Tag: Los Angeles Lakers

1.5.21 Hoop Tales: We’ve Been Expecting You, Mr. (Kyle) Anderson Edition

By on • ( Leave a comment )
Memphis Grizzlies 2019-2020 Player Previews: Kyle Anderson - Grizzly Bear Blues

Monday: 1-2 (-1.15 units)

Season: 12-17 (-6.81 units)

Recap: The Sixers look great and continue to be a strong 1st quarter spread play. The Bucks scored 125 points and it felt like Giannis scored all of them instead of DiVincenzo. Fox finished 5 points shy of his over and the Kings getting blown out early did us no favors.


First Pick: Kyle Anderson O13.5 pts vs LAK (-118)

Fact #1: Anderson is averaging 18.6 PPG over his last five contests, including 18+ in four of those outings.

Fact #2: In the first game of this series, he totaled 18 on a season-high 19 shots, despite going 1-for-8 from beyond the arc.

Fact #3: The Lakers allow an average of 26 PPG to the small forward position.


Second Pick: Kyrie Irving O27.5 pts vs UTA (-132)

Fact #1: Durant (health and safety protocols) is out tonight, missing his second game of the young season.

Fact #2: There’s an average of 17.5 shots per game up for grabs this evening.

Fact #3: In his first 10 games in BK last season without Durant, Irving averaged 28 PPG and I would expect a similar full-game effort tonight.

That 2nd pick was TLC until I saw he wasn’t starting tonight.


Third Pick: Nikola Jokić U24.5 pts vs MIN (-120)

Fact #1: Joker is leading the league in assists per game at 12.8, which shows he’s focused more on doing more in the offense than just scoring.

Fact #2: Joker has scored 25+ against the Kings twice this season and is 0-4 at that number against everyone else, including a 19-point triple-double effort in the first game of this 2-game series.


Fourth Pick: Clippers -2.5 1st quarter spread vs SAS (-118)

Fifth and Sixth Picks: Paul George O3.5 Made 3Pters (-134) and O24.5 points (-110) vs SAS

PG has been ruled out tonight with an ankle injury, so I’m not playing Clippers -3 1dt quarter spread anymore.

Hoop Tales: Opening Night in the Association Edition

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Breaking news animation: Jimmy Lips aka Big Game James knows hoops as well!

Normally, I’d wait to a few games in order to be able to draw from a sample size bigger than two preseason games, but these two picks seem too good to pass up.

First Pick: Joe Harris O11.5 points (-121) vs GSW

Fact #1: In the bubble, which seems like ages ago, Joe Harris averaged 19.1 points per game?.

“But James, that was without Kyrie, KD and Dinwiddie!”

I know, it’s called making a point that he can get buckets.

Fact #2: In the limited two-game sample size, the second of which the Nets treated like a real game, Harris went for 4 and 14 respectively. The 14 matters because the Nets treated the Celtics game like a regular-season tuneup.

Fact #3: There’s no Draymond and no Klay, which rids Joe Harris of potentially be guarded by two of the league’s best on the perimeter.

Fact #4: Harris averaged career bests in FGs Made (5.5) and attempted (11.4). With Kyrie and KD on the floor, he should rarely face a contested jumper/3-pointer.


Second pick: Kawhi Leonard O26.5 points (+112) vs LAK

Fact #1: There’s no convincing me that Kawhi and PG13 aren’t pissed off that A) Their arena mates won the title and B) All those questionable leadership and behavioral traits leaked to the public.

Fact #2: In 4 games against the Lakers last season, Leonard notched totals of 30 (opening night), 35, 27 and 28 — an average of 30 flat per contest.

Fact #3: There’s no way Bron guards Kawhi all game and when that duty is left to the combination of Matthews and KCP, the Board Man will have an easier time reaching his over points total.

Celtics Have a 2 Percent Chance of Getting the Number 2 or 3 Overall Pick at the NBA Draft Lottery Tonight

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Lost in all the excitement of this unexpectedly deep playoff run for the Celtics is the fact that they are still sitting on yet another potential goldmine. The Celtics have an outside shot at having a Top 3 pick fall into their laps this year.

