I watched a good portion of the Lakers-Clippers game last night. When Luke was on the floor, his teammates acted like he was the Invisible Man -- they never passed him the ball. A little contract envy out there, maybe?
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Look, I know Luka for Trae was a nightmare trade and will never, ever, ever be justified. MVPs don't grow on trees and the Hawks traded one. I don't care how good Trae may be...
Buuuuuuutttttt... Trae is really fun to watch. Tonight he scored 37 points in just 26 minutes. The Hawks sat him the entire 4th quarter because they were beating the Bulls by like infinity or something like that. He scored 37 points on just 12 shots, hitting 10 of 12 including 5-6 on 3s. 37 points on 12 shots... that's unheardof.
Oh, and his opposite number, Coby White, whew... not a good night. In addition to being torched by Trae all game long, Coby was a miserable 2-11 from the field. He took about the same number of shots as Trae, and scored almost 30 less points. Ouch.
For a Dukie connection, Cam Reddish got the start and was the Hawks second leading scorer with 15 points. He had some moments in the first half where he looked like a budding NBA star.
-Jason "the Hawks scored 83 points... in the first half. This may be a fun team to follow this season" Evans
The first game showed why LaMelo ROY picks would be riskier than the usual rookie on a struggling team narrative. Neither Terry Rozier nor Devonte Graham plans on giving up their spot in the starting lineup anytime soon.
I was thinking that the Suns should not be elevated to that level just yet, but they are playing like they want to be tonight. They did have an incredible bubble and made some pretty nifty moves.
It might just be the longtime Warriors fan speaking, but any optimism I had about the season evaporated with Klay's injury. The only hope that they would have had would have been mortgaging the future for some kind of trade taking on insane salaries.
I'd still like to see a larger sample of games to see where the defense is at. It performed well in Game 1, but I think frankly that was just as much about GSW ineptitude.
As I mentioned above, Brooklyn is the team I'm rooting for to come out of the East, but I can't fully believe in it unless they have a defense that's in the 10 to 15 range. That offense, as mentioned, is going to be top-3 and possibly #1.
I also have no qualms with the coaching. For those that don't know, Steve Nash's lead assistant is his former head coach Mike D'Antoni. I have a feeling I know which one of those two is more responsible for designing the beautiful Nets offense we saw in Game 1. Not that Nash doesn't have a bright basketball mind -- he does -- but this is obviously his first head coaching job. He's really playing more of a CEO role for this team, someone who is good with emotional intelligence and can get the best out of Durant and Kyrie. This type of setup is going to pop up more and more for star-laden teams. You need the young, high EQ guy like Nash to interface with the stars; D'Antoni is going to produce a great offense, but can you imagine an old-school coach like him dealing with the various antics of KD and Kyrie?
Might I suggest a slight modification that will make it something fun to root for throughout the season instead of just waiting for a hypothetical matchup to take place in the playoffs.
Lakers represent the West in the Finals -- cato wins pie. Clippers represent the West in the Finals -- Steven43 wins pie. If neither win the West -- push.
No doubt, but I feel like Luke does have a role to play when the opposing team's stars sit late 1Q/3Q or early 2Q/4Q. He can help the Clippers' bench unit win those minutes (which will be fewer in the playoffs than in the regular season because stars play more minutes in the postseason.)
I’ll have to think about that one. And if I do decide to take your suggestion cato might not want to go along with it.
If I were the Clippers I wouldn’t be too concerned with finishing #1 in the Western Conference. Even if they did the Lakers would still have a home-court advantage.
Anyway, it’s going to be one heck of a season with no shortage of interesting storylines. I’m pretty psyched about it.
I'll see Chuck's $100,000 with this. And my 100 grand has 30% less fat. :)
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Nets are legit.
Steph Curry making 105 threes in a row in practice is the best thing I’ve seen this year. The list of things I could do 105 times in a row without making a mistake is vanishingly small.
https://warriorswire.usatoday.com/20...rees-in-a-row/