I’ll probably post during the All-Star Break, but I’m promising neither quality nor quantity. Cool? Cool.
Some folks are reacting as if they didn’t expect Jeremy Lin to struggle against the Heat. Like, I know every single thing this dude has done has been surprising, but the Miami Heat? That’s a defense… a defense unlike any other that the young man has faced, and he was forced to see them on National TV. With all the hype and the build up he was just set up to fail. I can’t honestly say I called 8 points and 8 turnovers, but I definitely foresaw a struggle. You had to know LeBron and company were sick and tired of the Jeremy Lin talk–they’re f@cking players, not fans–and that they were gonna go out there and target the dude. LeBron did his thing… 5 steals playing the lanes. Both Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole took an extremely aggressive approach, and did so with great success. You could tell they were energized by the way they finished after stripping Lin of the basketball. I mean, how often does Mario Chalmers throw down? He took that ball from Lin and put it home with as much authority as he’s got. That was a statement play, and the statement was that we, the Miami Heat, have had enough Linsanity. You shoulda seen it comin’, that’s all I’m saying.
My question regarding last night’s Knicks game is where the hell was Carmelo Anthony? And where was Amare Stoudemire? It became clear very early on that the only way New York was going to win the game was if someone took over, and it certainly wasn’t going to be Jeremy Lin… Miami’s entire defensive scheme and focus centered around him. Amare, Carmelo… these dudes can’t be combining for 32 points on 27 shots in a situation like this. It was an ugly, ugly basketball game… the kind of basketball game where a superstar can go for 30 points on 30 shots and have played an excellent game. Amare took 7 shots, though. Seven. S-E-V-E-N, and only six freethrows. Carmelo took 20, but I didn’t feel like even he could’ve been accused of playing overly aggressive. Let’s not get this sh!t twisted–the Heat didn’t play an excellent offensive game. Despite the stellar defense, the Knicks were in this thing for the majority of the night. It was there for the taking, but neither of New York’s supposed superstars really made a run for it. I don’t know if Melo’s game is still out of whack due to the missed time, and maybe the same can be said for Amare, but for whatever reason both of ‘em kinda went MIA in MIA.
Dick Stockton’s pronunciation of “Flo Rida” was easily a top-10 awkward moment in the history of television. He was rattling off the names of all these All-Star Weekend performers, and it was actually going pretty well up until the aforementioned Flo Rida. At that point he turned into an xtranormal character.
Jerry Stackhouse will replace Joe Johnson in the Haier Shooting Stars competition. He’ll join fellow TV analyst Steve Smith and some WNBA player named Lindey Harding. Wait, what? Jerry Stackhouse still plays? Okay, I knew that, but seriously… why Jerry Stackhouse? The rest of the roster must’ve said no. I can picture David Stern’s call to Josh Smith…
Hello?
Hi Josh, it’s commissioner Stern.
Oh, word? Am I gonna be replacing JJ in the All-Star game?
Well, actually, I selected Rajon Rondo… but I was going to ask if you’d like to compete with Team Atlanta in the Haier Shooting Stars compet–hello? Hello? Josh?
DeJuan Blair’s 28 points were more than Timofey Mozgov, Kenneth Faried, Kosta Koufos, and Chris Anderson produced combined. The Spurs won the game by about as many points as you’d imagine (15).
Ron Artest went 3-5 from three-point land in LA’s 85-103 loss to the Thunder. Artest has now hit 4 of his last 6, which is big news when you consider that he was previously 13-65 on the season. In addition to the threes, Artest contributed 4 personals and 1 technical. The technical can be seen in the following video, which covers a trash talking session between Kobe Bryant and James Harden.
Looks like it ended in a pretty good-natured discussion. Lord only knows what they were talking about, but I’d like to think they covered everything from beard growing to life lessons. Don’t ever get married, son, and if you do, remember… it’s cheaper to keep her. Words of wisdom from the Bean.
