The Great Eight

Only one player in NBA history has ever played more than 2000 minutes and converted fewer than 20 free throws.

Andris Biedrins has played in 37 games this season, racking up 976 minutes on the court. In those 976 minutes, he has converted 8 free throws.

Eight. Huit. Ocho. In half a season.

Sure he's a bad shooter (33% FT this season), but he is also attempting them at an abysmal rate (0.6 per game).

Carmelo Anthony hit eight free throws Friday... in the first half against Cleveland.

Assuming he keeps up his current pace (and there is no reason to assume he won't -- he hit 4 in over 700 minutes last season), Biedrins has a chance to enter some pretty rare company: the over-2000, under 20 club. The only current member is former New York Net Kim Hughes, who accomplished the feat for the Nets' in their inaugural NBA season of 1976-77. Sadly, like Biedrins, Hughes was a 6'11" center.



Don't feel bad if you thought Andris was avoiding all contact. As it turns out, he's not. Biedrins is committing a robust 5.2 fouls per 36 minutes, so even if Andris doesn't get to the line, his opponents will.

JaVale's Been Working on a Dunk That Bites

Most importantly, the dunk in question needs to use a crisply minted $100 bill. The others are nice, but it's the biting dunk that takes the cake.

Warriors Win With Contrasting Styles

Down by 4 points with 26 seconds left, the Warriors scored the points they needed to force the game into regulation with two diametrically opposite plays.  The first was a Monta Ellis three-pointer (the first game action in the video below).



Note the clockwise movement used to spring the open shooter in this sequence.  The Warriors, on a play that did not follow a timeout, run this double-screen/double-shooter action to perfection.

The Rebounder

Consider the following numbers, figures which crescendo to a peak like the final notes of a symphony:

7.5
8.4
9.6
10.7
12.2
11.5
12.2
12.1
11.8
12.9
12.4
13.5
12.9
13.6
14.2

Amazingly, those data reflect the number of rebounds gathered per 36 minutes for one NBA veteran over the course of his 15-year career.  Even though he will turn 37 years old in a few months, his prowess on the boards (averaged out by the amount of time spent on the court) is nearly double what it was long ago when he entered the league as a much-hyped rookie.

Just a few more stats:  in a span of 19 games dating back to early December, this player averaged 12.8 rebounds per game in less than 30 minutes per game of playing time, while reaching the 15-rebound threshold six times and the 20-rebound mark twice.

Hornets/Magic: A Wonderful Exhibition of Facial Hair

Wednesday night, I was home watching the Hornets/Magic game from New Orleans.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable game, with competitive action that eventually drove the game into overtime.  But as I watched, there was this nagging feeling that I was overlooking a key theme.  I couldn't put my finger on it and it almost drove me crazy.  But at the end of the regulation, the telecast featured a bunch of timeouts without commercial breaks.  And lots of closeups.  Then it hit me.  The facial hair in this game... is... staggering!

The closeups made me realize that not only were these two teams well-matched on the court, but also that they both also featured a dazzling array of facial hair styles.  I couldn't leave the topic alone given the juicy variety of mustaches, goatees, chin fuzz, etc... The trend even extended to the head coaches.  So without further ado...

1)  Gilbert Arenas - Goatee

A timeless look.  Neatly trimmed.  Well-suited as a pairing with his close-cropped hair.  Honestly, the diversity of styles below is a cornucopia of facial follicles™ (Clyde Frazier), but what Gil has done here is honestly my favorite.  The only thing it lacks is originality.  (3.5 out of 4 stars)

One Crazy Game

Consider the factors heading into last night's game at the Verizon Center:

• Wizards W-L record: 9-26
• Kings W-L record: 8-26
• Tuesday night game
• Snowfall expected from 7PM to 11PM

Sounds like a winner!  I was anticipating an announced attendance of around 5,000, with an actual attendance substantially below that figure.  (The published number was 16,226.)  My hopes for the game were even lower -- the plan was to incorporate lots of snarky tweeting -- but the game quickly won me over and the tweet machine never made it out of my pocket.  Thank you to TruthAboutIt.net and StubHub for the free tickets.

The Defense of the Heat

The Miami Heat are playing fierce defense.  They are best in the league in FG% defense, holding opponents to 42.3% shooting.  And to make things even scarier, Miami has gotten even better of late.  Only two of their last 21 opponents have made it to 100 points -- and the Heat won those two games in the 100s.  They are 20-1 over that stretch of games.

On the other hand, even the best NBA defenses give up 80+ points per game.  In the above clip, the Heat, up by 2 points in the final seconds of a game with the Milwaukee Bucks, play outstanding end-of-game defense. Earl Boykins finds a tiny seam to score the bucket to force the game into overtime, but only after the Heat take away the better options for the Bucks.

NBA Etymology: The Opera Isn't Over 'Til the Fat Lady Sings

                                                                                                                    Property of the Washington Wizards Facebook Page.

