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NBA: Jordan Leading the Bobcats to the promised land.
Posts
I don't think they'll ban him for life or something.
Fisher's next line: "Especially if you shoot 3 for 90 all game."
Kobe played great D!!
I know, I didn't think you actually thought he'd get kicked out of the league. I just don't think Artest has earned even close to a thinking about a lifetime ban.
He honestly hasn't done a whole lot more than the Detroit/Indiana brawl (granted, that's a pretty big one). No other suspensions for (on-court) violence or anything, other than a 3 game ban for destroying a TV camera 9 years ago. He had that weird face grab on Barea last year, but it's not like this guy has a long history of dangerous hits.
I'm not an Artest fan or anything, this one instance was dangerous as hell and deserves a long suspension. But I disagree that his past should be taken into consideration so severely.
And @BubbaT, I guess a more recent example would be Sprewell choking PJ Carlesimo, then coming back a little later and punching him. He got a year suspension, which the PA got down to the remaining 68 games. He had a previous history of violence. It's debatable which offense is greater, one was televised and one behind the scenes, but I would not be opposed to a similar suspension for Artest (though I don't think it'll be that long)
Great D or not, Kobe didn't force Westbrick to hoist it up 22 times.
If a guy's playing great defense and stopping you from scoring and you're a point guard, maybe it's time to start getting other guys involved.
Or heck, act as a decoy and pull Kobe away from the rest of the defense, freeing up more space for guys who aren't shooting 13% to attack.
That's just it. There's never any rhyme or reason to this. There are some very loose guidelines that the league promulgates, and then it's up to Stu(pid) Jackson to rules lawyer each suspension as he goes.
And based on Monkey's Theory of First Name Foodity, if a person has a first name that is also a food, they are probably not going to be some sort of thoughtful mental heavyweight who will give the appropriate amount of consideration to precedent or mitigating circumstances.
That's why YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THIS ONE INCIDENT vs. YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THIS OTHER DISCRETE INCIDENT comparisons don't get us anywhere. It may make sense to us, in our constant search for consistency and justice, but the ultimate arbiter of all this, "Stew" Jackson, is capricious and inconsistent as fuck. The penalty will just be what it will be. Que sera, sera.
"Starting at Forward, from St. Johns, number 15, Little World Pony."
Used this one yesterday on facebook, got a condescending "nice one"
Metta World Piece of Shit. (this is my current loadout)
Metta World Piece of Pizza. (this one worked better when he was fat as hell at the start of the season)
You mean like Tube is doing here on the forums occasionally? Yeah, I'd love for the NBA to change his name to "Zombies tossed my salad" (which is a forum nick here, but I find it hilarious).
Assuming Utah doesn't pull a Memphis and topple the Spurs
You're right - I got the playoff format confused with the NHL's, which re-seeds after each round
I could be convinced to agree with you. The lineup they ran out today (Hayward at SG, Millsap at SF, Favors at PF and Jefferson at C) was interesting, and could work against an undersized Spurs frontcourt. Especially since Harris is one of the few guys quick enough to stay in front of Tony Parker
my unofficial autobio will be accompanied with tips on how to smile
cause I've found that when they don't see you frown, they never know that you're a threat
and they don't sweat you when you came around
While they're comparable to the Grizzlies in roster makeup, they're nowhere close in quality. Last year's Grizzlies team was better than their regular season record, while this year's Jazz team is way worse.
Don't forget that in the lockout-shortened season, not every team plays every other team the same number of times according to conference and division, which makes Strength of Schedule (SOS) stats that much more telling. The Jazz have had a very easy schedule and are almost certainly worse than teams that have had a rougher go of it, like the Rockets and Suns.
Check out the strength of schedule stats yourself.
The teams that have had the hardest schedules are at the top, while the teams with the lower SOS are at the bottom.
Note that Dallas and the Lakers have had the toughest schedules, while the Bobcats had the second-easiest. Yes, the second easiest schedule while still notching only 7 wins. They are just that bad.
And of course, right at the top you see Phoenix and Houston, two scheduling casualties that would have been shoo-ins during a long season, or if they played in the Eastern conference. A shame, really.
I'm thinking the Clip joint can get it done even if Chris Paul has to drag their corpses through seven games, but part of me can see them imploding as well.
Thoughts?
I think it all depends on whether Randolph and Gasol can re-discover their games. Both of them have had poor Aprils, compared to last year when both entered the playoffs on fire.
Memphis' perimeter play is improved from last year thanks to Gay staying healthy, but the weakness of the Clippers defense is still in the post. But MEM is going to need better than Gasol shooting 46% and Randolph shooting 43%.
How have the Jazz had a very easy schedule? They are still in the top half of the league and right behind Houston and Phoenix. All three of these teams are very similar and I wouldn't say that any of them are shoo-ins.
Some might disagree but I feel like they've underachieved. Their frontcourt situation is troubling and Ty Corbin has not had the best handle on it. Injuries have forced him to play an extremely effective big lineup (Millsap-Favors-Jefferson) in the last month. According to David Locke: "Now with the big lineup the Jazz defense has been beyond comprehension. With Millsap at the 3 the Jazz have outscored opponents 304 to 232 in 148 minutes."
The Clippers play the Knicks in an early game today (with Carmelo Anthony resting) while the Grizzlies play the Magic tomorrow.
