Hoops

Australians combine for 43pts in NBA today

l Bought them off NBA.com with my MasterCard and payed about $550-600 NZD ea from memory. My friend shouted me better seats last season at the TD Garden in Boston (right behind the scorers bench on halfway) but he makes real good money and he pretty much paying for me steering clear of his sister when we were kids

People who get butthurt and oversensitive about perfectly reasonable criticism of a player, just because the player happens to be an aussie, are equally lame IMO.

I was at the Warriors Spurs last night & Baynes had a big role early in the game with the pick & roll. I was pretty close to the Spurs bench & in one instace Baynes look frustrated when he came off & Pop just strolled down to him & patted him on the head.
Later in the game he hammered Bogut and it was announced that it would be under review by the League Office.

Mills was pretty quiet & Bogut played some great D.

Awesome game to see in the flesh

Joe's been playing really well of late. He's been knocking down the 3 and spreading the floor. His playmaking is a real asset and he's also changed some games with his defensive intensity. He seems much more confident now that he's starting and has taken on more of a leadersihp role out on the floor. I noticed him pulling Gobert aside a couple of times today after the young Frenchman made a couple of errors.

Dante's minutes are developmental game time. Clearly at 19 he's not ready for a starting role just yet, but his defense has been remarkably solid. He fights over screens and has great court awareness. His work today on Lillard was excellent. There was one play in particular on the break 1-on-1 where he had no right keeping the attacker in front of him, but he did an incredible job and held up play just long enough for Gobert to swoop in for the big block from behind. It was the defensive play of a seasoned vet.

He's still not attacking nearly enough and is way too timid on offense, but he's not overtly hindering his team either. He moves the ball and looks for the open man. I noticed he got caught up in the emotion of the game today, chest bumping Booker after a big break-away dunk. Then he came out in the 4th with a lot more intent and played particularly well during a stretch where the Jazz pulled away from the Blazers. Kaman got switched on to him at one point, and he confidently read the mismatch and knocked the 3 ball down in his face. His ball handling is improving rapidly. You can see the world of potential in him, he just needs time and development.

I'm really impressed with Snyder as a coach though. Our boys are in good hands.

Reminds me back in 2006 when the Lakers nearly signed me to a 10 day contract and me and Kobe would have combined for 81 against the Raptors!