My greatest fear came to fruition last night with my internet going out midway through the 3rd quarter. The funny thing is that I had predicted this would happen prior to the Portland game as I had been having problems with the connection for some time. I’m publishing this post from a wifi spot, so yeah…hopefully all of this is resolved by tommorrow night.
Sorry to those of you wondering why I suddenly disappeared last night.
Let me get to a couple of notes I made after I bowed out from the live-blog.
- Watching Conroy, he has virtually no footspeed whatsoever offensively. He’s almost treading through quicksand on the offensive end. Not so strange by itself, but the interesting thing is that, at least on the possessions I saw, he looked very good defensively. He moves his feet well and does a very good job of staying in front of his man, despite the lack of speed.
- Moments after Amare hit a jumper, Clyde remarked, “That’s so devastating that I can’t imagine them trying to trade Amare Stoudemire.” Bill later also expresses his confusion. – I always found odd just how completely oblivious to financial matters most commentators are. I don’t expect a detailed understanding of the cap, but how can you possibly think they are shopping him for actual talent personnel concerns?
- Final note is on Trevor Ariza: It’s gotten to the point where I just can’t watch this guy play anymore, at least until Yao Ming returns or some other factor forces down his usage. The risk of hurling something at my television screen has become far too great. Inside the 2 minute mark of the 4th, he took quite possibly the worst shot I have seen all year, going to his right and banking in a runner off one foot. (The worst part about Ariza made shots is that they reinforce his self-delusion.) He then played hero, sending the game to overtime with a corner 3. Make no mistake, this game-saver was yet another bad shot – my stomach sank when I realized what was about to happen. He drove to his right, stepped back off the crossover and launched the 3 – a great shot for Aaron Brooks; an attempt with probably a 5% chance-in-hell for Ariza. His luck finally ran out in overtime. (Like I said, the worst part about Ariza made-shots is that they reinforce his delusions of grandeur.) Inside two minutes in the OT, Ariza pulled up for a ‘3’, missing it horribly, allowing Phoenix to score and push the lead to three. Just moments later, he launched yet another ‘3’ off a Landry kick-out, completely ignoring a wide open Aaron Brooks. I’m not blaming Ariza for this loss – frankly, I didn’t think they had a chance without Lowry – I just can’t watch him play on this basketball team anymore.
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