Home court advantage will be vital to the Clippers, a newly-constructed team filled with playoff newbies at the frontcourt spots, needing every advantage imaginable to advance, but less so to the Grizzlies, a team with far more poise and playoff experience.
SOS is a verrry picky stat. Look carefully at those numbers. Even 0.001 difference is meaningful, and represents a quantifiable, easier schedule than any team that is 0.001 higher. No joke.
While we're on the subject, I also think it's significant that the Jazz have not beaten a top tier playoff team on the road at all this season, save for once against the Lakers on March 18th at Staples. That's really, really bad. In fact, you could count their number of road wins against playoff teams on one hand this season.
Still, I don't read "underperforming" into any of this. In fact, I think they have wildly overachieved given the youth of their roster and how poorly they were playing after Corbin took over mid-season last year. It's astonishing that Corbin could construct ANY kind of useable lineup out of that PF-heavy roster, let alone one that is dominant in limited minutes.
Not that much more experience
Both teams need home court
Yes, that much more experience. The Clippers' starters have just 23 games worth of playoff experience among them. All 23 games belong to Chris Paul.
In contrast, the Grizzlies starters have 116 games worth of playoff experience among them, and they have all been to the playoffs before save for Rudy Gay, who was injured during the Grizzlies' historic run last season.
I'm mostly just satisfied that we managed to take only one year off from the playoffs instead of the three years we were out after losing Stockton and Malone. This time, we've coming off a year where we lost Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, Andrei Kirilenko, Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer, Wesley Matthews, Ronnie Price, and Jerry Sloan. Only CJ Miles and Paul Millsap remain from the 2010 playoff team.
And well over half of those (and a ring) belong to Tony Allen.
More experienced, yes.
Not that much more
Are you seriously trying to double down on this? The difference between having key players having played playoff basketball before, and never playing it before? "Not a big difference." And how big a deal it is that Chris Paul is the only Clippers starter to have even had a post-season taste? "Not a big deal." Alrighty. :^:
I think the lack of experience in the starting 5 would be a bigger deal if the Clippers didn't have 2 playoff-experienced vets coming off the bench in Mo Williams and Kenyon Martin.
Martin played in the NBA Finals twice with NJ, and also reached the Western Finals with DEN. He's played 89 career playoff games. His PT has been ramping up as the playoffs have approached, he's playing 25 mpg in April. I expect him to play more minutes in the playoffs than DeAndre Jordan.
Williams has played 30 career playoff games, and reached the Eastern Finals with CLE. Williams has been a prominent member of the rotation all season, averaging 28 mpg.
Reggie Evans has played 27 career playoff games. Nick Young has played 5.
That's about it for the rotation. I'll be surprised if Eric Bledsoe or Bobby Simmons get anything more than emergency minutes once the playoffs start. Everyone else is already out of the rotation.
Also - Chris Paul is not the only Clippers starter with playoff experience. Caron Butler (62 starts this year) has played 31 career playoff games.
None of this is at all probative of the fact that the Grizzlies have a huge edge in terms of playoff experience over the Clippers.
We're not much concerned with rotation vets playing limited minutes as an alternate source of that experience--it's just not practical nor applicable, because it's not a net positive in favor of the Clippers.
The likely scenario is that Kenyon Martin will end up logging slightly more minutes as their main bench F/C...because DeAndre Jordan ends up being a liability on offense...because he lacks NBA playoff experience. Do you see what I'm getting at? Martin's experience getting rolled by the Lakers is not a net positive inasmuch as Jordan's lack of experience is a liability. It doesn't matter who they're pulling off the bench, they're still down a starter due to lack of experience.
It's an issue with a starting center who looks lost and green out there, who you can't afford to give heavy minutes to in an even more rigorous playoff environment because he'll quickly get into foul trouble, or miss free throws, or not hustle back on defense, or not adequately spread the floor because he has no jumper, or any of the many reasons Del Negro wouldn't be able to play him as much as other starters.
If he's playing in Memphis, I'm saying he gets discouraged easily. He starts fucking up. Goaltending calls. Careless fouls. He gets pulled and they're reduced to benching him. His lack of playoff experience doesn't encourage him to rise above.
But in a game at Staples? I think it's a different story. He will ride a frantic wave of emotion created by a Clippers crowd that has not had the chance to go to a Clippers playoff game in decades. Jordan plays well. Foye plays well. Mo Williams will play well. These emotionally fragile, notoriously unreliable players find themselves in L.A. But in Memphis? The lack of poise and experience decides it.
So entertaining, so Twitter-worthy, so at times controversial, and with a usage that dwarfs a glorified shotblocker like Jordan.
It's going to be such a sink or swim situation for this guy. I see in my crystal ball thunderous playoff dunks and efficient shooting nights as a Clippers 4 seed. Playoff disappointment and a first round exit as a 5.
I want to see this guy succeed, but nobody knows if he will. In grinding playoff basketball where possessions matter (he can be turnover prone), free throw shooting matters (he's awful at it), all the little things matter, does Griffin start to create something of a legacy for himself? Man, I don't know. But I am excited to find out.
I am so intrigued by this storyline, seriously.
but that's because I'm a Memphis fan
Well that's what's so great about sports. We won't know until they play!
Have you seen the ESPN playoff predictor thingy?
http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/predictions
Going by the standings, Memphis is at 58% as a 4 seed, 46% as a 5 seed.