NBA Random Discussion 2012-13 Season

[rise]

I am going to laugh my ass off if Orlando beats Dwight Howard.

[NovU]

It is happening. Hack-a-Dwight worked beautifully. This is embarassing against the Magic.

The Lakers show absolutely no sense of urgency especially on D, hence no easy transition baskets. Actually offense is very predictable as well, Kobe using picks or going ISO. Kobe does it well but nothing else going on for the rest of the team. Might as make it a two man game all the time.

The Lakers perimeter defense gives up open lanes too easy, giving pretty much no time for the frontcourt to recover. Quite awful.

[Stress Fracture]

I am going to laugh my ass off if Orlando beats Dwight Howard.

You can laugh your ass out now.

[Andrew]

Huge win for the Magic, a measure of revenge for the former teammates who no doubt felt alienated by Howard and his indecision during the past 12 months, not to mention the fans.

[Martti.]

Dwight as his usual, positive self.

[bowdown]

Dwight is just pathetic to listen to or look at. That interview last season after he asked SVG to be fired, being confronted by the media with SVG present in front of him, showed a lot about what he really is about. He kept putting on that fake "fun guy" look on his face like it was all good. Doesnt have the balls to stand behind what he says neither does he take accountability for being a piss poor FT shooter.

He doesnt show remorse for the fact that he made the whole organization his bitch by giving mixed messages about staying or leaving, getting them to fire the coach, bringing down his trade value by threatening to leave.

[NovU]

He was again all smile and having fun while the Lakers were up by a few points. Then the Magic made a late run to take the lead and started to fouling him, his smile disappeared and became all serious. As if he was underestimating the Magic and was embarrassed when losing became a reality. The Magic were like "who's smiling now, bitch" at the end of the game. Lol.

[Phil89]

[shadowgrin]

BYRON MULLENS!? SERIOUSLY!?

lmao even the Blazers bench were impressed.

[Andrew]

Wow.

[benji]

[Stress Fracture]

That is One Sick Dunk. Whoa

[Leftos]

I love the Portland's bench reaction as much as I love the dunk.

[NovU]

Thatz not potland bench.

[Kenny]

I always thought Byron Mullens was a beast. Now he's confirmed it to the world.

[bowdown]

Good looking dunk but he was barely challenged at all. Just glanced Aldridge's body who tried to sell the charge call and ended up looking destitute laying on the ground.

[Leftos]

Your team's bench appreciated this dunk more than you do.

[Andrew]

That's actually the Bobcats' bench.

[Andrew]

Rondo went to Mexico while on suspension. Not exactly contrite now.

When David Stern and the NBA suspended Rajon Rondo for two games following a fight/pushing match with Kris Humphries and the Brooklyn Nets, he didn’t exactly go back to his room and think about what he had done wrong.

Instead, he went to Mexico.

That’s what he told reporters, you can see the CSNNE.com video above. He said he watched the games on television, but he just wanted to get away for a few days. And upon his return he isn’t exactly contrite.

Did you learn anything from the suspension?

“No.”

If I'm Doc Rivers and the Celtics, I'm not particularly thrilled.

[Phil89]

If only his freakishly long arms were a little bit longer...

[benji]

[Andrew]

I thought the Bulls' home loss to a Granger-less Pacers team in which they scored a measly 76 points was pretty embarrassing, but yeah, I'd say the Heat have the dubious honour of the day's worst loss.

[Leftos]

That's actually the Bobcats' bench.

No matter how many times I watched that video, was still sure I was looking at the Portland bench. Oh well.

[NovU]

Watch which bench the team walks to after the time-out's called.

As for Micky Arison's reaction to today's loss... this should sum it up.

[shadowgrin]

Good looking dunk but he was barely challenged at all. Just glanced Aldridge's body who tried to sell the charge call and ended up looking destitute laying on the ground.

What made the dunk good wasn't the flop challenge it was the distance from where he jumped, from inside the circle. About 9 feet.

[Kenny]

Damn, there were some crazy results today. The Wizards beating the Heat was definitely the biggest surprise, but the Rockets coming back against the Lakers is certainly up there as well. Hack-a-Howard works once again.

[rise]

Good looking dunk but he was barely challenged at all. Just glanced Aldridge's body who tried to sell the charge call and ended up looking destitute laying on the ground.

What made the dunk good wasn't the flop challenge it was the distance from where he jumped, from inside the circle. About 9 feet.

He took off with both feet and his back foot was just in front of the free throw line.

[Axel.]

Went to go watch the Rockets barely edge out the Lakers last night. I did not expect Greg Smith to be vital to the victory, but we should also thank Dwight Howard for missing all those free throws. Awesome game.

