All You Need To Know – Is in this tweet:
Rockets couldn’t hit their 3s, turned it over 20 times, and still stomped the Blazers in Portland.
— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) November 6, 2013
Ewww – The Dream Shake exposes James Harden’s defense against the Clippers the other night with video. You know how sometimes you can love someone without loving everything they do? This is one of those times.
Hardwood PaRocketism – Hardwood Paroxysm has churned out two top-shelf Rox-related articles this week. The first, by Seerat Sohi, examines the philosophy of Hack-a-Dwight.
It’s not a defensive strategy— it’s a defeatist strategy. In one way, fouling says “we think you’re a bad free throw shooter.” In another, it’s saying “I can’t defend you.” And when Russell Westbrook is hammered for driving the lane with reckless abandonment, it’s a reasonable admission. Even the NBA’s staunchest competitors won’t think twice sending explosive slashers to the line— they are, indeed, impossible to guard. But to foul Dwight Howard as he runs across the half court line is a crippling declaration. It takes guts for a group of NBA players to say, “we don’t even know what you or your team are about to do, but we sure as hell don’t want to find out.”
(Note: as I write this, it’s the middle of the third quarter and Portland is finding out).
The second, by Andrew Lynch, celebrates the beautiful basketball played by the Clippers at Houston’s expense.
The game was a bevy of alley-oops and a bounty of 3-pointers; it was Chris Paul making defenders look silly, regardless of how tightly they stayed with him for 90% of a possession and Dwight Howard taking advantage of foul trouble for DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin to bully his way into the post for monstrous smashes.
Sometimes The Game wins even when your team loses.
Release - Ballerball with some humor on how Chandler may have taken out his frustration after the loss to the Clippers:
Chandler Parsons sent James Harden — who he calls Bear, apparently — an email after their game against the Clippers last night.
Yo, Bear. I can’t sleep right now. I’m not trying to talk about the game tonight. That will just make me sad and you mad. We’ll bounce back. I have some news, though. I meant to tell you in person, but everybody was so down after the game I thought it best to hold off. Excited to tell you now, though.
I’m going to change my name to Chandler Parsons-Parsons.
And away we go.
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