Hardwood

I'm dumb at basketball -- why doesn't he head toward the uncovered guy at the bottom left?

i can't quite make out the individual players, but most likely:
that player in the corner is probably his defensive assignment, and he might've been the first guy down the court. a teammate likely picked him up in transition to avoid any fast break opportunity for Chicago, and will slide over to the open guy on the near side as the defense gets set.

oh I see. Good hustle Scola.

these "clear path" fouls are really stupid

not the reason that the Bulls lost but they slow down the game so much

what's dumb about clear path fouls exactly? they're to prevent cynical intentional fouls on fast breaks. they may actually speed up the game by limiting the incentive teams have to intentionally foul after turnovers late in the game.

there was a pretty terrible clear path foul called against derrick rose last night on a bad outlet pass thrown to cj watson. to borrow from the nfl, the ball was uncatchable and rose's contact w/ watson was incidental. the refs spent about 3 minutes hovering around the midcourt monitor before deciding to give watson 2 free throws for the clear path foul.

i get the rule, it's implementation yesterday was garbage

The only bad thing about clear path fouls (and the worst thing about NBA officiating in general lately) is the exorbitant amount of time spent reviewing trivial and/or no-brainer calls. It's more understandable in the NFL where a single play can and often does swing the entire game. Almost any given play in the NBA can only impact a tiny percentage of the game's total score.

I hope Steve Kerr continues to ridicule the officials and/or league for all the momentum-killing delays.

so what you're saying is there's nothing wrong with the clear path foul rule?  

i think the prevalence of instant replay has really shifted way way way too much focus on to officials. there will always be mistakes and there will even always be mistakes when we use replay because of the guidelines around the "burden of proof" and the fact that replay is still open to interpretation. yes, calls made by the official can affect the score of the game. but rarely does it decide outcomes, especially if we go back and analyze the number of calls that went each way over the course of a whole game or a whole season.

i think it is more damaging to sport to argue over the conduct of officials than it is to simply accept their limitations and their decisions.

I just want the game to keep moving.

yessss.

reuben wrote:

At first this was stuck on the first frame and wasn't playing as a gif, but it's actually funnier that way. Or maybe that's why you posted it in the first place.

Christmas day jerseys are coming

Those are actual court attire and not some kind of pajama/insulated underwear hybrid?

Just finished watching last night's Golden State/OKC game. Top 3 all-time regular season game, at least that I've seen. Instant classic. DVR, league pass replay, torrent, do you whatever it takes if you enjoy hoops.

that jersey looks phenomenal in that picture. minimalism, y'all.

yancy wrote:Just finished watching last night's Golden State/OKC game. Top 3 all-time regular season game, at least that I've seen. Instant classic. DVR, league pass replay, torrent, do you whatever it takes if you enjoy hoops.

i clearly picked the wrong night to sit around watching Parks & Rec with a girl last night.

Looks like the Pacers should probably stop talking shit.

jasperness wrote:i clearly picked the wrong night to sit around watching Parks & Rec with a girl last night.

Grantland's gif-laden love letter to Warriors vs. Thunder. And yes, conference finals please.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/82632/please-basketball-gods-let-the-thunder-and-warriors-play-in-the-western-conference-finals

Dirk Forever

God damn right. Solid game, last night.

I was rooting for the Rockets last night since it didn't hurt to watch Dwight play for the first time in a couple seasons. Chandler Parsons made him look great via excellent passing. Also the only guy in Houston who can lob, apparently.

If they can learn to play defense half as well as they score, watch out western conference.

Oh no

Dre