“HeatCheck” tag's highlights of related matches, posts & more...
Can You Win A Championship PLAYING LIKE THIS?! 🔥🔥🔥
With the game on the line, the Grizzlies hunt Mike Conley defensively. They set the screen but as Morant goes inside, Mike steals the ball, and just moments later, during the same sequence- he calls his own number here with the double screen on the perimeter, fires away and knocks down the dagger to give Utah a commanding 3-1 lead in the series. The Jazz are playing their type of basketball, that brought them great success throughout the season, and they still win that way. But the question is: Can you win a championship playing like this? Let me explain. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it. Speaking of Mike Conley, he’s still elusive off the dribble and it’s hard for the defense to stay in front. In transition, as Gobert goes to set the high pick, check out the in and out dribble by Mike to fake Morant, which opens up the drive, the defense has to rotate, and look at all the time and space that Bogdanovic has to shoot this 3. Heck, even I might be able to make this. Probably not tho. Moving on. Again, early offense, great run by Gobert here, as goes to set another screen up top but actually slips it, and right here, with Rudy in the paint, as Conley jumps, the help defender commits, but incredible mid air adjustment by Mike, to riffle this pass in the corner to Niang, and again, check out how wide open he is and this 3 goes in as well. The point here is as you can see from some of these plays from game 4, the Jazz are able to generate a lot, and I mean a lot of open 3 point looks, and as a result they make a ton of them at a great percentage. I mean, look at this, Mitchell had a decent look himself, but decided to penetrate and kick it out to O’Neale, and at this moment, the closest defender is more than 3 meters away from him, this is social distancing type of space. And because of this exact playing style, with a lot of movement and penetrate and kicks, Utah led the league in 3 pointers made with 16.7 which is the most in NBA history, all that while being number 4 this season in efficiency- hitting them at almost 39%. And like I said in a previous video- That’s the deadliest combination possible. Shoot a lot of threes and hit a lot of threes. Well, the thing is, they’ve become even deadlier in the playoffs. Raising the makes by a decimal, but then going up to 41.1% in this 4 game battle so far against the Grizzlies. So things are going great for them right? Well, there’s always a flip side to this style of play. In the words of the great Charles Barkley: Even tho he’s not great with analogies, I’m sure you get the idea. Especially if we remind ourselves of game 1, when the Jazz kept jacking up threes despite the fact that they obviously couldn’t hit anything that night, but they looked like they had no plan B. Granted, Donovan Mitchell didn’t play and Utah was missing a lot in terms of scoring and playmaking, and this team looks a lot different with him on the floor. Here is proof of that: Look at the percentages from downtown, in game 1 without him, and since then with Spida in the roster. This type of blazing hot shooting is unbelievable to me. Look, I don’t hide my affection for the Jazz and I root for them in the west, but what I want to see is 1. If they can sustain this historically great outside shooting, and 2. When they hit adversity, can they keep themselves in the game by doing other things and attacking from different angles? As long as the Jazz get such wide open looks tho, I’m not too worried and I’m looking forward to what’s ahead of them. Let me know in the comments how far do you see them going. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.
Luka Doncic Is INJURED & This Changes EVERYTHING!
