Kyrie and LeBron Enough for Seventh Straight Win: Pistons vs Cavs Behind The Box Score
January 27, 2015Video: Clay Matthews and his family football legacy
January 28, 2015Welcome to the final Wednesday of January 2015. This winter hasn’t been that bad, right? We probably have three more months of it to look forward to, but aside from a couple bad spells, I think we’ve been fairly fortunate in Cleveland thus far. I was in South Korea this time last year and have only heard Biblical tales of the Polar Vortex, but I’m glad you all survived it. Fingers crossed we all make it to the next one.
Let’s dispense with the pleasantries. Onward!
LeBron’s Respawn
I had nearly forgotten how much fun it can be to watch LeBron James play on a nightly basis. Much of the bellowing about the Cavs this season has been overblown one way or another, but talking heads were right when they said that LeBron looked off in his first 30 games or so. Whether it was due to injury, indifference, or irritation, he wasn’t playing like the man we saw score the Cavs’ last 25 points in Detroit eight years ago. Age is a factor, sure, but the difference was so stark as to be jarring.
A deep breath and a smile, then, for LeBron’s performances since returning from his eight-game hiatus. Last night’s game in Detroit was the latest in a series of great ones. He scored 32 points, his eighth straight game with 25-plus. He also had his ho-hum 7 assists and 6 rebounds.
More exciting than the recent numbers is how they have been accumulated. LeBron looks reborn, like Super Mario is after falling in a pit or wandering into a Goomba. He’s back to stomping all over the competition, and it has made for delightful viewing. Against the Pistons, he threw down breakaway dunks and bulldozed defenders out of the lane and set up bunnies with no-look passes. He was the superhero that we have watched for years. He’s back.
No one pats Goliath on the back, but LeBron deserves recognition, as weird as that sounds. We have lived life with him in Miami and seen how ordinary this year’s Cavs look without him. This is just a gentle reminder not to take him for granted.
(Maybe attending Cleveland State’s last game inspired him. Oh, and Kyrie was pretty spectacular last night too.)
Klay Klay Klay
This will be brief and overdue: Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors scored 52 points against the Sacramento Kings last Friday night. He scored 37—THIRTY-SEVEN—of those points in the third quarter alone, an NBA record for scoring in a single period. He made all 13 of his shots, including 9 three-pointers.
It’s one of the greatest shooting displays I have ever seen outside of the fantastic Keanu Reeves vehicle John Wick. Here are all of Thompson’s shots from that magical third. Listen to the sound of the Oracle Arena as the fans get a sense of what they’re watching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxjsz92v53M
The best part of any achievement, however, is not the achievement itself. The real accolades comes when said achievement is handed over to the internet and memed and GIFed and Vined and YouTubed to death. To that end, here are all of Klay’s shots assembled in a single GIF:
And here is Klay’s quarter imagined in NBA Jam form:
He barely grazed the rim. It was truly a sight to behold. I love basketball.
Hoop Reads
Some light basketball reading for your midweek morning:
● Grantland’s Zach Lowe, about whom I gushed in this space last week, unveiled his choices for the NBA All-Star Game. Cavs fans will be happy to see that Lowe included Kyrie Irving along with LeBron, though Kevin Love still didn’t make the cut. Lowe devoted a fair bit of space to Irving, especially praising his ability to attack when defenses are on their heels. He included a clip of Kyrie setting Love up for an open three early in the shot clock.
Irving is getting smarter about picking his spots, and a lot of them come as he brings the ball up in semi-transition against a backpedaling defense:
● If you haven’t gotten enough of JR Smith—and too much is never enough when it comes to Earl Joseph Smith, Jr., in my estimation—Cleveland’s own Brendan Bowers wrote for SLAM magazine about how Smith (as well as Timofey Mozgov) is taking to life in Cleveland. JR seems to be enjoying himself, especially in the Cavs’ locker room.
“This is definitely the most fun I’ve had in an NBA locker room,” Smith told SLAM following the win over OKC. “This team is the most fun. Especially, right from the start. We all clicked right away.”
● One more JR-centric piece: longtime NBA scribe David Aldridge had a little Q&A with Smith on NBA.com. Smith talked about the off-court matters that come with moving to a new city, and also of the hoops-related adjustments that come with joining a new team. He even described his early play with the Cavs as “tentative,” which I found only slightly less funny than Animal House.
The biggest advice I got when I first got here, the first game I played, I was kind of tentative, because I don’t know how the guys will respond to me if I shoot this shot, or what’s going to go on. I talked to ‘Bron and he was like, ‘we got you because of who you are. Play your game. You don’t have to fit in. You already fit. So don’t try and fit in.’ And after that, it was pretty much just go play and be me.
● Oh, who am I kidding; why not some more JR content? WFNY’s Scott Sargent came up with the brilliant idea of juxtaposing some of Smith’s more enjoyable quotes against desktop-quality landscapes, and I was all too happy to make it a reality.
Be inspired by the words of JR Smith: pic.twitter.com/On9Jq0IIlK
— Will Gibson (@wjcgibson) January 25, 2015
Injecting Strangers
Finally, I leave you with some music. Injecting Strangers is not only my favorite leisure time activity,1 but also a rock band from Cincinnati that I had the pleasure of seeing rock the Grog Shop last week. Some of their songs edge into the weird, but they’re a wildly enjoyable, swaggering quartet. The lineup is just drums, bass, one guitar, and a singer, but they create layered, dramatic sound without relying on corny overproduction.
I’ve chosen three songs: “Lioness of the Old West” (take note of the bass line in the verses and the guitar riff in the pre-chorus), “Shooter Upper” (a rollicking, upbeat rock and roll tune with a screaming-if-brief ax solo), and “Nightmare Nancy Pt. II” (which features a thoroughly singable chorus).2
Enjoy them, and enjoy your day. Thank you for reading.
4 Comments
Serious jump shot porn from Klay. He was in such a zone that not even the time out with crowd and teammates slobbering all over him could break the spell.
After playing way too much Destiny lately, “Lebron’s respawn” made me laugh.
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view3/1321609/spawn-mask-o.gif
Klay Thompson is a bad man that NBA Jam clip brings back memories in college.