The Lakers played the Nuggets last night past the east coast’s deadline of caring about NBA games and were able to upset them with a 112-103 victory. The game was definitely chippy and was highlighted by one of the loudest chants during some late game free-throws.
I’ll give credit where credit is due — that’s a pretty loud chant. Count on Lakers fans to do it while their own player is shooting free throws and not even the Nuggets’ players but I guess baby steps?
I had no idea where the Murray hate came from but a few minutes digging around on the internet and here’s the reason the Lakers fans (& players) were butthurt at Jamal Murray.
Dribbling around their golden boy — I actually loved the move when he did it. Completely unnecessary but got a cheap laugh out of it. Regardless, this was the reason for the chant and count on the smallest and pettiest player on the court to stick his nose in the drama:
Has there ever been a quicker turnaround of going from being loved to hated than IT? Crazy. He throws the ball at Jamal Murray to end the game as kind of payback. We got this little skirmish between Jokic and Randle to end the game as well.
I’m all for a little bad blood between teams but this one just seems so random? Does anybody really care if the Nuggets & Lakers get in a fight after midnight eastern? I don’t know. I am a bit intrigued on their next matchup to see if anything happens but I’m not circling it on my calendar.
Look at David Blatt weaseling his way into the spotlight! The ex-Cavs coach was in charge of Team Europe in the Turkey all-star game against Team Asia and took some shots at the Cavs after they let up 148 on Saturday.
And the result? Well Blatt’s Team Europe lost 151-142. It’s an all-star game so it clearly isn’t meant to be serious but it’s hard to not find humor in the irony of the statement. Even in Europe, Blatt continues to take L’s. I’m sure Ty Lue will be joining him in the ran-out-of-Cleveland by LeBron club shortly.
It’s the 12 year anniversary today of Kobe’s famous 81 point game. The Raptors were in town against the Lakers and well, Kobe took over.
Absolutely crazy statline. Of course, he didn’t break Wilt’s record of 100 but 81 points is still no minuscule feat. The most impressive of it all was that he managed to do so on nearly 61% FG. This was easily one of the top highlights of one of the greatest players to play the game.
Here we go again. IT and the Cavs return once again to the Garden on February 11th to face the Celtics. As you remember, IT declined the tribute video the first time he returned because he wanted his family to be there. Fair enough I suppose — the little guy did transform the franchise during a rebuilding period and is a big reason for the success of the Celtics now. Sure — nobody ever really declines a tribute video but we gave IT a pass there. Now he tweets out this today:
I'd like to thank the Celtics for their gracious offer to play a video tribute on Feb 11th celebrating my 3yrs in Boston. But since it appears this has caused some controversy w/ Paul Pierce's night I'd ask the Celtics instead to focus all of their attention on #34's career.
Isaiah, come on. Are we going to have to play him a tribute in the playoffs? This is why you don’t push it back. All of Boston loved IT, still does. The man put his heart on the line during the playoffs last night and pushed through when his sister died. All the respect in the world. Boston now lines up with Kyrie Irving who is an upgrade while IT and the Cavs are a disaster at this point.
There were some ramblings that Pierce was upset that they’d be showing the IT video during his night, which he should be. If IT would have just sucked it up and allowed the Celtics to show the video the first night he was back — this wouldn’t even be mentioned. Here we are now though, and at this point there shouldn’t even be a video shown. IT did great for the Celtics and he will always be appreciated but in the grand scheme of things, he spent 2 and a half years there. He’s not going to be mentioned with the Garnetts and Pierces of the Celtics and nobody is even thinking about retiring his jersey. He never actually won anything for the Celtics so it’s time to move on. Thanks for the memories IT but you shouldn’t really be dictating what’s going on in Boston anymore.
Somehow Cleveland does this every year and absolutely is garbage in the middle of the regular season. They’ll figure it out but LeBron emasculated his coach again last night like he’s done in the past:
Ty Lue is nowhere to be found while LeBron is taking over as coach. Who enjoyed this rant the most?
Kyrie is fresh off a 22 point comeback in London against the Sixers and is enjoying the 1 seed without their second best scorer in Boston while LeBron is taking over the coaching duties from this guy:
This is where it all makes sense why Kyrie left but let’s be honest — the Cavs will absolutely turn it on for the playoffs and do the same thing they do every year. For now though, it’s fun to see them melt down a little bit. They have one more easy game coming up against the Pacers and then Monday’s opponent?
