So after last night’s win over a strong Cavaliers team, I’d confidently say now that the Nets are around the Bucks and Celtics tier and a real contender… which means Kevin Durant (36 MIN, 10-18 FG, 5-8 3PT, 7-8 FT, 9 REB, 5 AST, 4 TO, +10, 32 PTS.) is a legit MVP candidate as well. That being said though, Nets fans can be a tad bit ridiculous. Seeing a lot non-ironic content throwing Steve Nash under the bus and sneakily laying shade on “distractions” no longer affecting the team and all the hate the team has been receiving over these “distractions”. My homies in Brooklyn, y’all ridiculous. Isn’t Steve Nash the type of player-soft coach that KD and Kyrie wanted and forced on the team? Then you have KD’s fragility from being rightly called a bus rider… and of course the anti-semetic and anti-vaccine stuff from Kyrie, as if that wasn’t the most egregious out of all of this… so yeah, Nets are a great team and are playing well and have triumphed over some adversity. And yes, Kyrie Irving is playing well too! (40 MIN, 11-19 FG, 7-11 3PT, 3-4 FT, 4 REB, 5 AST, 3 TO, +16, 32 PTS. Finished 7-out-of-11 from beyond the arc. Happy Hanukkah to him! But it was their own adversity that they so eagerly created by being emotional and/or hateful idiots, so do they really deserve a cookie? No. I want the cookies. It’s the holiday season and I’m in the camp that says Jews don’t have space lasers, so yeah, that deserves cookies I think. Here’s what else I saw during last night’s short slate of games:
John Wall – 26 MIN, 6-11 FG, 4-6 3PT, 5 REB, 5 AST, 1 STL, 5 TO, -26, 16 PTS. Alright, so for those of you only looking at the box score, it’s a tad bit misleading. I mean, except for that atrocious -26… that’s for real. Basically the third quarter was a disaster with the Clippers being outscored 24-48 with Wall subbed in. They went from being up 11 to down 13 against the Pistons. Wall was subbed out, and the team went on a 16-3 run to force overtime and then a 14-3 run in overtime to get the win. So the stats may be looking okay, but he’s not playing great and this may be a normal thing…
Marcus Morris Sr. – 28 MIN, 5-10 FG, 3-7 3PT, 3-4 FT, 6 REB, 1 AST, 1 TO, -14, 16 PTS. Wall and Morris combining for a -40, Batum and Mann combining for a +51, if the last blurb wasn’t enough to drill it home.
Rudy Gobert – 31 MIN, 5-7 FG, 0-2 FT, 8 REB, 2 TO, -14, 10 PTS. Let it be known that that an All-NBA, DPOY center and the player that the T-Wolves mortgaged most of their future for was benched late in a close game for Naz Reid. Hello darkness my old friend.
Orlando Robinson – 27 MIN, 7-9 FG, 1-1 FT, 9 REB, 4 AST, 1 STL, 1 BLK, 1 TO, +4, 15 PTS. It was looking dire there for a second this season but the next undrafted Heat legend finally made his appearance: Congrats to Orlando Robinson!
Tyler Herro – 35 MIN, 7-19 FG, 0-8 3PT, 2 REB, 8 AST, 3 STRL, 3 TO, -3, 14 PTS. Wasn’t just Herro, Heat shot 13-49 for threes as a team. Big yikes. I guess the good news is that Herro went 7-8 inside the arc?
Naz Reid – 29 MIN, 8-15 FG, 1-4 3PT, 4-5 FT, 11 REB, 2 AST, 1 BLK, 3 TO, +13, 21 PTS. When Rudy Gobert, a supermax player, performs worse than $2m Naz Reid…
Anthony Edwards – 40 MIN, 11-16 FG, 5-8 3PT, 2-3 FT, 6 REB, 7 AST, 2 STL, 1 BLK, 8 TO, +0, 29 PTS. Look, I’ve been pretty adamant that Gobert is an issue for this Wolves team, of course not of his own making, but it would actually help if there was someone on this team that could distribute the ball. ANT with 8 TOs and, in addition, Russell with 5 TOs is not the way.
DeMar DeRozan – 41 MIN, 11-18 FG, 0-0 3PT, 9-10 FT, 5 REB, 9 AST, 1 STL, 2 TO, -17, 31 PTS. Embarrassed by the Rockets at home and allowing 133 points on 55% shooting with the entire “Big 3” healthy and playing is pretty underwhelming. I thought the Bulls would be a tad bit better than average and build a little bit from last year in the postseason but I was totally wrong. This team is already a big disapointment and I’m not sure what the answer is right now besides a roster reset…
Alperen Sengun – 32 MIN, 10-12 FG, 1-1 3PT, 4-4 FT, 11 REB, 6 AST, 1 STL, 2 BLK, 4 TO, +24, 25 PTS. Coach Silas needs to stop running 3-center rotations and just play Sengun more. Dude is a legit paint contributor and has a lot of room to grow.
Kevin Porter Jr. – 39 MIN, 14-22 FG, 6-12 3PT, 2-4 FT, 7 REB, 9 AST, 2 TO, +13, 36 PTS. 120 of the Rockets 133 points were scored by players 22 and younger. ZOOMER NATION.
Naji Marshall – 29 MIN, 8-14 FG, 4-9 3PT, 2-2 FT, 6 REB, 4 AST, 1 BLK, 2 TO, +22, 22 PTS. Marshall has had some games like this where you wonder why he’s not starting, but there are an equal amount of games where you wonder the opposite… needs some consistency but there’s definitely something here.
Jusuf Nurkic – 36 MIN, 8-12 FG, 5-7 3PT, 7-10 FT, 15 REB, 6 AST, 2 STL, 3 BLK, 4 TO, +20, 28 PTS. I just awoke from a 20 year coma. Is Jusuf Nurkic the greatest three point shooter of all time?
Terry Rozier – 37 MIN, 2-17 FG, 1-7 3PT, 2-2 FT, 4 REB, 6 AST, 2 TO, -26, 7 PTS. 2-17 is pretty bad. Like, I don’t know what else to say and I’m a man who types words…
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell.
