from January 16th

It's been way too long and this season has been pretty fascinating so I am hereby promising myself that I will start writing again. It's not easy finding time but I'll manage. In the mean time, to get the ball rolling, I am going to try and do a close to daily short segment which just involves my most immediate and visceral reactions to the games of the night before. Sometimes it'll be really short and perhaps other times I'll be longer and more inspired depending on what games and how much of those games I actually had time to watch. Hopefully I'll find the time between the baby and school and work and occasionally getting a chance to remember that I used to be a tubist to write some longer more in depth articles but for now...
My reactions to the games of Tuesday, January 15th:
Pacers 131, Suns 97: No one really talks about the Pacers. They're clearly good. They just feel like the team that will give some other team a hard time in the playoffs. This is the kind of season, though, in which no one seems that much better than anyone else so who knows.
Philadelphia 149, Minnesota 107: Minnesota has been playing better lately. Towns has stepped up. But bottom line, maybe Jimmy was right.
Hawks 142, Thunder 126: Ugh. The Thunder are good, but it's games like this that show they are zero threat to make the finals. That Westbrook's shooting has become historically embarrassing has helped him concentrate a bit more on setting guys up and allowing them to actually play basketball with him which is good. But then you've got a guy on the court shooting historically badly and he still jacks up way too many shots. I keep coming back to the word "ugh."
Bucks 124, Heat 86: I had only the time to watch the beginning of this game and I thought the heat were really tough and I was impressed by them and thought the game would be close. That the Bucks blew them off the floor shows they may actually be for real. They've got a lot of dudes playing well.
Lakers 107, Bulls 100: That this was a great victory for the Lakers in a game they had to win pretty much says it all.
Golden State 142, Denver 111: This game reminds us all that once again, the outcome of the season is a foregone conclusion. When Golden State has the combination of trying and playing well they are miles ahead of any team in basketball. They opened the first quarter with the intent of making a point... point taken.