Topic: American Sports

@Ravix The MVP race really will be a tough one. I don’t see anyone who will run away with it, although Luka is a good shout, in addition to, of course, Jokic, Giannis, and SGA. Brunson might be in the mix, and Wemby.

Luka is already missing games though. There was part of the shocking trade rumors from Dallas that the staff felt like he was on the verge of becoming oft-injured. He’s awfully young to be injury prone, but like all these players from Europe, they barely have an offseason and so put their bodies through 82 games, plus rigorous playoffs and then go to play for their home country during the summer and it surely takes its toll. Plus Luka is the type of player who takes a lot of hits in the paint and defenses know the only way to stop him is to get physical with him.

The Lakers will be fascinating to see, as LeBron will come back and with Austin Reaves going off (gah, 51 points, 11 rebounds, 9 assists! It’s a very short list of players who’ve ever had a line like that) they have the chance to be so dangerous but can they all co-exist on the court together?

As for Gonzalez, he’s in a similar situation to Luka (and others) where his time as a professional in Europe means he hits the league with a leg up on other rookies since he’s already been playing professionally. It’s still an adjustment to the NBA, but he’ll probably ramp up quickly. Especially since Boston is going to probably need to give him a lot of minutes this year.

The team I’m most surprised with so far is (in addition to the Spurs which I mentioned are further ahead than I thought they’d be, thanks to Wemby) is Houston. Still winless (although tonight they better take care of lowly Brooklyn) and it seems like off to a slow start. But I expect them to start gelling after 10-15 games.

@Th3solution yeah, you can tell Gonzalez has been playing against full grown men since he was what, 13/14 probably. That's the way Europe tends to work, at least. Anyone half decent and tall will be put in with the adult teams early.

Boston is a tough watch at the moment. They are doing a lot right, but teams just go on big runs fueled by second chance points from rebounds, and itnis doubly impactful (negatively) as giving up points from rebounds saps your energy on offense and overall team spirit and momentum.

If they could rebound they might easilly be 2-1 and would have been close with NYK in that game, too. On top of that, this is all with White and Pritchard struggling from 3 point range. So it isn't all doom and gloom, they aren't getting blown out despite those 2 massive drawbacks, but it is still really rough and they can get blown out for 1 quarter per game, which is enough to lose 3 games.

What is up with Luka? Has he got a wear and tear injury? Out for long? Last I heard was he finally got in good shape this year 😅 but then I saw he was out and Reeves went off on one 🤷‍♂️

@Ravix According to reports, Luka has a sprained finger and a leg contusion. Expected to miss about 5 games. Nothing serious sounding, but seems like a consequence of getting beat around, rather than a wear-and-tear thing, but hours on the court makes for higher likelihood of these little things. In years past he’d just play through them, but I think he’s discovered that playing hurt makes him more susceptible for more injuries. He’s come into the season in much better shape, that’s true, but he still likes to mix it up down low where the big bruisers are.

@Th3solution if you like points and three pointers you might want to tune in to Celtics Cavs. I'm on a slight delay, but Cleveland have made like 12 of 14 threes, something mad like that (in the first) and Sam Hauser for the Celtics has made 5 in the first quarter too, and it isn't even touching the rim 👀

This could be the all time threes record night for Hauser or Mitchell if it stays like this 🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀

Okay, it dried up a little bit in the second, but OH MY! the end of the 2nd quarter was insanity 😱

I highly recommend watching the first quarter and the end of the second

@Ravix I didn’t have access to the game to watch live but did see some of the highlights. It was certainly a three-fest early on. Looks like Brown really had a good game and helped carry them. First win of the season for the C-men! 😄

Lakers-Timberwolves was a thriller with a win at the buzzer. But it’s hard to make much of it due to the significant injuries on both sides. I will say, that Austin Reaves is sure a baller. If he, LeBron, and Luka ever get on the court at the same time it will really be interesting to see if they can all co-exist and each get theirs.

@Th3solution second win, I'll have you know!

