2010%20December%202%2022%201%2044
So we see...
(via 30fps)

Well, now that the LeBron Revenge Game is done and no actual revenge was anywhere to be seen, can we all just please move on with our lives? Cleveland still has a shot at winning another championship, right? Look at the Indians! Oh. Well, how about the Browns? Oh. Well, nevermind.

Tweet of the day, courtesy of DJ Gallo and the good people at SportsPickle:

sportspickle-tweet
Getting away from basketball for a minute... (Me? Get off topic? Never!) You know, I still have Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus on my DVR. I suppose I should watch it so I can prepare myself for this: Mega-Shark vs. Crocosaurus, featuring Jaleel White.

"Did I do that?"


Worst of the Night in Pictures:

Heat Cavaliers Basketball
Okay, who replaced LeBron with a cheaply made action figure?


20101202-craig-sager
Even when he wears "normal" suits, Craig Sager still sticks out like a sore thumb


20101202-lebron-signs
Okay, I'll admit it, the top right sign made me chuckle


62680636
Awkwaaaaaaaard...


Nationally Televised Friday Games:
Bulls at Celtics, ESPN, 8pm: So the Bulls finally get Carlos Boozer healthy, and promptly lose. Bench him!!! Bench him!!!!

Mavericks at Jazz, 10:30pm: Did you know both teams are riding 7 game winning streaks? Of course you didn't. LeBron doesn't play for either team, so who cares???

(Yes, those last couples items I wrote were meant to be sarcastic, just in case I didn't make it clear enough. It's hard to tell sometimes with the NBA being as ridiculous as it is...)

All The Other Friday Games:
Frail Blazers at Wizards Generals, 7pm: I'm almost scared to preview this game. Both teams have been so riddled with injuries lately that I'm afraid I'll snap a tendon or two just by being associated with them in any way, shape, or form.

Thunder at Craptors, 7pm: The Other Chris chimed in with this fantastic news in the WOTN comments:
Another Bawful field trip tonight, a friend invited me to the game. This is more along the lines of watch a good team (Thunder) destroy a bad team (Mighty Dinos!).

Should have a prop bet about which Raptor(s) Westbrook will dunk on. Probably all of them. Simultaneously. Good thing I'll be drinking heavily.
Good thing, indeed.

Nyets at Bobcraps, 7pm: Ah, the game where entertaining basketball goes to die.

76ers at Hawks, 7:30pm: It's a battle of Eastern conference powerhouses! Or the exact opposite of that.

Magic at Pistons, 7:30pm: Accuscore gives the Pistons a 38% chance of winning this game. That good a chance? Wow.

Knicks at Hornets, 8pm: Fantastic opening to the STATS LLC game preview that provides some good perspective: "The last time the New York Knicks won six straight road games, first-year New Orleans coach Monty Williams was a rookie playing for New York. The Knicks will try to accomplish that feat Friday night when they try to hand Williams' Hornets a rare home loss."

Rockets at Grizzlies, 8pm: The good news this year for the Rockets is that they win when Shane Battier puts up points. The Rockets are 4-2 when Battier drops a dozen or more points, but they're a whopping 2-10 in other games. The bad news? Battier has averaged just over 8 ppg against the Grizzlies, the team that originally drafted him.

Timberwolves at Spurs, 8:30pm: The last time we saw the Spurs in action, they got humbled by the Clippers. The friggin' Clippers! I can pretty much guarantee you that San Antonio will NOT come into this game as unprepared and lethargic.

Clippers at Nuggets, 9pm: Hey, speaking of the Clippers, it's time for them to return to being who we thought they were.

Pacers at Suns, 9pm: The last time the Pacers traveled to Phoenix back in March last season, the game had two fights and eight technical fouls. Since when did the intensity for some damn Pacers game reach the level of a San Antonio/Phoenix playoff game?

Kings at Lakers, 10:3pm: If there is any game that the Lakers can use to stop their losing streak, it has to be this one, right? Then again, Pau Gasol is sitting out this game to rest his left hamstring...

