{"id":79653,"date":"2012-11-01T14:52:24","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T14:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vip.local\/2012\/11\/01\/what-i-learned-last-night-nov-1-2012\/"},"modified":"2012-11-01T14:52:24","modified_gmt":"2012-11-01T14:52:24","slug":"what-i-learned-last-night-nov-1-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/what-i-learned-last-night-nov-1-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Learned Last Night: Nov 1, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"
Every night (well – perhaps not EVERY night) I’ll be firing up my NBA League Pass and scanning that night’s box scores to bring you, my beloved reader, what I learned from the NBA that night. Because the internet was invented for knee-jerk, totally premature, irrational reactions to things.<\/em><\/p>\n The Kids Are All Right<\/p>\n <\/strong>While both their teams lost, rookie big men Jonas Valanciunas<\/a><\/strong> and Anthony Davis<\/a><\/strong> had impressive NBA debuts nonetheless. Despite his counterpart, Roy Hibbert<\/a><\/strong>, being an All-Star big man, Valanciunas posted a double-double (12 and 10) for the Raptors. It’s going to be real important for Valanciunas to hit the boards hard this year, since fellow Raptor big man Andrea Bargnani<\/a><\/strong> is abysmal on the glass. Meanwhile Davis had Tim Duncan<\/a><\/strong> to contend with, yet the youngster still managed to post 21 points and 7 boards. And let’s not forget about Portland’s rookie point guard Damian Lillard<\/a><\/strong>, whose 23 points and 11 assists helped lead the Blazers over the Lakers last night. Not bad for a kid out of Weber State (notwithstanding his 7-17 shooting and 6 turnovers).<\/p>\n By George, I Thinks He’s Got It<\/p>\n <\/strong>The Pacers need Paul George<\/a><\/strong> to become more forceful\/selfish on the floor to reach his full potential, and if last night is any indication, he may have gotten the message. George hoisted the second-most shots for the team and put up an incredible line of 14 points, 15 boards, and 5 assists (we’ll ignore the 5 turnovers). With Danny Granger<\/a><\/strong> on the shelf, Indiana will need more performances like this from young George.<\/p>\n The Beard Strikes Back<\/p>\n <\/strong>Remember all that stuff I wrote about James Harden not being a super-duper star<\/a>? 37 points, 6 boards, 12 assists and 4 steals says that I might be a little premature in that proclamation (his 37 points and 12 assists are the first time a player has hit those two marks in his debut with a new team). The Beard and Jeremy Lin<\/a><\/strong> could form one of the most explosive backcourts in the NBA this season.<\/p>\n Trouble in La-La Land<\/p>\n <\/strong>Yes, we’re only two games in, but the Lakers and their fans have to be at least a little concerned with their team’s play. It’s not just the fact that they dropped both their games this season – it’s that they lost to two teams that they should have mopped the floor up with. And the Steve Nash<\/a><\/strong> experiment has gone totally, unpredictably awry in the early going.<\/p>\n Derrick Who?<\/p>\n <\/strong>If Joakim Noah<\/a><\/strong> is able to post 20-10 games on the regular, Chicago might actually be able to survive without that Derrick Rose<\/a><\/strong> character.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every night (well – perhaps not EVERY night) I’ll be firing up my NBA League Pass and scanning that night’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":234921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[547148935],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n