Topic: American Sports

@Ravix Nah, I didn’t watch Celtics-Hornets Part II. It looks like it wasn’t much of a game. Although it was encouraging (for Celtics fans, that is) that they did fine without Brown, which blows my theory that he’s their most valuable player. 😅 This is Charlotte though, which is hardly much of a test for a team. So it’s difficult to draw any conclusions and start planning the parade route yet after beating up on them.

That is funny about Tatum’s son. First of all that his name is “Deuce”, which of course usually is slang for the 2 card in a standard deck, or a bowel movement. 😂 I’m hoping it’s a nickname because he’s actually named Jayson Jr.

But the poor kid’s name aside, it definitely looks like he and Williams aren’t buddies.

@Th3solution yeah, Jayson II. He didn't name his son 'poo', surprisingly 😛

Oh, yeah, definitely not a basketball skill test. Just a bit more of a mental test, as they let a few quarters slip, but rectified it. Plus the Grant Williams debacle on top. It was a mostly Celtics crowd night two, it must be kind of weird for teams home crowds to just not turn up at all and be outnumbered by away fans. But by the third quarter it was dead and that's when the Celtics started playing bad basketball. Mazzulla called a timeout after a couple of minutes and marched on the court saying "what are you doing?!" And then privately talking to D White, probably saying to sort them all out and run the team 😅 by the 4th they'd snapped out of it and Derick White was making defensive plays and running the offense, although it still took a while for them to realise they had to just give him the ball to settle it down. He is the real MVP, btw. The superstars are the superstars, but he is the glue.

Lamelo fouled out again. I think he's just pretty stupid tbh, and generally lacks awareness of how to win games. He is such a good talent but one of those that might end up wasting all of that because he is always in foul trouble, injured or just stuck where he is. If he was smarter and could last a season unhurt he'd be a trade target for a lot of teams, you'd think.

The highlight of last night was when Tatum got a breakaway dunk and as he hung there the momentum took his rear end into Grant Williams' head 😂 so I think that ended that little saga with Tatum having the last laugh.

Weirdly, with a minute or so to go, no chance of winning he decided to wrap up Tatum fairly roughly for a foul. And a bit after as White was trying to inbound he got in the way, and then flopped really comically trying to get a foul on White. So I think we can just accept he is upset he never got to win a ring with the Celtics and has since fallen to epic lows with the Dallas debacle and now Charlotte.

It’s early in the NBA season but the strength and depth of the West already apparent. A 5-5 record gets you the #3 seed in the East and it’s worth #11 in the West (not even in the playoffs). If the season ended today, a 0.36 winning percentage gets you a playoff game in the East. 😂

@Th3solution yeaaah... the improved East hasn't really taken shape. I'm not sure what they are all playing at. Cavs are good though, have they still not even lost yet?

Remember first time the Celtics played the Bucks and I said about Giannis being both the reason they are good, and the reason they f***ing suck, basically. It is so true. They were up by about 20 on us the second time we played, but as I was watching I still thought "calm down, G, we're still going to win this game" because it was just awful offence they were playing, and they only scored because Giannis is really good at getting baskets when he's going down hill. But my God, it was awful play, absolutely no ball movement, and just relying on one guys sheer ability is not how to play basketball. And what happened when the Celtics locked in? Derrick White got a monster block on Giannis and then they were fresh out of ideas from that point on, no one else was involved and so we slowly came back and put them down.

He is like the Anti-MVP, the whole game he gets himself going, and then he moans at the rest of the team when they can't suddenly hit form at the end of games after having spent two or three quarters stood there watching him go to work for himself 😂

@Ravix I have to admit, the Bucks are one of my biggest disappointments. Giannis hero mode aside, I just didn’t expect them to be this bad. It’s early though so I imagine they’ll make a run and end up competitive by end of year. And by competitive I mean in the playoffs. Giannis has won a couple MVPs and won a championship, so I suspect he’ll figure it out. D Lillard is hurt now, though. Concussion apparently. And Kris Middleton hasn’t played yet due to his injury.