* * *

Nationally Televised Saturday Games:
Magic at Bucks, NBA TV, 8:30pm: You know that NBA on ESPN commercial where they have to stop the RV because Bango the Bucks mascot runs across the road? They're going to have to reshoot that and have Bango get run over if the Bucks keep losing.

All The Other Saturday Games:
Hawks at Heat, 7:30pm: And back to reality for LeBron and Co.

Bobcraps at 76ers, 7:30pm: This game is such a waste of time, you'd be better off watching this.

(I seriously have no idea what the hell this is. I saw it randomly linked on Twitter and have been mesmerized by it)

Rockets at Bulls, 8pm: All right! I can't wait to watch Hakeem and MJ battle! Oh, wait...

Cavaliers at Timberwolves, 8pm: This game has a lot of potential to be entertainingly close but terribly executed, almost like a college basketball game without the enthusiastic crowds.

Mavericks at Kings, 10pm: Another loss in the Purple Paupers record books. Sigh.

* * *

Nationally Televised Sunday Games:
Hornets at Spurs, NBA TV, 7pm: Well, we wanted a true test of how good these teams are. This is as good a chance as any.

All The Other Sunday Games:
Celtics at Nyets, 1pm: Will Boston remember to take the Nyets seriously this time? After last year's debacle, I don't trust them.

Knicks at Craptors, 1pm: Crappy crap crap.

Cavaliers at Pistons, 6pm: Unwatchable. Honestly. Who can sit down and watch more than five minutes of this game without losing his mind? Dribble, dribble, dribble, bricked shot, ugly scramble for rebound, dribble, dribble, lazy pass deflected out of bounds. Rinse, repeat.

Warriors at Thunder, 7pm: At least this game will be entertaingly uptempo, even if it's not a good game.

Grizzlies at Nuggets, 8pm: Fun fact: Renaldo Balkman has played a total of 14 minutes over 2 games this year for the Nuggets, and has managed a mind-blowing PER number of -1.1 in the process. Where does that rank on Hollinger's PER scale? That's somehow an even worse PER than an inanimate carbon rod could achieve.

Wizards Generals at Suns, 8pm: Stats that should be surprising to absolutely nobody that reads this blog: the Suns are 1st in points per game, 8th in assists, 29th in rebounds, and 30th in points allowed. Some things just never change.

Clippers at Frail Blazers, 9pm: Pardon the Interruption recently debated the chances of Blake Griffin injuring himself on one of his spectacular dunks. Come on. Why debate? He's a Clipper. The odds are like 8000%.

Labels: , ,

59 Comments:
Blogger draftaraujo said...
I was at this game, the building shook with boo's every time he touched the ball

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1krShfhZQ-U&feature=player_embedded

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
BAD = Rotton Tomatoes 0% Masterpiece Theatre

Blogger Dan B. said...
AnacondaHL -- Otherwise known as my DVD rack.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
There are so many middle fingers, I'm loosing count, in Lyin Kings garbage opening ritual photo.

Anonymous Czernobog said...
The Jozin Z Bazin video is off the hook. Must find out more.

Anonymous kazam92 said...
Just noticed that Russell Westbrook will be guarded by Jose Calderon...



I expect 54-12-11-3stls.

Blogger Solieyu said...
I would be deliriously happy if Urkel somehow steps into that goofy transformation machine at some point during the movie and comes out as Rambo.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Five is a difficult number to count to.

Blogger b r christensen said...
lol@okc

Blogger Mad King Ludwig said...
Andrea Bargnani got his first double-double of the season as a 7 foot center; totally fucking bawful.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Another Bawful field trip tonight, a friend invited me to the game. This is more along the lines of watch a good team (Thunder) destroy a bad team (Mighty Dinos!).

Should have a prop bet about which Raptor(s) Westbrook will dunk on. Probably all of them. Simultaneously. Good thing I'll be drinking heavily.
----------

hey tell us about that awesome Thunder beat down please please please

Blogger LotharBot said...
Scott Hastings, Nuggets TV guy and quote machine: "I know my response [to the Cavs game]: Cavs ought to grow something. I'm not gonna say what."

