Friday, Feb 5, 2021

Weekend watches — LeBron vs. All-Star Game — Dudley vs. PG

February 05, 2021

Friday, Feb 5th, 2021

  The Opening Tip

  • The best games on TV this weekend 

  • LeBron isn’t too hyped about the All-Star Game

  • Jared Dudley called out Paul George in his new “book," which is really more of a pamphlet

 1. Three games to plan your Friday and Saturday around   

1. 📺 Friday: Celtics @ Clippers 10 PM EST [ESPN]LAC -6.5 O/U 219.5

  • The Clippers … are shooting a comical 42.3 percent from 3 on the season and Paul George (50.8/47.8/90.5) is flirting with a 50-50-90 season.

  • The Celtics … are a big ol’ question mark outside of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but those two are on pace to be the first Celtics teammates to both average 26-plus since Larry Bird and Kevin McHale.

One reason to watch: Boston is sort of like L.A. lite. Both teams are built around two excellent wing players, and last year’s matchups between these two went to a combined three OTs.2. 📺 Saturday: Nets @ 76ers 8 PM EST [STREAM]

  • The 76ers … have the best record in the East and perhaps the best player in the conference. Joel Embiid (29.8-10.8-2.7, 55.9/42.3/85 shooting splits) would get our vote for MVP if the season ended today.

  • The Nets … are like watching the Harlem (Brooklyn?) Globetrotters every night. The only difference is their opponent scores more than the Generals do.

One reason to watch: Eastern Conference Finals preview, perhaps?3. 📺 Saturday: NUGGETS @ KINGS, 5 PM EST [NBA TV]

  • The Kings … are a beautiful mess of nonsensical basketball talent led by De’Aaron Fox, the best-kept secret in the NBA.

  • The Nuggets … have Nikola Jokic, who makes life (and watching basketball) better.

One reason to watch: Kings rookie Tyrese Haliburton, who sunk the Celtics on Wednesday night, is the leading candidate for rookie of the year, and can make plays like this.

 2. Daily GIF: Don’t turn your back on LeBron   

In last night’s matchup of two Western Conference contenders, the Lakers outscored the Nuggets by 31 points in the second half for a 114-93 win. LeBron finished with a 27-10-10 triple-double.His best play was the pass above to Talen Horton-Tucker, who sounds like a Dr. Suess character more than an NBA player.PS: Bol Bol is the defender that got beat backdoor in the GIF above. That feels like a good enough opportunity to point out that, on this day 34 years ago, Bol’s dad Manute blocked 12 shots in 23 minutes.

 3. Trivia time  

Two players in NBA history have averaged five or more blocks per game over the course of a season. Who are they?

Hint:

Both are really tall.

Better hint:

Jazz

Answers at the bottom.

 4. LeBron sounds off on the recently-announced All-Star Game  

The NBA and NBAPA finalized plans yesterday to hold a one-day All-Star Weekend in Atlanta on March 7. There will be an All-Star Game, and the league is looking into adding a dunk contest and a 3-point shooting contest.To add an exhibition game to a volatile schedule a year into an exhausting pandemic seems counter-intuitive, though the players’ union agreed to it, and the league needs to begin recuperating some of the lost money from last year’s bubble and this year’s lack of fans.There are two reasonable sides to the argument. LeBron, who harshly denounced the idea last night, falls on the anti side: 

"I have zero energy and zero excitement about an All-Star Game this year. I don't even understand why we're having an All-Star Game,” he said. "Short offseason for myself and my teammates, 71 days, and then coming into this season, we were told that we were not having an All-Star Game, so we'd have a nice little break. Five days [in March] from the 5th through the 10th, an opportunity for me to kind of recalibrate for the second half of the season. My teammates as well. Some of the guys in the league. And then they throw an All-Star Game on us like this and just breaks that all the way up. So, um, pretty much kind of a slap in the face."

Two things: 

  1. LeBron definitely had a nice vacation in Miami lined up. 

  2. LeBron knows how much gravitas his words hold. Everything he does is calculated -- scripted almost, except for maybe the time he called the guy in Atlanta “ol’ steroid ass.”

Will he go, though? 

“It's out of my hands," he said. "I'll be there if I'm selected. But I'll be there physically, but not mentally."

(If I’m selected, he said.) 

 5. “God bless you, Jared Dudley” 

The freshest beef in the NBA is between Jared Dudley and Paul George.Allow us to explain.Dudley released a “book” on Feb. 2, which is actually only 42 pages long. (To quote Larry David during Jason Alexander’s “book” release party, “It’s not so much a book as a pamphlet -- kind of on the thin side isn’t it?”) Don’t show us an extended Players’ Tribune article and call it a book, Dud.Anyways, the newsworthy item is less so the book and more so what he wrote about George, who he felt was acting like a champion last season without the pedigree to back it up: 

"We hear some of those guys talking about how they're the team to beat in L.A. It's fine if Kawhi [Leonard] says stuff like that. He's defending a championship. We don't trip if someone like Patrick Beverley is talking trash; that's how he feeds his family. We get it. We respect the hustle. "But we think it's disrespectful for Paul George, who hasn't won, to put himself on the level of [LeBron James] and [Anthony Davis]. This motivates us."

(Anthony Davis won one playoff series in seven seasons before going to L.A.)The comments were relayed to George during a recent postgame interview.His response: 

"God bless him. God bless you, Jared Dudley." 

A good response, for sure. An 8-out-10 response.But the best response came from Clippers coach Ty Lue, who committed verbal assault in four words: 

"A book? Jared Dudley?"

 6.  Quick hits 

  • Here are the results from the first round of fan voting for the All-Star Game. 

  • Non-ironic Kelly Oubre update: He had 40 points last night on 14-of-21 shooting.  

  • Undrafted Cleveland rookie Lamar Stevensshared a wholesome text from his grandma after the Cavs’ game against the Clippers: “I can NOT believe you’re guarding Mr. Leonard. Go head Lamar you are doing IT.” 

  • Chuck had a good mini rant about shooting too many 3s on Inside the NBA last night. 

  • On a recent podcast, Zach Lowe called Luka Doncic a whiner, to which Mark Cubanresponded, “F*ck you Zach Lowe, you don’t know sh*t.”

  • Eastern Conference update: Miami lost to Washington on Wednesday and is now 7-14 with only 51 games left.

  • Donovan Mitchellmiscalculated (and missed) his wide open dunk last night.

 7.  Off the press 

  • Does Luka Garza have a place in the NBA? [ESPN]

  • The NBA’s youngest team is also one of its deepest [The Ringer]

  • Zach Lowe’s 10 likes and dislikes [ESPN]