Friday Bolts 1.22.16
Erik Horne on Westbrook’s rise in popularity: “Before Thursday’s announcement, Westbrook had
never cracked the Top 5 in votes for backcourt players … in the Western Conference. Even in the midst of a run at the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award last season, Westbrook only managed the seventh-most All-Star votes in the Western Conference among backcourt players (248,758). This season, Westbrook received 772,009 votes — the most of his career and his highest total since 2011 (660,244). Only Golden State’s Stephen Curry (1,604,325) received more votes among Western Conference backcourt players.”
Dan Devine of BDL on Westbrook’s dunking: “Until he pulverizes a metacarpal mid-dunk or strains a hammy mid-Running Off on the Plug, though, Westbrook will continue doing damage to both the rim and the opposition with no regard for his or anyone else’s safety … and we’ll keep loving it. Please, Russ, do hurt ’em.”
Zaza Pachulia was almost an All-Star starter.
Erik Horne on his trip to Denver: “When the mountains are snow-capped, they blend in with the clouds and it’s hard to differentiate between the two. When I left Denver on Wednesday morning, the lower clouds that were lingering on Tuesday were gone, and the temperature was in the 40s. Much of the snow on the mountains from the previous day had melted, revealing these dark masses that dominated the horizon. I’m a fan of feeling small. I have an unhealthy interest in skyscrapers, earth movers, big robot cranes, mountains, 747s, spaceships, battleships, dinosaurs, and anything that puts things into perspective.”
This oral history of Kobe’s 81.
Marc Stein’s All-Star reserves: “It’s hard to imagine West coaches, in real life, omitting both Blake and The Brow to make room for Aldridge and Nowitzki. But that’s the bold matter in which we’re doing it, based on the premise that the wildly overachieving Mavs deserve at least one All-Star, just as San Antonio deserves two. And just as Golden State, to us, deserves three as a reward for its 24-0 start and 74-8 pace overall. The fact that Nowitzki, at 37, remains so efficient and so clutch for a team that’s arguably 10 wins better than anyone imagined ultimately swayed us, since he remains Dallas’ best player despite his advancing age. Thompson, meanwhile, has quietly been deadly over the past two months and is a dogged two-way contributor after playing through a back injury — without complaint — that plagued him for the first few weeks of the season.”