Anonymous Anonymous said...
You forgot to mention Brian Scalabrine's unanticipated return to Boston

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Reggie Evans stole all his damn rebounds lol. He stole EVERYONE's rebounds

Blogger stephanie g said...
re: Scalabrine, I can't remember the last time I saw a crowd boo the refs for giving a foul to a guy on the other team.

Anonymous kazam92 said...
^
So true. I wanted him to jack up a 3

Anonymous Shiv said...
Just saw this on ESPN! First 15 seconds. Kobe elbowing Sasha, in practice. Bawfulness!!!

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5881133

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Dallas up by 15 on the Jazz in the 4th. Wonder how this is gonna end...

Blogger Brigadier Ketchup said...
In the background/stands of that LeBron/Chalk picture, a fan is holding a sign that reads, "11-8? Looks like you left your talents in Cleveland!"

I'd take that as best anti-LeBron sign over the "not terribly fond"/Best wings USA emo guy any day.

Blogger Brigadier Ketchup said...
@Stephanie:

"re: Scalabrine, I can't remember the last time I saw a crowd boo the refs for giving a foul to a guy on the other team."

Really? That's awesome. Gotta love Scal. Although, if Garnett and Allen had never come to the Cs, I don't think Scal would be as beloved, or have stuck around so long.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
JOZIN Z BAZIN is an old song from former Czechoslovakia sung in Czech language, sounds quite amusing (I am Polish and I understand a word or two, let alone the fact that Czech language sounds pretty funny itself),this song was a smashing hit in former Czechoslovakia, it was rediscovered by Polish tevision on youtube some 2 years ago and whole Poland went crazy about it.

BTW: GO KNICKS!!!!

Anonymous The Other Chris said...
Thunder roll into Toronto and.. get soundly thrashed by the Dinos in the second half for a relatively easy win?!? And as noted the Italian not-rebounding machine had a double-double? I'm confused and frightened.

The Raptors played.. stifling defence and held the Thunder to 40 points in the second half? K seriously guys, is reality a giant practical joke? Apparently the Thunder's offence is completely predicated on Kevin Durant, as no one could throw it in the vicinity of the round orange metal thing in the second half. Westbrook was pretty assy, and no one else was doing anything else out there.

Meanwhile the Dinos fast breaked that ball right down their lethargic throats, easy basket after fast break dunk. Sonny Weems was a one-man highlight reel.

This team looks moderately competent right now. Dare we dream of things like the 8th seed in the Leastern Conference, and earning the privilege and honour of getting violently sodomized by Boston or Orlando in the first round? Time will tell.

Ed Davis looks solid too. Kid has freakishly long arms.. reminds me a little of Keon Clark, minus the drinking problem. Soft hands, good finisher. Jerryd Bayless is fitting in well and looks great too.

OK cool I just stat cursed them into a 17-game losing streak. Whee!

Anonymous Barry said...
You know which game I'll be able to watch on TV here in Holland on Sunday?

Knicks. At the Raptors.

Kill me now.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Love seeing the rivalry between Noah and KG. Hate Noah but at least he has a pair and steps up, even to just receive an ass kicking.

The Cavs, on the other hand rolled over and let LeBitch prison rape them. Have never been that disappointed in a team I have so little interest in. Even if they could not compete, showing a little toughness would have gone a long way towards gaining some respect.

Anonymous Shiv said...
WotN nomination for Maurice Evans who was minus-23 in 27 minutes for the Hawks...who WON by 5! How the heck does THAT happen?!

Anonymous Czernobog said...
@The Other Chris:

Are you really that surprised? With the Thunder coming off a triple overtime game?

These guys have already won tougher matchups than that.

Hell, They might even avoid a sweep by a narrow margin when the time comes.

Anonymous Brian said...
Truly bawful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcTHP2K1ZWY&feature=related

Anonymous Ian said...
To add to what the Other Chris said:

I've been saying to everyone who's been willing to listen (which is no one really) that these Raptors are not any worse and in fact are probably better than last year's team.

