Trans. Apr 12 8:10 ET (Apr 12 8:10 ET ) If you’re a fan of any number of levels of comedy – from massive silver screen works to two generations’ worth of Saturday Night Live head writers to Lorne Michaels’ most recent foray into primetime work to various fringe 22-minute situation comedy to your daily reminder that there is a show on after ‘The Daily Show’ – then you are working off of the ha-ha exhaust of the much loved Improv Olympic . Del Close and Charna Halpern’s Chicago institution continues to be a breeding ground for open-ended and daring improvisational comedy, production that makes the north side hub a perfect proving ground for … San Antonio Spurs forward Matt Bonner?
Eh, why the hell not? Via Ananth Pandian , here’s “coach” Matt Bonner’s visit to the famous iO:
(Matt Bonner, like the guy who is currently writing this blog post, is still wearing low-cut New Balance sneakers.)
As if Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star guard Kyrie Irving wasn’t frightening enough, the second-year waterbug dominated the NBA’s Three-Point Shootout on Saturday night in Houston, shooting brilliantly during the final round on his way to a 23-point score and the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest championship.
Irving isn’t known as a three-point shooter despite his 41 percent career mark from behind the stripe. Pitched as a scorer and savior for the lottery-bound Cavs, Irving has still managed to make two treys per game this season in spite of the defensive shifts bent on denying him good looks, while hitting 42 percent from long range in his second season. Though opponents are best served ducking under screens and anticipating Irving’s brilliant work off the dribble, there’s a reason he’s able to parlay both disparate offensive talents into an uber-efficient 23.5 points per game in his sophomore season.
Pitched against the favorite in longtime three-point marksman (and, weirdly, first-time participant) Matt Bonner in the final round, Irving’s sound stroke and effortless follow-through set the stage and put the pressure on the San Antonio Spurs forward with the youngster’s final round mark of 23. It was no fluke, as Irving managed 18 in the first round and saw several shots spin out.
On one hand, it was pretty thoughtful of the San Antonio Spurs to decide to give the Dallas Mavericks a thematically appropriate gift to celebrate the return of perhaps the greatest long-range-shooting big man in NBA history. On the other, I'm willing to bet that Mavs coach Rick Carlisle didn't really love San Antonio unleashing hell from behind the 3-point line on Sunday; he probably would've preferred, like, a copy of "Born in the USA" or something.
The Spurs hit 20 of their 30 3-point attempts on Sunday night, setting a new franchise record for long-range success en route to a 129-91 trouncing of their in-state rivals. Nine Spurs made a triple, with shooting guard Danny Green led the way by hitting seven of his eight long-distance tries (and shooting 9 for 10 overall) to score a game-high 25 points. Small forward Kawhi Leonard went 3 for 7 from deep, scoring 17 points and adding five steals in his second game back after missing five weeks with left quadriceps tendinitis, and Tony Parker, Stephen Jackson and Matt Bonner each hit two 3-pointers to help push the Spurs to 21-8, a game ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies in the Southwest Division.
A look around the league and the web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.
C : Washington Post . Nobody really liked the Gilbert Arenas contract extension from back in 2008 , especially when paired with Antawn Jamison's extension. Still, things turned out even worse than expected, and on Monday Michael Lee delved into the way Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld somehow made his bidding against himself in 2008 for Arenas' extension worse by tossing the salary cap remnants of that deal toward New Orleans for Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza.
PF : Bullets Forever . To toss dirt on the fire (?), Mike Prada details who the Wiz could've dealt for after using the amnesty provision on Rashard Lewis' contract last summer.
SF : b8sy productions . A 22-minute Matt Bonner documentary because this is what we need.
SG : The 700 Level . A good feature on why we can't get too despondent regarding Andrew Bynum's Philly future.
PG : Gothic Ginobili . Aaron McGuire, in an entertaining fashion, is breaking down each of the players that saw significant time in the NBA last season. His quest continues with Daequan Cook, Jeff Foster and Brandon Roy.
NBA DRAFT LOTTERY SIM
MADNESS!
