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The Process was worth the Trust, The Grit ‘N Grind Grizzlies are undefeated, Giannis continues to dominate, and the Warriors are back to being the Warriors. It’s the Ham’s Hoops Roundup for Tuesday, October 24th. Let’s go…
Scores from Monday, Oct. 23rd:
Philadelphia 97 – Detroit 86
Atlanta 93 – Miami 104
Charlotte 94 – Milwaukee 103
Memphis 98 – Houston 90
Golden State 133 – Dallas 102
Toronto 97 – San Antonio 101
Washington 109 – Denver 104
Sacramento 115 – Phoenix 117
Philadelphia 97 – Detroit 86
The Process… Folks,, It Was Worth The Trust
First career triple double from Simmons (21-12-10). A big night from Embiid (30 and 9). The first of what… well of what could be many, many nights where these two are the two best players on the court.
Quick aside – I can’t imagine how sick Philly fans are of hearing the injury disclaimer every time the Process Sixers play. As an NBA fan I’m sick of it. And as much fun as it is to rile up Philly fans, I’m tired of writing it too. Let’s just all agree that the injury disclaimer will always be there, and moving forward we’ll leave it out until there’s a reason to mention it. Fair enough?
Because good lord did these two look great last night. Embiid was his usual dominant self, posting outrageous Per-36 numbers in just 28 minutes and eating Andre Drummond’s lunch every second he was on the court. But it was Simmons who was more impressive – dictating the pace and looking in complete control on his way to his first career triple double. He even looked better on defense than I imagined.
I don’t think Detroit is that good. And both still have room to grow. But Embiid and Simmons were the best players on the floor against guys who have been in this league, and they very much looked like they knew it last night.
The Process? It was worth the trust. Even if Markelle Fultz has looked less than ideal so far (2-3-2 on 1/4 shooting in 16 minutes last night).
Also… HAMBONE!
Hambone!
Atlanta 93 – Miami 104
Wayne Ellington went for Six threes in the second quarter. And the Heat held off a late comeback to beat the now 1-3 Hawks.
I’m still very much a Justise Winslow believer.
Goran Dragic and Taurean Prince got into a scuffle. Which lead to nothing other than this movie villain quote from Dragic that perfectly borders between corny and hilarious.
Charlotte 94 – Milwaukee 103
Another Giannis masterpiece. 34-14-6. Leader in the clubhouse for the way-too-early MVP by a wide margin. It’s already at the point where a 34-14-6 night doesn’t warrant us talking too much about him. That in itself is completely outrageous.
Though Frank The Tank, who put up a quality 18-5-2 night for himself, did get one over on Giannis that made me drop my remote. THROW IT DOWN BIG FELLA
Mirza. Bang.
Also an absolute YEET from Khris Middleton down the stretch. Charlotte didn’t score after that. And sure, we’ve heard a lot about the #length of Milwaukee. But good god is it gonna be a problem for teams going forward.
Memphis 98 – Houston 90
Marc Gasol is so fucking great and so underappreciated and I’m so happy that the Grizzlies are still the Grizzlies even without Z-Bo and Tony Allen. They move to 3-0 now, with wins over Houston and Golden State, and become more and more lovable by the day.
And Mike Conley continues to be absolute nails. Effing NAILS, I said.
Eric Gordon had a team-high 27 to go with 4 boards and 7 dimes in the loss. Dude has been an absolute beast through four games this year and is a far more well rounded offensive player than we all attach to every Sixth Man of the Year shooting guard. The West is far too deep for him to make an All Star game. But if Chris Paul is out for a while and the Rockets are up near the top of the standings you could at least see him in the mix come December/January
James Harden… squared up? I guess… against Rio. God bless Mario Chalmers who never fully fulfilled his potential as one of the most irrational confidence guys in the league because that confidence was simply too irrational. And god help James Harden if he ever has to bring that stance to a real fight.