He doesn't really carry them when you watch the flow of the game as he dips in and out, but he is consistent most of the time to provide the 20/30 points by the end, which obviously helps a lot! The last 2 games have been great team performances all round, though, and because they rebounded they got the wins. Out of the 5 games, so far, they played well for most of 4 of them bar rebounds and small lapses in the first 2. Since Minott has been starting they have had something about them in terms of competing for the full game, and it looks like they are slowly working out how to play in this set up with everyone having a new role. Pritchard is mostly playing pure point guard focusing on assists at the moment, for example, but i'm sure he will be hitting his threes again soon.

JB definitely had a few insane key moments to really build the lead at the end of the second quarter last night, but it was all started by two alley oop passes from Pritchard and White, one coming from a steal right after the other which started to sap Clevelands desire. JB went off with some crazy threes in that run that were really important too.

Reeves is him, remember. He always said he was.

This is the Broncos’ year, I can feel it!

NBA pulse check:
Lebron finally makes an appearance. It looks like he, Reaves, and Luka can indeed coexist on the court together. It actually looks like quite a team, despite a large drop off when you get to the bench.

My excitement for Wemby appears to have been premature as he is predictably injured again. Probably not anything serious but he’ll likely miss a couple weeks. I’m concerned about his long term health.

But surprises are the Pistons being at the top and the Pacers being dead last. Raptors are also a pleasant surprise. Otherwise, it’s mostly playing out according to expectations with the favored teams making the top 10, especially in the West. Jazz, Suns, and Trailblazers are doing a little better than expected and Mavs, Grizzlies, and Clippers doing a little worse. There will definitely be shuffling around though and things like people coming back from injury (Lebron, Kawhi, etc) and leaving with injury (Wemby, Giannis, etc) will obviously impact their teams in the short term and so they will be moving up and down. It still appears it’s OKC’s championship to lose, since they just keep winning, even without Jalen Williams so far.

What do you think @Ravix ? Celtics are hanging around it appears.

@Th3solution Pistons were good last year, should have beaten the Knicks, as we discussed on here, so they aren't a surprise package, for me, honestly. Good to see them pushing on though. Teams may still work them out, I feel the Celtics know what to do to limit Cade, for example.

Celtics themselves play 'mostly' good basketball this year (in terms of what I like to see, defensive effort, making the right play offensively and not just jacking up the three unless wide open) , I told you about the early signs, and how maybe they should have already had a better record, costing themselves wins for various inconsistency issues, really bad quarters have been addressed, and they aren't giving teams confidence that they can come back or win outright in very short bursts as much. Clutch is still iffy, and my main concern is that during games they can barely get the ball in from sideouts anyway, so that is exacerbated at the end of games. It should be an easy fix of putting in effort right away, before the ball is inbounded, instead of lazing back into gameplay as if it will just find them.

Minott, who triggered the C's playing tougher, rebounding, guarding and hassling star players has magically transformed into Jordan Walsh, who now gets that starting wing spot. They play the game in basically the same way, high effort, lock down defence with their long wingspans helping pressure the ball handler, and on offence crash from the corners, make cuts, and shoot decent enough from 3, but for whatever reason Minott pi**ed off Joe, (a combination of celebrating a bit too much and lapses in concentration, would be my guess, but I feel his celebrations help motivate the bench so it isn't egregious, so I assume it will be because he had lapses, lost assignments etc, and Joe likes to coach hard when he knows they have potential) so Walsh got his minutes in the next game, and has played as good if not better, and so he has been undroppable for the last 4 or 5. I suspect the momentum might be swinging back to Minott though, as Walsh fouled a bit too much last game, and Minott made good use of his minutes. A good healthy rivalry for that wing spot is really good for the team, I expect. As both are young they are kind of interchangeable based on form or concentration levels in important moments (every moment is just as important, Joe woild stress) and both offer lifts that the team needs.

Other than that Pritchard and White are finding their offensive form, so are providing JB with more help there. JB in the midrange has been a joy to behold, perhaps the best in the league at scoring from there, so far. He still struggles to get league wide recognition, beyond his hair paint staining opposition jerseys 😅

The rest of the league? A shame about Wemby again, and a shame about LA being good. Right? 😅 (ah, you know I have no extreme partisan feelings, beyond joking around, and it being, you know... sports) although, next season, a Lakers vs Celtics finals would be great for the league and I could definitely get into it as if I were.