If you didn’t watch the game, you may not know that Luka was struggling with a neck injury throughout the entire game. Visibly wincing and being in pain, his production was clearly being impacted. And even tho I’m not saying that this is the only reason for their loss in game 4, it could change everything for the rest of the series. What up everybody my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it. Doncic ended the game with 19 points on 9 for 24 shooting. And after being unstoppable for the first 3 games, you know that something was wrong here. Luka didn’t want to make excuses postgame and focused on the loss instead. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that the injury is making things much harder for him on the court, as if the Clippers aren’t enough. And speaking of them, lost in this whole thing is the performance of the 2 LA superstars. Kawhi is having an unbelievable series with 33 points and 8.5 rebounds. All of that while shooting a blistering 63% from the field. That’s virtually unstoppable. As you can see he loves the right side of the floor, of course owning the midrange. The Klaw has been torturing the Mavs with his backdown turnaround jumpers, regardless of who the defender is. Right here on the wing, he gets a switch away from Kleber who’s Dallas’ best big defender and you can see the entire team is clearing out on the left side, leaving Luka on an island with Kawhi. He attacks, the half spin, the leaning shot and the bucket. Again, with the slower Boban in the game, on the pick and roll, Leonard has all this space to just raise up and shoot from his favorite spot on the court. He does that and easily knocks it in. But he’s even deadlier every time he decides to put his head down and go all the way to the basket. There is nobody on the Dallas roster who’s been able to consistently stop him in his intention to attack the rim. Even with Kleber on him here, the Clippers isolate him again, and you see the determination to go all the way and look at the strength here as he bumps Maxi to the side for a layup. That was too strong, and this is too quick on the perimeter, as you can see the double screen setup up top for him to curl. But instead the Klaw flies by with the crossover and there’s no way Kleber can catch him as we check out this 2 handed dunk. But I have to point out Paul George deserves just as much credit honestly. Think about it: If the Mavs won game 3 and went up 3-0 everybody would disregard the fact that they hit 20 threes on a mind boggling 51%. Instead, people would take the low hanging fruit and instantly blame Pandemic P for it right?! Thing is, Pandemic P is an automatic 25 point per game scorer on 50% from the field so far in these 4 games. And almost 8 rebounds to go along with that. Sure, his 3 point shooting has been extremely bad so far but similarly to Leonard, there is no answer for PG when he goes inside. Luckily for him however, George doesn’t need to defend his good performance from the haters just yet, since the Clippers have tied the series all of a sudden, winning 2 on the road after losing the first 2 at home, and having the entire NBA world write them off. Talk about a wild series. Most importantly however, their sense of urgency and defensive intensity has been ramped up to playoff type level. After the initial 127 and 113 points that Dallas put up in games 1 and 2, they were only allowed 108 and only 81 last night. Although there were some wide open misses that the Mavs shooters should have knocked down and 5-30 from downtown wasn’t entirely because of the defense, the fact remains that games 3 and 4 the Clippers really had their backs against the wall and had to go all out on both ends of the court to get back in this thing. And they did that. Now with the Doncic injury, and going back home, the momentum seems to be entirely on the LA side. This matchup has proved to be wild however and I’m looking forward to a pivotal game 5 in Staples. Let’s see what happens. Let me know in the comments who you got in the next one. That’s it for now. Subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.
LOOK At What The Lakers Did To Steph Curry
If this doesn’t reveal the Lakers strategy and how they won this game, I don’t know what will. 5 guys on Curry forcing anyone else but Steph to beat them. The Lakers survive and go to the playoffs on this Lebron James 3 from out of this world. But to really understand what happened and how the Lakers were able to get the win, let’s go deeper and break it down. What up everybody my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it. Look at this. 3 guys on Steph. Right from the start, the Lakers made it obvious that they didn’t want him to get hot. He was hounded all over the court and in order to get some shots off, look at where he needed to fire away from. He missed that one, but made a rainbow over Lebron and KCP, and this mind blowing shot with 3 guys chasing him at the buzzer. Despite having the entire focus on him, Steph finished with 37 points on 52% shooting. Amazing. However, to win a game as a team, you need a lot more points. This is what the Lakers were counting on. Frank Vogel’s defense was going so aggressively at Curry, at times leaving the other Warriors completely wide open like in this situation right here. And in the first half, the supporting cast was knocking down shots. Right here, everyone is chasing the main man, and on the rebound, the ball finds Bazemore, nobody around him, and hits the open shot. Again, multiple defenders up top, he gets rid of it, Green penetrates, finds Mulder who dunks it. So look at the numbers at the half. Curry had 15 and the rest of Golden State had 40 points. And Golden State had a surprising lead of 13 points at the break. However compare that to the second half numbers. Steph with 22 and all others 23. LA really kicked their defense up to a whole new level forcing a lot of turnovers by the Warriors. 15 in the second half to be exact. That’s more than teams sometimes have for an entire game. And in a situation like this where every possession matters, for a playoff spot, they are extremely costly. In the fourth quarter the Lakers also put Steph in some pick and roll situations, and as you can see that scramble opened up some nice looks, especially right here: Everyone is focused up top, and Lebron catches Bazemore watching, so he fires a bullet pass to Caruso, who has the angle for the drive. The help comes from Green, but a great pass to AD who finishes this wide a dunk capitalizing on this opportunity created by putting Curry in a position to defend the pick and roll. And all of that was capped off on the very last possession of the game when LA once again knew exactly who they need to guard for the final shot, and as you can see they get the turnover and seal the deal to go to the playoffs. At the end it was nothing but respect between the 2 superstars, as they provided us with great theater even before the official start of the postseason. For the sake of more drama and excitement, I do hope that Golden State can win their deciding matchup against Memphis, and sneak in at the 8 spot in the west. Stay tuned for that and much more breakdowns throughout the entire playoffs. And make sure to subscribe and not miss out. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.
