NBA Random Discussion 2012-13 Season

Damn, there were some crazy results today. The Wizards beating the Heat was definitely the biggest surprise, but the Rockets coming back against the Lakers is certainly up there as well. Hack-a-Howard works once again.

Good looking dunk but he was barely challenged at all. Just glanced Aldridge's body who tried to sell the charge call and ended up looking destitute laying on the ground.

What made the dunk good wasn't the flop challenge it was the distance from where he jumped, from inside the circle. About 9 feet.

He took off with both feet and his back foot was just in front of the free throw line.

Went to go watch the Rockets barely edge out the Lakers last night. I did not expect Greg Smith to be vital to the victory, but we should also thank Dwight Howard for missing all those free throws. Awesome game.

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Great call.

I love how he just made Kobe's quote look completely asinine.

With the way David Stern is, I wouldn't be surprised if the commentator got suspended.

He should fine whoever came up with the Pelicans.

Me love Andre Drummond long time. 8 and 7 in first half of tonight's battle of inadequacy, a.k.a. Golden State at Detroit.

Well, let's just say I used to like J.R. Smith.

Pistons are lucky to have Andre Drummond because after him, Rivers, Leonard, Lamb havent amounted to a lot neither have shown much promise. Harrison Barnes doesnt look like he will pan out to be a near star either, just a solid starter. Drummond on the other hand, will be scary. His Freethrows though...

Nuggets/Hawks turned out to be a pretty good one to watch. Both teams made their runs and it went down to the wire. Iguodala provided this:

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Iguodala doing a Blake Griffin offensive foul.

The Heat lose again.

Good game, good effort...

Iguodala doing a Blake Griffin offensive foul.

How the hell is that an offensive foul? Josh Smith pulled him down and Iggy still jammed it. That's awesome.

Iguodala doing a Blake Griffin offensive foul.

How the hell is that an offensive foul? Josh Smith pulled him down and Iggy still jammed it. That's awesome.

watch the left hand/arm

The Knicks' two victories over the Heat have seemingly highlighted what is potentially a key weakness for Miami. Heat opponents are averaging 25.6 three point attempts per game, which is the most in the league. They're also making an average of 9.2 per game at a 35.8% clip; the percentage is around the middle of the pack but the 9.2 per game is the second highest in the league. That points to their defense of the three point line being average at best, which creates an opportunity for teams that have some strong outside shooters to really do some damage. If such a team gets hot, as the Knicks have done in both of their games against the Heat so far this season, it could definitely cause them a lot of problems, perhaps even an upset, if they haven't improved in that area come the Playoffs.

That loss could have been avoided if The Greatness that is Joel Anthony played more minutes. Joel guards the paint while LeBron and the rest guard the perimeter.

Their defensive woes are caused by smallball which has their "bigmen" incapable of defending the paint. That leads to a lot of rotations, perimeter players collapsing to the basket and of course someone will always be left open. No wonder good shooting teams take advantage of that and expose probably the Heat's biggest weakness.

That leads me to believe Philly with Bynum would be by far the worst East matchup for the Heat. Too bad we have Kwame and Mt. Spence instead and it'll probably stay that way for a long time.

hey great news for the lakers!

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/david-stern-stamp-hack-shaq-tactics-231558614--nba.html

when you foul dwight, they get FT's and ball possession!

No. That's just for the last 2 minutes of a game, which has been a rule for a long time. The new suggestion is that the fouled team in the first 46 minutes of the game can either choose to take the FTs or possession of the ball meaning they get to restart their play.

HAS would stop dead in its tracks if referees called flagrant fouls according to the rules. Most HAS fouls are just players grabbing a guy around the waist and continually hammering him, or barely touching him, while he's away from the play and having no impact on the game, which is an easy no-call.

I remember one game where there was a HAS foul at mid-court during a break, while the ballcarrier was well inside the arc with a wide open lane to the bucket, but the foul was called. Next possession, the fouler grabs the guy around the waist from behind with one arm, and then repeatedly swings his other arm into the guy's chest.

Make those a no-call and a flagrant foul (it is, after all, unnecessary and has a hell of a windup, which makes it a clear flagrant by the letter of the rule) and you'd at least make the fouling team have to put more effort into it. They're not going to succeed every possession.

There's an obvious and common response to these protestations, which is that no coach would identify hacking targets if players simply made their free throws. But there is very little evidence that NBA players can easily improve their percentages from the line. And while many fans like to chalk that inability up to laziness, it's not as if these athletes don't see massive improvement in other areas of their games over the course of their careers.

While I understand that point of view and can't entirely disagree - if you don't want a weakness being exploited, do what you can to eliminate or minimise that weakness - it doesn't change the fact that it's not playing the game as intended, quickly and deliberately committing an infraction on every play outside of a stop-the-clock crunch time situation. I wouldn't mind seeing the rule cover the entire game to discourage the practice completely, while still allowing a player with the ball to be held to intentionally foul and stop play.

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