In fact, the injury bug it already having devastating effect all over. The usual suspects are already missing time (or have not even played yet) — Kawhi, Zion, Durant, J Butler. And Embiid, George, and Maxey haven’t even played together yet. Even some of the young phenoms are missing a lot of time like Banchero, Lively, and Chet Holmgren.

Even our boy Jaylen Brown has been hobbled and isn’t quite hitting his stride yet, but seems like he’s back. Enough to pick a fight with Giannis at least 😅

@Th3solution Giannis and his wild elbows that don't even get looked at on the monitor, as well as two players landing under JT and them not even looking at the monitor or even calling the first one 😅 not saying the Giannis elbow is dirty, or not, but he really gets a lot for favour with refs still. But with all that nonsense, and the Celtics playing at about 40% capacity and effort, plus being down the starting center and having JB working back from his hip issues, it shows just how bad the Bucks really are 💀

They can't get better as they are, they really can't. Giannis will win them some games, but he won't get anyone else anywhere close to regular season form. He likes to play fast, Dame slow, Lillard wasn't even that interested in shooting in that game, so I don't know if he had a concussion already??? He didn't look himself (pi$$ed at Big G already?) The team is old and slow and might just fall way back in the regular season unless it's scrappy games, and basketball isn't scrappy anymore, everyone will run on them, move the ball, and beat them quite consistently.

If it was the playoffs now, they'd probably do okay in terms of competing individually, but in regular season games I think teams will look to take it to them now while they are flailing

@Ravix oh and I don’t know how I missed KP in my injury report above, but it’s a given he’s not playing. 😂

I haven’t watched any Bucks games yet, I’ve just seen a lot of Giannis over the years and also Lillard. They are both great individual players. We’ll see if they can co-exist.

As far as Giannis’s flailing elbows, like I said in that earlier post - “…I’ve seen guys swing closed fists, elbow players in the face, kick or hit another’s crotch (or grab!), etc, etc and get less of a reaction from the refs, sometimes not ever acknowledged at all…”
It’s frustrating that some players get away with this stuff. They called the offensive foul I think on that play, but I don’t think he got a flagrant call, which a blow to the face/head/neck is usually at least a flagrant 1.

@Ravix Wondering your updated thoughts as we have more to draw from now in the NBA and NFL seasons.

For the NBA, it’s definitely still early, but things have settled in much better than a month ago. Boston’s still doing well, and OKC, but a few surprises exist like Cleveland still winning and Houston. Bucks are starting to make their move up after their dismal start. Likewise for the Knicks and Mavericks. Surprising underperformers so far are Nuggets, T-wolves, Pacers… and gah, what’s going on with the dumpster fire in Philadelphia? Very disappointed in that team.

In the NFL I’m still thinking Eagles-Chiefs for the Super Bowl but the Lions seem to be steamrolling. They have disappointed so many years before that it’s hard to put any faith in that franchise. 😅

I’m surprised at the Vikings and Steelers, as far as over performance, and the big disappointment has to be the 49ers. How the mighty have fallen.

@Th3solution

NFL wise, I've kind of fallen off watching, so much so that I'm letting my sky sports sub lapse as that was the last thing I was even using it for, so I will have to rely on your takes.
I'll probably get a month sub for the playoffs if there are some interesting match ups, or failing that, revert to just watching the Super Bowl.

NBA: I've only really seen the teams that have played Boston, and the only losses were Boston's fault, really.

OKC seem really good, but apparently they can be wildly inconsistent at times.

Cleveland kept winning, of course, but Boston should have handed them another loss, but alas, they let them in it too much.

