Things About Last Night
- I watched a few games of basketball last night, and other than Thunder/Spurs, none were terribly interesting. And even the game I watched wasn’t GOOD, just interesting down the stretch. Combining for 154 points isn’t terribly exciting, considering the Suns put up that many the day before. Nonetheless, nice down the stretch. Kevin Durant is good. The Spurs need Manu back. Blasny blasny, you know the tale.
- Here’s why +/- can be confusing:
I’ll buy that the Spurs starters are better than the Thunder starters. Ergo, all positive for the Spurs starters and all negative for the Thunder starters. But, is the Thunder bench really better than the Spurs bench? Last night, both were pretty terrible. And then at the end of the year, that -12 for Durant counts just as much as the +12 for Kyle Weaver. It’s a strange stat that I don’t think tells us much over the course of a season.
- I have a hard time pegging the Spurs and the Jazz. I don’t feel like I’m really sure about where these teams stand.
It doesn’t seem like the Jazz have been truly healthy, so it’s tough. They aren’t as bad as when they were only an average team at the beginning of this season and they aren’t as good as 12 game winning streak and they’re not as bad as a three game losing streak. This is a team that’s had its desired starting lineup together for all of 10 games this year, and when they’re all healthy and used to playing each other, they’re right near the top of the second tier of teams in the league. But I’m also not entirely convinced that we’ve seen a “normal†team from them.
The Spurs are a little easier, since they’ve been healthier than the Jazz. Of course, they desperately need Ginobili to be ready for the playoffs, and to acclimate Drew Gooden to playing important games again. It’s also impossible to know if the Spurs are even trying. Greg Popovich loves to just let his teams relax and not kill themselves over seeding.
- I can’t believe it, but I still like the Raptors green jerseys. I don’t like the Bulls greens. I don’t like gimmicky uniforms that are clearly a cash grab. I hate it when girls wear pink Cubs hats. But I like those Raptor greens.
[...] Hardwood Paroxysm is confused: “Here’s why +/- can be confusing: I’ll buy that the Spurs starters are better than the Thunder starters. Ergo, all positive for the Spurs starters and all negative for the Thunder starters. But, is the Thunder bench really better than the Spurs bench? Last night, both were pretty terrible. And then at the end of the year, that -12 for Durant counts just as much as the +12 for Kyle Weaver. It’s a strange stat that I don’t think tells us much over the course of a season.” [...]