Boston 102, New York 96

So, I made a New Year's resolution this year not to let a Celtics game go by without posting. I just checked and my last post was November 18. I've had some computer problems (still ongoing) and the new job is keeping me busy, but still, no excuse.

There's a reason, though, that I'm still a few pounds overweight and my apartment looks like I'e just moved in: I suck at resolutions. So it's no surprise that it wasn't until the fourth game of the New Year that I actually got around to posting. (To be fair, the Memphis game was on NBATV, which I apparently don't get, and I was visiting my girlfriend -- who I hadn't seen in nearly a month -- for the Indiana and Atlanta wins.)

Indeed, the last time I had seen the Celtics before Monday night was up here in the Bay Area, when the boys in green put forth two of the sorriest efforts you'll ever see; back-to-back blowouts to the Warriors and Kings. I was at both of those games in person -- likely the only time I'll get to see them live this season -- and it was just pathetic. To be honest, they looked done, and the only thing that kept me from declaring the same -- or nodding in agreement as everyone else did -- is that we were basically in this same spot last year, and we nearly made the Finals. I know better than to count this team out.

There's a lot of fight in these guys. After the terrible three-game California swing (the Celtics got blown out by the Clippers in LA before making the trip to NorCal), they let the Grizzlies run away from them in the second half at the Garden. The next game was a surprisingly convincing home win over the Pacers, followed by a win over the Hawks, highlighted by a 33-9 third quarter that erased a big halftime deficit and may well mark the turning point of this season.

Tonight against the Knicks at Madison Square was one of the more intense NBA games I've seen in a long while. There's a historical rivalry there, sure, but there's also been a lot of recent chippiness between these teams. The Knicks have had a great first few months of the season, and they may have been extra anxious to flex their muscle against the team that's bullied them in recent seasons.

Whatever the reason, this game was physical in the first half and quickly escalated in the second half. Carmelo Anthony in particular was in an ornery mood, fruitlessly trying to draw fouls in the first half and growing increasingly frustrated with each uncalled perceived infraction. He quickly grew out of control in the second, barking incessantly at the officials and Kevin Garnett, who for once wasn't the instigator. Melo and KG picked up techs for yapping at each other, and Anthony easily could have been ejected two or three times in the closing minutes. He finished something like 6-for-22 and probably cost his team the game with his loss of composure -- everything was painfully forced for him on the offensive end.

For Boston, Paul Pierce once again made all the big shots, including an incredibly difficult step back, fadeaway 20-footer over Tyson Chandler that sealed the game. Avery Bradley, playing in just his fourth game after offseason shoulder surgery, put together his first solid offensive performance. Jeff Green scored a bunch, which is, I'm afraid, about the most we can hope for at this point. Jared Sullinger had another savvy performance, playign with a craftiness and a physicality that belies his lack of pro-level experience. Garnett was his usual solid self.

Oh yeah: They won this one without Rajon Rondo, who was dinged a game for apparently making contact with a ref against the Hawks. The contact was so slight that it didn't warrant a technical during the game -- it looked to me like Rondo, having just been called for pushing off on Josh Smith, went over to talk to the official and the two inadvertently brushed shoulders. Rondo's reputation is starting to come back to bite him.

This post is sort of all over the place, and I'm sure I haven't captured the atmosphere of this game particularly well. But I was reminded tonight of March 13, 2012, when I saw the Cs take on, and beat, the Clippers in LA. As I wrote back then, it was, by far, the most intense and volatile atmosphere I'd ever experienced at a regular-season NBA game. The Celts had lost to the Lakers the night before; the Clips had just lost to the Warriors and were eager to establish themselves against the old guard. But Boston rose beautifully to the occasion, showing the young bucks that the old guys still had it.

I won't be so dramatic as to say that that game was the turning point of the season. But Boston was a mediocre 21-19 heading into that game -- they went 18-8 to close the season. Those Celtics went on to play one of the gutsiest playoff series I've ever seen, battling injuries and all sorts of other adverse conditions in nearly beating Miami in the Eastern Conference finals.

Thanks to the current three-game winning streak, these Celtics now sit at 17-17, squarely at .500. Tonight's win might be more or less meaningless in terms of the team's overall record, but it marked the first time that this team -- this new team, with improved depth and talent -- showed itself capable of winning a game like that one I saw in LA last year. Only time will tell if it was a fluke, a little MSG Magic, or the true character of this squad.