A full Boston break down would be this: Derrick White is still the real MVP, as proven by him not playing vs Cleveland. But Brown also missed that game, losing them both is probably a little too hard to cover for, so hopefully that doesn't happen too often. Especially considering the replacements mea t going double big with Al Horford and KP, with Hauser as a shooter. But Hauser just hasn't been hitting his shots this year, for whatever reason, and KP is just coming back from surgery (the signs are good in terms of paint protection, post ups and spacing, and he's hitting a fair amount of shots, too)

Story of the season has been Payton Pritchard, so it'd be interesting to know what the mainstream consensus on him is. I know he's leading the 6th man of the year discussions and has scored an insane amount of points from the bench which people notice more. But with him it's not just his scoring, it's his attitude.

He even passively got on Shaqtin' this week, by way of bodying up KPJ and making him look a fool as he tried to post up what I assume he thought was the smaller man in Pritchard, but his resistence forced KJP to panic and pass it to some woman in the crowd 😂

I would advise seeing if there's a highlights package for Pritchard for this year so far that you can watch, as if you like watching hoopers hoop, it would be pure basketball goodness.

It's literally got to a stage where they will sub him in and run a play with anything under 8 seconds to 0.5 seconds to go for Pritchard too at the end of quarters, and teams are now double teaming him and letting Tatum and others get open looks 😅

I could honestly praise Payton for hours. Teams need players who just have this insane love and passion for basketball and who will work and work at their game day in day out. It's beautiful to see.

Seeing a 6 foot 1 guy think he is going to get any rebound he goes for, who thinks no one in the league can even guard him, who will shoot without thinking because he knows he will make it, who will bully much bigger players into the paint with his body positioning, footwork and finishing, who will shoot from anywhere with a second to go and aim to actually make it, not just hurl it up and hope. It's kind of special.

His current run is 4 or 5 games in a row with 20+ off the bench. And to me, by seeing his progression over the years, it looks like he could be as good as Steph Curry. And I'm not even joking. And he's on our bench 😅😅

He has the same killer attitude and work ethic, and he is for sure going to be the starter once we move on from Holiday or White, you'd hope. Which is why, despite initially him not getting as many minutes as he'd like, we paid him and told him he'd get his time, and he is earning every extra minute he gets rather than being happy just to have been paid.

I will sob if we ever trade him 😂

I still don't think the league knows just how good he is yet, but I'm thinking they are starting to take notice this year? Or perhaps it started from last year when he'd hit full court shots in the playoffs and finals that people took notice a little? 👀

@Th3solution will you be partaking in Bucks @ Celtics tonight?

I fully expect the Bucks will win, as since JB called Giannis a baby he has decided to grow up and win some games and stop moaning at all his team mates etc 😛

I do expect at least one fight tonight, however. So it could be must see tv.

@Ravix Ah, well I hadn’t planned my evening yet but it sounds intriguing. I might tune in. Or at least watch some highlights

@Th3solution ah, the quote was "Giannis is just a child" which, I can confidently say, he is.

I'm not really sure what is up with him, but in a game where he somehow got no fouls called against him, and the refs were giving him a friendly whistle, he started the hostilities by swinging his elbow at Jaylen Brown after JB scored on him, and Jaylen kind of pointed at him saying what is he doing, and... got a technical for it 💀💀💀

F*** the Bucks, man 😛 it's a shame because he's such a good player, but something is up with the lad. 2 games in a row he's swing elbows at Jaylen Brown for no reason

@Th3solution going ask you for your updated thoughts on the NBA and NFL

NFL, like I mentioned, I've fallen off from watching, so an update of things going in to the playoffs might swing me to get back in to it. Can anyone genuinely challenge the Chiefs this year, or is the psychology and fear factor just too far in their favour? Do teams go in to a playoffs match with them feeling they are already down and out?

NBA, from a Boston standpoint I can sum up to you in what also probably boils down to psychology. Start of the season, a wave of joy from the title, but as the season goes on, it just seems like it was feeling like matches that aren't for the championship are kind of getting a little bit tiring for them, the 82 game slog started to show from that side of things. I think it's quite common for defending champions to struggle a little more the season after from a combination of the matches meaning less to them, and them meaning a lot more to the opponents.