When an NBA game becomes EMBARRASSING And UNWATCHABLE
The first 1000 people to use this link will get 30% off an annual Skillshare Premium https://skl.sh/heatcheck05211 This play sums up the most embarrassing performance that I’ve ever seen in an elimination game. Complete miscommunication by the 2 defenders culminating with this situation right here. They trip each other and fall on the floor, leaving a completely wide open dunk. This was the story throughout the entire game for the Hornets, so sit back and let’s break down the breakdown of the Charlotte Hornets. That’s bars for you. What up everybody my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it. Right off the bat there were some early signs of laziness on defense, as they went under the screen on literally the deadliest shooter on the Pacers. In a win or go home game- I expect much higher effort defensively. Instead, 3 straight possessions in the 1st, Douggie got some open looks, and got blazing hot early on. But let me show you what’s really bad effort on D. Charlotte allowed Indiana a mind boggling 74 points in the paint. And look at some of these: In transition, look at where all the Pacers are, this is by no means a fast break opportunity. Brogdon calmly jogs all over the court, 4 defenders are back and they still get beat on a backdoor. In particular, P.J. Washington. And watch how many lowlights he’s got in this video. Similar situation, T.J. Mcconnell gets it and look: he’s by no means a speed demon. But look at how he goes coast to coast completely unbothered, against the much bigger Washington and easily lays it in. The Indiana guards got anywhere they wanted on the court. Mcconnell walks his way into an easy shot from the paint, then watch this exhibition type of defense for the Brogdon layup. And again, no complicated set plays, no fancy dribbling, Malcolm just puts his head down and goes to the rim. And similarly to Mcconnell, he’s also not the quickest in the league to put it lightly, but nobody stopping the penetration, no help at all, and yet another 2 easy points. Speaking of him, look at this- straight line drive, no contact, no contest and another layup. But back to P.J. Washington. Check out 2 more backdoor cuts against him in a game where he should be aggressive and tough on defense. Especially this right here. Look at this! How does he get beat so easily by Holiday, and who does he expect to bail him out right here? This is inexcusable. By the end of the third, Mcconnell was running laps all around the Hornets defense, and got the easiest uncontested shots. First right here, and at the end of the quarter by just jogging along the baseline for the wide open inside look. Moving on, if you also look at the boxscore, you’ll see that Indiana shot almost 46% on threes and that also has a lot to do with the way their play in opponents defended them. Check out all of these open threes generated by the easy penetration. And when you have this much room to shoot it, of course you’re gonna hit a large percentage of those shots. Again, as we watch these, there is no fancy strategy involved, or special play calls or nothing like that. This is just lack of effort by the defense and getting beat on the first step, which then creates all of the problems, and eventually the open man. I do have to give a lot of credit to the Pacers as well for their superb ball movement, and great execution of the game plan, doing it even without 3 of their main players in Myles Turner, Caris Levert and T.J. Warren. But I also have to say that Charlotte were so bad in this game that almost the entire second half was garbage time, and this was the only reason why Domantas Sabonis wasn’t able to get a triple double, as he sat out the entire 4th quarter and finished the game with 14 PTS, 21 REB and 9 AST. So after this phenomenal performance, Indiana is 1 step closer to the playoffs and they face the Washington Wizards, for the 8th and final spot in the East. As for Charlotte, this disappointing and flat out embarrassing final game was mostly because of the inexperience and these are some growing pains that a young team like this has to go through. Despite all of that, I love what they have going on, and they’ve been a pleasant surprise this season. The future is bright for them and we’ll see them in the playoffs the following years. Until then, Charlotte will have this game in the back of their minds for a while. Wow, this was a strange video to make honestly. But let me know in the comments who do you have clinching the 8 seed and if Indiana can survive another battle. That’s it for now subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.