New York 118, Boston 110

[recap] [box score]

Look at New York's three-point shooting on Tuesday -- 19 for 32 -- and you'd think that the Knicks were simply too hot to be beat. And while it's true that they were on fire from behind the arc, the fact is that Boston's defense was as bad as it has been all season. The rotations were off all night, and even when they made an adjustment to better guard the three-point line, they left the paint wide open, ceding a number of easy baskets to Tyson Chandler.

And yet the Celtics gave themselves a chance to win in the fourth quarter, mostly thanks to Paul Pierce, who had a season-high 43 points, largely on the back of a 17-for-18 performance at the free throw line. Battling foot injuries, though, he was almost as ineffective on defense as he was effective on offense, and Carmelo Anthony got plenty of his 35 points against Pierce. (Melo added 12 boards and ten assists for his second career triple-double.)

Other than Pierce's offense, Avery Bradley was a bright spot for the Cs, draining 5-of-6 three-pointers, most from the corners. It's beginning to look like his outside shot, which was atrocious at the beginning of the season, has improved permanently to something respectable. Rajon R-ndo had 13 points and 13 assists -- remarkably, something of a pedestrian performance for him lately -- but sat for some of the second half after falling awkwardly on his back after colliding with Chandler on a rebound. R-ndo refused to go back to the locker room for treatment, however, and gamely finished out the game

Really, though, the big story in this one was the difference in bench production. In about 50 minutes of court time, the Boston reserves scored a total of two points. The Knicks got 25 each from Steve Novak and J.R. Smith, who combined to go 15-for-20 from beyond the arc.

To be fair to Boston's second unit, two of Boston's top reserves (Bradley and Brandon Bass) have moved permanently to the starting lineup, and the next two missed the game -- Ray Allen was a late scratch with his lingering ankle injury after participating in shootaround, and Mickael Pietrus went back to Boston to have fluid from his knee drained. But I can't help but contrast the Celtics with, say, the Spurs, who I watched dismantle the Kobe Bryant-less Lakers in the nightcap. San Antonio has like 11 guys who play and contribute, while there are nights, like tonight, where you wonder how Keyon Dooling and Marquis Daniels and Sasha Pavlovic even have NBA jobs.

Anyway, back at it Wednesday night, 8 Eastern, in Boston against Orlando. I think our magic number is two; we just need some combination of two wins and Knicks losses and we've got the division, unless we lose our last four and Philly wins its last five. With a road game in Atlanta and then a home date with the revenge-minded Heat looming before the season finale against Milwaukee, it'd be nice to get this one against the Magic to take some of the pressure off.

Celtics Drop Two to Start Season

I've been in DC since last week, spending time with friends and family over the holidays. I've been too busy to blog, but I haven't been too busy to catch Boston in their season-opening games -- a 106-104 loss in New York on Christmas Day, and a 115-107 defeat in Miami Tuesday night.

In both games, Boston started out very slowly, digging a double-digit hole for themselves in the first half. In both games they clawed back to have a realistic shot at winning, taking the lead into the fourth quarter against the Knicks and getting to within three of the Heat late in the fourth.

It's a disappointing start to the season, and yet we should take it with a grain of salt -- the same grain of salt, I should point out, that would accompany our gloating over a 2-0 start, had the ball bounced that way.

The first way to put these losses in perspective is to remember that Paul Pierce hasn't seen the floor yet due to a sore heel. Boston badly missed his offense in a stagnant fourth quarter against the Knicks, and his presence on the defensive end of the floor could have meant a Boston win in either game (or perhaps in both).

The second is to remember that we just played the Knicks and the Heat, two of the better teams in the league. Miami is the odds-on favorite to win the title this year and are in great form (they absolutely took apart Dallas in a Finals rematch on Christmas Day) and New York just might be the third-best team in the East. Even if the Knicks aren't quite as good as some think they are, it's indisputable that Boston's first two opponents are two of the tougher teams in the league to guard. So the fact that we've surrendered 110.5 points per game -- normally a very alarming number -- is tempered by the fact that we've done so against two of the league's best offensive outfits (teams that play at a fast pace, to boot). If New Orleans lights us up Wednesday night, then I'll start to worry about the D.

