Basketball from a fans perspective

Published daily except Tuesdays & Thursdays

You’ve got to play the entire game

Sometimes you don’t know what to expect in a game, that was the case on Monday evening. the Lakers had cancelled games due to the fires affecting Southern California. The opposition would be Wemby and his Spurs, as a further downside I failed to see the entire game. As I’ve mentioned several times Laker games are over too late for my Midwest bedtime, in any event I made it to the middle of the third quarter. The game was an even match although the Lakers held a 62-53 halftime lead…good I thought.

At the time I turned the game off it was tied and my thought “I hope they (Lakers) can pull this out.” Tuesday morning I discovered that was not the case, the Lakers were crushed by the Spurs 126-102. This is what occurred, the Lakers as a team scored 40 points in the second half the opposition scored 73. All five starters for the Spurs scored in double figures and not only that check out these numbers. Wemby 23 points, Vassell 23 points, Castle 23 points, Barnes with 17. Chris Paul only scored 13 points but dished out 10 assists so you can see the problem…little if any defense by the Lakers. It appears the Lakers forgot you’ve got to play the entire game.

“Married” to basketball

Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau is 66 years old, he has no wife nor children his lifelong pursuit has been to coach basketball. I read recently that he was engaged while in graduate school however the wedding was called off 6 weeks before it would have occurred. He was reported to have said “There’s no room in my life for a woman if I’m going to be a basketball coach.” That is quite a statement, there have been coaches in other sports driven to that extent however they managed a career along with a wife and family.

We could debate how successful the others have been in the role of husband and father. In any event the Knicks become “Thibs” third NBA stop, it was coach at the Bulls and Wolves prior to accepting the Knicks. In his 15 years as an NBA coach there are only 3 losing seasons listed on his resume. Despite the record there are two grips regarding his coaching, despite outstanding teams at the Bulls and Wolves he’s never managed to compete for an NBA title. Second to that are minutes played, he manages to play his starters extensive minutes. It’s been said his teams literally run out of gas by the time they reach the playoffs. Is this a breakthrough year for the Knicks, that is yet to be determined?

The SEC 

The University of Florida is rated number 4 in one poll and 5 in the other. Mizzou played the Gators on Tuesday, remember what I wrote on Sunday? “Win your home games, steal a game or two on the road.” Hopefully, it’s that time, despite what I wrote basketball in Columbia (MO) is vastly improved over last season as I’ve noted. Sometimes a thing is right in front of your face and you don’t realize it. That is the case for me, I acknowledge the wins of Mizzou but failed to see the Big Picture. An example are games that were played previous to the Florida game.

The Tigers lost games to Memphis now number 18 (17) in the nation, then it was Illinois now number 19 (20) and finally Auburn then number 2 now number 1. They have a victory over Kansas which was ranked number 1 at the time and this past Saturday a tough Vanderbilt team. It’s tough to accept the losses but considering the competition it’s understandable. In addition SEC men’s basketball is quite competitive, by the time you read this on Wednesday hopefully this is the outcome I desire. Mizzou will have 14 wins versus 3 losses and a 3-1 record in conference play. On the other hand there could be an additional loss on Mizzou’s record however I’m not planning on that occurring.

They played on the same night

In 1984 the Clippers moved from San Diego to Los Angeles, over the years games were played in two different arenas. During this period, the Lakers were in their own building The Forum, in 1999 they moved to Staples Center (Crypto.com) and prior to opening the season the Clippers followed suit. Both Los Angeles teams shared the same arena until the 2024-25 season, the Intuit Dome opened becoming the home for the Clippers. The devastation from the fires in Southern California caused the Clippers and Lakers to cancel games, in addition the NFL Rams game was moved to Arizona.

On Tuesday night January 13 the NBA schedule resumed with the Lakers playing host to the Spurs at Crypto and in Inglewood the Clippers versus the Heat. This was an unusual occurrence, over the years sharing one arena the only time they played on the same date was an afternoon-evening game. Have both Los Angeles teams played on the same date and time, that’s possible although it would have been prior to 1999. With a metro population large enough to support two teams this is a non-issue. I’ve offer you no proof but have long believed Laker fans or not Clipper fans and vice versa. The Lakers and Clippers having home games scheduled on the same night might become a regular occurrence.

Whatever became of the All-Star Game

The latest revision to the annual NBA All-Star Game fails to impress me. It’s clear from conversation there are frequent All-Star participants who are not impressed with the latest change…Kevin Durant being one of them. I’m not going to go into detail with the latest change. Apparently Adam Silver is of the impression “If we keep changing the thing eventually we’ll get it correct.” I’ve got a few observations I’d like to share with the commissioner and they are simple. The first All-Star Game played in 1951 in the old Boston Garden the East beat the West 111 to 94.

In that game Ed Maccauley of the Celtics (look him up) was the game’s MVP. I’m not saying we need to return there 2017 would be okay in my view, in that game the West beat the East 192-182. Since then it’s been a mishmash of changes I’m sure most fans are not probably thrilled with. This last suggestion is strictly in the hands of the players the commissioner can do nothing to curtail the ever increasing number of threes taken during the game. There is a third suggestion, I realize fans love their favorite player however fan voting sometimes lack correctness. I can’t cite if this actually occurred but it could. This is the example Joe A. has been injured for a major portion of the season, despite this fact fans vote him a starter.