team, as constructed, will ever aspire to be anything other than a slow decaying carcass of a team that maybe had some pop a couple'a years ago.

carmelo obviously can score. mister bigshot does what he does, albeit he's aging... but really... this team was the #2 seed in the west a couple'a years ago, dropping to ~4th-5th last year where i think they even managed to win a series against the suns.... but they're no title theat. they'll probably make the middle-low seeds this season maybe even get lucky and win a round but then someone will show up and systematically dispatch foot to sack and that will be that.

i reckon they're the very definition of "NBA hell" as they have their franchise player / elite-scorer and they have a nice player in billups and fairly competent role playing bigs... but really, quoteth agent smith at the end of the matrix trilogy... WHY DO YOU PERSIST?!

also, i duly note bagels' earlier point that this thread features much pontificating with myself a la the infamous feline... but i'm pretty sure i disclaimed that fact very early on in this thread. if some sort of a tragedy were to befall upon me, rest assured this thread would exist as a testament to the fact that i've been watching too much NBA this season. seriously, sinicalypse does it for the children.

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ah yes my soliloquy continues. tonight we've got john wall taking on the hawks, and then..... [deep breaths] then there's the big one. the game you've been waiting for all day, the one you've had circled on your calendar since the NBA schedule was announced. the one you nearly made a roadtrip for: sacramento at the clippers.

whenever coach vinny takes on the kings, you throw out the record books. honestly, please do it cuz they don't make him look good.

don't forget, it was the kings who overcame a 35 point deficit to beat the bulls, leading vinny the black to say of the remarkable feat: "it happens"

STAY TUNED TRUE BELIEVERS. I DO NOT TAKE HINTS EASILY, NOR AM I A QUITTER. my dreams of having a running NBA thread will not die now.... at worst, this thread just ends up being a time capsule of my NBA thoughts. someday when there's the sinicalypse presidental library in scenic elk grove, IL, kids will look at this thread and go "wow, he should have had a basketball column way back in his early 30s"

anyways, on to john wall and the dougie versus one of the NBA's creepiest looking dudes, mike bibby and the hotlanta hawks. and, i believe, the highest paid player in the league: JOE MOTHERFUCKING JOHNSON.

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i hate rolling threads

i didn't get to watch more than one quarter of clips/kings tonight because i was driving

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Until the great pruning of July 2011.

I only care about two things in the NBA this year: Miami Heat in a first round exit from the playoffs, and the Bucks finishing a six seed or worse.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

here's some of my expert telestrator work during tonight's celtics/warriors game

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it's that time of the month guys, and what can i say? in efnet's very own #basketball, K N I C K S nation has been out of control lately.... even the most levelheaded knicks fans are talking about how "we're not gonna talk about next year til june" and thinking they want the bulls in round 1 (or well, that is until they have decided they're going for the 4 seed and they want 1 round of homecourt... nevermind the ~7-8 games they're behind the magic, they're coming for what's rightfully theirs) and much like this year's blackhawks they're gonna be the team that "nobody wants to play in the playoffs" and rah rah rah.

but then there's the curious case of mike d'antoni. it has been said of the would-be bulls coach that you can go for a few weeks in practice without ever hearing the word defense, and like, in the wake of the K N I C K S giving up **72** points to the mavericks in one half of basketball, that's when it hit me.

the knicks don't play defense... they play d'fense. mike d'antoni literally lent his initial to the process of basically playing OLE on defense (amare is built for OLE defense... my favorite was the other night against the cavs, who are 3-0 vs the knicks, 2-0 with melo, some bum #24 on the knicks literally waltzed up in a crowd of four knicks and proceeded to dunk on amare and pals... if you're familiar with the fine fine sport of billfighting, then you're familiar with the magnanimous concept of OLEEEE!!!!!

amare, aka THE PEOPLE'S MVP (it's a #basketball thing. seriously you should see the knick fans go... once they started calling derrick rose stephon marbury redeux and saying he's only slightly better than raymond felton once felton got some experience, i began calling amare the people's mvp... cuz if derrick rose is the mvp, well, amare is the MVP OF THE PEOPLE... not those snob-ass forced-to-watch-every-fucking-game-for-a-living bourgeois writers

oh well, nevermind, as i was saying AMARE went to the carlos boozer acting school of defensive prowess where every play he risks catching a nagging case of taco neck syndrome by disobeying mom who told us to not sit too close to the tv growing up nad getting all up and in a man's midsection watching him dunk on them.... welp that OLE defense is working liek a charm, as even with a stinger at one point with ~5 mins left in teh first half the people's mvp was 4-14 from the field, which is amazing considering he missed ost of the first quarter with a stinger.... and he still got 14 shots up in the half.

gee, i wonder why amare wanted to hook up with coach d'fense in new york? maxed out deal to go to broadway and initially be reunited with a coach who encourages him to take 14 shots in a quarter-plus of basketball, even if he goes 4/14? wow.

amare can score, but with this bulls team i'm thinking if you want a no-defense "my turn" offensive guy the bulls did good with boozer. one can argue they might be more formidable on offense with amare, and very likely so, but like, having seen a good # of knicks games this year... slap mah fro, this team ain't winning shit if part of their routine is giving up 70 point halves to teams a la the early 90s nuggets... shit, remember back in teh early 90s you'd always see scores like 133-124 when someone was playing the nuggets? cuz even solid defensive teams would get so offensive minded the nuggets would end up dropping 120 on you, cuz you realized early there was no defense to be played so you could pad your stats and hope that 1/82 of your average would help earn a few dollars...

and wow, i'm rambling... in THIS thread? wow. it's an eternal albatross to all that is unholy about me, however, i watches me some association and i can tell you bulls fans that while the K N I C K S nation is indeed quite unsufferable, when i see them give up 72 points in the first half (a PECOTA projected pace of 144 for the game) i'm like, phew, take a deep breath and remember that this team ain't winning shit unless they can parlay a hot shooting night into a hot shooting playoffs, and that's very unlikely to happen... the bulls don't score a whole shit-ton, but they'll give up 85 points against you... or they'll win an 85-78 game.. for the knicks, that's a good ~30 minutes of basketball on a fast night.

so that said, yeah, the K N I C K S are fun, relevant, and with KNICK NATION back in the shuffle it does make the NBA better.... but i think this team is likely gonna have to make a move akin to doug collins when the bulls were on the come... cuz i think it's going to take a playoff beatdown or two for them to get the picturel..... however, these ARE the dolans we're talking about, and if there wasn't short of public mutiny over isiah thomas hed prolly be on the team in some non-emeritus capacity (as he was before he left...sexual harassment? horrible drafting/trading? god-awful coaching? SOUNDS LIKE PROMOTION MATEIRAL TO ME!)

72 points in a half.... wow. seriously, on a good night the bulls give that up in a game.

so i think it's super-official that boozer just has a sprain (or in cutlerspeak, he has a partial tear of some muscles in his ankle)--- and the lakers let us down, allowing the heat another victory... so i think i speak for all of me in this thread by saying COME BACK CARLOS! WE NEED J-000!@#$%

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Big games in the association tonight.

NYK @ PHI - Head to head for #6 in East
HOU @ NOH - HOU win keeps playoff hopes alive while NOH tied for #7/8 in West
LAC @ OKC - OKC win w/ DAL loss and OKC 1 game back for #3 in West
DEN @ DAL - DAL win w/LAL loss =DAL 1 game back for #2 in West. DAL loss =OKC shot at #3
LAL @ GSW - LAL loss gives DAL hope for #2 seed.

HUGE game tomorrow for Bulls. Enjoy the league pregames tonight.