Got home earlier than expected so I jotted down a few things while flipping through last night’s later games.
—Chris Paul plays the game with a beautiful self-contained composure that belies his blow-by ability. He can lull you to sleep and change speeds with the best. You can see how his elevated understanding of his position keeps him a step ahead of his man. When the mid-range jumper is on, forget it. It’s almost like his brain is a race car driver and his body is the car. Inside his own body, of which he has excellent command, he knows where to turn, when to turn and how plan the turn to keep those chasing him off balance. Nobody, save Nash and maybe Kidd, has a better understanding of their own gears.
—Monta Ellis, who dropped a career high 35 last night, continues to impress. He uses angles well and continues to shoot the crap out of the ball. While it isn’t really saying much, it’s still worth noting that the Warriors laid the smack down on the Teen Wolves in the second quarter with Baron and Jack on the bench. Ellis enabled this to transpire.
–I love the interchangeability of the Warriors. They can act as 5 position-less guys out on the floor, and though the shot selection is often purposefully selfish, there’s a selflessness to it that makes for a fascinating juxtaposition. Six guys on that roster (BD, Jack, Monta, Biedrins, Harrington and Azubuike) average double figures and the supporting four are all above 45% from the floor. It’s like BD and Jack provide the volume (scoring) and the rest fine tune the treble and bass. It makes for beautiful music. Given the freelancing that Nellieball allows, I guess it’s some sort of gangsta jazz (Gazz?).
–I have this mirror in my apartment that, if you’re looking at it from a certain vantage point, faces opposite the TV. As is the case with mirrors, it flips everything. This was fun during the end of the Mavs-Jazz game because I was able to watch Dirk Nowitzki shoot left-handed 3’s. It was as if Morris Peterson invaded his body. If you have a mirror in your domain, I suggest you try this out. It’s fun. Good win for Utah. It looked like Dallas might come back, but the Jazz held on. After a week of road tripping (1-3) through the Southeast division, they needed this badly.
–Not sure what I think of Kings play-by-play guy Grant Napear. He has a fantastic name and he’s fun, that’s for sure. I just don’t know if I was a Kings fan if I would want to listen to his loudness all the time. At the very least, he’d be very hard to fall asleep to because he’d always wake you up again. “Zzz…zzz…BENO!…oh shit, what just happened [rub eyes feverishly]..is everyone okay?…Oh, it’s just a Beno Udirh layup…” Speaking of the Kings, if John Salmons keeps on swimming upstream like this, will he jump and die?
Sorry, couldn’t resist. Apologies to all.
