Take off!
Merry Christmas everyone! (And to those who do not celebrate Christmas, happy every-other-day!) Get ready for an abbreviated WOTN, plus the usuals.

Oh, and sorry, but I'm getting lazy on the previews for this weekend's games. Consider it a Christmas gift to myself. You are still more than welcome to stop by all weekend and post in the comments section though! We'll be around.

Your Quick NBA 2K10 Update:
My improved play has helped carry my Spurs onto a nice winning streak, and we recently added victories against the Nuggets and the Timberwolves (who are much better in my game than they are in real life, since they traded for a magically healthy Greg Oden). The Nuggets game was tough -- their guards are some of the quickest in the game, and it made driving the lane difficult. I had a very poor shooting performance, but dropped dimes like a madman, and blocked their last-second shot attempt to seal the game. And we just blew the holy hell out of the Timberwolves after I scored 18 first quarter points and ended up shooting over 80% for the game (two blocked shots under the basket, made every other jumper and layup). I spent most of the second half playing the perimeter and racking up assists, so I didn't really score many points, but it was enough to win by 25 points.

The best news of all? There's only one game left in the regular season, and we've already clinched a playoff spot.

Worst of the Worst of the Night:
The New Jersey Nyets: As noted in the comments by The Dude Abides:

Good God, the end of that Minny-Jersey game was epic. But only on the Jersey side, as Minny made their free throws.

Jersey with the ball, about 22 seconds left, down four: they go for a quick two, but the Minny defender cuts off Harris, who passes out to the 3-pt line. One more pass around the arc and there's about 12 seconds left. You would think that at this point, the Nets would realize that you can't go for a quick two anymore. But Yi gets the ball and tries to drive, gets cut off, then passes back to Dooling beyond the arc, who pump fakes, tries to draw a foul, gets off balance, then passes while in the air to Yi for the corner three. There are now three seconds left. It's taken 19 seconds to get to this point. Yi shoots the corner three, and it hits the top corner of the backboard and caroms all the way back out to Dooling (or whoever is standing at the wing), who tries and fails to get the shot off before the final buzzer.

Even if he had managed to make a three before the final buzzer, the Nets still would have lost by a point. Hilariously epic fail.

The Detroit Pistons: John Kuester's team got a golden opportunity to turn things around by playing against the NBA's second-worst defense. And they pissed away that golden opportunity in a golden shower of failure. The Raptors were more like the Tyrannosauruses (Tyrannosaurii? I hate pluralizing words like that), and the final score ended up being an embarrassing 94-64. The Pistons shot 27.9% from the field, and made only one trey. By contrast, the Raptors shot nearly 54%, and drained 8 from downtown.

John Kuester, Self-Blame Machine: "That was a terrible, embarrassing loss. I'm taking the blame on myself, because we didn't look prepared, and that's my job." Keep losing games like that, and it won't be your job much longer.

Worst of the Night in Pictures:
I made a Snuggie joke yesterday... Does Carmelo read our blog???
The face of scoring 64 points in a game
Devin "We knew we were going to be a playoff team" Harris despair
(Playoffs??? We're talking about playoffs???)
Don Nelson despair
Atlanta Hawks despair
Michael Redd recoils in horror as Nick Young sharts all over himself
Ron Jeremy Stan Van Gundy approves of this public display of man love. Speaking of which...
The Hedgehog shows his team his "manual stimulation" technique.
(Hey, as soon as Ron Jeremy jokes stop being funny, I'll stop making them)
When did Tim Duncan switch bodies with ET?
LeBron subtly hints that he wants a Viewfinder for Christmas

Nationally Televised Christmas Friday Games:
Heat at Knicks: The Knicks have won three of their past five games. Those opponents? Bobcats, Bulls, Clippers, Bobcats again, and Bulls again. Really? Really?? It's not quite playing the Nyets and 'Wolves every game, but it's pretty damn close.

Celtics at Magic: Paul "I'm the best player in the world" Pierce will miss this game after having his knee drained. I wonder if he was taken away on a wheelchair after that procedure?

Crabs at Lakers: Finally, the puppets face off! Wait, this game will be played by actual people and not puppets??? Oh, darn.

Clippers at Suns: Well, I hear that Blake Griffin is only three weeks away from resuming basketball activities. That's nice. I wonder if the Clippers can reacquire Shaun Livingston and give his knees another shot? He needs the work.

Nuggets at Ail Blazers: Here's a quick "nugget" of knowledge (bad puns are awesome, sorry) for you: JR Smith went off for 41 against Atlanta on Wednesday. In doing so he attempted 17 three pointers. That's about as many as he attempted in the previous four games combined.


Nationally Televised Saturday Games:
Wizards Generals at Timberwolves: Again, why does the Basketbawful Game of the Night get national TV coverage?

All The Other Saturday Games:
Grizzlies at Mavericks
Hawks at Pacers
Rockets at Nyets
Hornets at Bulls: How long can the Notorious VDN hang on?
Bobcats at Thunder
Spurs at Bucks
76ers at Jazz
Lakers at Kings
Suns at Warriors: Holy lack of defense, Batman! This has all the makings of a 130-110 final score, EXCEPT the Suns are on the second night of a back-to-back, and might wear down in the second half.


Nationally Televised Sunday Games:
Spurs at Knicks: I can't believe I actually think the Knicks have a very good shot of winning this game.

All The Other Sunday Games:
Pistons at Raptors: Could the Pistons repeat their 64 point offensive output from their last game against the Raptors? I hope to God not, just for the sake of preventing mass suicides.
Rockets at Crabs
Pacers at Heat
Mavericks at Nuggets
Celtics at Clippers

Labels: Bawful After Dark, Canadians are awesome (just look at Steve Nash), Christmas weekend FTW