Josh: Happy Tuesday everyone! Last night we had a pair of games that were tight through much of the second halves before things fell apart for the losing teams late. I am flying today without my wingman today, as Wes is at camp eating candy he stowed away in his bedpost. Enjoy the blob Wesley!
It will just be me. I’ll give some quick thoughts on last night, including my live-blog of the First Quarter of Clippers-Rockets (co-titled the Austin Rivers experience!) and tell you what to watch for tonight. Let’s go!
The NBA MVP was released yesterday, and to no one’s surprise outside of Houston, Wardell Stephen Curry III was named the Kia 2015 Most Valuable Player. Wesley and I have expressed our thoughts on who was deserving of the award (we both thought Curry should win), so I won’t get into it much here. However, I will say that no one on the Warriors deserved a 5th place MVP vote; so the one idiot who put Curry there, stop trying to be cute. And the guy who gave Klay Thompson a 5th place vote was either his dad (maybe he had a vote?) or thought he was voting for best “names that are also inanimate objects”, and put “(Steph) Curry – (Derrick) Rose – (Kemba) Walker – (John) Wall – Klay (Thompson). Otherwise that was ridiculous. But the best player this year won, so we won’t look back in 10 years and say “what were we thinking?” Well ok, we might, but not for this reason!
MVP
The NBA MVP was released yesterday, and to no one’s surprise outside of Houston, Wardell Stephen Curry III was named the Kia 2015 Most Valuable Player. Wesley and I have expressed our thoughts on who was deserving of the award (we both thought Curry should win), so I won’t get into it much here. However, I will say that no one on the Warriors deserved a 5th place MVP vote; so the one idiot who put Curry there, stop trying to be cute. And the guy who gave Klay Thompson a 5th place vote was either his dad (maybe he had a vote?) or thought he was voting for best “names that are also inanimate objects”, and put “(Steph) Curry – (Derrick) Rose – (Kemba) Walker – (John) Wall – Klay (Thompson). Otherwise that was ridiculous. But the best player this year won, so we won’t look back in 10 years and say “what were we thinking?” Well ok, we might, but not for this reason!Last Night
I would like to point out to both of our readers that Wesley picked Cleveland and Houston to win tonight, and he was absolutely WRONG. Wow, that did feel good. I said I thought Chicago would win 99-93, and they won…99-92! Nailed it! I thought the Cavs would have some rotation issues to start off the series, and they certainly did, trying to get away with starting Mike Miller at the 4. Yeah, that didn’t work so well. Miller was -20 in 16 minutes played, only scoring 3 points. Blatt needs to show he can figure this out, and fast, because Chicago now has home court wrested back in their favor.As for the night cap, I got that one right too, picking the Clippers to overcome Paul’s absence and steal one in Houston. With Austin Rivers starting and a pile of homework to ignore, I decided to live-blog the first quarter of the game, because I’m cool like that.
Clippers – Rockets First Quarter Live Blog:
10:39 remaining: 3 blocks in a row; Howard is coming out swatting at everything. Harden is already getting frustrated at the lack of calls on his drives.
9:44 – Austin Rivers plays defense flat-footed. For what it’s worth, he plays offense flat-footed too.
8:19 – After being on the receiving end of a 2-on-1 fastbreak by Harden and Ariza, a minute later Rivers turns a 2-on-1 Clippers fastbreak into a one-man turnover. Nicely done lil’ Doc.
7:09 – Deandre is doing a great job preventing Howard from getting to his spots on the post. He’s standing strong and forcing him to shoot from a foot or so further than he normally would. I think he probably learned some things from Duncan in Round 1
6:26 – Houston already has 5 turnovers; they’re playing almost frantically, and I’m sure Kevin McHale would like them to settle down and get into their offensive sets.
5:46 – Commercial Break. Spalding makes me want to get a basketball hoop, despite my driveway being gravel. I want to shoot a last second shot! They know how to make a commercial, even if it is unoriginal. In other news, NBAtickets.com makes terrible commercials.
4:31 – Trevor Ariza has 11 points in 8 minutes thus far; he’s the only guy hitting shots for the Rockets. They lead 15-12.
3:57 – Josh Smith gets caught up in Ariza raining threes and shoots one of his own from the suburbs. Brick.
3:52 – Lester Hudson checks in! I have never heard of him. They tell me he’s from “Tennessee-Martin”. I guess that’s a school.
2:55 – Crawford drops in 4 quick points, and the Clippers lead 16-15. With Austin Rivers starting at PG. There are no words.
