NBA All-Star Lineups | Local Hoops | Local Puck | Scared To Start | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
This Saturday Sports we go a quick breakdown of the NBA All-Star starting lineups, some local Hoops&Puck, and today’s tune is Scared To Start by Michael Marcagi.
NBA All Stars
This week the NBA announced the All-Star Starting Lineups for the Western and Eastern Conference. This will be the 73rd NBA All-Star Game, which won’t be played until February 18th. I haven’t jumped into the rest of the association outside of New York just yet, so figure this would be a nice start.
LeBron James
For starters, just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past 2 decades, this is LeBron James. He’ll be making history by playing in his 20th NBA All-Star Game, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most of all time. James is averaging 24.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per game at 39 years old. What is remarkable to me is that he hasn’t averaged less than 25 points per game since the ‘03-’04 season when he was an 18-year-old rookie. (He still put up 20.9 points per game that season.) Full disclosure, I’ve had my ups and downs with LeBron because I’m a diehard Michael Jordan fan. Even though I can’t remember a single moment of Jordan playing for the Bulls other than in highlights, I’m a Jordan guy, it’s the 90s in me. That said, at this stage in LeBron’s career we should appreciate what he’s done for the game because we’ll never see anyone else like him.
Kevin Durant
Speaking of Micahel Jordan, KD will tie him in All-Star appearances as this will be his 14th. Kevin Durant is a straight hooper, he can play on Mars and drop a 30-piece on Martians. This season Durant is averaging 29.1 points per game while shooting 45.5% from beyond the arc. If he maintains this level of shooting from 3, it’ll be his career best from deep. It’s been a blessing to grow up watching LeBron and Durant for over a decade play. No knock on LeBron, but as a former high school hooper, if you’re asking me which of their games I’d rather have, it’d be KD’s. Best pure scorer I can remember watching. (Kobe was great as well, but Durant’s a bit more efficient.)
Nikola Jokic
The Joker, or the NBA Finals MVP of ‘23, has the most unique and effective playing styles of this era. The 7-foot center from Serbia does quite a bit of stumblin’ along out there on the court but it works. He plays at his own pace and rhythm as he puts defenders to sleep while consistently putting up near triple-doubles. This year he is averaging 26.2 points, 12 rebounds, and 9.1 assists per game which have culminated in 13 triple-doubles this year.
Luka Doncic
Luka Doncic is another Eastern European baller who has taken the league by storm since he arrived. To a lesser extent than Joker, he plays at his own pace and rhythm as well. His 33.6 points per game lead the Western Conference. If he can keep it up, it would be a new career-high for the 6th year vet. Doncic has played in 37 games this season and he has only not put up 30 points or more in 8 of them. Oh yeah and Friday night, Luka dropped 73 points. Absurd.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be making his 2nd straight NBA All-Star team and for the 1st time, he’ll be starting. SGA has a 6’11” wingspan which is insane for a guard who stands at 6’6”. Sorta like the Joker and Doncic, SGA has his own unique style, must be an international thing as he’s originally from Toronto, Canada. He is averaging 31.1 points per game and leads the NBA in steals at 2.3 per game. For old-school NBA fans, you’ll appreciate SGA’s midrange shooting ability, it’s where he does most of his damage. The 25-year-old has the OKC Thunder contending for the top spot in the West and will be in consideration for the MVP this season.
Giannis Antetokounmpo
The Greek Freak will be the Eastern Conference captain. This is his 8th straight NBA All-Star Appearance. At 29 years old, Antetokounmpo only trails Dirk Nowitzki (14), Hakeem Olajuwon (12), and Patrick Ewing (11) for most All-Star games for a player born out of the United States. Giannis is averaging 31.3 points and 11.7 rebounds per game, as the Bucks are 2nd in the East. A fan favorite, the Greek Freak led the All-Star fan vote with 5,427,874 ballots ticketed with his name on them.
