Bron being Bron

Last night, as the Heat were busy routing the Pistons, a lucky fan had the chance to take a heave from halfcourt for 75 large.  If you're like me, you probably figured that guy didn't have much of a chance.  After he absolutely drained the shot (with somewhat unorthodox form), BronBron ran out of the team huddle to bear hug and tackle him.  Is Bron a douche?  Maybe.  But he seems like he's genuinely a pretty nice dude, and that's just a cool moment.  That was the best moment of that guys life, 100%.

K. Smooth and another NBA first

The weekend tore through da club like K. Smooth tore through the Mavs' defense on Friday night.  It left us all hungover, burping up Italian meats and asking why we put up with our 40 hour a week cube jobs.

That all being said, this isn't about us, our shitty jobs or our bad attitudes.  This is about someone who found the key to averting the life of a desk jockey: grow to be almost 7 feet tall and have a freakish 7'5" wing span.  I give you the NBA's best player, Kevin Durant.  Last night, he became the first player in NBA history to make 20+ free throws in back to back games.  He is now 41/42 from the line over his last 2 and an insane 91% from the charity stripe this season.  In those last two, he has combined to score 89 points.  For those of you that are math challenged, that's almost 45ppg.  45!

I'd say with recent injuries, the MVP race has now fallen squarely on Durant vs. LeBron.  If I were a betting man, my money would be on the protagonist to unseat the villain for MVP and for NBA supremacy.

K. Smooth shows the world why he will win the MVP this year

Holy shit.  What a game.  In all honesty, this was probably one of the uglier 50 point games of all time. K. Smooth shot a mortal 13/31 from the field including a dismal stretch in the 4th quarter where he missed 8 straight shots to let the Mavs back in the game.  He made up for it in OT though, hitting 2 huge 3's and a ridiculous step back, fade away that would make Kobe proud.  While K. Smooth was human from the floor, he was an astonishing 21/21 from the line and 5/9 from 3 to finish with 52 points.  He also threw in 9 boards, an assist and 2 steals in 50 minutes.

What I think is amazing about this game and this performance is the way that Smooth continued to fight.  Most players in the league would defer to the #2 when going through a cold stretch like he hit in the 4th, but he kept playing his game and rewarded OKC with a gritty, OT win in Dallas.

I think Kareem hit the nail on the head this week when he said we could be watching the best scorer of all time.

The Best Player in the League Throwing Down

Another European being victimized by K. Smooth in one of the most aggressive dunks you will see this year.  Yikes.

BronBron setting more records

In a blowout of the Warriors, yaboi LeBron became the youngest player in NBA history to reach 20,000 points and also got his 5,000th assist.  Those are both pretty big milestones, so let's get some perspective on this. 

• While the youngest to reach 20k points, he was the 8th-fastest.  However, he is second on the list of games needed to reach 20k points & 5k assists, behind only Oscar Robertson. 
• He is one of only 11 players in the 20k points/5k rebounds/5k assists club.
• Earlier this season, Chris Paul became the youngest, and 5th-fastest to reach 5k assists, needing 510 games.  LeBron took 726.
• With his expanded rebound rate, you can easily see him reaching 20/10/5, which would put him in company with only Kareem, Malone, and Garnett. 
• Since 2007, LeBron has led the league in combined Pts/Asts/Rebs every year except one, in which he came in second to Kevin Love 41.4 to 41.3
• In the win last night, Bron got 25pts/10ast/7reb.  In the last 10 years, he has had 49 games where he reached at least those numbers.  Next on the list?  Kobe with 12
• He is second in the league with 14 20pt/10reb games this year, behind David Lee at 16
• And for a few predictions: If LeBron can average 22pts/5assts per game for the next 10 years, he would finish as the NBAs leading scorer, and 7th all-time on the assists list (being the only forward in the top 25)
• LeBron's career totals will almost certainly flirt with 30k pts/10k reb/10k asts/2k stls/1k blks.  Should he get there, he'd be the only one in da club

You may not like him, but at least appreciate you're watching one of the 5 best players to ever pick up a basketball, possibly even the best. 

(Some stats thanks to ESPN and Chris Palmer)

LeBron vs. Durant

Kemp's Nose Hoes needs to get his head on straight.  K. Smooth is playing out of his mind.  His all around game is miles ahead of where it was last year.  Just look at what he did to the Hawks last night.  60% from the field, 50% from 3, 90% from the line, 41 points, 13 boards, 3 assists and 2 blocks.

K. Smooth has to win a title, but when compared to LeBron, we are getting dangerously close to not only saying K. Smooth is a better scorer, but a comparable, if not better overall player.  Let's look at the 9 major statistical categories:

FG%           LeBron 53%      K. Smooth 51%        Small Advantage LeBron
FT%           LeBron 68%       K. Smooth 90%        Huge Advantage K. Smooth
PPG            LeBron 25.2       K. Smooth 27.7         Small Advantage K. Smooth
RPG            LeBron 8.5         K. Smooth 8.5          Push
APG            LeBron 6.9         K. Smooth 4.2          Advantage LeBron
Steals           LeBron 1.3         K. Smooth  1.5        More or Less, Push
Blocks         LeBron 0.9          K. Smooth 1.5         Small advantage K. Smooth
Turnovers    LeBron 2.5          K. Smooth 3.5         Small advantage LeBron
3 Point %    LeBron 42.3%     K. Smooth 43.5%    More or Less, Push

The numbers speak for themselves.  The categories LeBron used to dominate over Smooth, FG%, Rebounding and Assists are now either even or extremely close.  LeBron's Free Throw Percentage remains a stain on his game while K. Smooth really doesn't have a category that is overly weak.  I know statistics can't tell the whole story, especially defensively where you'd have to take LeBron over K. Smooth (based on 1-on-1 defense), but they can paint a pretty good picture.

PLUS K. Smooth has starred in a feature film.  What has LeBron done in Hollywood?  Nothing.

I have wet dreams every single night about a rematch of last year's finals.  Please, please, please, Stern, have your minions match us with LeBron and K. Smooth again in June.