While everyone was clambering over fake news about the Patriots and bomb cyclones, America’s favorite family was busy shutting down Lithuania. LaVar and his two kids that are too shitty to make the NBA arrived in Lithuania and were greeted like they were the most famous people to pass through that country (they might be though?).
LaMelo, LiAngelo & LaVar Ball have landed in Lithuania.
LiAngelo and LaMelo will be starting for BC Vytautas in what will be must watch Lithuanian TV. Will they actually be good? I have absolutely no idea. Does LaVar now have to split his time between Lithuania and LA? I have so many questions but no answers. I do know that the team announced them with a jersey reveal —
And they gave LaVar one too! I can’t get enough of the Ball family and LaVar’s antics so I’m all aboard the train. Kudos to him if this actually lands both kids in the NBA. I doubt it will but I’ll be checking the BC Vytautas box score.
In his first game back, Isaiah Thomas looked pretty good. IT had some rust, but he shot 6 of 12 from the field and 3-8 from three. He finished the night with 17 points and 3 assists. For the most part he looked like the old IT – he had a drive where he beat his defender, created contact, and finished off the play for an and one. Although he hit his shots, they appeared to be wide open and not heavily contested. It will be interesting to see how he looks when he goes up against defenders like Patrick Beverly and Avery Bradley. Only then will we know if Isaiah is truly back. Coming off the bench, the Cavs have a plan to only play Isaiah 12-20 minutes and going forward he will not play back-to-back nights.
Celtics Fans’ Reaction
IT should and better get a standing ovation from the Boston crowd. Besides Brad and Danny, IT is the most important part of the Celtics turnaround from being a lottery team to reaching the Eastern Conference Finals. When IT was traded to the Celtics, they had a losing record and were expected to be a lottery team for the second year in a row. He elevated his game and took that team all the way to the playoffs. He was an embodiment of what Boston loves in their athletes — someone who is tough as nails, always plays with a chip on his shoulder and is willing to leave it all out there on the court.
Since the trade, IT has said that he wishes he didn’t play through his hip injury in last years playoffs because it cost him a large chunk of his 2017-2018 season. These are not the comments that a Boston fan wants to hear but what Isaiah maybe doesn’t realize just yet is that 15-20 years from now Boston fans wont forget what he did playing through his hip injury and the death of his sister.
Just like Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, when IT comes back Wednesday night he will be doused with love and cheers. He will hear thank you, IT chants/signs and possibly an MVP chant to top it off just so he knows how much this city cared for him.
Isaiah has asked that the Celtics not play a tribute video in his first trip back. In a response on Twitter, Thomas explains why he declined the tribute video “I would like to actually PLAY & have my family in the arena to appreciate the love the city/organization will show US? It ain’t about me its about my family.” The Celtics agreed to not play a video this time but they plan to do so in the future.
With all this love going to IT, does Jae expect to receive a standing ovation or a tribute video? I would expect him to get a video, but I’m not so sure he gets cheered. He was critical of the Boston fans cheering opposing player Gordon Hayward and basically called the fans racist and the fact that he gave Gordon a little bump in the air which led to his gruesome injury.
Jae Crowder on his possible TD Garden reception: "(#Celtics) fans have cheered for opposing team's players before (i.e. Gordon Hayward), I feel like they should do the same for me because I gave them a lot. I hope they give me a little cheer."
Holding IT out on Wednesday is the smartest thing the Cavs could do for many reasons.
It removes the threat of Isaiah pushing too hard to get his “revenge” on the Celtics front office.
It takes the spotlight off of him and allows him to ease back into playing under the radar.
The story shifts from Isaiah vs. Celtics to Lebron vs. Irving/ Celtics vs Cavs.
It stinks for the fans not to get to see IT play, but this is the smart move for him and the team moving forward.
Who Won the Trade?
Months after the trade went down, we still can’t determine who won this trade. The Celtics look fantastic with Kyrie and are playing tremendous basketball, but the Cavs get IT back and he could very well be the difference maker this year. The Brooklyn pick doesn’t look as valuable as it has the past few years. The Nets are currently 14-23 which puts them 10th from the bottom and gives them a 4.0% chance to land a top 3 pick and 1.1% to get the first overall pick. The idea was to either trade the lottery pick for an all star at the deadline or keep the pick to help with a potential rebuild if LeBron leaves. At this point with the pick being so low, the Cavs won’t be able to get that difference maker at the deadline and is probably best to keep it.