@Th3solution Just noticed a thing (it might be NBA Cup related) but on my league pass it advertises some games as free with NBA ID, so if you don't have league pass, you csn still potentially check out some games, tobight there's Boston v Brooklyn, Pacers v Cavs etc. And the western games later. Might be worth checking some out if you can get all those cup games free.

I noticed Channel 5 had the Chiefs game so I thought I would give it another go. Thank God it's almost kick-off time because the build-up has been excruciating. With all the silly stuff they do I've no idea who their target audience is, it certainly doesn't seem to be about anything insightful about the sport.

It seems Microsoft is still trying to market heavily to its American audience. They have thrown their hat in the ring to sponsor a college bowl game now. The “Xbox Bowl” this year will be Missouri State vs. Arkansas State on Dec 18th. There’s so many meaningless bowl games, so this will be just one more. It’s probably a good advertisement strategy though, since the Venn diagram of Video Gamers and Football watchers has heavy overlap.

@Th3solution Xbox fridge, Xbox Bowl? What next? 😅

I wanted to check in with you in the sports section so might as well do it now, O, wicked viewer of the West.

Anything interesting been happening in the last few weeks in the NBA outside of Boston? I also imagine the NFL season is shaping up to be show more clearly who the real contenders are. (I fell off so quickly I can't even think when the playoffs even start) this year may be a "superbowl only" year for me, and i'll just support the underdog as usual. I do hear good things about Drake Maye (sp) over in New England, but I haven't seen any footage. If Vrabel got them to the superbowl i'd be locked in for that, I think. Maybe I should have watched some Patriot's games, ah well.

From a Celtics standpoint we have now won 10 of 12 (5 in a row) in a very condensed schedule. I believe I told you of the moment we started to play Jordan Walsh more, correct? Well, he has really unlocked the team to perform at its best. JB is still performing at the same elite level, but Walsh locking down the defence really freed up the other players, so Pritchard and White both got their form going, and Queta has been a sneaky savage all season, really showing what he did in Eurobasket and during his development behind Porzingis, Horford and Kornet. (Think about that for a second) to lose all three of those, and have the 4th man step up instantly is really amazing. He learns fast. Some things were pointed out in the first few games, and by the 5th or 6th his flaws were now a speciality. He sets screens and gets out and rolls to the basket so much better, the timing with the guards and JB has clicked because of this one mental adjustment, and even Walsh sometimes dishes passes to him now out of the corner when he drives.

Safe to say Mazzulla and the coaching staff are far more than just stats nerds and psychopaths, they know how to really unlock players of any level.

Obviously expectations are still to find a way into the playoffs and see what happens from there, but it has been a fun journey so far.

@Ravix The NFL is still several weeks away from playoffs… I think maybe about 3 weeks left of the regular season. The big surprise is that Kansas City and Mahomes are probably not going to make the playoffs this year. I think it will be the first year for him not to. Otherwise, I don’t see any real exciting teams or heavy favorites. New England has indeed been a nice surprise, but like you, I haven’t watched any of their games. Maybe it’s finally the Bills year, or the Broncos. No one in the NFC has looked dominant. Maybe Green Bay if I had to choose but they have had off weeks too.

In the NBA Western Conference it has been OKC and then everyone else. Honestly the rest of the league is just playing for second place. It’s early, but OKC is on track to have a record setting year. They are on pace for 78 wins! Which would shatter the ‘15-‘16 Golden State Warriors regular season record of 73 wins. It’s early, so anything can still happen and maybe OKC will eventually lose some games, but right now it’s pretty boring and uninteresting to see that they are so far ahead and no one seems to be able to beat them. Their one loss being a miraculous comeback from Portland to win by 2.

Without some kind of major injury to multiple players (because they have done all this without their second best player) there’s no point in playing out the rest of the season. Just hand them the trophy. 😛

The C-men have been impressive lately though. I have noticed that. I saw them smash the Lakers the other night. And they’ve beat some good teams like Cleveland, NY, and Toronto in that stretch you were talking about. So much for an off year without Tatum.

