Back in the saddle after a few days flat on my back thanks to “flu-like symptoms” – unlike the NBA version, mine weren't incurred by licking too much Patron off the smooth tanned bellies of ….I'll just stop right there. Safe to say I was sick, and watching the Raptors had nothing to do with it.
Anyway, back to business.
Some things;
1. In my germ conscious state it's not surprising a I spent a lot of time last night watching what NBA players do with their mouth guards, when they're not in their mouth, that is. As a rule they take them out a lot. During most stoppages in play, as a matter of fact. The whistle blows and out comes the drippy, saliva-covered mouth guard, where it it's usually put in a large, sweaty hand. Depending on the nature of the stoppage their may be cause for celebration in the form of high-fives. So right away you've got all these sweaty, saliva inflected hands slapping all these other sweaty, saliva-inflected hands, many of which have mouth guards in them or soon will have. Then the mouth guards go back in the mouth. This happens many times a game with a wide range of rotations. When guys aren't playing I've seen them put their mouth guards behind their ear for safe keeping. I've also seen quite a few players tuck their mouth guards into their compression shorts. I've never seen anyone pause and have their sweat inflected, saliva-soaked mouth guard rinsed off or anything. And there's Steve Nash running around licking his fingers before every possession. These guys must take a lot of vitamin C, I'm thinking.
2. The Bosh-Cardinal thing was kind of interesting because you almost knew that it would get Bosh going a little bit. I've got all the time in the world for pesky, choppy, floppy guys like Cardinal. Guys like him Bruce Bowen, Jared Dudley, James Posey – they don't make for great highlights, but the way they play is the easiest for the average person to relate too, and you have to respect guys who have to play on that competitive edge all the time to even have a chance of making a real impact on the floor. But when playing that role you're best served by being kind of dumb about it and saying ‘excuse me' a lot, especially when matched up against a clearly superior player. That way you can bump and grind and hack and pull and then have Bosh get angry at the officials, not you. When Cardinal went chest-to-chest with Bosh and let him know he was there, that was a mistake. Because then Bosh got mad at him, and after a time he started taking it out on the floor.
3. As much as I respect the NBA's working class, it is kind of amazing to me that the Timberwolves are paying $6.3-million (US) to Cardinal this season and $6.7-million next year, and another $5.4-million (combined) to Mark Madsen. How many fouls before you break even on that investment?
4. I though Marion was pretty close to terrible last night. Kind of passive. Did a lot of standing around. Didn't do much on defense.
5. This is probably unfair, but first impressions are first impressions. I had a moment at half time and I decided to watch Patrick O'Bryant last night and this is what I saw: He strolled out on the court early for warm-up, but did very little in the way of warming up. He kind half-assed some jumpers, like you would if you were kind of tired and goofing around on your own. I thought that was odd because given all he's got between him and some playing time is Jake Voskuhl, I'd think he'd be quick to get out there and get a light sweat on, or at least pretend he had a purpose. Not that at all. Some relaxed shooting. Then, when the layups started, some kind of goofy finger-roll. What happens next though, is the killer: he takes off for a wicked windmill; and then throws down some other pretty rare dunks.
6. And right away you get a sense for why he's still trying to find his niche in the NBA: he's obviously got some pretty significant athletic talent; and he can shoot – they may have been lazy shots, but they were going in – but he just radiates “Not only do I not work that hard, I don't have a clue how to work that hard.” This could be an incredible opportunity for O'Bryant and to that end every minute the floor – in games or not – should be devoted to showing he's ready to earn it.
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