The biggest chip in the trade was Kyrie Irving who is playing like on an MVP level this year. There were questions as to whether he would work in Brad’s offense and would he put in the effort to play the defense. The answer to both questions are yes. Kyrie is playing the best defense of his career, just watching him play, he’s going all out and rarely taking a play off. Defensively he is averaging 3.1 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 0.3 blocks a game. Offensively he is averaging 24.8 points and 4.9 assists per game. He’s becoming more of a passer and has excepted the role of playing off the ball at times.
Jae Crowder, who the media was gushing over immediately following the trade is back to being the average role player he always was. It wasn’t fair to Jae that the media put expectations on him that he wouldn’t be able to reach. He’s a good 3 and D role player coming off the bench. He averages 8.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and is shooting 40% from three while playing 26 minutes a game.
Ante Zizic was a draft and stash by the Celtics a few years ago and received high praises from scouts in Europe. In his first year in the NBA he is bouncing back and forth between the NBA and the G-League. When he does get into games they are blowouts, he’s averaging 1.2 points and 1.2 rebounds.
Additional thoughts on the Irving and Isaiah
Kryie is a player that other young superstars would love to play with. The most notable superstar that has been on the Celtics radar for years has been Anthony Davis. The Pelicans have said multiple times that they have no interest in trading Davis. However if things get ugly in New Orleans, I could see a scenario where Davis forces his way out and asks to be traded to a team like Boston that already has a superstar in Irving and has a ton of young talent.
As much as we love Isaiah, he was a player that needed to touch the ball on every possession. He earned the nickname King of the Fourth because of the way he would take over the 4th quarter. With that being said, I wonder if Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum would have been able to develop the way they have if IT was here and healthy. Tatum in the 4th quarter this year is shooting 70% 17 for 24 from the field and has made 3 of 4 three pointers 75%. On the season he is averaging 14.1 points, 1.4 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game.
Jaylen Brown has also taken a big step from year 1 to year 2 and I’m not sure if he would have taken this big of a step if Isaiah was here. He is averaging 14.4 points, 1.2 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game.
As much as we love IT, Danny made the right move in trading him. It’s too early to declare a winner, but as of right now the Celtics have zero regrets about making this move and the fans agree.
Rajon Rondo — yeah, remember him? He’s been quiet since leaving the Celtics and slowly becoming a toxic teammate wherever he’s gone after. Well, he’s been averaging 6.8 points and 8.3 assists per game over in New Orleans — probably helps that he passes the ball to both Anthony Davis and Demarcus Cousins.
Rondo went out last night and dropped a casual 25 assists in 30 minutes in a win against the Nets. AND he dropped 2 points to go with it. 1-5 from the field, surprise surprise.
This is the Rondo that we all watched and loved/hated on those big 3 Celtic teams. For comparison, Scott Skiles holds the record with 30 assists in a single game and it took him 44 minutes to do so. If Rondo kept up his pace (and who knows if he would have), he would have put up 37 assists. I can’t imagine he would have put up that much but he should have easily been able to break the record. He had 8 assists in the fourth quarter alone — outrageous efficiency.
Rondo has been kind of a forgotten player in this era of the scoring point guard but something about a vintage 1-5 from the field and 20+ assists performance just gets me going. Good to see Franklin can still ball out when he wants to.
In Portland, Oregon a semi-truck hauling a large trash bin lost control and tumbled into the swimming pool of the home owned by Portland Trail Blazers Evan Turner.
According to police, the truck driver lost control on a hairpin curve and ended up plunging down a hill before crashing into Turner’s pool.
At this time the driver, who was not identified, sustained serious injures and was taken to the Oregon Health and Science University Medical Center for treatment.
Based on Turners’ comments it appears as though he was not home at the time of the incident.
Turner was asked about the situation following the Trail Blazers loss to the Spurs, “I wasn’t aware that the driver was injured or how badly,” Turner said Wednesday afternoon through a team spokesman. “But I’m obviously grateful that the first responders were able to rescue him and I hope and pray he’ll be fine.”
Office Chatter 