@Th3solution after that game Reeves said Walsh could be the best defender in the league for years to come 😅 people might need to calm down a bit, but he is already getting mainstream attention and the league can feel it. It has literally gotten to the point that when Tatum is back, they might have to drop a different starter, though. The fact he can lock down and defend anyone big or small means one of our stars gets to rest up a little on defence and focus on the offense. It is such a valuable asset to have. I imagine they will have to switch to have JB start at SG, Tatum PF and Walsh SF with either White or Pritchard at PG.

I mean, he got in foul trouble last night, and Toronto nearly came back during his time off the court. He's in year 3 but is still 21. Then we have Hugo, who is 19 going on 26. Still makes a bunch of errors, but he is so canny for a rookie and makes some crazy smart plays against the best in the league. And Minott who is somewhere in between, and kind of built a bit like Tatum, as a 23 year old, and he is a very good cutter and dunker on lobs and all 3 seem to be able to hit a lot of threes. Did I mention Brad Stevens is a genuis (yes)

Overall on a 'what I see and feel' level, then the year before the championship, we played good basketball but f***ed about too much and jacked up threes without first driving. Championship year we played great basketball and f***ed about less and shot better threes, there were some errors and bad shots but the narrative that they still just jacked them up randomly (mainstream media) was wrong by the end of that year, and by the playoffs the talent was too good to be defeated and JB broke Luka's spirit, as we know. Last year we didn't actually play that great basketball offensively and scored a lot less points in first halves, in the end they relied too much on standing around watching Tatum (maybe what ended up getting him injured, too) This year, the team has lost a lot, but offensively 80% of the time they play superb basketball and get great open looks, way more dunks, selfless cuts, and an adept midrange as JB, Pritchard and Queta all score a lot in the paint or within 15/18 yards, and there are way more earned offensive rebounds as they crash the glass for second chance shots. There is also ball and body movement, and they only stand around sometimes (third quarter last night they stood around too much and it let Toronto lock down the paint) and on the other side, the defence doesn't really stop teams scoring points outright every game, but they can lock down on threats in big moments and wear out star players forcing the others to be the ones to score. The margin for error is small based on talent levels, but when it clicks it isn't actually far off being a top 5 team in the league. Can that translate to being a legit contender? probably not as the season is long and the depth is very slim, plus we have no cap room to make any positive trades, But it is actually more fun to watch this year, for me, as I like the style of basketball they have adopted.

Remember the games I mentioned they lost early, where they would just sh** the bed for one quarter or one half (they did that last night with a big lead, but they had time to re-establish and pull away again in the 4th which itself shows growth as they didn't let losing the lead affect them, and Toronto were defending like world champions for the second half) and how those games they lost usually still ended up close, and they could have maybe started the season much better even though they weren't playing that good. That is what probably gives the best sign that actually this team can compete in the regular season. We started very disconnected quarter to quarter, couldn't rebound, and still could in-theory be tied first if we hadn't given away some dumb games.

But by the same token, you could blink and be 9th, the East is that close. But the eye test says they should be top 4 when all is said and done. Doing that is obviously much harder, and not everything that should happen does happen, but if they don't it would almost be their own fault at this point, based on how they play, the advanced metrics etc, unless there are injuries, then they may as well just get the young players more minutes and grow the team to see who gets to stay in the program, otherwise you risk running JB into the ground.

Damn, you got me talking hoop in depth, woops, so much so I wanted to watch some now, but Wemby is still out for SA. I forgot the timeline of his return? It feels like it has been ages with the amount of games there have been. Boo. I guess 'The Last Wish' it is (beware of Peter Kenny's goat-like voice, that one can be a little... too much. But that story 'The Edge of the World' leads to a really cool moment imo, where you get to really understand some of the character's inner workings) but I just feel like that was the one short story I noticeably prefered reading for myself on the page, and providing my own ideas on how they sounded as it could be a bit distracting at times.

Who have you been watching in the NFL then? or have you not been catching many games?

