The winter holidays are coming to an end. Those nonstop college football bowls will soon no longer seem bottomless. The NFL is over in a lot of markets, with only the postseason teams remaining. This means that for a lot of casual fans, this is the start of the NBA season. We at 5 Things welcome you all, but if you had the Cleveland Cavaliers facing the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals the start of the season has not done you any favors.
No, LeBron is not leaving Cleveland. David Blatt however...
On Sunday, the lowly Detroit Pistons beat LeBron James, Kevin Love and the rest of the Cleveland Cavaliers 103-80. It was the latest, and most embarrassing, setback for a group of players refusing to coalesce into the superteam promised this offseason.
For the first few months of the James/Love/Kyrie Irving experiment, there was talk of patience and an acknowledgment that building a championship team in Cleveland would take some time. Almost every report on the Cavs’ early struggles was moderate and temperate when compared to the instant media reaction that accompanied every Miami Heat win and loss in the months that followed The Decision.
Apparently, in the last few days the statue of limitations against panicky hyperbolic declarations lapsed. It’s mostly baseless speculation time. James turned 30 this week. HE’S IN TERMINAL DECLINE!
When asked about reported tensions with head coach David Blatt, James replied with a not-entirely committal “He’s our coach. What other coach do we have?” LEBRON JAMES WANTS DAVID BLATT FIRED!
When asked about the state of his team after losing to the Pistons, one of the worst teams in the NBA, James correctly noted that “right now we’re just not very good in every aspect of the game that we need to be to compete every night.’’ Obviously that means LEBRON JAMES IS GOING TO LEAVE CLEVELAND!
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No. No it doesn’t.
James is not leaving Cleveland any time soon. While his contract gives him the option to leave the Cavaliers at the end of this season, his “I’m Coming Home” letter was a statement to the fans, to the entire world really, that he was in Cleveland for the long run. Unless he’s working on the biggest heel turn in basketball history, it’s hard to see him screwing over his home state once again.
Yes, James might have already peaked – it’s not impossible given the sheer number of minutes he’s played in the regular season and playoffs. At the very least, he clearly isn’t fully healthy, as evidenced by the fact that he sat out Tuesday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks with a sore knee. Right now though, he only looks bad in comparison to the James of two years ago. He has spoiled us.
Now, the rumour that Blatt’s days might be numbered if the Cavaliers don’t start going on a major winning streak? That may have some basis in reality.
The Cavaliers hired Blatt, in his first head coaching job in the NBA, before they knew they were getting James back. Given the amount of say that LeBron (rightfully) has in the organization, this is essentially a “GM inheriting a head coach he didn’t hire” situation.
Because of this, Blatt’s situation is more precarious than it otherwise might be. While fifth place in the Eastern Conference isn’t an awful result – the Kobe Bryant/Dwight Howard/Steve Nash Lakers could only dream of such a record – it’s an appropriately mediocre accomplishment for an equally mediocre team. Rightly or wrongly, it’s likely Blatt will be the fall guy if they don’t start making up lost ground.
“Meet Me In Temecula:” A Christmas Story
Ah Christmas Day, a day to gather around the Christmas tree, unwrap presents, spend time with loved ones and drive 35 minutes to fight someone because they’ve dissed your favorite athlete on the internet. At least, that’s what happened this Christmas.
Here’s the short version: On 25 December, two basketball fans got into a Twitter debate about whether or not Bryant has been hurting the Lakers while on the court. Just a standard Twitter sports argument, right? Well, things escalated.
How escalated? The Bryant supporter, @MyTweetsRealAF, expressing the kind of passion and keen judgment of an Eminem song protagonist, decided to drive to Temecula in California to fight the other, @SnottieDrippen, who was actually tweeting from Arizona the entire time. Needless to say, the trip was all for naught, but it did entertain the rest of the sports Twitter world. Or at least the percentage that were spending their Christmas evening on social media.
By the next day, the “meet me in Temecula” incident had already entered NBA lore. ESPN personalities were slyly referencing the incident. There were thinkpieces. It led to a Deadspin debate about whether or not there was any justification for any of this.
Bryant, funnily enough, wasn’t even playing during that night’s 113-93 loss to the Chicago Bulls. It was partly because Bryant was beat up physically but it was also partly because, and this was the point Drippen (let’s avoid calling him Snottie because ... EWWW) was trying to make here, the Lakers offense really had been running better without him.