100% Free Throws! 2 Years WITHOUT A MISS! (Crazy NBA Stats)
Kyrie Irving finished this season with a phenomenal statline of 50% from the field, 40% from three and 92% from the free throw line. With that he became only the 9th player in NBA history to accomplish this, and here is the full list of elite shooters headlined by his coach Steve Nash who did it 4 times in his career which is unbelievable. But as impressive as that is from Kyrie, Tony Snell went even a step further. So let’s check out some wild statistics from this NBA season. What up everybody my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it. I promise you’ve never seen a player shoot 51% from the field, 57% from downtown, and 100% from the line. Without a single miss. That’s exactly what Snell did this season but if you’re asking yourself why he wasn’t included in that previous list, it’s because of the low attempts- especially when it comes to free throws. Only 11 which is a laughable sample size. But still, since this is the first time in NBA history that a line like this has been achieved, I feel like he deserves some credit. But what’s mind blowing here is that Snell actually had a perfect free throw shooting season last year as well. 32-32. Dude last missed a foul shot on March 12 2019. More than 2 years ago. Are you kidding me?!? OK, moving on. We saw the Wizards clinch a play-in tournament spot in a crazy season for them. Starting off 4-13 they found themselves dead last in the eastern conference. And on April 6th, just last month they were 17 and 32 and everyone wrote them off. However in a furious finish, Washington went 17-6 to end the season and with a total of 34 wins and 38 losses, they secured a place in the play-in. Fantastic comeback by Real Deal Beal and Brodie. Speaking of him, I know I made a video about Russell Westbrook and mentioned this but this is the perfect opportunity to repeat his video game average of 22 points, 11 and a half rebounds, and 11.7 assists. Yet another year with a triple double average, 4th in the last 5 seasons. This should never be taken for granted. Also when Russ gets a triple double his teams are 136-45 which is 75%. Which brings us to a player with a better win percentage when getting a triple double. And that is Draymond Green. This year, Draymond got number 30 in his career, and his record is astonishing. 29-1. That’s 96 and a half percent. So I guess all he has to do in the playoffs is get triple doubles and Golden State wins the title. Sounds simple enough. And on the topic of the playoffs, here is one painful fact for you 8 or 9 Sacramento fans left out there. The Kings have now missed the playoffs for 15 straight years. That ties the longest post-season drought in NBA history. The Clippers were in a similar spot from 1977 to 1991. Hopefully the young core of De'aaron Fox, Tyrese Halliburton and company can bring this team back on track where Bibby, Vlade and Peja left it. Steph Curry has been unstoppable this year, and the fact that he was able to single handedly drag this Golden State team to the play-in is a super human accomplishment in itself, but let me share some more tangible statistics with you. By winning the scoring title, Curry joins Michael Jordan as the only players in NBA history to lead the league in scoring at age 33 or older. Which yeah, Steph is 33 and I don’t know if it sounds as weird for you guys as it does for me. Also with 5.3 makes from downtown, he broke his own three point average record of 5.1 further cementing himself as the greatest shooter of all time. Great three point shooting is part of the reason for the Jazz success as well. Utah ended the year number 1 in makes and number 4 in percentage which is a deadly combination. But they’re on this list because they’re the first team in NBA history to make 10 or more threes in every single game of the season. So let’s see if they can keep up this blazing hot performance throughout the playoffs. And a nice way to end this list is with Lebron James. The King averaged 25 points per game, which makes it the 17th season of 25 ppg or more. There isn’t a single player close to him in this category, with MJ, KD, Kobe and the mailman all at 12 seasons. SImilarly to Westbrook, once again I gotta remind you to not take greatness for granted. I’m sure there are a lot more interesting and crazy sounding stats from this season, so let me know in the comments if you got a good one. The playoffs are here folks, things are just now heating up. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.