Joel Embiid
This week Joel Embiid scored 70 points in a game. Only 9 players in NBA history have ever reached that mark with only 2 centers. Embiid is now a part of an exclusive list of Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain (who did it 6 times), David Thompson, David Robinson, Kobe Bryant, Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell, Damian Lillard, and Luka Doncic. Embiid is the only one of them to be an international player as he grew up in Cameroon. The reigning NBA MVP leads the league in scoring at 36.1 points per game.
Jayson Tatum
Jayson Tatum and the Celtics are in 1st place in the Eastern Conference, but remember when he no-showed in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals last year and only scored 14 points? People don’t forget.
Tyrese Haliburton
Tyrese Haliburton is making his 2nd NBA All-Star Game. The NBA assist leader averages 12.6 dimes per game. At 6’5”, he’s got good size for a PG to go with a nice funny jump shot, but hey it works as he is hitting at 40% from 3 for the 4th time in his 4 years in the NBA. Earlier this year, Haliburton had Indy in the In-Season Tournament Final and currently has the Pacers in the middle of the Eastern Conference Playoff standings. The Pacers haven’t made the playoffs since the bubble during COVID so his continued success will be vital down the stretch of their season.
Damian Lillard
Dame Time will be making his 8th NBA All-Star Game and for the 1st time will be representing the Eastern Conference. I was surprised to read this was his 1st All-Star start, but then again he played in the West with Steph Curry all these years. Lillard was traded to the Bucks over the off-season and although the team is playing pretty well at 31-13 (2nd in the East), they just fired their head coach, Adrian Griffin. Allegedly behind the scenes, there was some drama over Lillard’s defensive play, which for a rookie head coach is sorta a bold thing to get on an NBA star of today about. Milwaukee has hired Doc Rivers as head coach, who although has had plenty of recent postseason collapses, has dealt with coaching plenty of NBA superteams in the past. Lillard’s gotta a smooth game, they’ll figure it out in time for the playoffs.
The New York Knicks have clawed their way up to the 4th spot in the Eastern Conference, while the Brooklyn Nets willow away outside the playoff picture.
Manhattan
Two things on the Knickerbockers I want to Note… Since acquiring OG Anunoby, the Knicks are 11-2 in ‘24. What is wild is right before the start of the New Year and the trade they were on a 3-game losing skid. Anunoby is coming off his best game in New York thus far as the Knicks blew out the ‘23 NBA Champs by nearly 40 points. The small forward had 26 points to go with 6 steals. The other thing that needs to be said is that Jalen Brunson got snubbed from being named to the NBA All-Star starting line-up. While Lillard is of course a star and Hall of Famer, Brunson deserves it this year for what he’s doing with this team. Charles Barkley on NBA TNT said, “I would have loved to see Jalen Brunson as a starter…One of the best signings I've ever seen…He made the New York Knicks relevant for the first time since Patrick Ewing, plain and simple." This is high praise coming from the Hall of Famer, especially when you consider the Carmelo Anthony era, although that was sorta a pipe dream because it was at the height of the Big 3 in Miami. This Knicks team is fun.
Brooklyn
The highlight for the Nets this week was that they were up 85-76 over the Knicks at the start of the 4th Quarter on Tuesday. They ended up blowing the game in the 4th Quarter, but that’s pretty much a win in Brooklyn at this point. Mikal Bridges dropped 36 points against a bunch of his former Villanova teammates who play on the west side of the East River. You have to imagine Bridges would still love to play for the Knicks. After the game in Brooklyn, Bridges said the game “felt like a friggin away game” to which Knicks’ Josh Hart Tweeted to him “Yo bro call me”, which on NBA Twitter implies as a bit of recruitment. The Nets are hoping that Ben Simmons can return at some point next week. Honestly, is it going to make a difference? This bum has played 6 games for the Nets this season and has averaged 6.5 points per game while collecting $37,893,408.00 this season. I don’t like being hard on athletes and it ain’t right to speculate on injuries, but c’mon the dude is 27 years old, built like an ox, and has made over $106.29 million off Brooklyn while playing 48 games thus far…That will come out to over $2.2 million per game when he decides to sit out again because he woke up on the wrong side of the bed with a stiff neck. As King Charles Barkley would put it, “That’s turrible.”