At this point, even Bryant finally admitted that he could help his team by taking some games off.
When asked if there was any particular injury hampering him, Bryant cited age and soreness.
Old age. My knees are sore at this stage of the season,” he said. “My achilles are sore – both of them. My metatarsals are tight, back is tight. I just need to kind of hit the reset button.
Not that this means Bryant doesn’t appreciate that his fans are willing to go the extra mile (and then some) to defend him:
Josh Smith joins the Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets were attempting to trade for Josh Smith during the offseason. Luckily for them, those plans fell through, because it turns out that they could get him for nothing but money a few months later, after the Pistons president, Stan Van Gundy, simply cut the unloved power forward last week.
Smith, apparently, had decided to go with a team that was willing to take the risk of offering him a starting role, which drastically reduced the number of suitors willing to take a chance on a player who might have been the worst shooter in the league. The Rockets, however, were OK with this provision and they rolled the dice.
It’s not an insane gamble, really. Theoretically, Howard and Smith are good friends, so there won’t be a huge locker room issue looming. Even if his presence in the starting lineup does cause some bumps, it’s not like that the Rockets really emphasize team chemistry. As commenter FunctionalAtheist pointed out last week, the addition of Josh Smith with a team led by the divisive duo of Dwight Howard and James Harden “fits into Houston’s all-annoying-team style”.
How has the Smith Experiment been going so far? Well, Smith was a key player in the Rockets’ 117-111 overtime win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, scoring 21 points, eight rebounds and three assists in the contest.
...And then he went 3-for-13 in his next two games, with eight points to go along with eight turnovers. So, it’s still very much in flux in Houston. Luckily, with the way MVP candidate Harden has been scoring, not even this could be enough to sink these Rockets. And worst case scenario, the Rockets will just dispose of him before letting that happen.
We can’t count the San Antonio Spurs in
Some people tell us not to worry about the San Antonio Spurs. They’re probably right. Recent history backs them up. There have been, however, early warning signs that Gregg Popovich’s veteran team can’t take anything for granted this season.
The defending champions have been fighting just to hold on to the seventh seed in the brutal Western Conference. They were stuck in a 1-6 rut, including back-to-back losses in triple overtime, before Sunday’s 110-106 win over the Houston Rockets. Kawhi Leonard, the franchise’s future, is on the sidelines with a hand injury. Cory Joseph has been starting in place of Tony Parker. Patty Mills is still recovering from offseason surgery. The aging duo of Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili have already logged a lot of minutes. (Those triple-overtime games didn’t help.)
The Spurs aren’t dead, but it’s difficult to see them leapfrogging the frightening Golden State Warriors, the surprising Portland Trail Blazers, those pesky Rockets, the lumbering Memphis Grizzlies, the Rondo-infused Dallas Mavericks or the resurgent Los Angeles Clippers unless players like Parker and Leonard are at full-strength. Plus, the Spurs have to fend off the once-left-for-dead Oklahoma City Thunder and the always tenacious Phoenix Suns or risk falling out of the top eight. It’s basically life during wartime.
It’s absurd to think that we’ve hit that season where San Antonio will crumble before our eyes like Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis in Beetlejuice. We can never count the Spurs out, but this time around we also can’t just reflexively count them in either. Not with their competition this relentless.
Other things we’ve learned
• The Brooklyn Nets’ Kevin Garnett blows in the ear of the Indiana Pacers’ David West. Perhaps KG and Lance Stephenson were part of a wacky body swap comedy? (Note: Please somebody write this.)
David West’s “how is this acceptable” face says it all.
• The Memphis Grizzlies’ Tony Allen livetweets baby vomit. This image doubles as a birth control device.
— Tony Allen (@aa000G9) December 28, 2014
Kodak Moment , Got to Love em, đđ pic.twitter.com/wtuOwdHs8e
• A defense of the Eastern Conference. No seriously. This is very much a “retweets don’t necessarily mean endorsements” thing, but Liam Boylan-Pett’s argument actually makes some sense. The East is no longer just the Miami Heat and a bunch of other teams, there’s actual competition now. So, thank you Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors, John Wall of the Washington Wizards and Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls for stepping up while LeBron’s latest team has struggled.
• Sspeaking of Wall: Here’s a 360 layup that you probably missed because they were playing against the Boston Celtics.
