I’m sitting on my bed with the computer in my lap. Son number one is web-surfing in his room. Son number two is doing the Jimi Hendrix thing in his. Mom is downstairs watching whatever on the HDTV with Tivo, and using her laptop….
It’s a full life, but a very electronic one.
It’s been a light blogging week because of all the pre-season Phillies stuff and the year’s first edition of the labor-intensive track honor roll for Sunday’s paper, so join me, won’t you, in a hoop-dense Friday night at home….
While CBS was wasting time in the studio, I checked out the Sixers at home against Phoenix. A win here - and they’re getting killed by the Suns as this is written - would by Philly’s 20th in their last 25 games. Haven’t had a chance to write much about the Sixers’ surge, even though I covered their game with the Spurs a couple weeks back…..
When did Clark Kellogg devolve into Mr. Banal and Obvious? I used to sorta like him. Seth Davis has a vague game-show host vibe, but he’s Hunter Thompson compared to Kellogg…
Davidson-Wisconsin from that goofy arena in Detroit. Both these teams are really well-coached, and the Badgers don’t appear to have an edge in raw athleticism, so this figures to go to the wire. Davidson is playing fairly straight man-to-man, right on the ball on the perimeter, switching on screens and occasionally trapping in a corner. Wisconsin doesn’t seem to have anybody who can just slash right through it and get his own shot. The Badgers are pretty mechanical- the switching is giving them mismatches at times and they aren’t taking enough advantage.
Curry, who plays with an almost leisurely poise but never stops looking for screens and knows how to use them, scored 11 (three 3s) in the first 10 minutes or so. Now almost every Wildcat has seemingly made a three. Davidson up one with the half running out, and the Badgers get Butch fouled off a high screen with 4 ticks left… look for more of that in the second half.
Anyway: the Sixers. Watching their summer-league team I was amazed by the quickness of Lou Williams and Thaddeus Young and Rodney Carney, etc. I figured that was just because I don’t see NBA guys up close very often. It turns out the Sixers are maybe the quickest team in the league.
Young in particular has been a revelation- he somehow wasn’t even an outstanding college player in one year at Ga. Tech., but he has this unique, almost old-school game. He rebounds, defends, scores around the basket, runs intelligently without the ball… He’s shooting like 54 percent from the field and is one on the league leaders in plus/minus in the context of minutes…
It’s all good. I really think they could beat Cleveland in a series. Maybe even Detroit. Orlando is a bad matchup and the Celtics are too good, especially defensively.
Just one thing- When Ed Stefanski got the job as GM, he from all reports essentially told Cheeks who to play and how to play. Cheeks undoubtedly deserves credit for facilitating the changes, but doesn’t he deserve some blame for not installing them himself? I like Mo as much as anybody, but that he deserves coach-of-the-year votes is a reach.
Back at the Dance- Wisconsin and Davidson are tied at the half…. Texas leads Stanford by seven- Billy Packer just compared DJ Augustin to Chris Paul. I don’t think that’s overblown, if we’re taking about Paul as a college player. Paul is in another solar system right now, but I can see no reason why Augustin can’t be a terrific pro…
By the way- who’s your NBA MVP?
It’s not Kobe. He might be the best player in the world, but he’s not the most versatile. He doesn’t do the make-your-teammates-better thing. KG is terrific, but as we saw in the Sixers’ remarkable win at Boston the other night, he’s not quite a go-to scorer at the end of games.
That leaves Paul and LeBron. Steve Nash won the last two MVPs, and Paul is Nash if Nash could guard Dwayne Wade. Also, I’m starting to come around to the idea that point guards in the NBA are in some ways analagous to quarterbacks in the NFL, and the best QB in the NFL is almost by definition its true MVP.
Except that in addition to everything else LeBron is his team’s point guard, when necessary. More than any of the other candidates, he flat-out carries his team- the Cavs would be the Knicks without him. He’s even playing defense now. He’s about 90 percent of what Paul is, 98 percent of what Kobe is, plus maybe 95 percent of what Tracy McGrady (for example) is. He’s the MVP. Glad we got that straightened out.