It has led to some interesting games, however. Which is my main interest for watching. I did try to watch some league pass last night, and flicked through a few non-Celtic games, but the standard was just God awful. No one defended anyone in any game I put on so I didn't bother watching much in the end. It really stood out as every game this season, bar a few, I've seen teams with no chance to top teams all defending and playing the Celtics like their lives are on the line. It really shows what teams can do if they are properly up for games, and like I say, makes it really good to watch and gives you a good idea of who the leagues future stars and top role players may be when they get traded, or their teams build around them.

Any thoughts on the West or the overall state of the NBA would be appreciated from another perspective.

A few other stories from recent times worth a mention would be:

Jimmy Buttler... 🙄🙄🙄 any teams you think are interested in him at 35? He could definitely help in the Playoffs, but could a top team really afford it. And any other team surely it's the same situation as Miami, not great in the season but a shot at some knock out matches. So it probably boils down to he just wants the money. Miami is the perfect spot for him already, but they can't pay him the same or more at that age.

And Anthony Edwards sulking for actually being defended 🙄 that one really shocked me, as I thought he was a proper hooper.

Celtics vs OKC tonight, which should be good, regardless of the result. And hopefully a great deal of defence on show! Boston managed to win the first two away games of this tough road trip by locking in defensively, so that at least provides a cushion. Not that they will be thinking that way, they have seemed really up for making January their month. But things don't always go to plan.

My main reason for posting was actually to pop this gif on, though

Derrick White is every players favourite player 😂

@Ravix As far as the NFL, I’ve also fallen off a little, but I have followed peripherally for the last few weeks. I just haven’t watched any full games. From what I can tell, Kansas City is definitely in the drivers seat and the team to beat, but man, the Lions look tough. They just blew out the Vikings today. So those two teams seem to be the most likely to be in the Super Bowl. If so, it will make for an interesting story, since the Lions have stunk for so many years and the Chiefs have won so many Super Bowls recently. It will be the newcomers vs the perennial champions. The only teams I see threatening that would be the eagles on the NFC side and the Bills on the AFC side. But I don’t feel confident in either team as they each tend to choke in the playoffs.

As for NBA, I’ve followed a little closer and watched some of the games. I didn’t see it, but just read the highlights of OKC’s beating of Boston tonight. The Achilles heel for Boston is going to be when they fall in love with the 3-ball too much. 9 of 46 from beyond the arc?! Yikes. If you’re shooting 19% from 3, you probably shouldn’t be hoisting up 46 of them. 😅 It sounds like it was an off night for them, so you can’t expect them to shoot 19% from deep every night. Still, that’s when defensive minded teams should be able to win with their defense, so I’m not sure what happened there. (Other than SGA being indefensible, basically). Honestly that’s what OKC has been doing all season, winning with defense. They are great defensively, and young, energetic, and fast. And they’re doing all this without their second best player. When Holmgren comes back, look out. I think they are the best team in the West, hands down. The second tier clubs are all so inconsistent. Houston? Nah, I don’t believe in them. Memphis? Uh, also not confident in them. Denver? With Jokic anything is possible but the rest of the team is ‘meh’. Dallas? Luka out for 2 months and Kyrie in and out of the lineup is making them tank fast, so health is a concern.

As for the East, I really don’t understand what’s going on with Cleveland, but I think we all need to consider them as actual contenders, if not the actual favorites to win this whole thing! I keep thinking they’ll drop off, but they just keep winning. And the Bucks have settled into being a team to reckon with, as I suspected they would.

@Th3solution I definitely think Shai is the MVP this season! It was literally quite insane what OKC achieved in the second half because of him.

Stats... don't tell the story as such. But in the first half Boston showed why they are good. OKC expected the three and Boston drove to the paint, over and over, and made OKC look bad, whilst still taking (and bricking) the wide open threes that they should take (it happens) And in the second half OKC showed why they are good, and I think it shook Boston. It was a mentality loss, for sure. I think part of it was in the second when they drove to the paint they'd get slapped about and in the first half it was called a foul, and in the second it wasn't. And it just absolutely messed up the game plan. And at that point they couldn't save it due to being so cold from three already.

