Thursday, November 11, 2010

11/11: Hawks, Jazz, Newton, and More...

And aloha means hello... in this case...
  • Bucks 108, Hawks 91 - Losing by 17 at home to a team you're supposed to be better than (even if only slightly) is bad... being down 30 in the 2nd half at home to that same team?... worse... Zaza led the team in scoring with 16, the only leading player that played well at at all was Al Horford, and the trio of Josh Smith, Joe Johnson, and Jamal Crawford shot a combined 10-29... Smith was particularly a disaster, and it looked even worse possession-by-possession on the DVR... he looked disinterested, was calling for the ball in jump-shooting situations, and chastised teammates for on-ball defensive lapses (hint: he's bad at on-ball defense too)... if you're looking for a bright spot? Probably the play of Teague and Jordan Crawford... granted most of it was garbage team, but they combined to shoot 9 of 15 and were on the floor when the gap was "closed" to 17 late... At any rate, I haven't seen the Hawks lay a home egg like that in quite some time... disconcerting...
  • Utah does it again... Down 10+ at halftime for the 3rd straight game, down 20 in the 2nd half, on the road in Orlando... done, right?... Wrong... Deron Williams went to work in the 2nd half (30 and 14 for the night), running off screens and looking very comfortable doing so... Al Jefferson took it to Dwight Howard late and showed why he's an elite post-up player, and Paul Millsap stayed hot with 23... Dwight Howard was in foul trouble all night, but I've never seen him get worked over like Jefferson did to him late... it was shocking... at any rate, Orlando can be encouraged by the play of Brandon Bass and Marcin Gortat off the bench.... 10 rebounds for Gortat in 21 minutes and 14 points for Bass...
  • Brad Childress is "not a player favorite" according to the LEAD story at ESPN today... are you kidding?.... Brad Childress is in the midst of a full-on mutiny... think we're understating it somehow?... Well, not really since it's 24/7 news apparently, but I digress...
  • NBA Box Score check - John Wall went for a triple-double in his 6th career game... 19 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists for the all-world rookie... Michael Beasley! I've never been the biggest fan... but he had the best game of his career last night... 42 points on the night and carrying Minny to a road win (wow)... David Lee stuck it to his old team to the tune of 28 and 10 in MSG last night... hilarious to envision Lee going off on one end and Amare on the other (33 and 10)... not a whole lot of defense being played between those 2 gems... It's officially time to worry about the Houston Rockets... 1-6 and a loss to John Wall's Wizards... with Yao hurting now as well? I'm on record in support of them, but fading fast....
  • Absolutely nothing happened in the Cam Newton story yesterday... and you would've sworn there were several new developments... this is getting old... quick....

What to watch for...

  • Ravens/Falcons - 8:20 NFL Network or MyAtl36 (in Atlanta) - Full breakdown in the NFL Preview (coming later today), but this is a big game for both teams... Roddy White is expected to play despite being questionable and that's huge, but it'll come down to a battle of the 3rd-year QBs...
  • Celtics/Heat - 8:00 TNT - Going to have to breakout the DVR for this one... Obviously a fantastic matchup, and must-see TV for the NBA fan...
  • Lakers/Nuggets - 10:30 TNT - Denver won 3 of 4 last year... but LA is 8-0 and dominating right now... plus Denver is undermanned up front... should be entertaining as per usual...

Stay tuned...

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