2:18 – An NBA playoff game now has Clint Capela, Lester Hudson, and Pablo Prigioni in it. Capela just scored. Are we sure this is the playoffs? Is it actually a Monday in November and nobody told me?
1:31 – Harden just drafted Blake Griffin down the court like it was NASCAR – first time this game he’s looked like MVP-runner up James Harden
1:02 – Barnes steals the ball from Harden; that’s 9 first quarter turnovers. Has to be how L.A. is within four despite playing Lester Hudson and Austin Rivers 10 of the 11 minutes thus far.
27.5 – 30 seconds after Blake Griffin takes a pull-up 3 pointer over 7-1 Clint Capela, Reggie Miller starts talking about how Blake Griffin has “grown” and “matured” by playing Tim Duncan and the Spurs in the first round. Thanks, Reggie.
3.4 – James Harden just ran out the shot clock, probed the defense, then stepped smoothly behind the 3-point line and drained a 3. Perhaps showing Blake how much he hasn’t matured. But who knows for sure?
0:00 – End of the first. Houston has looked sloppy and Harden has struggled to get going, but because L.A. literally has no bench the Rockets lead 25-19 after one. The Clippers had the #1 offense in the NBA this year; we are seeing just how dependent on Paul that offense really was. I’m guess some people would like to go back and alter their MVP ballots now…
Bonus:
11:37 in the 2nd – Hedo Turkoglu just caught the ball behind the arc, pump-faked Josh Smith (that is, he pumped and Josh Smith didn’t react) then took his dribble, stepped to the side, and drained a contested 3 in Smith’s face. I can’t tell if that was sad or impressive. Is Sadpressive a word? It aptly describes the Clippers’ bench.
The Rockets were unable to contain Blake Griffin the rest of the way, and James Harden didn’t get the calls he was accustomed to in the regular season. With Paul due back either Game 2 or 3, the Rockets look to be in serious trouble. We’ll see how this one plays out. I just hope we get to continue to see Austin Rivers be bad at everything. It’s a lot of fun.And speaking of bad at everything? At one point in the 2nd quarter…our all-star broadcast team says “the Rockets have hit 8 or their last 9 shots” and they promptly throw up a graphic that says Houston is 4 of 6 in the quarter. Uhh….that about sums it up.
What 2 Watch 4
Tonight the 1-5 match-ups hit Game 2, with Steph Curry accepting his MVP award at Oracle Arena after the Wizards attempt to go 6-0 in the playoffs thus far.
Player to Watch: John Wall. The obvious answer is Curry, yes, but he will be around into June so let’s give Johnny some love. He has been a wizard with the ball in his hands this postseason (pun absolutely intended), collapsing the defense and kicking the ball out to open shooters; he’s averaging 19 points and 14 assists his last four games, and neither Toronto or Atlanta seem to have an answer for him. If the Hawks are for real, Game 2 will be a strong win for them; if it’s close or the Wizards win, it could be the end for Atlanta
X-factor: Mike Conley. The Memphis PG told media that he was going to try and play tonight; everyone in the state of Tennessee (well, that likes the NBA and roots for the hometown team) is desperately hoping that’s the case, as without him they have no answer for this Warriors offense. Even with him, I think the Warriors win tonight, but a (somewhat) healthy Conley will be needed to win their home games. If he can make Curry fight for everything and hit some shots on the other end, this Memphis team is talented enough to make this a series.Predictions: I think the home teams win out tonight, with Golden State beating Memphis 106-99, and Atlanta evening the series up against Washington 97-94.
See you guys later in the week!
Wes: You didn’t think I would let Josh do all the talking!
I think in the scope of tonight, I would be looking for more of the same with Washington to beat Atlanta tonight. Washington has a simple mindset here: wintonight and you can take this in 5-6, all depending on the outcome of the first Washington home game.
X Factor: Otto Porter Jr. Does he have a jump shot now? I think he does!! He was so highly regarded out of Georgetown and I think he finally showed up for this team. I don’t think he slows down tonight, as he contributes 14 tonight in another Wizards win!! 98-90.
X Factor: Otto Porter Jr. Does he have a jump shot now? I think he does!! He was so highly regarded out of Georgetown and I think he finally showed up for this team. I don’t think he slows down tonight, as he contributes 14 tonight in another Wizards win!! 98-90.Also, give me the Warriors by 20 tonight. I’m not entertained by the Grizzlies doing anything remotely exciting!
friedcalipari 