Bosh was a talented player, but he killed the ball movement, didn't always run the break if he wasn't getting the ball and relied way too much on his jump shot.

This team (with the exception of Barbosa, who to be fair had a great game against the Thunder) is buying in to the concept of sharing the ball and swinging it around. They have some good shooters, Weems has been a lot better than I expected him to be and getting rid of Jack was the best thing they could have done.

Bargnani will never average 10 (or even 8) rebounds a game but he can shoot the lights out and has on many games carried the team offensively. Opposing Cs have no hope in guarding him because of his ridiculous range from beyond the arc. I have faith that Ed Davis will emerge as competent starter, Amir Johnson may not be worth his contract but he hustles his ass off out there, Calderon is a good facilitator and team leader and DeRozan has the potential to be something special if he is able to develop a reliable jump shot.

They still don't really play defense all that much and aren't able to compete with the top teams in the league, but they have played some tight games against good teams (Lakers, Celtics, Heat(define good I guess)) and even took one from the Celtics.

I would be disapointed if this team didn't make the playoffs.

Anonymous Czernobog said...
I only just realised Howard DNP'd against the Pissed-ons. Destination Doom.

Anonymous Czernobog said...
@Ian: Actually, Amir Johnson is worth every penny of his contract, which is starting to look like the most sensible one offered last summer.

His production is off the charts in terms of efficiency and he's easily our best defensive player night in and night out. The only reason this isn't obvious yet to the whole of raptors fandom and anyone in the league paying attention is the staff's love affair with Reggie's ability to grab balls.

Honestly, barring the injury Jose will inevitably suffer, these Craptors are probably a 35+ win team. Which in the leastern conference is worth a playoff berth.

It's worth considering that they've had a brutal schedule to start the season, and have only been blown out twice, while getting wins against some very good teams. They're just better than the sum of their parts thanks to their chemistry and effort.

And their parts are mostly young guys with room to develop.

Anonymous jj said...
^^
pistons fan here..
i turned off midway through the 3rd.. if you lose against a team missing 3 of its 6 (or 7) best players and let one of the 8 guys remaining have a career night..
well, destination doom, indeed.

and lets not forget that detroit totally owned orlando not too long ago

Anonymous The Other Chris said...
@Ian

I thought they would be moderately worse than last year, but not as significantly as many of the so-called experts believed. A lot of people had Toronto as the worst team in the league which I always thought was total horse manure. We will be better than the likes of the Timperpups, Nyets, Clippers, and Purple Paupers (sorry chris..)

I am warming up to this group fast. Barbosa is a joy to watch on offence, so creative and slippery. Whoever green lighted that trade must be some combination of blind, illiterate, and mentally retarded. They play damn hard most nights, and agreed that Sonny has been much, much better than expected.

The defence and lack thereof are still very troubling, but as I noted they looked really, really solid last night in the second half. When they're creating turnovers and blocking shots we can compete with anyone in this league, because we got the horses to outrun you the other way.. which would explain why Toronto is leading the league in fast break points, an astonishing stat.

Let's hope we keep the effort and intensity up against the Knicks. The Pacers game next week will be a tough one, they have been playing extremely well as of late themselves and are definitely the class of the dregs of the Leastern.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
amir johnson is the mvp of per 36

too bad he fouls twice a minute

Blogger Jason D said...
Wow, I'm forced to spend a week with no internet and I come back to find the Lakers lost 4 in a row?! I know I'm late to the party and they just beat the Kings but 4 in a row?! That's just pathetic!

I, like everyone else, did notice Kobe's ridiculous spike in shots taken, which would have been fine if he made most of them.

Ah well, I suppose every team goes through a rough patch. I need Miami to lose again to feel better about myself...

Blogger Solieyu said...
Looks like Miami has this one in the bag. They blew a big lead in the third, but looks like they may hold on to win. Wade, Heat, and Bosh are pretty close to outscoring the entire Hawks roster this game. Granted, no Iso-Joe but I think the Hawks might be better off without him stagnating the offense.

