#this is pretty much all kerr (on the left) and ball (on the upper right) mason jars

[the-lord-of-the-things]

BEHOLD MY JARS YE MIGHTY, AND DESPAIR

[dribolopdapipol]

NBA ROUNDUP | Cavs still searching after loss to Kings, Warriors bounce back

AFP The NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers’ struggles continued with an overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday as the Golden State Warriors got back on track with a victory over the Charlotte Hornets. Not even a second straight triple-double from superstar LeBron James could lift the Cavs, who fell 116-112 and have lost their last three games and six of their last eight. “Just try to get better,” was James’s prescription. “We’ve got to get better that’s all. “We had our opportunities. It don’t matter who we go against, if they’re sub-.500 or plus-.500, we know we’re going to get everybody’s best, so we’ve just got to be better.” The comments were tame compared to the tirade James delivered after Monday’s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, calling the squad “top-heavy” and questioning management’s commitment to retaining the title. Cavs general manager David Griffin met with James about the outburst, saying it “certainly wasn’t appropriate from a teammate perspective”. Although he and coach Tyronn Lue said the air had been cleared, the Cavs couldn’t reverse their fortunes on court in Cleveland. After Aaron Afflalo’s three-pointer with 30.8 seconds left in overtime put Sacramento up 115-112, James missed a three-pointer with 10 seconds remaining and Kings star DeMarcus Cousins capped the scoring with a free-throw with five seconds to play. Cousins scored a game-high 28 points with 11 rebounds, nine assists and three steals for the Kings. James scored 24 points with 13 rebounds and 11 assists in defeat. “It seems like when you’re losing, you’re not playing well, every ball bounces the other team’s way, every mistake you pay for it,” Lue said. “That’s what’s happening right now, so we’ve got to dig ourselves out of it.” The Golden State Warriors, in contrast, wasted no time in righting the ship after a shock loss to the Miami Heat on Monday. Led by Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, the Warriors rallied in the fourth quarter to beat the Hornets 113-103 in Charlotte. The Warriors, the 2015 champions who fell to the Cavs in last season’s title series, haven’t lost two regular-season games in a row since April of 2015 — the longest such streak in NBA history. Durant scored 16 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter. NBA Most Valuable Player Curry added 28. “Over the course of a season, you’re going to hit some road bumps and you’re going to lose some games,” Curry said. “So it’s all a matter of how you bounce back and show your resiliency. You can’t keep us down too long. We always seem to self-correct pretty quickly and find our way to get our rhythm back, and tonight was another example of that.” Warriors coach Steve Kerr was pleased with the determination displayed by his team in rallying from a 10-point third-quarter deficit. The Warriors trailed by five going into the final period. “These last two games have been good for us,” Kerr said. “They were played the way teams are going to play us, physical games, a lot of grabbing and holding, trying to beat us up on the offensive boards. We have to understand that we’re a skill team and teams are going to try to take that away from us by being physical, so this has been good for us.” Gasol lifts Grizzlies Spanish big man Marc Gasol scored a career-high 42 points to lead the Memphis Grizzlies to a 101-99 victory over the Toronto Raptors. Gasol scored his team’s first 16 points of the contest, connecting on 14 of 25 shots from the field including a career-best five three-pointers. “The ball went in early and then the rim got a little bigger,” said Gasol, whose prior career high was 38 points. “And I just kept shooting.” After setting an early tone, Gasol sealed the contest with two free throws with 36.3 seconds remaining, with the Raptors’ Kyle Lowry missing a potential game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer. Westbrook climbs ladder with 60th career triple-double Russell Westbrook notched the 60th triple-double of his career in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 114-105 victory over New Orleans on Wednesday to pass Larry Bird for fifth place on the all-time list. Westbrook posted 27 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists to fuel the Thunder with his 23rd triple-double of the season and his second in three victories over the Pelicans this season. Bird amassed his 59 triple-doubles in a 13-year NBA career, starring with the Boston Celtics from 1979-92. “I didn’t watch much, but I know he was a good player,” Westbrook said of Bird. “Obviously, he’s a legend for a reason. “It’s an honor, man,” Westbrook, 28, added. “I never take this game for granted to play the game I love every night and to be able to do that is a great accomplishment. The path just to get to where I’m at is an honor that I don’t take for granted.” Despite Westbrook’s effort — and another early injury exit for Pelicans star forward Anthony Davis — New Orleans challenged until the end. Oklahoma City led by 22 points in the second half but withstood a 9-0 Pelicans scoring run in the fourth quarter that cut the deficit to 105-100 with 5:33 remaining. Davis reinjured his right thigh late in the second quarter and finished with eight points and five rebounds. Guard E’Twaun Moore paced the Pelicans with 18 points. Thomas late show lifts Celtics Boston star Isaiah Thomas produced one of his patented fourth-quarter bursts to lift the Celtics to a 120-109 NBA victory over the Houston Rockets on Wednesday. Thomas scored 11 consecutive Boston points in the final period as the Celtics rallied from an 11-point first-half deficit with 68 points after the break. The Celtics snapped a three-game skid with their first win of the season over one of the league’s elite teams, Boston fans showing their appreciation with chants of “M-V-P” for Thomas. Thomas was asked if the chants meant more in a game in which Houston’s Most Valuable Player candidate, James Harden, was on the floor. “No,” he said. “It always means a lot with the best fans in the world. It doesn’t matter who is in the building. The fans are great, and they treat me really good.” Thomas said the contest against the number three team in the Western Conference “felt like a big game — a playoff atmosphere”. “It was a game we needed,” he said. “It was a must-win for us, and we played like it. We’ve got to be a little more consistent in playing that way and we’ll be all right.” Harden scored 30 points, but he was harried all night by the Celtics. “I got a couple good looks,” said Harden, who connected on just six of 18 from the floor. “The major part about it, we didn’t get stops defensively. “They created a lot of mismatches. Isaiah made big plays — whether it was scoring or making the right pass. Every time we messed up defensively, they made us pay for it. Credit to them. They made shots.” With 5:12 left to play, Harden was fouled by Jae Crowder on a drive to the basket. As the whistle blew, Harden threw his left hand out and caught Jonas Jerebko behind him, knocking the Boston forward down and cutting him. Jerebko needed four stitches on his upper lip. Harden was called for a flagrant foul. He made his own free throws to tie the game before Thomas drained two at the other end to launch a 13-2 scoring run that sealed the game for the Celtics. “We scored enough,” Houston coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We just didn’t stop them enough.” http://j.mp/2kvSUSy