Manhattan
The Rangers are losers of 4 of their last 5. The Boys in Blue’s Goalie, Igor Shesterkin, has had a terrible month of January as he has allowed 3.2 goals per game. For the season, the starting goaltender has a Save Percentage of 89.8%, which is the worst season mark among Ranger goalies with at least 31 starts since ‘07-’08. It might be time to put Quickie in there a bit more if you ask me. While Jonathan Quick at age 38 has also been trending in the wrong direction as well, something has gotta get the boys out of this funk. The frustrating part about their 5-2 loss to Las Vegas last night was they were following my formula of getting pucks on net, outshooting the Golden Knights 38 to 20. Must have been the lack of forecheck. They gotta figure it out and fast, Carolina is right on their heels in the Metropolitan Division.
New Jersey
On Thursday night, Devils head coach Lindy Ruff took a biscuit to the kisser. That’ll wake you up. New Jersey was down 3-0 when it happened so the boys rallied a bit to lose 3-2. I’m surprised you don’t see that more often, eh? Ruff is doing okay and is an NHL lifer, having played in the league from 1979 to 1993 and coached in the NHL since 1997. Earlier in the week, the Devils won a thrilling 6-5 OT game against Vegas where RW Tyler Toffoli recorded the 6th hat trick of his career. Toffoli is the leading scorer on the team thus far, as he’s got 20.
Out East
Isles’ Center Bo Havart got the boys Out East their only win in the past 7 games when he scored the walk-off OT goal against Dallas on Sunday. Islander fans have dealt with an unfair share of OT heartbreak this season, as they have lost a league-worst 11 games in extra time. Since Sunday, they’ve lost 2 in a row. At this point, the Islander’s season is hanging on by a thread thanks to their 12-game stretch where they won 9 of 12 from mid-November to mid-December. Havart’s play has been one of the team’s bright spots this season as he is 2nd on the team in goals with 20 and 3rd in assists with 25 as he added 1 of each on Thursday night in their OT loss to Montreal. For those not too in the know about hockey, NHL teams are awarded 1 point for an OT loss and 3 for a win, which is why despite their -22 goal differential on the season, with a great 2nd half they still have a 21.5% shot at the Stanley Cup playoffs. (Playoff odds come from Money Puck)
Today’s tune on this fine Saturday in January is Scared To Start by Michael Marcagi. It’s sorta like last week’s Saturday Sports of a song I saw on Spotify, from an up-and-coming artist out of Ohio. While this is only his 2nd released tune, two folk favorites of mine, The Lumineers and Noah Kahan already gave the man a stamp of approval by following Marcagi on the Gram. I figured Week to Week Notes follow suit.
Marcagi sets the scene of a young woman wearing an old dress out in town. It sounds like she’s interested in meeting someone, but has been hurt before so she won’t fall for the typical guy who tells her the same stories or leads her on.
She got tired of listening to his friends droning on about stuff out of their control like the world ending, but she’s interested enough in him to stick around and sit shotgun.
He’s asking her if she’d want to escape a bit and enjoy life. I don’t know about you but I like the stars, cars, and bars part of this song, it flows nicely.
If something is the matter, he’s hoping for a second chance. Believe me, I’m just a fan of sports who loves the Yanks&Jets, music, history, and proper pints of Guinness. There’s a million quite like me. I feel fortunate that I get to have some fun writing about it. From growing up with some great people and meeting new great people along the way, there are plenty of you who could do something just like this in your own way, maybe even besides writing. Trust me. Also, just want to add there are plenty of you already on your own path, and to keep going.
Kinda, sorta… My whole public image was completely shattered when Taylor Swift never responded to me asking her out for a proper pint of Guinness. 😕 Now I gotta write about Taylor & Travis every weekend because they rule the football internet…Happy for them tho… It’s been very difficult to get back out there. Gosh, it’s so hard being me.
(*Deep dramatic sigh*) 😔
I’ll get serious again, this song is great. I’m glad I saw it on Spotify because with hits like this Michael Marcagi is well on the way to becoming the next folk singer-songwriter star.
Great tune! I’m a huge fan of all kinds of music, but this new folk era we’re in is special and there is something to instruments in music.