Arena The NBA Thread

Ben Simmons has actually been pretty great in his last 4 games now. It's like he turned on some switch, and not only does he shoot the ball, but he is quite effective in all parts of the game that he used to be good at as a rookie and a prospect.

The NBA should do a much better job at scheduling. They have multiple teams playing many back-to-back games on the road throughout the season. If I am not mistaken, the Warriors have the most back-to-back games in the league. With Curry at 34 and a half and Klay and Draymond at 33 and 32, it makes sense to rest them in those games, as much as it sucks for the fans that want to go see them. And 82 games is a lot, they could indeed reduce the number of games by 10 or even maybe 6 games. Anything would help.

Devin Booker and Ayton proved again what little ***** they are, taunting the nicest dude ever, Austin Reaves.
I am glad that Beverley shoved Ayton to the ground. He got what he deserved.

 

I think he's just starting to get his legs back. He didn't have any burst or any stamina at the start of the season. Physically, he's still not all the way back to what he was before, he doesn't have the same speed or conditioning, so he could still get better.

Good for him. I don't like seeing guys flame out due to mental stuff.

What's pathetic is that Ayton has been a ghost this year. They need him to step up with Chris Paul out, but he hasn't. I guess since he got his money, he's not going to go the extra mile for a team that didn't offer it until they were forced to. I'm actually glad the Pistons didn't get him, I don't think he's very motivated.

 

The Hoop Collective is going really hard on the Nets this morning, Hilarious.

 

Ooooof I just saw that Zach Collins foul on Russell Westbrook. That was so ugly. Westbrook had all the right to be this upset. I feel so bad for the guy. He has been treated unfairly for years now.... Every time I see Westbrook play basketball, I see a dude who gives 100% of his energy and his passion so that his team can win. He doesn't always succeed, and sometimes he shoots a lot of bricks, but the dude is honest and gives his best.

To use him as a scapegoat for Oklahoma's struggles after Durant left, then to use him as a scapegoat when the experiment with him and Chris Paul in the Rockets failed, and now to use him as a scapegoat in the Lakers' struggles, is just awful. I hope he gets 6th man of the year, he fully deserves it.

 

Maybe crazy people on the internet blamed Russ for something in OKC, but as a fan of Russ and OKC what I saw was a team that would have kept working with Russ, but Russ gave up on them. And that doesn't make me think less of Russ, but I think more players should give Sam Presti credit and consider OKC.
I went to bed just before that happened, from what I saw on the video lucky LeBron was there to intervene and glad Russ allowed him to do so. It looked last night like LeBron and Russ were making plays together I enjoyed the part I could stay up for.

 

KAT just tore his Achilles. I mean thats what it looks like. Lets see if Im right. Watch out for news tomorrow or wednesday.

 

Well, ****.

 

Devin Booker went for 44 points last night with just one three, meaning he had a 40+ game without anything from beyond the arc. Don't see that kind of game much anymore.

 

Dinwiddie just got ejected on maybe the worst flagrant two call I've ever seen. Both hands on the ball, trying to reach over/around Poole's head, accidentally elbowing him in the jaw as he passed it out. Yeah, definitely a flagrant one by the rules for the elbow to the face, but there was no intent, wind up, or extra force applied. They said there was, but there wasn't.

 

Some of these flagrant 2s would have been either non-calls in the 1980s or ordinary fouls.

 

*laughs in Bill Laimbeer*

 

I think maybe you spoke too soon. Ayton had a 29/21 game, another double-double after that, and went for 30/16 tonight.

 

I've noticed, I check the stats almost every morning. Maybe Pat Bev woke him up.

 

I've noticed I watch more full games this season. Watched all of the Knicks games the past 2 nights. No matter how boring the blow out got Tuesday, and even though I knew they'd eventually blow it last night. Even after Giannis fouled out they blew it, ugh, but I still get to watch Knicks games and it never gets old.

My son brought a poster home from the school book fair with all 30 teams. It's still broken out by division and Oklahoma is still grouped in the Northwest. I know divisions don't matter anymore, but that irritates me.

I literally thew my arms in the air and celebrated the replay of Westbrook's long 3 pointer from last night while I was on the treadmill at the gym this morning.

And finally can anyone enlighten me to why only one game tonight? This is the 2nd Thursday this season. Does it somehow help the schedule? Did I miss an announcement?

 

The NBA is drunk this year. I'm here for it, but it's kinda crazy.