Honestly, we're not that far from 2-0. We didn't deserve to win either game, really, not with the way we played in the first half, but we hung around, like we always seem to. Carmelo Anthony got hot in the fourth quarter in New York and a rookie named Norris Cole beat our zone (!) in the fourth quarter in Miami -- if not for those guys, we really could have opened with two wins. Two road wins, without the Captain.

That's probably stretching it. My point is, I'm not too concerned. The season ahead is lockout-shortened, but it's still long. Losing on the road to the Knicks and Heat was likely to happen.

Here's what I do hate: Ray Allen has played 38 and 40 minutes, respectively, in the first two games. Allen is, as always, in outstanding physical condition, but that's just too many minutes. Way too many. I'm going to give Doc a little bit of a pass because of the bodies he's missing (Pierce and the newly-signed Mickael Pietrus play the wing), but given Doc's tendencies, I'm expecting that I'll be complaining about the minutes situation all year. Doc did do a nice job limiting Kevin Garnett to 33 minutes Tuesday after KG played 37 in the opener, and this despite the fact that Chris Wilcox sat the whole second half with some sort of (hopefully minor) injury. But Rajon R-ndo can't play 40-plus minutes a game, either, if we're going to make a deep playoff run after what will be a very grueling season.

Save for one absolutely critical turnover in the waning moments against Miami, by the way, R-ndo has been almost flawless. He followed up a 31/5/13 performance against New York with a 22/8/12. Even better: He hit nine of 12 free throws against New York and seven of 11 against Miami. Seventy percent from the line from your point guard isn't normally something to get excited about, but normally your point guard didn't shoot under 60 percent from the stripe last season. What's more, I think this improvement could be permanent; he's slowed his pace at the line way down and everything about the shot looks smoother. A somewhat reliable free throw stroke should give him the confidence to go to the bucket more this year, which we're going to need.

Another bright spot, offensively, has been the bench. Brandon Bass had 20 points and 11 rebounds against the Knicks, while Keyon Dooling did the heavy lifting with 18 off the bench against the Heat. I'm more confident in Bass' ability to contribute regularly than Dooling's; Dooling will rarely shoot as well as he did Tuesday night, and the confidence these strong evenings brings may end up doing more harm than good if it convinces him to play outside his rather modest offensive abilities. Put another way, I'm going to need to see several more games of solid shooting from Dooling before I get comfortable watching him cock the ball way back -- behind his shoulder, to the side of his head -- truly one of the more bizarre shooting strokes in the NBA.

A lot to improve on, but no need to panic just yet.

Boston 96, New York 86

For the second straight game, the Celtics came back from a double-digit second half deficit to win a game on the road and keep pace with the Chicago Bulls atop the East.

[recap] [box score]

I wasn't able to watch Saturday's game, but Monday's game -- the fourth quarter, at least -- was all about "want to." Word is that Doc Rivers called the team's first half play "soft" in the locker room at halftime, and that inspired them, but this game didn't turn around until 7:26 remained in the fourth quarter. The Knicks' Chauncey Billups had just hit a three-pointer and Rajon Rondo, stumbling over a Ronny Turiaf screen, had crashed into him. Billups' four-point play gave the Knicks a nine-point lead. Boston, which had been struggling to keep pace with New York all game, could have given up at that moment.

Instead -- with all the momentum heading the other way, with a blood-soaked bandage struggling to contain a cut over Ray Allen's right eye, with the Madison Square Garden crowd periodically into chants of "Paul Pierce sucks!" -- the Celtics scored the game's next 13 points. New York came back briefly to tie it, but Boston got the last ten points of the game for the final margin of victory.

I wish I had been writing down the sequence of plays, because it was full of defensive deflections, diving for loose balls, and stalwart defense. Two hustle plays come to mind, though: Rajon Rondo covering more than half the court, width-wise, to chase down a Ray Allen miss and throw it out of bounds off of Amare' Stoudemire; and Kevin Garnett diving for a loose ball near midcourt, his long arm tying up Stoudemire even as the ball rested squarely in Stoudemire's lap. The former play led to a Pierce bucket that brought Boston within two; the latter led to a KG jumper after he won the tip that completed the 13-0 run and put the Celtics up four.