When I was a kid, I did lots of stupid things.  In the age before iPods and cell phones, there would be instances where you would just had to stand there and wait.  These pauses, of course, provided to the opportunity to do some really dumb things.  We would be standing in line, with me bored half out of my mind and without anything better to do, so I would seize the opportunity to kick a rock or a brick wall.  My mother, of course, would say something like, "You had better take care of those sneakers, because I'm not going to be buying you a new pair anytime soon."  And it's like that for the the Washington Wizards.  They will not be getting new trophies for the foreseeable future, so it is imperative that they cherish the one they have.  The new ownership of the team has done a lot of work this season to recognize the great history of the Bullets, and tonight they take one more step in that direction.

During tonight's game versus New Jersey, the Wizards will unveil a new display case at the Verizon Center to showcase the Walter A. Brown NBA Championship Trophy that the Bullets won in the 1977-1978 season. Above is a picture from the Wizard's Facebook page, showing the newly restored trophy being placed into the case.  The new display, located outside section 100 in the lower bowl of the arena, prominently uses the old 'Bullets' team name and their red-white-and-blue color scheme.

But the aspect of the display that caught my eye was the great quote sprayed in red across the back:  "The opera isn't over 'til the fat lady sings."  I had read a while back that the origins of that phrase traced back to the Bullets championship run, but seeing it again sparked an interest in finding the details.

The Blatche-Lewis Project

When the Washington Wizards traded away Gilbert Arenas a couple of weeks ago, I speculated that the Blatche-Lewis combo would be an unmitigated defensive disaster for the team.  I hypothesized that the two players were similar in many unflattering aspects: too many jumpshots, slender physique, overall inactivity, and passive defense; and as a result, the team would suffer, especially in those instances when they were paired together on the floor.  To test out the theory, I am keeping tabs on their shared court time.  Here is a summary of the results when the two have been paired on the floor together since Lewis' first game.

1-1-11: Review of Wizards-Hornets

I went to the Verizon Center last night to watch the Washington take on New Orleans, a team who beat Boston a day earlier on the front end of a back-to-back road game sequence.  The Hornets used their bench quite a bit in the first half, and the Wizards were able to take advantage.  Facing the likes of a Marcus Thornton - Jarrett Jack - Willie Green - Jason Smith - Aaron Gray lineup to start the 2nd quarter, Washington was able to turn a 24-23 deficit  into a 43-30 advantage.  From that point until the end of the game, the Wiz clung pretty tightly to Murphy's Law.  It all went wrong.

The Blazers and a Double Screen

In their 100-89 win over the Utah Jazz on Thursday night, the Blazers were using picks and screens to generate their offense in the fourth quarter.  One particularly nice sequence involved two screeners:  LaMarcus Aldridge and Wesley Matthews.

Focus on the triangle at the forefront of the picture.  You can see Andre Miller (bottom/front) with the ball guarded by Deron Williams, Wesley Matthews at the top of the three-point circle covered by Raja Bell, and Al Jefferson guarding LaMarcus Aldridge at the left elbow.

Matthews is going to continue to drive Bell into the traffic at the left elbow, and then move over to set a pick on Deron Williams to free up Miller 

As you watch this play develop, keep in mind that this play utilizes the three Blazers in such a way that it positions each player toward his strengths in case he should get the ball:  Miller driving with the ball driving in the paint, Aldridge rolling to the rim after a pick, and Matthews moving to the left corner for a potential three-point look.

As Matthews comes over to set the screen, Raja Bell has overcommitted to guarding Matthews, and he cannot recover in time to get anywhere near Andre Miller and the ball.  To further complicate matters for the Jazz, Aldridge is getting set up to further free Miller with yet another pick. 

The Jazz are doomed on this play when Deron Williams cannot fight his way over the top of the screen and Raja Bell fals too far behind the play to help Jefferson when Andre Miller gets to the top of the key.



Aldridge uses his screen to get nudges all over the place.  After LaMarcus gets Jefferson stuck on his hip, he turns off the screen and gets in Deron Williams' way as he rolls to the basket.

Miller can now make the alley-oop pass with no pressure on him whatsoever, while Aldridge can roll to the hoop with a clear path and no one behind him. Millsap, guarding Camby on the other side, cannot rotate from over in time to help defend Aldridge.

The ball is in the air (in the photo, it is the blur right in front of Batum's face), LaMarcus catches it, draws a foul, and later completes a three-point play.

To see the play in live action, go to the 1 minute, 40 second mark of this video:



The best (or most annoying)  part about the whole sequence is that Jazz color analyst Matt Harpring uses most of three possessions, including the entirety of this Blazer sequence, crying about how the Jazz get no calls when they are away from Salt Lake City.  Instead of analyzing the play on the floor, Harpring provides us with a solid minute of comical whining. Meanwhile, the Blazers have run a gorgeously constructed play which helps seal their win.