The Big Picture In Berkeley

The guys that we play poker with relentlessly trash the Warriors. The fact that if the playoffs begun at the crack of Midnight tonight, Bay Area time, the Warriors would face off against the Mavericks, is somehow only greater evidence to these guys that the Warriors will crash and burn for the 13th straight non-playoff season. Phoebe has taken $20 bets against a few of these guys, confident that with the AS YET UNDEFEATED starting line-up of Baron Davis / Jason Richardson / Stephen Jackson / Al Harrington / Andris Biii-e-driiiiins staying at least remotely healthy, we can keep pace ahead of the clearly imploding Sacramento Wife-Beaters, Los Angeles Tendon-Tearers, and Minnesota Loserwolves...It is a really awesome year for basketball if the first round of the playoffs features MAVS/WARRIORS and PISTONS/KNICKS.

Here is something wild. The Warriors lead the NBA in steals per game, blocks per game, AND points-off-turnovers per game, and yet STILL defensively allow the highest number of points of any team in the league. Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson bring a little more defense now that they're both back on the floor, but that's a really astounding stat, even taking into account their cracked-out version of Phoenix's constant run.

When we were watching the Cavs/Pistons OT match-up last week, the Cleveland hometown announcers had a pretty funny moment -- at one point they were incredulous that Varejao was called for a blocking foul on a fairly pivotal play. It was a somewhat close call -- the ref could have called Rip Hamilton for a charge, but on the slow motion replay, it was really obvious that Varejao was not planted. In fact, his entire body was in motion, one foot was off of the ground, and the foot that was on the ground was sort of sliding laterally. Upon seeing this one foot, dubiously "planted", so to speak, the Cavs tv guys say: "Come on!!! He had one foot down!" (as if that makes the case for charging). And then added something to the effect of, "I'm really surprised to see the refs call this one against Andy. I mean, this is the guy that leads in the NBA in charges!" Now, wouldn't we agree that it's possible that Andy leads the NBA in charges taken AND blocking fouls?? I don't think that he does, but certainly someone who takes a lot of charges is going to get called for a fair number of blocks as well. That's the nature of "falling down when someone bumps into you (or your personal space) in a basketball game."

Also, two amazing SHEEDbits as of late. One, while he was suspended from the game against the Clippers, he's not even allowed to be at the arena, and the game was not televised at all, so he had to keep up with his own team by checking the score on the internet on his phone. Two, he has started referring to David Stern as "Napoleon." Brilliant.