This game was a battle. Troy Murphy was the first of three players to shed blood on the night, suffering a superficial cut in the first half that resulted in a trickle of red down the bridge of his nose. Allen was the second, falling victim to a stray Jared Jeffries elbow while contesting a rebound -- an inadvertent elbow, it appeared, but a reckless one. New York's Carmelo Anthony was the third, colliding with Rondo's elbow while going for a steal and opening a small cut over his eye. And the most blatant hit didn't even draw blood -- after grabbing a first half rebound, Anthony barely missed Glen Davis with one elbow before connecting with the side of Baby's head with the second.

Not one of these plays, by the way, drew a foul call from the officials.

In the end, Boston snatched this victory from the jaws of defeat. But the Knicks were complicit. Quite frankly, they panicked. They're 7-9 since trading for Anthony, and the frustration of unmet expectations on the league's biggest stage are starting to boil over. A win over the Celtics could have done a lot to buoy their sinking ship, and as that win slipped away, they sped up the process with bad shots and tentative offense, looking to the officials for help that wouldn't come.

To their credit, though, the Knicks are certainly relevant, especially if relevance is measured by how much I dislike them. In past years, I've gotten fired up in games against New York due to some lingering chippiness between Pierce and Quentin Richardson, and the presence of Turiaf, whose reckless disregard for his fellow players' welfare has led me to believe for some years now that he's one of the dirtiest players in the game. But this season it's different, the vitriol the Knicks have for the Celtics encouraged by the team's first meeting in New York this season, which Pierce punctuated by bowing to the crowd after his game-winner. There's a chance we see these guys in the playoffs -- the Knicks are currently the seven seed -- and while they don't seem like a threat to win a seven-game series against us, it'd certainly be a hell of a fight.

Boston 115, Golden State 93

We'll get to the game in a minute. First, a few words about Bill Walton.

[recap] [box score]

The former Celtic filled in as color commentator alongside play-by-play man Mike Gorman for Tuesday night's broadcast. (Tommy Heinsohn doesn't often make the West Coast swings these days.)

I've done a complete 360 in my opinion of Walton, the broadcaster. (I've always appreciated Walton, the player, though I've only been able live his career through listening to others talk about him, because I was just a little too young to remember him.) Like many, I grew tired of Walton's boorish exaggerations ("John Stockton is one of the true marvels, not just of basketball, or in America, but in the history of Western Civilization!") and forced catchphrases ("Throw it down, big fella, throw it down!"). Over time, however, I came to appreciate him. He's still over the top, but he knows he's over the top. I don't want to use the term "schtick" because Walton's enthusiasm is genuine, but he certainly has a modus operandi.

One of his tendencies is to poke fun at middling NBA players, either by insulting them outright ("The only way Danny Schayes is getting into the Hall of Fame is if he pays the admission fee") or by so exaggerating their abilities that you know his tongue is planted firmly in his cheek ("If Eric Piatkowski continues playing at this level, he's going to replace Jerry West on the NBA logo.")* Tonight's target? Warriors starting center Andris Biedrins, who has fallen off a cliff -- he went from averaging 12 points and 11 rebounds two seasons ago to five and eight last year -- despite not yet turning 25. In the first quarter alone, Walton dropped the following gems:

• After Biedrins fouled Kevin Garnett: "You don't want fouls on Biedrins, if you're Boston. You want him in the game."
• A few moments later: "What does this Biedrins fellow do?"
• After Biedrins bricked a pair of free throws when Delonte West, who had missed the last 39 games with a broken wrist, entered the game for the first time: "Biedrins is the one who looks like he has a broken wrist."
• And finally, after Biedrins missed a layup: "He's playing scared. He's playing ... like his feet hurt."

No, I don't know what the last one means, either. And yes, it's probably unnecessarily mean to pick on Biedrins. But it's Walton, and we, as Celtics fans, can forgive him. His undying loyalty to the franchise probably colors my opinion of him.

Walton's playing career, of course, was abbreviated due to injury, and it appeared that his broadcasting career would similarly be cut short thanks to a debilitating back condition. Walton has taken a lot of time off from the microphone in recent years. I'm not sure if he's planning on making the rest of the trip with the Celtics or whether this was a one-shot deal because the Cs were in his native California -- and I won't be able to tell (the Celtics play on TNT on Thursday and at the Clippers on Saturday, which means I get the local broadcast here in LA instead of the Boston telecast on League Pass). But it's good to see him healthy enough to put on the headset, even if only for a few hours.