The NBA Draft Lottery is tonight before Game 2 and the C’s will be watching with great interest as they could walk away with Philly’s first round pick (via Los Angeles) tonight. Boston is basically riding a heater after landing the No. 1 overall pick for the first time in franchise history last summer. Tonight will be a heat check from Danny.

To recap last year’s draft day trade that got us here, Danny Ainge traded the No. 1 overall pick to Philadelphia (who drafted Markelle Fultz) in exchange for the No. 3 overall pick (C’s drafted Jayson Tatum) and a future first round pick, which could be Philly’s pick this year that the Sixers had previously acquired from the Lakers. There were some protections on that pick though. The Celtics will get the Sixers/Lakers first round pick this year if it falls at No. 2 or No. 3 overall, which has a 2.87% chance of occuring at the Draft Lottery tonight.

Those aren’t great odds, but imagine the chaos we’d see on NBA Twitter if the Celtics, who are already pushing the Cavs to the limit and are expecting both Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward back next season, get a Top 3 pick? People would be screaming about frozen envelopes and crafting conspiracy theories about Danny Ainge having naked pics of Adam Silver to explain this great run of luck in Boston.

However, the Sixers (via the Lakers) are currently projected to get the No. 10 pick based on the Draft Lottery odds. We’ve seen teams make crazy jumps before (i.e. Cleveland jumping from 8th to 1st in 2011 to draft Kyrie Irving) so this wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. If the Cavs somehow jump from their current spot at No. 8 to No. 1 with the Brooklyn pick the Celtics sent them in the Kyrie trade I’m gonna snap though. Cleveland has had the No. 1 overall pick 3 times in the last 7 years. So who’s rigging the league for who? It would be hilarious though to watch Trader Danny hoard those Brooklyn picks for YEARS and then jump off the bandwagon at the last second to flip his last Nets pick, only to see it fall all the way to No. 8. Seriously though, Danny should be a stock broker.

If the Philly/Lakers pick ends up being anything other than No. 2 or No. 3 then the Celtics’ return for the Fultz/Tatum trade gets kicked to next summer when the C’s will receive a first rounder from the Sixers. The Sixers have their own pick next year as well as the Sacramento Kings’ first rounder so the Celtics would get the higher of the two next year unless either lands on No. 1 overall then they’d get the other pick instead.

In case you were wondering, the Kings finished 27-55 this year, which was tied for the 6th worst record in the NBA, with no signs of improvement next year. So either way the Celtics could be nabbing another Top 5 pick if not this year then very likely next year.

Phil Jackson Snaps When Called Out for Shitty Triangle Offense

By on • ( 1 Comment )

philjackson_rings

ESPN – “The Knicks, though, have struggled the past two seasons, losing a total of 115 games. Some have attributed those struggles to the complexity of the offense; others have pointed to a lack of talent. Asked about the critics of the offense, Jackson said, “Who are these people? Why would they even say that? Do they have 11 championships to show you when they talk about that? They got a lot of excuses. That’s the way it is.”

Pretty legitimate question after losing 115 games in two years if you ask me. Don’t get me wrong no one expected Phil to walk in Year 1 and have the Knicks knocking off the Cavs and going to the NBA Finals. But another year missing the playoffs and the (legitimate) grumblings of Carmelo start becoming more vocal…and I think Phil is starting to feel the heat a little bit. Not in the sense that he actually cares if the NYC media rips him, but the fact that his end all-be all Triangle Offense isn’t getting it done. This is regarded by some as the holy grail of NBA offenses and the fact is that either A. Phil can’t get the right personnel to run it or B. the NBA has just evolved past it. Complicated, confusing, I don’t know, I certainly don’t understand it.

For Jackson to snap on this reporter though with the Big Time response about how many rings he’s won is hilarious. Yea you won a bunch of titles running the Triangle Offense….featuring Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Kobe and Shaq. No shit, you guys were pretty good? I probably could have won a few titles with that crew just standing next to the bench in a cheap suit.