Apologies for the massive comment 😁 you must use my insider knowledge to make bets and cash-in. Reward yourself for making it through this!

@Ravix Lol, well if I strike it rich, it won’t be off of sports betting. Certainly not when the sports world is one ruptured Achilles or torn ACL away from any team’s collapse.

I haven’t been watching very much NFL. I actually have watched more NCAA football this year. Since they are paying the college players now, it feels like the Pro league. But part of me hopes to see the small schools with lesser budgets play spoiler. James Madison University ftw!

And I’ll keep an open mind for when goat-voice shows up. I’m not there yet. Still finishing the Lesser Evil section. So far his characterizations have been quite good. It’s always tough to voice a character of the opposite sex without sounding like an idiot, but he does it well so far. Oh and I haven’t had a chance yet, but there is previews for the Booktrack editions. So I’ll give them a try before deciding which version to buy.

Boy, I really got off subject so I’ll have to close this comment with something American Sports related. Uh… oh yeah, here’s one — just when I thought I couldn’t think any less of FIFA, they go and give a peace prize?!… There’s so many layers of strangeness to this. Maybe they meant it as a “piece” prize, as in dividing the world into fragmented pieces.

There, does that count as American Sports talk? 😂

@Th3solution

Ah, yes. Some people like having their footballs tickled and egos stroked by groups of rich old men, whilst also preferring the literal exact opposite in reality. I doubt they will ever release the un-redacted... fixture list. We'll never be told who played who in that world cup. Congratulations on the US victory, though. Who knew that bunch could find it in themselves to hoist the trophy against the odds.

College sports goes over my head, I can't even begin to fathom it, but hopefully it remains interesting if it has drawn you in more than the big league.

@Ravix The college sports scene has a raw and unpredictable nature to it. Players come out of the woodwork on a regular basis. The fanbases are so much more rabid so the energy is a bit different in the games. Many future professionals are born on the college fields and courts. It’s also fascinating how often players who are dominant in college end up never doing anything in the pros.

It is a lot to absorb though, as there’s hundreds of teams and the randomness of it all makes it feel chaotic sometimes. There’s so many teams that it’s impossible for them all to play each other so the playoffs teams have to be selected by a committee. They try to take into account ‘strength of schedule’, and ‘quality wins’, and ‘style’ wins (or blowout wins), as well as head-to-head outcomes against other contenders. They also give some weight to schools/teams who win their own division, similar to the way the pros do it, so sometimes a winner of a division is a much weaker team than the third place finisher in another stronger division.

There’s always going to be a team or teams who feel left out and unfairly omitted in this scenario. This year the big loser is University of Notre Dame, as well as University of Texas (with Arch Manning at QB, yes from that Manning family - this is Peyton and Eli’s nephew) who could both likely easily beat James Madison University (who won their division but played no ranked teams all year) but are left on the outside looking in.

The “March Madness” college basketball championship tournament has the same issues, but there are fewer schools snubbed because of the nature of the game being faster and having more volume of games that can be played in the tournament, so the field to start with is 64 teams, whereas in football it’s 12 teams (recently expanded from 8). Part of the fun of March Madness is seeing ‘Cinderella teams’ make a run though, so we’ll see if football can start to capture a similar phenomenon.

Edit: And as an aside, beyond the 12 team playoff bracket in football, they have these ‘bowl games’ which are like an extra game for teams that had good records at the end of their season but didn’t make the playoffs. Sort of like a consolation prize game to drum up money for sponsors like Xbox. Most of these bowls (and there’s dozens of them) are meaningless except for the fans of those respective schools. And even then most of the good players for these teams will opt out of even playing in the bowl game for fear they may injure themselves right before the draft and therefore ruin their draft and professional potential. Notre Dame outright refused to participate in any bowl game invitations when they weren’t invited into the playoff tourney.

———

But if you didn’t grow up hearing about these universities and having at least some familiarity, I can see how it would be hard to foster much interest. I feel the same about many sports out there that I can’t wrap my head around, the Premier League for example. I have trouble understanding all soccer teams you all have over there.