Just How He WANTS IT...
Check out this play. Paul George comes out to the three point line and then signals for the pass to go to Zubac. PG then immediately cuts and gets the ball on the handoff with an open lane to the rim. Nice defensive rotation here but there’s no chance that PG can be stopped once he takes flight. So let me go deeper and explain how the Clippers extended their win streak to 6 in a row, and what that could mean for the playoffs. What up everybody my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it. Watch the spin here to get free, and moments later on the drive, the beautiful euro step to split the defense and finish. And again, moving without the ball to shake off the defender, gets it on the wing and splashes the jumpshot. Check out the barrage of jump shots that George hit on his way to 36 points on phenomenal shooting along with 7 rebounds and 8 assists. All that without Kawhi Leonard for this game as the Clippers were able to hold off Indiana. Thing is it wasn’t just the shot making. PG is letting the game come to him. Drawing defenders on the drive, then finding the cutter and dishing a no look pass for the lay in. Or surveying the floor and finding the open shooter in the corner for the three point shot. Even taking advantage of the matchups and executing a tight pick and roll with Zubac right here. Great roll by Ivica, timely lob pass, and the dunk. The matchups were such that both Zubac and Marcus Morris had opportunities to score in the absence of Miles Turner under the basket. So there were multiple occasions where Morris would just back his way down to his favorite spot, turn around and raise up for the shot and the Pacers were unable to stop him. But all of this is just a part of a bigger story. The Clippers are getting into a nice groove just before the playoffs. I mean they have been solid throughout the entire season, but for the last 15 games which is quite a big portion btw they’ve been on fire. A record of 12-3, and shooting lights out 49.8% from the field, and 43% from downtown, being the absolute best in the NBA in both categories. Right now they’re in a phenomenal rhythm, peaking just at the right time for the playoffs. And all of this while staying under the radar. For the entire season at that. They’ve been solid and playing at a great pace since the start, but unlike last year, now nobody is talking about this team. Remember how all of last year the talk was Clippers or Lakers, Lebron and AD vs Kawhi and PG. The battle of LA. But all of that hype disappeared with a single playoff exit that they had, albeit a debacle of epic proportions, losing a 3-1 lead. However if you ask me, this is exactly how they want it to be. Kawhi is a man of few words anyways, and PG had some struggles with all the pressure and the talk surrounding him and the team. So right now he’s ballin 'out. Postgame, PG mentioned having some conversations with Dwyane Wade about taking his game to a new level and how that has helped him this season. PG INTERVIEW So yeah, in my opinion nothing has changed from last year. We still need to view them as top candidates for the championship. The roster got better in my opinion, and although they’re missing Ibaka and Beverley at the moment, they will be back for the playoffs, and of course Rondo got there at the trade deadline as well. And with the Lakers struggling right now with injuries, anything can happen come playoff time. But one thing is for sure, this time the Clippers are much hungrier and that makes them much more dangerous. Let me know what you think and how far they can get in the post season. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.
When An NBA SUPERSTAR Wants To Be Like JORDAN CLARKSON...