I did have a theory, and it was a feeling at half time, that maybe OKC defended less well on the first half on purpose (it was glaringly bad first half, and I know they don't play like that) knowing that when they turn it on in the second it will feel like it's come from nowhere and blindsid Boston. Unfortunately it's exactly what happened 😂

I genuinely think that is the best way to beat Boston, which is why it does maybe seem like their coach gameplanned that too, as mad as it seems. If Boston think a game is a little easier it lures then into a false sense of (ball) security.

Overall it was a fun game. And OKC have shown that there is scope to absolutely smack people on defence and it be legal play. So it's something for everyone to aim for, Boston included. And I mean that in a good way, as I love aggressive defence if there is ref consistency that allows for it.

Boston defended pretty well too, but OKC were also pretty hot from three in the second and the plan to leave some shooters open and focus on Shai and Williams totally broke down the later it got. Especially with Boston being so cold from three themselves. Giving up a planned open three and it hitting every time but not being able to get it back yourself is a mentality killer.

@Ravix Yeah, sometimes the stats don’t tell the story like watching a game. And sometimes the final score doesn’t indicate how close a game really was, or wasn’t.

Nevertheless, I don’t know if there would have been an actual gameplan for the change in approach or simply just a halftime adjustment. There is a chess match to these things, of course, and sometimes I do think that a coach may rely on a surprise tactic at the end of a game, especially if he feels confident that his team is younger and has more in the tank, or has a closer who can turn things up a notch in the fourth, or has a deeper bench, etc. I do think that OKC likes to wear the opponent down with tenacious D and rely on just outlasting other teams with their depth and youth. They like to get out and run a lot too for fast break points, which of course is fed by their high steal rate. Still, I didn’t watch the game but it sounds like they were the beneficiary of Dort hitting shots in the 4th, going 3/3 from behind the arc in that final quarter to ice the game. I think if you’re Boston then you just have to live with that. If you lock in on SGA and Williams and Dort is taking those shots then that’s a gamble that should pay off most of the time. He’s a great physical defender, but he’s not your offensive closer, despite being a very respectable 40% from 3 this season. But I’d rather he be taking those shots than Shai or Williams (Jalen with an “e” Williams, that is. 😅 So crazy that the team has 3 Williams’s and two of the three are named “Jalen” and “Jaylin”. I don’t even know a single Jalen in my life, so it’s not even a common name really). So in the usual situation where Dort hits only 1 of those attempts and White or Brown (also funny how the team has two players with colors for last names 😅) or Porzingis hits their average from 3 then it’s a completely different outcome. Looks like they play each other in March again, so we’ll have a really good idea where each team is by then, as far as playoff positioning and momentum at the end of the year.

@Th3solution I was disappointed by Boston in the second half, but it was for sure OKC's win. In the first half they were just not defending in a way that resembled what they are known for, and Boston had every answer for it, despite still missing most threes. At one point Jrue Holiday was easily getting layups in 5 yards of space in the paint?! Jaylen Brown was finding it easy to drive and score. But second half, it was just different.

I honestly believe that, if this was the Finals, and game two was tomorrow Boston would get a big win. But... it's not, and they must learn from this.

Last night, if they had not given away lazy turnovers in the second half that spurred OKC into beast mode, and led to what amounted to about two 15 point quarters 💀 it would have been a close win. If they'd hit anything like the percentage of expected threes it would have been a blowout win last night.

What I will say again though is... Shai is the MVP, wrap that one up now. And OKC some of their stats are mirroring Boston from last year, so I'd not be surprised if it is their year already. Plus minus and/or net rating is through the roof like it was for Boston last year. And in the playoffs refs are going to let them defend how they defend for the whole game.