Bullets:

• Walton and the numerous Celtics fans in attendance at Oakland's Oracle arena were treated to a vintage Rajon Rondo performance. 19/6/15 with two steals, and one of those nights where it just feels like he can get wherever he wants, whenever he wants.
• Kendrick Perkins banged knees with someone in the third quarter and didn't return. It doesn't seem serious, and it's the left knee, which is not the one he ripped up in the Finals last year. Something to watch, but probably nothing to worry about long-term. The short term is a different story; Boston has to keep winning to stay ahead of Miami in the race for home-court advantage in the East, so even a brief Perkins absence -- especially with Shaq still out -- could be disproportionately costly.
• This was Boston's first win in Golden State in seven years, which is fairly remarkable considering that the Warriors have made the playoffs once in the previous six seasons and compiled a combined record of 213 wins and 279 losses over that time (they are 26-30 this year).
• One thing that makes playing the Warriors so difficult is that they have some really talented offensive players. After a poor defensive showing in a first half in which they surrendered 60 points, the Celtics held Golden State to just 33 second-half points.
• Another thing that is difficult about playing the Warriors is their style. They have no conscience whatsoever, and opposing players can get caught up in the hoist-the-first-halfway-decent-shot-you-get mentality. Nate Robinson fell victim to this a couple of times, though at this point it might be safe to just assume that Nate will always do the wrong thing.
• Fortunately, Golden State is really quite bad defensively (they are second in the league in steals, but that's due in large part to the pace of the game -- more possessions for the other team means more steals, and they do encourage more risk-taking on the part of the opposition's offense). Their deficiencies on that end allowed Boston to win handily despite a 14-point deficit at the free throw line.

Next game is at Denver on Thursday, at 10:30 p.m. Eastern on TNT. In their first game without Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups** -- and with the quartet of players from the Knicks not yet in uniform -- the Nuggets hung 120 points on Memphis Tuesday night in a comfortable win. It's still too early to say what the new-look Nuggets are going to be like, but my money's on a continued emphasis on running (Ty Lawson is better-suited to an uptempo game than Billups) and the three-point shot. Wilson Chandler, acquired from the Knicks, brings a little bit of a defensive mindset that was lacking in every key Denver player other than Arron Afflalo, so there might be some minor improvements there. But probably not enough to worry about, though I might well be underestimating the "We're out to show everyone that we don't need 'melo" factor.

*All the past Walton quotes come from this Web page, which has a great compilation of his hits.

** Thoughts on the Carmelo Anthony trade:

1) There was a time when I was pretty sick of all the trade talk, but by the time the deal was close to being done, I found the whole thing very interesting. It was really a staring contest between Anthony, the Nuggets, and the Nets, with the Knicks sort of lingering around the outside. The Nets had extended the Nuggets a Godfather offer: Very-good-but-not-great point guard Devin Harris, promising rookie big Derrick Favors, the third overall pick in last summer's draft, and an incredible four first-round picks. It was a better deal than the itself attractive package the Knicks were offering, which was breakout PG Raymond Felton, Chandler, sharpshooter Danilo Gallinari, and bruising Timofey Mozgov, plus a first and two seconds, but it came with a caveat: New Jersey wouldn't pull the trigger unless Anthony signed an extension.

Once the Knicks -- Anthony's preferred destination -- upped their offer to include Gallinari, it was good enough for the Nuggets to take, which effectively gave no teeth to New Jersey's insistence that Anthony sign an extension prior to a deal going through. Anthony could more or less insist he be shipped to New York under those circumstances by refusing to sign a contract extension, which I'm guessing he did (because I believe Denver would rather have taken Jersey's offer).

Of course, the Nets could have called Anthony's bluff. 'Melo didn't have a no-trade clause or something similar that they were trying to get him to waive; he was just using the extension as a tool to get what he wanted. New Jersey could have rolled the dice by doing the deal anyway, forcing 'Melo to decide between signing an extension with a depleted Nets squad and losing tens of millions of dollars in free agency.

Here's the thing. 'Melo signed an extension worth three years and $65 million. Because of rules that allow teams to pay their own free agents more, that's more than he would have made in the first three years of a new contract with the Knicks in free agency (my calculations have it at around $6 million more, but my understanding of this part of the CBA is severely lacking).