Back in Detroit, Davidson is up five, and has had the better of it in the second half. The Cats are just the quicker, bouncier team, which is amazing. As a university Davidson is much more like F&M than the Big Ten…
Whoa… Curry is suddenly going nuts, eight points in like a minute on a tough two off the glass and two kick-out threes. He has 23, and his team is up nine, with 13 minutes left. I can’t believe Wisconsin isn’t doing more to deny him the ball. Bo Ryan is a great college coach, but maybe he’s a “system” guy. I’ve got to believe Tom Izzo (for example), who’s more of an NBA-style matchup-oriented coach, would find a better way to deal with Curry and attack Davidson’s smallish, so-so front line.
The Sixers are getting pounded, down 19 in the middle of the third quarter. The glass-half-full take is they’ve had a couple other games like this in the last month or so- at Orlando, at Boston - and shook them right off… Back on CBS, Curry just drilled an NBA-length three with the shot clock waning. Davidson’s up 15, and I really think it’s over…
Here come your Sixers, within 10 late third quarter… The Suns go right to Shaq, who scores easily. He’s in the best shape he’s been in years. Now Shaq bricks two free throws- Bob Salmi brings up the mini-ball argument - “Go out in your driveway and try to make 15-footers with one of those mini-balls… That’s what a real ball is like in Shaq’s hands.” There may be something to that argument, but the problem with it is Shaq at his peak had a tremendous shooting touch in the post, and he could never shoot foul shots. Neither could Wilt, of course.
Texas is now up 10 on Stanford. Billy Packer, who’s been having a good night from what I’ve seen, just said that Rick Barnes told him his team got a lot out of a scrimmage with Davidson, which Barnes said handled the Longhorns. Curry has now scored an insane 78 points in his three tournament games… in the second halves alone. He’s done for the night with 33. Cinderella’s rolling, up 17 in the final minute…. Texas is also running Stanford out, up 20 in the last minute….
Both early games were routine near-blowouts. The third round used to be called the coaches’ round, because of the extra time to prepare. For what it’s worth, in both games, it seemed like one side did more opponent-specific adjustments, and that side won. Also: guard play was decisive. The bottom line may simply be that quickness scored two clear knockouts over size.
Was there ever a TV commercial so annoying or tasteless or otherwise unappealing that the sight of it made you immediately, desperately grab for the remote? That Taco Bell commercial with people pulling strings of cheese out of their mouths almost literally makes me nauseous. In fact, Taco Bell almost literally makes me nauseous, but that may be because the one in my neighborhood is grubby, gives comically bad service and appears to be staffed by the cast of a Kevin Smith movie.
On the other hand, I dig those E-trade spots with the baby stock trader, especially the one where he’s rented a clown with his dividends, even though they involve spit-up. I thought those were easily the best ads on the Super Bowl, and nobody else even mentioned them. Go figure.
Sixers lost by 14 and, at least for the moment, fell to the seven seed in the East… Late NCAA games, Kansas-Villanova and Memphis-Michigan State, coming up….
On its first possession, Nova’s Scottie Reynolds misses two jumpers, one an airball. Its second possession looks utterly conventional, and Dante Cunningham scores on the block. Once in a great while they’ll do that.
Again with the Taco Bell melty cheese…. Is melty even a word?…
Nova has pounded the ball into the post more in the first five minutes of this game than they have, when I’ve seen them, in the past three years. Interesting that they’d use that approach against this of all opponents. Kansas is up 17-8 and looking very powerful, very balanced.
This would be blasphemy in Philly, but I just don’t think much of Jay Wright as a tactical, X-and-O coach. Defensively, Nova is just chasing the ball around. That’s a dubious approach against a team that shares the ball as much, and passes it as well, as the Jayhawks. Lob, dunk, etc…. It’s 24-10.
Bill James on “60 Minutes”? I’m proud to be an American…. Sasha Kahn sounds like a pop star, not a lumbering-but-active big man….
Maybe I’ve been too hard to Wright and Villanova. The perimeter trapping has worked at times, and they’ve thrown in some zone to decent effect. They’re just not good enough for Kansas, which leads by 19 at the half. Memphis, underrated, is giving Michigan State a similar thrashing. There’s actually a good chance all four number one seeds get through, and I actually hope that happens. Those would be some monstrous national semis. Kansas-North Carolina? Yikes…
The laptop is burning up my lap. I’m out, at least for a while. Tomorrow, if time permits, we’ll go live from from the Phillies and Blue Jays in Philly…..
