Good morning, Kemba Walker is handing out CLUTCH for Halloween
That and more in Thursday’s NBA newsletter.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
KEMBA! Fresh off that fat contract extension, Kemba Walker led the Hornets on the comeback trail and nailed not one BUT TWO clutch shots: the bomb that sent the game to OT and the dagger to end it. Of course that was against the Bucks who somehow had a 24-point lead in Charlotte but never you mind that. Hornets!
GOOD JOB, GOOD EFFORT: This is a pretty hilarious and enormously wrong graphic that flashed up on the Suns’ broadcast Wednesday.
DUNK OF THE SEASON (SO FAR): James Ennis ensures that hundreds of Heat fans have to Google “James Ennis” after this high-flying dunk.
TOO FAR: Taylor Swift’s campaign for cultural acceptance in New York City has led to Amare Stoudemire singing and dancing to “Shake It Off” during timeout video on the Madison Square Garden scoreboard. I’m generally pro T-Swizzy but there’s got to be a line in the collective bargaining agreement about this.
ALL HAIL WESTBROOK IN 3 ACTS: He has style. He has power. He has ... more style. He also had 38 points. Scoring title or bust. (Portland beat the Thunder, though, in part because the Blazers are real good and in part because OKC is ridiculously thin right now.)
MORE RESULTS: Our NBA Scores hub has recaps from across the league, including Drew Gooden being a leading scorer on opening night.
THE STEALTH LAKERS TANK JOB: I investigated the idea that the Lakers are secretly tanking.
AN APT COMPARISON: Harvey Araton on the connection between the Bulls during MJ’s first retirement and the current Heat.
FREE THE SCEPTER: Nice Adam Silver sitdown by Howard Beck. Interesting topics.
WELL, THAT’S NICE ... David Stern is adamant there will be no work stoppage in 2017.
LIP-READING DWIGHT AND KOBE: SB Nation’s studio guys are excellent at reading lips, and give you a transcript from the Kobe/Dwight kerfuffle from Tuesday.
COOL: Dan Gilbert laughes in the face of the luxury tax. He makes a good point that when you consider the total costs of payroll, the incremental penalties from the luxury tax remain relatively small, unless you get into Prokhorovian salary levels.
ALRIGHT! The D-League has a new president.
ANYTHING YOU GOT TO ASK ME, FAX ME: Shea Serrano is a national treasure, and his 24 life lessons from Mase’s seminal Harlem World is the self-help piece we all needed.