But that's the current CBA, which expires this summer. It's a near-certainty that the new agreement will restrict player salaries below what they currently are, and thus the difference between signing an extension and waiting for free agency could easily climb into the tens of millions of dollars. So the Nets could simply have called Anthony's bluff and agreed to the trade, banking on Anthony not wanting to give up that much money. The same holds true for the Nuggets; Anthony said he wouldn't sign an extension, but if Denver wasn't getting value for him, it might have been a good strategy to simply hang on to him and hope he'd stick around for the money. It's a lot of money to give up.

Instead, the Nets and Nuggets blinked and the Knicks and Anthony got what they wanted.

2. Or, at least, what they think they wanted. Anthony has non-basketball reasons for wanting to play in New York, and I can't criticize those. And I can't say that I think it's a bad move, necessarily, for the Knicks. But I do think it's hardly a sure thing that the Knicks will be materially better for it, both now and in the future.

For starters, I think there are serious deficiencies with a Anthony-Amare' Stoudemire core. There's no commitment to defense in either of those players, and head coach Mike D'Antoni is famously focused on offense. Even if we assume that Boston will be out of the picture after this year and that Orlando has irrevocably screwed up its team with its trades this year, the Knicks are still going to have to deal with Miami and Chicago for the next several years. Both are outstanding defensive teams that aren't slouches on the offensive end, either. You can't beat either of them in a seven-game series simply by being very good on offense, and at best, that's all the Knicks will be: very good on offense. Additionally, the pairs and trios of stars that have worked of late have worked because of complementary skill sets: The Big Three in Boston, for example, work because they fit together (Garnett on the inside, Paul Pierce as a slasher, Ray Allen as a shooter), because of Rondo, and because Garnett can affect a game so profoundly without doing much offensively; LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh have worked in Miami because of defense and James' uncanny passing ability. A couple of guys who need the ball a ton -- paired with a point guard, Billups, who isn't a traditional playmaker and might not be a great fit, at his age, for D'Antoni's offense -- don't really fit together all that well.

Secondly, if we think of these teams as engaging in some sort of arms race, the Knicks are already one star behind Miami. The new CBA might even make it all but impossible to build a core consisting of three studs the way the Heat have. But even if it doesn't -- even if, say, Chris Paul or Deron Williams makes it to New York the offseason after this one to take Billups' place -- they'll be a full two years behind in chemistry. And the way things are currently set up, with the draft and various salary cap exceptions, you can add a player or two per year to your core. That is, the Heat, having already assembled their "Big Three," can start adding role players to join Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem this offseason. The Knicks will have to make do with surprising rookie Landry Fields alongside Anthony and Stoudemire, saving their cap room until they can get another stud, and then adding free agents in the seasons following. So they'll be another player behind Miami because of that, too.

This all assumes that the model the Heat have followed is a successful one. Time will tell on that, though it certainly can be argued that competing with James/Wade/Bosh is too tall a task for Anthony/Stoudemire/whomever.

3. Again, I'm not saying it was a bad deal for the Knicks. They'd placated their fan base for two years by explaining that they were clearing cap room for a big move last year, and having missed out on James, they needed to do something. And they might not have wanted Anthony to go to the Nets, who are scheduled to move to Brooklyn in a couple of years. (I think this is overstated, though, as is the argument that Anthony will drum up interest in the team. That's a decent argument for most NBA franchises, but not the Knicks, one of the league's most popular outfits. They've got no problems selling tickets and merch at MSG.) But I don't think it gets tem any closer to contending for a title, this year or beyond.

Links of the Day (October 17, 2010)

• Interesting article about Phil Jackon's psychological treatment of Pau Gasol. They'd get plenty out of him if they went to him more. If Jackson, the supposed genius, wants more from Gasol, he'll need to get Kobe to give up the rock. LA would not have had to squeak out Game 7 against Boston had they not waited until the fourth quarter to recognize where the biggest mismatch on the floor was.
• Zach Lowe lists 11 duos (well, ten duos and a trio) to pay special attention to as they run the pick-and-roll, RwH's favorite play.
• Canis Hoopus borrows from George Karl in suggesting how to get the most out of Michael Beasley.
• LeBron's new shoe isn't exactly modern-looking. Looks like something Larry Johnson/Grandmama might've hawked 15 years ago.
• Pepperdine's Keion Bell dunks over seven people at Midnight Madness. As impressive as that is, it's actually my third favorite thing in that video. The second is his 360 with the pass between the legs at around the 20 second mark. The first? "Club Can't Handle Me" playing in the background during the first dunk. That's right; RwH is a closet Flo Rida fan.