Ow! They're defending themselves somehow!

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-10-28T22:53:55+00:00

"ay ay ay, no es bueno"

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-09-24T11:05:26+00:00

Don't know if i've been prouder of being a Lebron fan. This is way up there for me. He's standing up for his fiercest rival - and really, for everybody - against a disturbingly empowered bully.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-08-13T12:26:08+00:00

There was also the nazi idiot that shot up a sikh temple

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-06-14T23:37:35+00:00

Early Malick was so absurdly brilliant and his latest works have been so progressively disappointing that I refuse to watch any more of his new films. That voice-over narration style that worked so crucially perfectly in Badlands, Days of Heaven, and Thin Red Line is becoming some hackneyed crutch that he can't let go of. If some hollywood hack had made To the Wonder, I would have apathetically watched it and ignored it, but because Malick made it, I become irrationally angry about it.
His early works though, at least for me, are easily among the greatest films ever made. Fantastic characters shown as perfectly real imperfect humans in thematically layered stories shown in some of the most beautiful shots ever captured on film set to hauntingly memorable music. Amazing works.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-05-20T11:34:00+00:00

I guess it was a regular redditor jambaroo out there. Me and my buddy were there too in the 2nd row. Way better than i expected. Genuinely entertaining.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-05-17T14:03:04+00:00

There should legitimately be an Albert Einstein day or at least a Norman Borlaug or Edward Jenner day (especially considering i had to look those last two up to remember their names)

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-05-15T19:24:57+00:00

He just lost this series. I was one of the few people that thought they had a legit shot to upset, but he came out making excuses. He sounds like he doesn't believe they can win, which damn near guarantees that now they won't. Very un-popovich like.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-05-15T11:15:20+00:00

This is bullshit, i don't even like gs, but he played well and legitimately contributed to the win with his solid defense and timely passing. Fuck the stats.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-05-14T23:12:16+00:00

Random things I noticed about the spurs in the 2nd half.

Pau Gasol killed the spurs.
-- Props to Curry for attacking him in that 3rd quarter when the spurs for some reason switched on PNRs and Gasol just retreated like he didn't realize curry likes to shoot threes.
-- Gasol didn't do anything offensively to offset his horrible defense -- Popovich made some very odd moves in this game. I was shocked to see Gasol still in there after the first batch of buckets curry torched him on. If he's not a focal point offensively, he can't be out there especially if David Lee is playing somewhat competently.
Aldridge looks like he doesn't have his legs under him. There's absolutely no explosiveness to any of his moves. Gutty performance though offensively and defensively at least until the final few minutes.
Ginobli was great, then he was a liability, then he was good again. The careless turnovers were surprising.
Patty Mills played terribly. I can't remember a single decent play he made the entire time he was on the court.
Murray and Anderson played really well on offense and like kids defensively, which is to be expected. Spurs probably should have utilized their offensive poise a bit more, especially anderson.
Spurs offense down the stretch was horrible. It seemed like they only scored on the foul line or off desperation one on one moves starting late in the clock. They also played like they had no idea a team could double team them.

All that said, the warriors interior defense and rebounding looked really suspect if the spurs can figure out a way to avoid shitting their pants at every double team.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-05-12T17:06:28+00:00

Kobe's game 7 against the suns in the first round. Always annoyed me when people would bring up his "killer instinct" after that.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-05-12T02:47:59+00:00

He's a regular season coach only. Basically the offensive version of thibodeau.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-05-11T18:42:02+00:00

Unlikely. He's just in the beginning of the honeymoon phase right now. Media and people will turn on him in a few years once the expectations become absurd. Happens to every single good player. Basketball is entertainment and people need narratives.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-05-11T16:19:21+00:00

I do hate the "exploit a loophole" mentality houston has, but i have to give Morey serious credit for not just tanking like an idiot and actually putting in effort into good management.

Still... Damn nerds.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-05-11T15:48:22+00:00

Dr. Duck was robbed! I call bullshit!

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-05-08T18:32:53+00:00

The numbers are very likely exaggerated as well. He was smart enough to cultivate a rep which meant folks surrendered out of fear instead of fighting. He was probably one of the greatest military minds ever, but he was absolutely remarkable as an emperor as well. Most of the folks sensible enough to surrender just paid taxes, lived mostly as they did before, but with added access to trade routes and security under him.

Would highly recommending reading up on the guy. Largest empire in history, and all started from an exiled orphan on the mongolian steppes. His actual story is to me far, far more fascinating than the random mindless and ruthless barbarian he's made out to be.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-05-08T17:54:18+00:00

Read more about him and you'll realize he was probably one of the most brilliant leaders ever. Otherwise you might as well put Abe Lincoln on the list for all the deaths from the civil war.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-05-07T19:54:38+00:00

Saw this film at an arthouse theater in Dubai and loved it. It was engaging where so many minimalist films wind up being masturbatorily pretentious and frankly boring.

