Basketball from a fan perspective
Luka
Legend
Remember how the media changed
Larry Bird’s name to Larry Legend? Well
I officially changed Luka Doncic to Luka Legend. His Mav team down one point in the waning
seconds of OT, Legend’s 3-point basket led to a 135-133 win over the
Clippers. Once I heard Kristaps
Porzingis was a late game scratch, I thought these Mavs are in big time trouble.
This was no unguarded shot Kawhi Leonard was on Legend and in a switch, Reggie Jackson took over. Legend finished the game with 43 points and 17 rebounds along with 13 assists. Trey Burke scored 25 and Tim Hardaway Jr. had 21 more than making up for the MIA Porzingis, the series is now tied 2 games to 2. Game 5 is scheduled to Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
This was no unguarded shot Kawhi Leonard was on Legend and in a switch, Reggie Jackson took over. Legend finished the game with 43 points and 17 rebounds along with 13 assists. Trey Burke scored 25 and Tim Hardaway Jr. had 21 more than making up for the MIA Porzingis, the series is now tied 2 games to 2. Game 5 is scheduled to Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
“LeBron
has that look again”
With minutes remaining in the
Lakers-Blazer game I received the text message above from a friend. He went on to say, “I have seen it before”
and I texted back, “Yes, he needs it the Blazers are no joke.” His response, “That look of we better play or
else” and LeBron’s stat line certainly proved it. 38 points, 12 rebounds plus 8 assists and
tough hard nose defense for a 35-year old guy and playing with a groin injury.
As for the look my
description is simple, it says “Dammit we might not win this series but we
ain’t losing this particular game.” AD,
Anthony Davis was also a force with 29 points, 12 rebounds and he matched
LeBron with 8 assists. The Blazer
backcourt of Dame and McCollum was outstanding overall Team Blazer shot 41%
from the floor while Team Laker it was 50%.
The rebound total was Lakers 55, Blazers 38 and in the assist department
it was 26 for the Lakers and 17 for the Blazers.
I am
backing up
This person is reversing
course on an earlier statement, last season I went on record pronouncing Joel
Embiid the best NBA Big Man today. We
are in the era of small ball is understandable but if you are 7 feet tall and
250 pounds you dominate the paint. Watching
Game Four of the Sixers-Celtics series I cannot believe the number of difficult
shots Embiid takes. Fall away jump
shots, three-point attempts is the portion of his game I do not fully
understand.
It does one no good to score
30+ points but miss so many shots you almost surrender an equivalent amount on
the back end. Perhaps I am watching
Embiid with video of Shaq and Chamberlain playing in my mind. As for Kareem Abdul Jabbar he was not a
physical athlete, but the sky hook placed him in the category of the two
mentioned beforehand. This is not the
end, Embiid has time to adjust his game next season. Am I being too tough on Embiid, perhaps I
just believe he could be so much better if he revised his game a bit?
One
man happy and the other…well
Speaking of the NBA Draft,
one man might be pleased and the other well, allow an explanation. One writer claims the draft could play out
with the Knicks being able to acquire LaMelo Ball with the 8th
pick. Naturally, this will be pleasing
to father LaVar Ball, remember how he practically force my Lakers to draft
Lonzo Ball? He is attempting a similar
tactic with the Knicks practically expressing displeasure with any team except
the Knicks.
As for the other guy, my transplanted
Bronx friend David. He was a former
co-worker, although he has lived in the Kansas City metro for a while, he
continues to root for New York teams. At
the time I first mentioned Ball might become a Knick some of the words
emanating from David’s lips were R-rated.
I did not question him at length, but I must believe most of his ire is
aimed at LaVar and not at LaMelo or any of the Ball brothers.
