I knew that new responsibilities would curtail the amount of posts here at Both Teams Played Hard, but it’s bordering on a month since our last. As a sincere apology and showing of good faith going forward, I offer you this photo of Mike D’Antoni. (via NBA Offseason)
Nate merely took a three at the wrong hoop well after the buzzer to end the quarter, so it was no big deal. But watching D’Antoni get angry is a symphony of good times. (via @jose3030)
Unfortunately, I’m not a professional NBA blogger yet. No, no. This nonsense is pure amateur hour. In my actual career, I’m a mailman. A letter carrier. A master of the postal arts. Il postino.
It’s not the best job, but I make it much better. I steal. A lot. I’d say that out of any given ten letters I pick up, I thieve seven or eight. And ya know who writes a ton of letters? NBA players. I was shocked too. But I’m talking, like, a ton. In fact, the only thing they mail more than letters are postcards. Yup. Postcards. They send em to everyone. They send them to each other. They send them to their coaches. People send postcards to them. And sometimes they even send postcards to themselves.
These are the ones I stole last week. (See also: The Central)
By now, you’ve no doubt already seen numerous recaps of Mamba’s historic night of striking with 99% accuracy in rapid succession at the Garden. All told, he finished with 61 points on 19-31 from the field and 20-20 from the line, eclipsing both Bernard King’s Christmas Day 60-point game in 1984 and MJ’s infamous “Double Nickel” in his #45-wearing comeback year to become to the highest single game scorer in Madison Square Garden history.
Since the 7 o’clock start time Magic/Mavs game was boring me out of my skull, I was actually fortunate enough to flip over to Knicks/Lakers at 7:30 for the tip and catch the game in its entirety. And from the outset, Kobe was, in a word, sublime. Given my League Pass-induced ADD, I honestly can’t remember the last time I stayed on one game through every commercial until the end. But last night, I never even considered flipping around — even after I saw online that CP3 had 12 dimes in the first half against Portland.
Between the absurd pivot/shot fake/jab step jumpshots Kobe was wetting all game, the effortless drives to the hoop and the relentless focus on his face for the whole 48 minutes, the only conclusion I can reach is that Mamba is clearly a Both Teamster and this was a vengeance game. (Sorry, dude. Start leaving some comments next time and maybe we’ll issue a retraction.)
All that combined with the immaculate outfit being worn by Clyde Frazier just made for a great night for the NBA. (Sidenote: I really hope you League Pass folks had the Knick feed. I am privileged enough to have the Knicks MSG network and Clyde was sensational and vocational all game long.)
So with nothing left to add aside from the video of every point Kobe scored last night (via Dime), I leave you with a rerun of my unabridged, in-game Twitter updates.
(For the uninitiated, Twitter is the new NBA live blog).
BothTeamsPlayed Wilson Chandler just pinned the shit out of Kobe’s weaksauce.
BothTeamsPlayed Thanks for the post-game interview with Lamar Odom, Tina Cervasio. Meanwhile, your mouth is cavernous.
BothTeamsPlayed Twas all WIlson Chandler’s fault for that vicious block he had on Kobe’s weak layup in the 1st. Done pissed off Mamba something serious.
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