This kid is a goddamn savage
Golden State 133 – Dallas 102
Steph, Clay, and KD combine for 75 and the Warriors got back to being their old disrespectful selves with a 40 point opening quarter
This is an awesome moment and captures so much of what makes the NBA the best. “You’ll never dunk on me. You can ball. But you’ll never dunk on me.” Then you see the reverse angle of Smith smiling along. It’s this perfect moment that’s in a weird way a real show of respect for Smith from Draymond. It’s like Smith is this young kid coming into the gym, and Draymond wants to show what he’s in for running with the big dogs while also acknowledging that the kid does belong there. And you can tell that Smith got that right away.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m just a weird NBA junkie reading too much into it. But to me that was a really cool little moment.
Also a cool moment… Jordan Bell doing this…
The Chicago Bulls… playing in the third biggest market in the country and clearly rebuilding… sold Jordan Bell for $3 million to the Warriors. I’d tell you to #NeverForget that fact but something tells it’ll be hard to forget it every time Jordan Bell does something like this for the next twelve years. Hope that money was well spent, Jerry Reinsdorf!
Hey guys… Hey guys… more like… Elbow Dirk.
I hate myself.
Toronto 97 – San Antonio 101
LaMarcus Aldridge went for 20-8, highlighted by 1) a chase down block in transition!?!?!?
And 2) actual emotion on the basketball court!?!?!?!
Pop quietly enjoyed it. And I not so quietly enjoyed Pop enjoying it.
And LMA translated that emotion into some big buckets down the stretch. Things haven’t necessarily been smooth for LMA in San Antonio. And even after his extension last week people still think they’d like to move him. But maybe this little stretch without Kawhi where LMA gets a chance to be the guy is the thing that finally lights a fire under his ass.
DeJounte Murray also had himself a night, going for 16-15-5 boards. Yes you read that correctly… FIFTEEN rebounds for Dejounte.
Speaking of Manu… dude still has the SAUCE.
Norm Powell with the bunnies
Washington 109 – Denver 104
John Wall continued on his warpath through the NBA this season, posting 19 and 13 tonight despite a bad shooting night (3 of 13).
And the Wiz got double digits from all five starers to outlast the Nuggets in Denver. Nokic (29-9-5) got himself on track after going for just 7 points opening night and a goose egg on Saturday (I know they won Saturday… but a goose egg is still A GOOSE EGG!).
Sacramento 115 – Phoenix 117
Half man. Half amazing.
Fun but terrible but still very fun game between two young, fun, terrible basketball teams. And I say terrible as in these two won’t win more than 28 games each, maybe even 25. But equally terrible – which will make for some really, really fun games like last night. Worth going back to watch the second half highlights. Also I’m pretty sure no less than 13 former Calipari Kentucky Wildcats played in this game. So that’s fun too.
Other News And Notes:
Steph shared an emotional moment before the game with Devin Harris’ nephew, who lost his father unexpectedly last week in a car accident. Awful, tragic thing for anyone to have to endure. To see someone, be it a global superstar or joe blow, going out of their way to show empathy like this isn’t a groundbreaking moment for humanity. But at a time when it’s easy to be cynical about everything, it’s good to see a genuine gesture–small as it may be–captured that’s not some soulless promotion.
It’s also good to laugh. Especially at stupid promotions. And this promotion might be the worst thing ever made.
The Bulls really might not win a game this season.
Dwayne Wade, averaging 5.7 points a game on 28% shooting and looking equal parts high and horny in his picture, asked Ty Lou to move him to the bench to allow JR to return to the starting lineup.
Hey, speaking of ass play and Dwayne Wade. Folks,,
I am five years old.
Six games on the slate tonight, see you back here tomorrow folks…
Schedule for Tuesday, October 24th:
7:00 Chicago @ Cleveland (NBATV)
7:00 Brooklyn @ Orlando
7:30 New York @ Boston
8:00 Indiana @ Minnesota
10:00 New Orleans @ Portland (NBATV)
10:30 Utah @ LA Clippers
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