[rise]

[Andrew]

Great call.

[Kenny]

I love how he just made Kobe's quote look completely asinine.

[Pdub]

With the way David Stern is, I wouldn't be surprised if the commentator got suspended.

[Kenny]

He should fine whoever came up with the Pelicans.

[Leftos]

Me love Andre Drummond long time. 8 and 7 in first half of tonight's battle of inadequacy, a.k.a. Golden State at Detroit.

[rise]

Well, let's just say I used to like J.R. Smith.

[bowdown]

Pistons are lucky to have Andre Drummond because after him, Rivers, Leonard, Lamb havent amounted to a lot neither have shown much promise. Harrison Barnes doesnt look like he will pan out to be a near star either, just a solid starter. Drummond on the other hand, will be scary. His Freethrows though...

[Andrew]

Nuggets/Hawks turned out to be a pretty good one to watch. Both teams made their runs and it went down to the wire. Iguodala provided this:

[shadowgrin]

Iguodala doing a Blake Griffin offensive foul.

[NovU]

The Heat lose again.

[RedPhazon8]

Good game, good effort...

[rise]

Iguodala doing a Blake Griffin offensive foul.

How the hell is that an offensive foul? Josh Smith pulled him down and Iggy still jammed it. That's awesome.

[JaoSming]

Iguodala doing a Blake Griffin offensive foul.

How the hell is that an offensive foul? Josh Smith pulled him down and Iggy still jammed it. That's awesome.

watch the left hand/arm

[Andrew]

The Knicks' two victories over the Heat have seemingly highlighted what is potentially a key weakness for Miami. Heat opponents are averaging 25.6 three point attempts per game, which is the most in the league. They're also making an average of 9.2 per game at a 35.8% clip; the percentage is around the middle of the pack but the 9.2 per game is the second highest in the league. That points to their defense of the three point line being average at best, which creates an opportunity for teams that have some strong outside shooters to really do some damage. If such a team gets hot, as the Knicks have done in both of their games against the Heat so far this season, it could definitely cause them a lot of problems, perhaps even an upset, if they haven't improved in that area come the Playoffs.

[shadowgrin]

That loss could have been avoided if The Greatness that is Joel Anthony played more minutes. Joel guards the paint while LeBron and the rest guard the perimeter.

[Spree#8]

Their defensive woes are caused by smallball which has their "bigmen" incapable of defending the paint. That leads to a lot of rotations, perimeter players collapsing to the basket and of course someone will always be left open. No wonder good shooting teams take advantage of that and expose probably the Heat's biggest weakness.

That leads me to believe Philly with Bynum would be by far the worst East matchup for the Heat. Too bad we have Kwame and Mt. Spence instead and it'll probably stay that way for a long time.

[graybakflip]

hey great news for the lakers!

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/david-stern-stamp-hack-shaq-tactics-231558614--nba.html

when you foul dwight, they get FT's and ball possession!

[shadowgrin]

No. That's just for the last 2 minutes of a game, which has been a rule for a long time. The new suggestion is that the fouled team in the first 46 minutes of the game can either choose to take the FTs or possession of the ball meaning they get to restart their play.

[koberulz]

HAS would stop dead in its tracks if referees called flagrant fouls according to the rules. Most HAS fouls are just players grabbing a guy around the waist and continually hammering him, or barely touching him, while he's away from the play and having no impact on the game, which is an easy no-call.

I remember one game where there was a HAS foul at mid-court during a break, while the ballcarrier was well inside the arc with a wide open lane to the bucket, but the foul was called. Next possession, the fouler grabs the guy around the waist from behind with one arm, and then repeatedly swings his other arm into the guy's chest.

Make those a no-call and a flagrant foul (it is, after all, unnecessary and has a hell of a windup, which makes it a clear flagrant by the letter of the rule) and you'd at least make the fouling team have to put more effort into it. They're not going to succeed every possession.

[Andrew]

There's an obvious and common response to these protestations, which is that no coach would identify hacking targets if players simply made their free throws. But there is very little evidence that NBA players can easily improve their percentages from the line. And while many fans like to chalk that inability up to laziness, it's not as if these athletes don't see massive improvement in other areas of their games over the course of their careers.

While I understand that point of view and can't entirely disagree - if you don't want a weakness being exploited, do what you can to eliminate or minimise that weakness - it doesn't change the fact that it's not playing the game as intended, quickly and deliberately committing an infraction on every play outside of a stop-the-clock crunch time situation. I wouldn't mind seeing the rule cover the entire game to discourage the practice completely, while still allowing a player with the ball to be held to intentionally foul and stop play.

[Phil89]