The Heat and Thunder have two things in common: they’re largely favored to win their respective conferences, and they both entered the day undefeated on the year.
They both lost tonight, these whippersnappers getting whupped by veteran savvy. Vince Carter finished the day against the Thunder with 14 points and 3 assists in 24 minutes at +4. And Tracy McGrady, with a vintage performance (16-7-4, 3/3 3p, +7, 26min), knocked down some big 3s in the 4th quarter against the Heat.
I know one HP writer is particularly happy today.
how perfect it is that TMac is going off on @ScottLeedy's birthday
Being a season ticket holder for a bad team is a curious place to find yourself. You convinced yourself to buy tickets for three reasons: camaraderie, love of the sport, and the team’s promise of a new era. With good friends and a good game, 2/3 of the reasoning still sits atop solid footing. But that promise. Oh yes, that promise.
The Wizards organization has chosen to start this season with a rebranding campaign: new jerseys, new court design, new slogan, new direction. The campaign is called “New Traditions,” and it immediately made me hopeful for the dawning of a new era of Wizards basketball. Just check out this intro:
Pretty cool, huh? Makes you feel like you want to be a part of all this newness, eh? That’s how I felt. Then I went to last night’s Wizards-Celtics tilt (rematch: tonight!). I sat down in my seats, in a sea of red and green (to be fair, there was a lot less green this year, probably because there was some pretty cool new Wizards gear to buy), watched the intro, and then immediately got slammed in the face by mediocrity.
Last night, the Celtics were playing a step slower than their ideal speed. Blame it on NYE hangovers, or adjusting to Pierce being back in the lineup, or being an older team on a compressed season schedule. But they still outplayed the Wizards. The fact is, the Celtics are a better team than the Wizards. They defend better. They move the ball better. They score better. They make it difficult for other teams to score. That’s their style, and that’s their reputation. And even playing below their ideal, they still whomped the Wiz.
The Wiz are afflicted by something I like to call “The Disease of the Long Two.” When the players on this team post up, they score better. However, for some reason, these guys like to avoid penetrating the paint. They ISO or spot up outside the paint, jack up a long two or three, and scurry back on defense. Relatively little ball movement. Often contested. These jumpers are flying, and there’s no stopping them. Are these the plays Saunders draws up? Are the players ignoring the playbook? Are other teams just that much better that they force the Wiz out of sync, cause them to break plays and chuck shots from the other side of the moon off one foot?
There were bright spots, to be sure. Most of them occurred when John Wall decided to get aggressive and get into the paint to draw a foul. But other than that, guards and forwards alike were letting the ball fly from 18+ feet without a care in the world.
I love this team, and I love going to these games. But if these guys don’t start playing up to their potential, my relationship with this team will soon be deemed unhealthy.
On Saturday, Etan “The Bard” Thomas laid into NBA owners in an Op-Ed to ESPN. I’m not going to go into detail about the post (Matt did a great job answer all of Etan’s questions here), but I will point out two things.
1) Etan Thomas does not appear to be a fan of Michael Jordan at this point in time. Two of the questions specifically deal with his (and presumably much of the NBPA and the players’) distaste with how Michael Jordan has been handling his lockout-related tenure as owner of the Bobcats. It was also not lost on many of us readers that there were 23 questions asked.
2) Thomas called out reporters for giving fans “false hope.”
During recent negotiations, reporters continuously tweeted and wrote articles citing “anonymous sources” saying that we were closer to a deal then we actually were, or that progress was being made. Why do reporters keep giving false hope to fans?
Woah, woah, woah, there, Mr. Thomas. This has made me nuts all week. The sports media has never been as friendly to you as they have been throughout this process. You don’t want people questioning why it is that you’re paid as much as you are to play a game? How about you not question the hard work that has proven to be responsible on the part of a group of journalists who wanted to cover you guys actually dribbling and shooting instead of wandering in and out of meetings in sweaters and hoodies? (Not you, Mr. Thomas, your taste in suits has been impeccable. Speaking of which, where’d you get that vest last week?) The NBA media has repeatedly pointed out to the public you’re not the ones who started this, you’re not the ones being unreasonable. So why do you insist on repeatedly coming after them just because it’s convenient? It’s cheap, easy, and reeks of hypocrisy after your comments about not coming after athletes in labor talks just because they’re paid well.