Game over. Hawks outscore big three by... 2 points. LeBron scored 11 of his 22 points at the charity stripe. I think we have a Basketbawful word for that. Looking at the box score, there was a whole lot of not passing in this game. Only 31 assists total for both squads combined.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Darko had a +/- of +41. I think my brain snapped.

Blogger chris said...
Purple Paupers: the slump-busters of this Association.

:facepalm:

Jason D: Ah well, I suppose every team goes through a rough patch. You mean, in the case of Sacramento's "basketball" team, a permanent year-to-year stretch of fail that may be the thing that encourages the Maloofs to call up Mayflower Vans?

CAPTCHA: "imping" as in "Without the L at the beginning, this word doesn't quite describe how ambulatory the Frail Blazers aren't."

Anonymous Swayze said...
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/Jason-Whitlock-The-Miami-Heat-are-starting-to-put-it-together-120410

Jason Whitlock uses his first article ever that does not involve some kind of racial debate subplot to tongue clean the anus of the Heat who are on a 4 game win streak. You do know they just beat 3 of the crappiest teams in the league and the most overrated team(atlanta) without their most overrated player(ISO Joe)

also I give a WOTN(possible season) mention to FoxSports. This used to be a bullshit site with entertainment value and some semi decent Charley Rosen gameplay breakdowns. It is now a even shittier Miami Heat and Lakers Blog. Now I am a big Laker fan but I also happen to know that there are 29 more teams in the league... some of them are actually better and more interesting than the heat.

Anonymous Czernobog said...
Does this count as man-love? because it looks kind of one-sided. Weems clearly isn't as interested in a cuddle as Maynor.

http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/4328/sonnyml.png

Anonymous Sean said...
Re: Best Lebron signs...I don't know if a camera caught it for TNT, but some comedic genius was waving a "We should have drafted Darko sign" at the Q on Thursday night. I was the single best sign in the history of signs.

Anonymous Ian said...
@Czernobog and Chris

Without a doubt Amir Johnson is the best defender on the team and extremely efficient, his ability to hit that midrange jumper when left open is deadly. I like him coming off the bench and providing that effort 20-25 minutes per game. I agree that Reggie, rebounding machine as he may be, is probably not the best option since he isn't a great defender and has absolutely no offensive game. Personally I'd rather see Davis starting at the 4 so he can get some experience. He is hopefully our 4 of the future.

We do have some terrible defensive lapses at times but I can see a definite improvement over last year and I am convinced that is because Bosh is a shit defender.

I think this year's team is going to prove that Bosh wasn't all that much of a franchise player for us since we're at least evenly as good without him. In fact last year after 19 games, we were 7-12, this year, 8-11. Then again, Bosh has proven he isn't anywhere near a franchise player with Miami anyways so he doesn't need the Raptors to do that for him.

Anonymous Czernobog said...
@Sean: Being able to wear that on a T-shirt would almost be worth being a Cavs fan.

Blogger Eugene said...
This is becoming quite the craptors love-in. Which I approve of, as both a fan or raptors and of bawful.

One of the beautiful things about the cavs revenge game is that they started Joey Graham, and jamario moon was his backup. What's more bawful than trying to defend lebron with raptor rejects?

Anonymous kazam92 said...
Heat lose in peoples eyes no matter what happens.

We suck so we beat bad teams. We only beat bad teams so we beat a team over .500. We beat that team, they are missing their "best" player. We play Utah on Wednesday so if we somehow beat them (I do doubt it), please tell me what excuse will be thrown


They're playing better. Not fantastic but better.

Blogger winnetou said...
In non heat-related news, Report: NBA looking into buying Hornets

Blogger zyth said...
@ kazam92 :
the heat had dampier.that's my excuse ^^

Anonymous Swayze said...
@kazam92

No worry we will not need an excuse. Well the only one I can think of is a headline that sounds something like this

"Williams, Jefferson and Millsap killed in carcrash on way to Heat game."

