Okay do you want the good news first or the bad news? Let’s go good: The Breakers have unveiled their new head coach and it isn’t an overpaid and under-motivated American college coach with a shady personal history… it’s Kevin Braswell.
A week ago the Thunder were wondering if they’d even make the playoffs but they ended up snatching the fourth seed and home-court advantage against the Utah Jazz because… basketball.
Russell Westbrook needed 16 rebounds in game 82 to average a triple-double for the season and he got 20. Shout out to his ego-less centre for making it happen and shout out to Westbrook for rewarding him with buckets.
“The long hair and the beard and all of that stuff didn’t show up until later, but the physicality and the bruiser was there since Day One. The look kind of grew with his play a little bit. Definitely looks the part now and plays the part.”
It’s been 12 years since the last and only time the Commonwealth Games featured basketball as a sport. Must be something about Australia because that was the Melbourne Games in 2006 with the hoops and the Tall Blacks won a silver medal.
Is anyone else feeling uncomfortable about the direction the Breakers are heading in? Because right now it feels like a lot of things are happening under the Breakers banner that have nothing to do with the community-minded, family-values club that we’re accustomed to.
The Thunder had a couple days off to settle on their awful loss to the Celtics (as famously covered in last Kiwi Steve #21, of course) and they put that time to great use… with another visit to the Oklahoma Zoo. Steven Adams even got his own ambassador’s jumper to wander around in.
Somebody say a prayer for Steven Adams’ testicles (be careful how you word it tho) because yet again they were on the wrong end of a trailing limb. Serge Ibaka… how could you!?
At least we had some inkling that new owners were on the way when that thing happened. Paul Henare kinda suddenly just declining to extend his Breakers head coaching contract on the other hand…
We went through the backcourt blokes last time (plus Tom Abercrombie to balance the numbers) so now it must be the turn of the frontcourt. The big fellas. Forwards and centres. So in appropriate fashion, let’s just box this sucker out and get on with it.
Let’s reflect on the season that was by going player by player through the roster, ignoring the development dudes who didn’t really play, and seeing how each chap went, how they excelled and how they struggled, and what to look forward to from them in the future.
There are many different ways to describe a hip contusion but only one of them is actually an extinct hominin from a few million years ago. Hence why you've gotta do your homework before you talk to Steven Adams.
The National Basketball Association of America is nothing if not a league of trends and patterns. Every now and then a visionary comes along and changes things and very quickly their ideas are incorporated into the rest of the league as everyone else plays copycat.
Don't go blaming Steven Adams for skipping his defensive duties because he'll send you right away to the actual guilty culprit. Also: rebounds, dunks, layups, screens and blocks.
2.9 seconds left in overtime, Melbourne United with the inbounds pass. Josh Boone makes a sharp circling cut inside, leaving Rob Loe stumbling in his dust, and Casper Ware feeds him with a flash of a pass. Up goes Boone for the winner but up goes Tom Abercrombie as well...
That’s a quality win. A really solid defensive performance outside of the best player in the game, Yi Jianlian, against a more than decent opponent and away from home to boot. Then the win over South Korea was even better.
Paul George bottled it at the three-point contest during All Stars. Steven Adams wasn’t invited. Russell Westbrook thought he’d been picked last for the AS game (until he realised the list was in alphabetical order). Carmelo Anthony missed selection for the first time since 2009. Everybody had a point to prove.
The Breakers lost all four of their last games of the regular season, despite having solid leads in most of them. They booked their place in the semis and then turned to mud but that’s all good.
We’ve been through the Western Conference, now it's time to take a glimpse at the Warriors' possible Finals opponents. If the West proves to be no match after all then there are still a couple challengers from the other conference to be wary of.
it’s becoming a real gear-grinder this Warriors fatalism that’s seeping through the rest of the NBA. This is a competition, not a simulation. If everyone truly believes that the Warriors are unbeatable then why are they still playing?