Highlights – Pace and Space

Breakfast Special: Dray, Durant, Dubs Destroyed

November 16, 2018 - by Fox Doucette

Well, if the Golden State Warriors were hoping for anything resembling relief with Draymond Green back in the lineup for a big national-TV game against the Houston Rockets Thursday night, the giant turd they left out on the court at Toyota Center would seem to suggest that the squad’s got bigger problems. Dray was 0-of-5 from the field, had no points, five rebounds, five assists, and five turnovers, whatever he contributed defensively got swamped under a minus-10 that was second-worst (behind only Kevin Durant) among the starters, and Golden State lost to Houston 107-86. Durant had a team-high 20 points, …

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Breakfast Special: Dwane Casey’s Two Scoops of Revenge

November 15, 2018 - by Fox Doucette

The dumbest thing the Toronto Raptors did in an otherwise stellar offseason was fire Dwane Casey after a 59-23 regular season. And the smartest thing the Detroit Pistons did was show Stan Van Gundy the door in order to get Casey back on an NBA sideline without missing a single gameday. So as good as the Raptors are—and at 12-2, they are very good—Wednesday night belonged to Casey’s Pistons, who won 106-104 on some late-game heroics from Reggie Bullock: Your game-winner, courtesy of @ReggieBullock35! #PistonsNow pic.twitter.com/0Bk49404Kn — Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) November 15, 2018 Just watch the pure exuberance on Blake …

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Breakfast Special: Draymond’s Durant DNP

November 14, 2018 - by Fox Doucette

Draymond Green sat a game after bringing up Kevin Durant‘s impending free agency during a heated exchange between the two earlier in the week. And Warriors management? Well, they just essentially reminded Green that 7.5 points and 7.8 rebounds a game do not entitle someone to influence personnel decisions and suspended him. Green’s decline—in addition to all his other woes, he’s shooting 24 percent from three this year—makes him a curious case for the Warriors. On the one hand, he’s still the best ball-distributing forward in the league, with 7.4 assists a game to lead the team. But on the …

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Breakfast Special: La Rouge for LeVert

November 13, 2018 - by Fox Doucette

Caris LeVert deserved better than this. The Nets’ up-and-coming star, who has been on fire this season as Brooklyn has improved—they’d make the playoffs if the season ended today, at 6-8—fell victim to a gruesome season-ending injury in the Nets’ 120-113 loss to Minnesota. As if that weren’t bad enough, it was right before halftime of a game where LeVert was possibly on his way to a triple-double; he had 10 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Now normally this is where I’d show what I’m talking about, but… Do not watch the Caris LeVert injury.Go out of your way …

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Breakfast Special: Lonzo Teaches LeBron Free Throw Technique

November 12, 2018November 12, 2018 - by Fox Doucette

The Los Angeles Lakers beat the woeful Atlanta Hawks by just a single point at home, and while 7-6 is exactly where you’d expect a team with a +0.7 point differential to be at 13 games into an 82-game season. The Lakers are, in many ways, the prototype G League Team Featuring LeBron James that the Cleveland Cavaliers were on two separate occasions in LeBron’s long and illustrious career. And it speaks to just how great LeBron is that this is so; LeBron’s 0.9 VORP is good for 2 or 3 wins in 13 games (2.43 if you go with …

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Breakfast Special: Melo, Thunder Beat Rockets

November 9, 2018 - by Fox Doucette

Carmelo Anthony had a great game for the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday night. His 1-of-11, two-point, minus-22 performance was the next best thing to the Thunder planting a mole on the Houston Rockets to throw the game so he could give his real team the big win. Accordingly, the Thunder, who don’t have Russell Westbrook until he recovers from his ankle sprain, won 98-80 in an ugly game on national television. Houston shot just ten free throws, making seven of them, and even though they made 50 percent of their two point shots (20-of-40), they were a wretched 26.2 percent …

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Breakfast Special: LeBrons N’ Roses

November 8, 2018 - by Fox Doucette

Derrick Rose has become one of the most curious stories in sports, a fallen hero who very obviously still knows how to play basketball, but his body simply will not allow him to do it at a high level consistently for 82 games. Meanwhile, LeBron James is what happens when you take someone of (beyond) Rose’s talent and put them in a nearly indestructible body. Which is how the Lakers beat the Timberwolves 114-110 on Wednesday night. Rose had 31 points on 11-of-17 shooting and 7-of-9 from three, putting up a +11 in 37 minutes…oh, Tom Thibodeau, don’t ever change. …

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Breakfast Special: Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For McCollum

November 7, 2018 - by Fox Doucette

Oh, thank the gods the midterm election season is over. That’s one less distraction on Twitter when I have a deadline on this column. (Initiative 1631 went down in Washington. 1634 passed. And Dino Rossi is a slime mold masquerading as a human being. That’s all the politics you’re ever getting from me in this space. Move the Orlando Magic to Seattle. Now then. On with the show.) CJ McCollum had 40 points on 17-of-26 shooting and 5-of-10 from deep, Evan Turner (!) had 16 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, and the Bucks got absolutely nothing out of …

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Breakfast Special: Jamal Murray’s A Mile High

November 6, 2018 - by Fox Doucette

You know the analytics people have gotten maaaaaybe a bit afield of the plot when there are Celtics fans on Twitter trying to point out that Kyrie Irving‘s 31 points was worth more than Jamal Murray‘ 48 because Murray took 30 shots while Irving took only 17. Meanwhile, Irving remains a little punk, one of my least favorite NBA players: Kyrie threw the ball into the crowd after Jamal Murray's attempt to make 50-points as the game ended pic.twitter.com/Vbx3oNxmaf — Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) November 6, 2018 Murray went for the shot to try to get to 50 …

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Breakfast Special: LeBron’s Gonna Sprewell Luke Walton

November 5, 2018 - by Fox Doucette

Can I talk to you for a minute about our Lord and Savior Serge Ibaka? The Toronto Raptors, without Kawhi Leonard in the lineup, went into Los Angeles and absolutely humiliated LeBron James and the Lakers Sunday night, winning 121-107 in a game they led by 31 points…in the first quarter. Seriously, it was 41 to 10 at one point. Ibaka was 15-of-17 with 10 rebounds on his way to 34 points, Kyle Lowry dished 15 assists to go with his 21 points, and Danny Green hit 5-of-8, all from three-point land, for a tidy 15 points of his own. …