What initially looks like a high pick and roll for Conley is actually a decoy, as Gobert is gonna run to the wing, to screen for one of the most dangerous offensive players for the Jazz. Jordan Clarkson curls, catches, fires and scores. Utah has been relying on Clarkson, running these picks up top for him to get 3 point looks, and because of his underrated speed and the quick release, he is always able to get it up, and deliver for his team. So with him being on fire this season, NBA players are praising him big time, and there’s even 1 superstar that said he wanted to be like him. Stick around to check out who it was. What up everybody my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it. Check out his sneakiness and speed. Right here he’ll curl past the handoff, before going skrrrt skrrrt on Curry, getting back to the ball, the screen, the shot and the bucket. This was just 1 of his 8 threes against Philly on the way to a 40 point night against the Sixers. That’s 40 points off the bench yall. Clarkson is the first reserve this season to score that many points. He was so hot that his teammates needed to cool him off after the game. WATER BOTTLE CLIP yhile you’re watching his phenomenally underrated floater package, let me just tell you that no water bottle showers are gonna cool him off this season, since Jordan is the leading scorer off the bench with 18 points per game. Those 18 points per game make him the second leading scorer on the top team in the league. For real, Clarkson is right behind Donovan Mitchell, all that while being a reserve. That’s how important he is to the Jazz and their wild success so far this year. Okay, so now that you’ve seen a lot of these floaters, let me share a staggering statistic. Dude is 62 out of 94 on these shots which is an incredible 66%. That’s crazy. Only centers who play under the basket can get that type of efficiency. I recently made a video about Immanuel Quickley, the guy who only shoots floaters. Well, I was surprised to find out that he’s got less made and at a lower percentage. Again, Jordan Clarkson’s floater game is 1) automatic and 2) suuuper underrated. Keep an eye on him for that throughout the rest of the season. Moving on, another thing that he’s great at is the post up. Clarkson is so smart with his dribble, not wasting time, going straight to the rim, a little bump, the half spin and the shot. Look at him knowing exactly where he wants to get. In the middle of the paint, and as he gets cut off, bumps, spins and scores. Jordan is relying more on this shot as this year he completely removed the midrange from his game, becoming a 3s and paint type of guy. While that can work for some, but not for others- with Clarkson it seems like it’s a recipe for success, as both the points are up, and the efficiency is there. And with all that the Jazz are getting from Jordan, the trust in him is high. And I mean, to the moon. Look at all these shots in transition. This may seem crazy to some of you, but he’s been making them. At 37% on very high attempts, that’s putting Utah at number 1 in the entire league in made threes, and number 3 in percentage. You understand how deadly of a combination that is right? Shoot a lot of threes, make a lot of threes is the dream scenario for any team. You know what’s the funniest thing about him tho? Jordan has a ton and I mean a ton of bombs right at the end of the shot clock as you can see in these few examples. And there’s a reason behind it which I’ll get to in a second. The team is actually looking for Clarkson if there’s nothing going on in the possession and they need a bailout shot. Look at this: As the shot clock is hitting single digits, look at Mike Conley not liking what he’s seeing as he signals right away for Ingles to just get the ball to Clarkson. And that’s exactly what happens, as Joe finds him, my guy immediately fires away and banks it in. Now check out the hilarious reason, and story that Jordan Clarkson told in a recent podcast. I started laughing immediately as I heard this. Dude is ready to get it up there in any situation and at any cost. Props to you for that. And speaking of the ultra green light that Jordan has, check out what a superstar of Dwyane Wade’s caliber had to say about him. To get such a high praise from a guy like D-Wade is awesome, but even his peers in the league are showing him mad respect as he is the clear favorite for the 6th man of the year award. When you look at the whole picture, it all makes sense. Highest scorer off the bench, efficient, and leading his team to the best record in the league. That’s amazing. As you look at the top 10 reserves, there’s no way that any of them has anywhere close to the combined success that Jordan is having so far this year. Charles Barkley even went as far as saying that Clarkson had a better season than Anthony Davis at the all star break and put him on his ballot.
