“I have never been able to find peace like I found on the basketball court…a mystical place, heaven and earth between those lines.”
-John Merz
Back in the day we didn’t have a gym in my neighborhood where we could go and play ball.
If you wanted to play pick-up ball or work on your game, you went to the schoolyard at Holy Name Grammar School; it was our “paved paradise.”
Howard Place and Prospect Avenue, Brooklyn, New York was the place to be.
In the winter when it snowed we shoveled the court in order to play. Wonder if kids still do that today?
Thursday night I did a little research on the plus-minus stat in the NBA. Jayson Tatum leads the NBA with a +220. Nikola Jokic is second at +218.
Nets and Bucks tonight at 7:30. Two of the best teams in the NBA. I’m always interested in who sits out. Hope everyone suits up. Nets have won 7 straight and 11 of their last 12. They are 20-12. Bucks have the best record in the league at 22-9. Giannis and company are coming off a 114-106 loss to the Cavaliers. Watch out for Cleveland, they’ve won 5 straight.
Mike Malone has the Nuggets tied for the best record in the West at 19-11. Helped by a guy named “The Joker.”
How about Pascal Siakim dropping 52 on the Knicks at the Garden Wednesday night? It was a career high. Raptors got the win 113-106 breaking a 6-game losing streak. Knicks loss broke an 8-game winning streak. Siakim is having a great season; 26.2 PPG, 8.6 RPG and 6.2 APG. Good thing about NBA League Pass is that you can choose which announcing team you listen to; my choice that night was the Raptors side with Brooklyn’s own, Jack Armstrong. He’s the best in the business.
“It’s cool,” Siakam said of posting his first 50-point game at Madison Square Garden. “I’m not a super basketball historian. I didn’t start basketball until a little late, but I know how special this building is, and I think that for me the most important thing is that my team needed every bucket for us to win, which is the most important thing to me.”
Steve Kerr on the Warriors struggles this season: “You are what your record says you are,” Kerr said. “It was a bad road trip. We are 15-18, so we’re a below-.500 team, and we’ve got to find a way to reverse that.” This season the Warriors are 3-16 on the road. They’ve lost 7 of their last 9 games.
Golden State did not do well on their recent trip to New York City; they were hammered by the Nets, 141-112 giving up 91 points in the first half. And the Knicks smacked them at the Garden 132-94. They should have scheduled the Terriers of St. Francis.
James Wiseman, who spent a few weeks in he G-League scored 30 points against the Nets. The third year center played 27 minutes and shot 12-14 from the floor.
“You have to have that understanding because you don’t want to overreact,” Draymond Green said. “In saying that, the most important thing is always playing right, as long as you’re not making effort-related mistakes you live with the results … we just have to understand where we are.”
Steph Curry has been out with a shoulder injury. He’ll miss the game Sunday on Christmas against the Grizzlies. The Warriors are 1-6 without him this season. He’s a +145 on the year.
Jose Alvarado of the New Orleans Pelicans is a +159.
I’m not sure why Knicks broadcaster Wally Sczzerbiak went after Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton, calling him a “wannabe all-star?” Haliburton has a nice game. He leads the league in assists per game at 10.6 per game and averages 20 points per game.
“He had a lot to say about me and I was like really questioning like, first, who is this?” Haliburton said. “And why is he talking about me like this. I don’t know if I ever come out and said like, ‘I wanna be and All-Star this year. Please vote for me.’ I don’t think, I didn’t — I don’t think I’ve done that.
“I don’t know, I think he just was excited about a Knicks win and that got him going. But he’s just doing whatever he can to get attention and that’s just the media these days.”
One day later Wally apologized:
“I just want to address something I said about Tyrese Haliburton being a wannabe All-Sta. I want to apologize personally to Tyrese Haliburton. He’s a wonderful young player. He’s definitely in the All-Star conversation, along with guys like [Knicks forward] Julius Randle and [Knicks guard] Jalen Brunson. It’s going to be interesting to see who makes it and all those three players are wonderful players.”
I like the way Spurs rookie Jeremy Sochan shoots his free-throws. He went 7-10 Thursday night against the Pelicans. He shoots it with just his right hand, leaving his guide hand off the ball. Think George McGinnis.
Phil Mushnick of the New York Post has an acronym when describing announcers who talk too much; “TTM.”
Stay warm and stay safe…
E-Mail: SteveFinamore@yahoo.com
PLAY THE RIGHT WAY 