Thursday, November 8, 2012

11/8: Hoops Galore!

Greetings all! Let's take a look at Wednesday night, which was headlined by a full-fledged slate of NBA action...

  • Hawks 89, Pacers 86 - The hometown squad went on an 18-0 run to overcome a 14-point 4th quarter deficit and steal a win over Indy. When Paul George's triple attempt went begging at the gun, the Hawks got the W, but it wasn't all positives. I didn't love the Zaza/Horford/Smith starting lineup in the front-court, but I do understand it from a match-up standpoint against Roy Hibbert and company. It's been clear in the early going that Larry Drew is willingly to toss the lineup on a match-up basis, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It was a balanced win from the Hawks, with Horford, Smith, Korver, and Teague scoring between 11 and 16 points. The biggest key? Atlanta won the rebounding battle 51-41. 
  • The Heat are pretty good. A 30-point victory over Brooklyn last night is the latest indication. I can't remember a season where a team was this big of a favorite in their conference. Simple as that.
  • James Harden is exceedingly human! I still believe that he's a #1 option, but if you're a member of "First Take" culture, get ready for the debate after his 5-of-15 performance on Wednesday. I hate everything.
  • The MLB Award "finalists" were announced last night. I can't fathom this being an actual news story, but apparently it is. Wake me up when the award winners are announced.
  • NBA Round-up - The Lakers are 1-4... I repeat, the Lakers are 1-4... Kobe had 29 points, and Dwight added 19/9 but the Mike Brown-led Lake-show fell in Utah by a score of 95-86. I'm really high on Utah, so this isn't a bad loss at all, but compounded with the first 4 games, it's not pretty in LA. San Antonio took their first loss of the season, getting blown out by the Clippers 106-84. No one (!) played over 24 minutes last night for San Antonio, and this was a typical instant of Pop punting the game late. LA had 7 guys in double figures and got 20/10's from both Blake Griffin and Deandre Jordan. And finally, Dallas is 4-1 without Dirk after knocking off Toronto 109-104. OJ Mayo had 22/6/5 and Chris Kaman added 22 points and 8 rebounds for the Mavs.
  • The Colorado Rockies are a joke. The bumbling organization has hired Walt Weiss to be their new manager. On the surface, this isn't absurd as Weiss played for a long time and is well-respected in the industry. And then... you find out that he was currently managing high school baseball. When are people going to realize that this stuff doesn't work?

What to watch for on Thursday...
  • NBA - Thunder @ Bulls - 8:00 TNT - No Derrick Rose, no James Harden.... no problem! At any rate, this should be an interesting match-up as we see what Luol Deng can do against Durant, and Westbrook should be able to roam freely against a weakened Bulls backcourt.
  • NBA - Clippers @ Blazers - 10:30 TNT - The Chris Paul show goes to Portland. Lillard should be focused on here as he encounters the brilliance that is Paul, and that's must-see TV.
  • NFL - Colts @ Jaguars - 8:20 NFL - The bright side is Andrew Luck. The dark side? Jacksonville is completely unwatchable.
  • NCAAF - #10 Florida State @ Virginia Tech - 7:30 ESPN - I'm sure the ACC was thinking a lot bigger than this game is actually playing up when they scheduled it because VT is in the toilet, but road games for FSU are always an adventure.
Enjoy!

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