Jokic STEALS The MVP Trophy From Giannis (What You DIDN'T SEE)
Giannis won the All Star Game MVP by going 16 out of 16 from the field. And later in the postgame interview he celebrated like Lebron James. Let me show you a few more interesting moments from the All Star Game that you may have missed. What up everybody my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it. After winning the 3 point shootout with the last shot, Steph Curry continued his lights out shooting in the actual game as well. And for those of you that missed it, Steph did his signature look away with the ball still in the air. A classic that never gets old. And on the topic of shooting, of course you saw the wild half court barrage that him and Damian Lillard had. And Dame of course ended the game that way, with a shot from the logo. The most interesting thing for me here is that Curry already knew what was about to happen as soon as Lillard got the ball. So he started waving goodbye announcing that the game is over. And of course it was over at that same moment. So after all those long range shots by Portland’s superstar, Paul George finally admitted in the postgame interview that the Blazers vs Thunder playoff three, is actually not a bad shot. You all remember this right? Well here is PG admitting that he was wrong. BTW did you know that this is the first official basketball game that Steph and Lebron have been on the same team? They haven’t played together in the All Star Game before nor have they been on the same Team USA roster. So it was great to see moments like these as we got a glimpse of what could have been if these 2 played together on the same roster. This is literally a cheat code. The mutual respect and appreciation continued after the game on twitter as you can see with Lebron leading the way, and Curry responding. My favorite thing from the entire All Star is probably seeing how much fun Nikola Jokic had, and how much he enjoyed being out there. Like look at him, he is acting crazy after the simplest bucket ever, then check out his reaction on the Giannis three. Hilarious. And these 2 definitely had great chemistry, as we see Nikola teaching Giannis some dancing moves on the bench. And at the end, Antetokounmpo borrowed the MVP trophy to Jokic, so that he can feel like he won it. Man this is too funny seeing that big of a dude acting with pure joy like a little kid. In the postgame he joked about being snubbed from the All Star Game MVP for the second consecutive year. This dude is one of the funniest characters in the league. To top things off, he wore a mismatch colored sneakers in the game, and for those of you that haven’t seen his logo, check it out, I think it's a pretty cool design. The Joker hat with the initials and the number. Good job Nike. Did you see this? Jaylen Brown tried to pass it to himself and dunk it off the backboard. This was paying homage to Tracy Mcgrady who famously did it first, and Brown even had the same shoes that T-Mac was rocking back then. So it was a shame that he wasn’t able to finish it properly. And you all saw these back to back alley oops between Steph and CP3. They almost never dunk in-game, and that is especially true for Chris Paul. So with his first dunk of the season, he surpassed Blake Griffin, who hasn’t dunked in more than a year. Now that’s a mind blowing fact in itself. Speaking of Blake Griffin however, I know that he wasn’t in the game itself, but the news about his move to the Brooklyn Nets happened yesterday, so some of you may have missed it. Yeah, as if they weren’t stacked enough, now Blake comes in as extra firepower and according to Woj, the Nets plan to utilize him as a small ball center with the second unit. While talking about Brooklyn, here’s how his new teammate Kyrie Irving came to the game. We’ve seen him arriving at games like this a few times already, so this is nothing new but just wanted to mention it as part of the things that you guys may have missed from the All Star. And at the very end I do like to point out that even tho the dunk contest was a bit disappointing, we did see 1 dunk that we haven’t seen before. And that was this slam from Obi Topin which in my opinion received a way lower score than it should have. People who follow the league closely, probably saw Zach Lavine do this during a pre-game warm up, but technically this hasn’t been done in a dunk contest. And I also wanna comment on the winning dunk by Anfernee Simmons. Even tho the execution wasn’t the greatest, I love the idea, and this is something that Dwight Howard was practicing before one of his dunk contests a few years ago, but as you can see he also couldn’t do it although he was close as well, so he ended up not trying it in the actual contest. So yeah, all in all it was fun to take a break from the grind of the season, and Lebron definitely did that as he played the least minutes out of any player in the game.