Anonymous Swayze said...
I have to share this comment from a Foxsports post on how smart Thibodeau was to decide to coach the Bulls rather than the Nyets


"Sure enough, the highly-regarded Thorn soon left the Nets for the Sixers, where he is now president, and Thibodeau now looks like a genius for deciding to take his first head coaching job with a point guard who is making the rise to elite status."

Do you really have to be a genius to decide that coaching the Nyets is not a smart move?

Anonymous Czernobog said...
@Kazam 92:

The Heat are playing better, no doubt about it. But you can't fault the blogosphere for trying to counterbalance the syndicated media. Who do have a vested interest in building teams like the Heat up.

In unrelated news, hooray for another WotW containing the Raptor Mascot fail video.

Blogger David Landon said...
If only the NBA would do with the Clippers what they're going to do with the Hornets.

Blogger Brigadier Ketchup said...
Sports journalists love crowning common decisions as "genius" for some reason.

Blogger Jason D said...
Chris,

It does help when your team has good players ;). Unfortunately, the Paupers don't exactly have a stacked roster. But I know what it feels like to be a fan of a losing team. Every other team I support besides the Lakers have been in a world of suck for the last 2-4 years, or have always been in that middle area and just can't get over the hump.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
holy shit! does the camera _really_ add ten pounds or is eddy curry just way fatter than normal?

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/2010/12/04/2010-12-04_new_york_knicks_coach_mike_dantoni_wont_rush_embattled_center_eddy_curry.html

quoth d'antoni: "I don't think he's ready yet to go up and down continuously"

i agree

Anonymous The Other Chris said...
Well, the Toronto love-fest promptly stat-cursed them into today's crapfest. Let's hold off on planning the championship parade for the time being, guys... ugh.

Also, that Frail Blazers/Clippers game that just ended needs a big, fat WOTW mention. "Highlights" included:

- Frail Blazers pissing away a 22 point to the Clip squad
- Atrociously bad free throw shooting by the Clippers. Griffin 7-16, Clips 24-41. Did they hire Chris Dudley as a special consultant or something? Ummm..
- Clippers force a turnover late in the game down 3, have a 3 on 1.. turn it right back over.
- Clippers immediately turn it over again the following possession
- Craig Smith losing his mind and getting tossed for a second T after a fairly run-of-the-mill hard foul/flagrant by Rudy Fernandez.
- Baron Davis' general shotjackery and fatassedness.
- Home cookin' of the Portland announcers.. they might be worse than Boston!!

Just a terrible game. Said homecookin' announcers remarked at the end of the game "Just needed a win.. sometimes, you gotta take Ugly Betty to the prom!" Huh?

The Cleveland/Detroit game also hurt my eyes. JJ Hickson you should not be shooting jumpshots. Ever. Anthony Parker airballed a three. Oh, the Bawful... it burns, it burns!!

Anonymous kazam92 said...
Yeah I'll admit fellas, media can go F themselves. I myself am hating all this attention and almost yearn for the days of being only semi-relevant. The 06 team will always be infinitely more valuable to me no matter what this team does



In other news, anyone watching Stoudamire? Bawful and others were leary of him but he's been beasting, actually rebounding and blocking as well as pouring the points, and Felton might have an all-star berth himself. Knicks?

Anonymous OneZero said...
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/photo?slug=ap-635ef3b84dc0443b9aee2c8f9329b7c9#photoViewer=urn%3Anewsml%3Asports.yahoo%2Cap%3A20050301%3Anba%2Cphoto%2Cap-1a52641b40de4f5db18e164f12ced364%3A1

just want to share the pic..

Anonymous Czernobog said...
@Anon:

Holy shit. Not ready to go up and down? To paraphrase John Pinette, I don't think he does "ups" at all.

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
STAT is in the rarer form of contract year, meaning the contract year of potential free agents he is attempting to woo to his team.

Blogger Danilo Augusto said...
About the weekend all I wanna know is when will people start talking about the spurs going 72-10 this season.

And Melo is acting like those women who fake headaches so they don't need to sleep with you. 14-for-51 in the past three games? Come on this must be the longest flu he had in the whole life.