Cavs hosted the Sixers last night. Cavs were without Jarret Allen - the lynchpin of their defense - and started Mamadi Diakite. Despite this, Sixers get held to 85 points and Embid can't take advantage of the Allen-less Cavs, and the Cavs roll to a blowout win. Yeah, the Sixers didn't have Harden, but it feels like a game the Sixers absolutely should have won, and at the very least not been completely out of by half time.

 

I'm not enjoying basketball nearly as much this year and am already kinda checked out on it. Yes, it's because the Pistons are the worst team in the NBA again. I'm just tired of bad basketball. The biggest difference this year compared to the last few is effort; Coach Casey seems to have lost the team, they're not playing hard, they're not fighting back, and they're not playing any defense. The focus, the identity of this team under Weaver, was supposed to be defense. It hasn't been there this year.

Well, the NBA has said they doesn't want to broadcast games on Thursday night because they don't want to compete with the NFL. I'm guessing that made it in the schedule in general.

Remember when the NBA was "Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday"? Those commercials beat that into my brain for life.

 

I thought about TNF but they play games Monday night so I couldn't justify that. I didn't start really watching the NBA until League Pass because I never lived in a home with cable.

It is so hard when your team isn't good, especially year after year after year after year after year. That's how and why I started liking multiple teams. So I am cheating,vi still haven't picked a winner. Someday, someday.

 

aren't the thursday nfl games only on amazon? idk, i haven't watched one all year. but it does seem strange for the nba to avoid that timeslot when they have a full slate on monday nights, and even schedule games on sunday afternoons.

 

C'mon

Tonight is the airing of Dolly Parton's Magic Mountain Christmas

Going up against that is a ratings bloodbath waiting to happen. I'm not surprised in the least that the NBA is avoiding the bad publicity of terrible ratings

 

Big shout out to Lebron for bringing up the Jerry Jones lack of inquiry from the media.

I don’t think, even including the Bucks not playing in the bubble, I’ve ever seen an athlete just straight up say something like that.

The trolls will obviously call out the China-NBA hypocrisy, rightfully so, but… this is a big moment and I’m proud of him understanding that he is one of one as being the only athlete that could call it out without any fear of repercussion.

 

It's true that an image so striking just got dropped, when that wouldn't have happened with basically any current athlete, especially black athletes.

I haven't seen Jones' full response, but from what I have seen, he kinda just played it off as innocent ignorance. Jones didn't seem to express any sort of shame for being involved in that. If he had, I think the media moving on would be more understandable. They let him get away with basically just saying "gosh" in response. Weak.

 

Actually Bomoni Jones who I listen to on a regular basis and regularly calls white people out said he doesn't judge Jerry Jones for being a bystander at age 14. I agree Jerry should apologize but I also think we can't hold people too accountable for their actions when they are 14.

 

I agree in a statute of limitations, but I'd like a better response than the one he gave.

Kyrie's response was much worse in that he grandiosely doubled down.

 

A most thrilling victory. Acquitted themselves well in the spotlight, being the only NBA game tonight.

How about that Killian Hayes? *adjusts glasses* Was that Damian Lillard I saw? With that step back? Which I've never seen him actually make? He was the absolute worst player in the NBA in October, and one of the worst players in the NBA his first two seasons, but he seems to have found his confidence with Cade out. He's found his shot in the midrange. *adjusts glasses* Was that Chris Paul? He still hasn't actually been good, but at least he's contributing and playing with confidence.

Defense was still an absolute mess tonight. Letting Dallas just stroll to the rim or the three point line. Everything too easy. No effort required to get great shots. But Detroit made shots and won the offensive rebounding battle.

Glad I watched the Pistons instead of football. Really enjoyed it.

 

With all due respect to Bomani… his platform and Lebron’s platform are not remotely close in terms of influence and impact.

I don’t judge Jerry Jones. I honestly don’t particularly care and I don’t think Lebron does either. It’s more about the hypocrisy of the media that they questioned almost nobody, no professional athletes and specifically no football players about it. They let Jerry control the narrative and didn’t push him on it. When you combine this with his absence of commentary on George Floyd, him basically telling his team during the Kaepernick protests that if they tried kneeling they’d get in trouble, and the fact that…

*clears throat*

The Owner of a national football team was present at a rally that protested desegregation… I think the public deserves more words from him than “golly gee, I was wondering why all those white guys were yelling at those black kids.”

I don’t need an apology. He did nothing to me. But the media that strongly supports holding every person accountable is noticeably quiet when certain people with the appropriate number of 0’s beside their name do bad things.

Sure Kyrie apologized… haven’t really heard much from Jeff Bezos though.