Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Straight From The Rook #9



Mat MacDonald AKA The RookThe Rook is currently enrolled in Human Kinetics at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nov a Scotia. A frequent contributor to all NBA and Rapto rs debates along with other sports. Witty, quick and never afraid of a challenge, Mat's here to talk hoops with you and dish out his two cents whenever!

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So weʼve realized one thing now: The Spurs are no joke. And by no joke, I donʼt mean Humphries and Kardashian, but instead the fact that theyʼve only lost two games so far this year. Not bad for a team that was considered too old, out of style and not deep enough to make it to the playoffs in high position. Yeah, so much for that theory ʻexpertsʼ. Seriously, you didnʼt think Matt Bonner was going to put the Spurs on his back? If only, if only.

A lot has stayed the same though over the past week. The Lakers are the Lakers, the Clippers still suck, the Raptors caught the injury bug and hey, Greg Oden was diagnosed as a carrier of the injury bug. Itʼs been a big week.

Without further ado, and I do mean further since this is a late night Monday morning hangover - I know what youʼre thinking, but the weekend wasnʼt THAT good - I give you the whoʼs hot and whoʼs not of the past week.

Whoʼs HOT:
- Hey, my nameʼs Kevin Love and Iʼve decided that instead of dropping 30/30 games Iʼll just make it simple and team the kids that 20/20 is much easier. With Loveʼs huge game still in the minds of everyone he decided that it was only fair to follow up with some major performances this week. So what did he do? Well besides the fact that on the season heʼs averaging 19 points and just below 15 rebounds a game (14.9), Love tallied three straight double-double games.

Sure, Reggie Evans had a big game for the Raptors when he grabbed 22 rebounds and had 12 points, but that same night Love did him one better grabbing 22 rebounds while dropping 32 points. His other two games of the week you ask? 21 points, 22 rebounds against the Warriors and 24 points, 17 rebounds against the Thunder. And he plays on the TʼWolves. I digress...

- Miami who? Did the world forget about the Indiana Pacers? I wonʼt lie, I did. After T.J. Ford was shipped there for a box of ding-dongs and a fruit roll-up, I called it quits on the yellow and white. Probably the only person I know outside of Twitter nation that enjoys Pacers basketball is my cousin. I used to feel bad for him, but not anymore.

Before I thought you could sleep on the Pacers and hit the snooze button a million times, but now, not so much. Despite Kobeʼs 41 points the Pacers were able to pull off a big win over the Lakers. And despite the Heatʼs...wait, the Heat arenʼt doing anything right these days. Despite their best off-season acquisitions they still couldnʼt beat the Pacers.

To be honest, thereʼs not a lot to shake your head at right now if youʼre a Pacers fan. Sure your record isnʼt that great (8-7) but your core of Collison, Granger and Hibbert is pretty damn nice. If I was a betting man earlier in the year I wouldʼve never imagined Iʼd see the Pacers doing this week this early in the year, but like I said before, I digress...

- This one should really be called, “Whoʼs mild” because of course since a large population of the readers are from Toronto at times, you want to hear about your Toronto Raptors. I wonʼt lie, I was overly impressed with the four game winning streak. The games were good, Bargnani looked like an all-star, and shoot they even knocked off the Celtics - mind you without Rondo. That being said, the previous two games against Boston and Atlanta have been flat out bad. After losing a game to the Celtics that the Raptors arguably couldʼve won had Bargnani not been punked off by KG.

Regardless, that wasnʼt as bad as the Hawks pounding on the Raptors Sunday afternoon at the ACC. The score? Not important if youʼre a Raptors fan, but still all you can say is, “Keep on truckinʼ!” I digress...

Whoʼs NOT:
Iʼm not going any further than to say the Miami Heat are the only thing that is NOT hot this week, or any week. Theyʼve stunk the joint up worse than Charlie Brownʼs boy Pigpen and itʼs just gotten worse. After the terrible effort the Heat put up against Dallas, the players decided it was time to have a pow-wow without Coach.

Yeah, good move boys. Now youʼre solidifying what everyone in the world has been thinking: You have ZERO faith in your coaching staff!

If this wasnʼt the que to open Pat Rileyʼs eyes, and coaching book, then maybe it was the LBJ shoulder to the suit jacket that was replayed on ESPN time after time. Seriously guys, give it up. Youʼre making all this money, you were expected to do all these great things, youʼre making excuses and right now you flat out suck. Try playing basketball plain and simple.

Whoʼs Blakinʼ:
Blake Griffinʼs averages so far for the season: 20 ppg, 11 rpg. If you arenʼt loving what Blakeʼs been doing so far this year then really you arenʼt enjoying basketball. Over the past week Griffinʼs tallied three big double-double games including a near triple-double game against Utah which saw him score 35 points, grab 14 rebounds and pull a Deron Williams-esque seven assists in another losing effort.

I guess his biggest line of the week couldʼve been against the Kings most recently where not only did he get a double-double but the Clippers actually won a game! Now, put BG on a winning team and right now youʼre looking at not only a rookie of the year candidate, but an MVP candidate.

If you donʼt believe me, set your DVRʼs.

-MM

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