I'd bet they hold at least one team under 75 one night if they get a good match up in the playoffs. And multiple games with teams scoring under 90

A bunch of NFL takes bouncing around in my brain as we close out the regular season:

Sam Darnold and Bryce Young are two sides of the same coin, and that Lions game put that into focus.

All season even in Darnold's best games he was generally a coin flip away on most throws for those TDs to be INTs instead. But the Vikings are winning and its a nice story so people are happy to gloss over how inconsistent and unreliable Darnold actually is, and if the Vikings flame out in the playoffs and lose in the Wild Card round, I see the narrative on Darnold shifting immediately, cause all of the problems are there, people just don't want to talk about them right now and be the downer on the parade.

Bryce Young is the same. People are talking about Young's redemption arc, how the Panthers need to give him another season. Are we forgetting already that when the games actually mattered, Young looked like he wouldn't even get a starting job in the XFL? But this just feels like the interim HC theory being put into practice at the QB position for me.

Whenever an Interim HC gets put in charge proper, its generally an absolute disaster. But thats because the role of an Interim HC when they brought in in the dying hours of a lost season, is very different to the role they get when they become the HC proper for a full season where things count. You have expectations now, you need to do more than just keep the vibes up.

This to me is absolutely how Young feels. He is playing better, he is playing free, but the Panthers still aren't winning games. It is great to talk about how well Young is playing right now when the season is already lost. But lets see if this Young redemption arc remains being talked about when the Panthers are 1 - 3 after the first month of the regular season next year.

I'm so glad Burrow didn't make it into the playoffs. I'm so bored of the Burrow overhype. The true social media QB. There is no difference to me between the current Bengals, and the Chargers of the last few seasons. But Burrow is apparently failed by his team, yet Herbert is the one failing his team somehow for not putting it on his back???

I didnt need to see people making excuses for Burrow in the playoffs as well. Especially as they would have probably faced the Bills, been blown out and still Burrow would be talked about like he is the best QB in the league (and don't misunderstand me, he is very very good, but he is absurdly overhyped, especially given the weapons he has too).

I thought Mayo would get fired, but was kind of surprised he was the first to go. I guess this means Patriots go all in on Vrabel then. I felt like the Titans were very well coached under Vrabel. But there has to be a reason no one picked up Vrabel last season, and for as much as the Browns talked about loving having Vrabel in their building, that team still absolutely stunk anyway so how much impact did he really have there? And outside of basically QB, the Patriots are just a total mess. I do wonder what Vrabel can realistically achieve with them, especially if Kraft only gives him a year like Mayo.

@Pizzamorg Vrabel is no mere mortal. He also doesn't need good players to coach teams up. The season when the titans had everyone injured all the time and he broke the record for most players used in a season was probably the most entertaining season overall (I think it might be the season when they really should have beaten the Bengals in the playoffs too)

I think maybe the Pats just wanted a buffer between Bill and Mike, as usually when a coach that embodies a team leaves, the next coach struggles to get anything like the same response. Now Vrabel can come in and smack about those that need to be smacked about and inspire the underdog mentality with those prepared to bleed for the team.

Although, it may be too much still. Look at Manchester United in England since Fergie left. This is also a potential outcome for the Pats if they can't get back on track quickly. It could be decades until they find the right coach. I'd say Vrabel at least has a better shot than most of a quick turn around.

Yeah I remember that year where I think the Titans made the playoffs, and Vrabel was practically pulling bodies off the street to flesh out his Titans roster and somehow making it look like a viable team on the field. But I feel like it is one thing to do that to just get you to the end of the season, but that isn't a transferrable skill set necessarily when trying to build up the pillars of a team that are meant to stand long into the future.

I mean the Patriots talked a lot about how Mayo was always their successor. They can lie absolutely but it makes zero sense to me. If Vrabel was always their answer, why didn't they just hire him straight away? Especially as they took a rookie QB. Now Maye is going to have to go through a full staff change probably in his second season. Seems unnecessarily disruptive to his development.