I may be biased here, but I’ve got to side with Matt on this one. Just like that baby in the video, we fans would be crying all the time if we didn’t get our momentary peace of mind. We all have our ways of coping, our tiny things that make us feel better. Some babies listen to Biggie. Some NBA fans need snippets of news that tell them their season will be arriving sooner rather than later. People like hope. And as much as Matt has been on the record for disliking hope, I think we can all agree that the reporters of the lockout have been doing a fantastic job of relaying information, managing expectations, and keeping us all sane. And most of them do it with little to no pizza.
Keep up the good work, reporter-folks. Thanks for doing what you do.
If some ego-destroying miracle were to happen and the lockout ended this week, the league would be pushing for the season to start on December 15th for a 72-game season. The regular season would end a week later than usual, thus pushing the end of the playoffs a week later as well. If more rest time is given for the playoffs, then the Finals could end even later. On the conservative end, we would be looking at the NBA Finals scheduled through the 3rd week of June.
Now on paper, I’d love to see 72 games played + a full set of playoffs that takes me later into the summer and helps me avoid watching the Indians and/or the Nationals strive for mediocrity. Plus after all the waiting, boredom, and stress we basketball fans had to endure during the lockout, it’d be fantastic if the impact on the season’s length was minimal.
However, a 72-game season starting in mid-December is a TERRIBLE idea. Today is November 14th. If the season were to start December 15th, that would mean the league has 31 days to do 1) Free Agency, 2) training camp, and 3) pre-season. Then they’d have to start playing meaningful games. Games that affect playoff and draft positioning. Back to back to back games that would tire starters out to the point where all those people that prefer college basketball to the NBA would be able to point to games being played without defense and say “Hey look! NBA players don’t play defense!” And they’d be right (OH THE HUMANITY)! Because who in their right mind, with being as tired as they would be, wouldn’t save some energy on a jog back downcourt? Kurt Helin said it best:
What we saw in 1999 was guys who got tired and it showed more on the defensive end. Basically, things got sloppy. This is a longer version of that so expect more guys missing games with minor injuries, and expect some stretches of play where coaches will want to burn the tape (if they still used tape).
Starting a season too quickly after a lockout also means that players that normally would have been in the care of arguably the world’s best physical trainers are coming back to play without being fully recovered from the past season. Just ask Chris Cooley, an athlete whose sport also underwent a lockout this past year:
I feel 100 percent that I’m a casualty for the season of the lockout… I think it was a shame that they didn’t let players who had surgery spend time with the doctors and trainers they trust on daily basis, I wish I could’ve.
A similar season-condensing mistake was made because of the 1999 lockout, and asterisk-loving critics everywhere don’t give that season and its accolades due credit. Oh, and lets not forget that extending the playoffs later into June reduces the amount of training time that USA Basketball gets before the London Olympics begin on July 27th.
As much as it pains me to say it, this is too much basketball over too few months. I prefer quality over quantity. I like getting bang for my buck. I’m a reasonable man. Get off my case.
via Consequence of Sound, here are the dates so far:
02/27 – Miami, FL @ American Airlines Arena
02/29 – Tampa, FL @ St. Pete Times Forum
03/01 – Atlanta, GA @ Philips Arena
03/03 – Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
03/05 – Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
03/07 – Austin, TX @ Frank Erwin Center
03/09 – St. Louis, MO @ Scottrade Center
03/11 – Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
03/13 – Broomfield, CO @ 1stBank Center
03/15 – Glendale, AZ @ Jobing.com Arena
There are two things to glean from this list:
1) Radiohead loves small markets in the Central and Mountain time zones.
2) The dates in the larger markets fall firmly within the NBA season.
Now, the dates may not match up exactly with NBA game nights, but it certainly is a gut-check to those of us who were looking forward to an NBA schedule in those months (though I’ll still be looking forward to Radiohead coming to DC during that tour).
Bonus annoyance! According to my good friend @JeffreyMervosh, the “online transaction” fees for purchasing tickets are at least as high as $17.25, on top of $60-ish ticket prices. (Perhaps arena owners and their ticket distributors are trying to offset costs from lack of NBA ticket sales. That’s pure speculation, but I’m OK with admitting that.)
(H/T @LeeStuck, for the CoS article, getting me into Radiohead, and bringing the NBA back into my life after a long hiatus)