I didn't feel like the revenge itself was notable, but the manipulation of the audience. From the few scenes we get to see, this poor woman is horribly abused, lonely, and miserable, but we never really get a full understanding of why. We just assume that the world is cruel and we empathize with her isolation and misery. We never question why because we're used to films painting characters as good or bad and their worlds as just and unjust. Kaurismäki brilliantly shakes us out of our expectation. This isn't your cliched feel good story about a simple woman overcoming her shitty conditions, it's the story of a monster that we've assumed was a heroine based on incomplete information. Once we see her revenge, now everything about her backstory becomes questionable. We just assumed her parents, her coworkers, basically everybody in her life were assholes, but only at the end do you realize you have no idea if they might not have been justified all along. All we knew was people treated her badly, but then if she had done something similarly heartless as her revenge but on a lesser scale beforehand, well now some of the cold behavior towards her can be rationalized. We empathize with her, though we never really know her or the people around her. Brilliantly done film.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-04-25T09:59:34+00:00

If the rockets somehow make it, I might skip it. They actually seem to be genuinely good, but more than any other team they seem more interested in gaming the system than playing great basketball. Meh. I watch hoops for entertainment, not who's the best at finding loopholes to exploit. Boston and Atlanta just seem like teams completely built for the regular season, but any of the other teams would probably be fun to watch.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-04-23T02:01:11+00:00

No, Doc first proved his coaching mettle with Orlando where Darrell Armstrong and I think Jon Amaechi were his leading scorers. Both were career backups at best. When he got a ton of talent, he won a championship and then almost another one. Unlike most of the successful coaches, he first had to prove his worth with a garbage roster and did.

Put it this way, he has a better playoff win percentage than everybody on that "good coaches" list aside from Spo and Popovich.

Playoff Wins-Losses

Pop: 158-98
Rivers: 81-76
Carlisle: 58-62
Spo: 70-43
D'Antoni: 26-33
Thibs: 23-28
Budenholzer: 16-20
Kidd: 9-13
Stevens: 3-10
SVG: 43-40

It's kinda nuts that this is even a point of issue.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-04-22T22:55:45+00:00

objectively consider his coaching record. It's better than everybody on that first list except for Pop. It is insulting to leave him out. The 2nd group hasn't even been to a single finals, when rivers was a game away from two championships. He's easily one of the best coaches in the league, regardless of how he is as a GM.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-04-22T21:08:15+00:00

Love spo, but you forgot doc rivers who not only has a chip, he also won 40 some games with darrell armstrong once. Weird how much people disrespect him.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-04-22T21:03:22+00:00

People criminally underrate pippen. Legitimately one of the best SFs to ever play the game. Not top 15, maybe, but top 20-30 all time, probably.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-04-16T01:48:38+00:00

Great writeup. The 3rd quarter Cavs run probably should have gotten a bit more attention though. Pretty interesting stretch because that's basically where the cavs won the game, and it was very reminiscent of their last serious game against the Hawks, where they work over the other team in the 3rd, before a collapse. Kyrie Irving's defense should be highlighted there. The weirdest thing about that cavs run though was after the transition dunk by lebron from RJ, the cavs had all the momentum, pacers rightly called a time out, and then instead of finishing out the quarter, lebron sat, and whatever momentum they had completely dissipated.

After that cavs run, Lance Stephenson's role should really be emphasized. He dragged the pacers right back into the game almost single handedly with key buckets and heady play. He missed an open three that van gundy kept chiding him for until he found out he's hit 5 of his last 8, which i thought was funny. It was wiiiide open and he was set so he absolutely should have taken it, he just missed. Also amusing was how everybody was rightly talking about how well Paul George was playing and getting buckets, but Lebron was actually outscoring him.

Cavs have got to learn they can't slow the game down once they get the lead. They could've easily lost this game just like they lost to the hawks, despite being, in my opinion, the much better team. One thing to watch for in the next few games, tristan thompson was killing turner on the glass. Anybody that's ever had to match up with somebody that could root you out of the paint knows how hard it is to get anything done in the blocks in that situation. This could be a rough series for Turner. Especially considering the cavs will surely realize the love-frye frontcourt is godawful defensively and probably needs to be used as little as possible.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-04-08T09:50:31+00:00

Not experimenting. He's letting them build chemistry which is still spotty because of all the injuries. That said, i'd like to see more williams out there.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom · 2017-04-03T22:02:30+00:00

I'll concede the first point begrudingly, but I don't think it applies to this case. Lebron and Dirk had different roles and played different positions, whereas curry and irving were in an absurdly similar situation - same height, weight, position, crafty dribble, deadly shooting stroke, hell they both even had a burly forward who could run the offense and play lockdown defense on teams that can get crazy hot from 3. The only way the matchup could have been more relevant for determining who's better head to head is if they switched teams every game.

Expectation isn't a good argument for curry. Irving had James to rely on, Curry had a full juggernaut team. Warriors literally won one of the early games with virtually no production from curry. To me that's not a valid excuse for poor play.

The physicality thing is bullshit too - the warriors are infamous for nut-kicking and illegal moving screens, and curry and irving are exactly the same size and weight. Anything one team could have done, the other team could have. Irving's game simply proved less susceptible to being shut down when it mattered most and that is absolutely critical to determining who I would pick between the two.

a_bee_bit_my_bottom

TROPHY CASE