Friday November 17th
-Sky Cam
Thursday Night Football broadcasted the majority of the Titans, Steelers game using the Sky Cam camera, much to the rejoice of Madden players everywhere. In all seriousness, it was such a better experience than the standard camera angle used to televise a football game. Having the ability to watch a play develop was highly enjoyable. A few notable examples:
On the first play of the second half, Marcus Mariota threw a pass down the middle of the field to Rishard Matthews, who then ran the rest of the way for a touchdown. Matthews ran a post against man coverage and you could see that there was no safety help and you basically knew what Mariota was going to do.
Later in the 3rd quarter, Mariota threw another pass down the middle to Delanie Walker for a sizeable gain in a similar situation where you were able to see that there was no safety help.
In the 4th quarter, Roethlisberger threw an out breaking route to Martavis Bryant, who caught the ball along the sideline. The neat thing about this play is Ben threw the ball before Bryant broke on the route, allowing the viewer to witness the anticipation with which Roethlisberger threw the ball.
The other cool part was being able to tell early on if the pass was accurate or not, especially on deep balls. Instead of waiting for the camera to pan to the receiver and defender(s), you were able to judge it with your eye almost immediately whether or not the pass had a chance.
I know I used all pass plays as examples and no running plays, but these instances just really stood out to me. If you didn’t watch the game, trust me, this is much better.
-Antonio Brown made an incredible one-handed catch where he pinned the ball to his helmet for his third touchdown of the game.
-With about 10 minutes left in the 4th quarter, during Ben’s cadence he yelled “Dilly Dilly!”
-Kevin Durant has made it known to the public that he wants to become one of the best defenders in the NBA. Last night in the Celtics game, during the 4th quarter, there was a sequence of events that makes me wonder how much longer it’ll be before Durant finally supplants LeBron as the best player alive.
With about 5:30 left in the game, Kyrie missed a three late in the shot clock and the Celtics got the offensive rebound. The Celtics threw a couple passes around the perimeter before firing the ball to Jaylen Brown who was standing by himself right under the basket. Durant somehow teleported from the opposite side of the paint to inside Brown’s jersey before Brown had even gone up with his shot. Durant went straight up, contested the layup, did not commit a foul, and Brown missed. How Durant had the body control to go straight up and not foul is beyond me.
Going down the other direction on the subsequent play, Brown guarded Durant when Durant drained a 17-foot MJ/Kobe shimmy, turnaround fade away. At the time it pushed the Warriors lead to four. I don’t know how many other players in the league can duplicate what Durant did on both of those two plays.
-You may say I’m late to this party, but the Celtics are very, very real. 13-game win streaks are nice, but I still hold out for more than a 15 game sample before proclaiming anything about a team. However, beating the Warriors at home, with the information we currently have thus far this season, means we have to conclude the Celtics have at least a chance at winning the Eastern Conference this year.
The Warriors shot poorly; 40% from the field, 31% from three, and 63% from the line. Some of this is simply the Warriors missing. Some are misses as the result of good contests. In the analytics world, on the mission to become all knowing, it is currently being debated how much impact a defense has on the offense missing a shot. If you provide a good contest to the shot and the guy still hits it, you sort of got unlucky. Just think of Mark Jackson saying “good D, better O.” It’s a one game sample and the Warriors were clearly off in this game. Perhaps they win 8/10 games in Boston. I mean, after all, they’re the Warriors. But at face value this Celtics team looks like the first real Eastern Conference threat to a LeBron team post The Decision.
-The Rockets scored 90 points in the first half against the Suns. 90!
-At halftime, James Harden had 33 points on just 12 shots! His shooting line at halftime was 9/12 from the field, 5/6 from three and 10/10 from the line.
-Chris Paul made his return from injury in this game and it looks like he is on a mission to make sure no one forgets about him as an elite NBA player. He had a minutes restriction, but in 21 minutes he had 11 points to go along with 10 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 made threes. Classifying his body language as “confident” is an understatement and he put a little extra zip on all of his passes as if to say “y’all better not forget about me.”
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