The Morning Shmooze: CP3 gives Clips 2-0 Lead; Bulls win; Luke Babbitt Makes the News

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Sleep deprivation and sofasores come with the territory at this time of year. If you live on the East Coast, like me, you sacrifice both your days and your nights to the basketball gods and pray that it’ll all be worth it.

Last night, it was.

With Tony Allen defending him and trying to force him to go left, Chris Paul went to his right anyway and sank the game-winning shot with one-tenth of a second left to give the Los Angeles Clippers a 93-91 victory and a 2-0 lead over the Memphis Grizzlies in their first-round series.

“Homer Announcing” is Becoming “Homer Voting”

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Stern-trophy1In a conference call last week, NBA commissioner David Stern made it clear that he wasn’t a huge fan of “homer” announcers.

But it’s one thing to watch a broadcast of the Portland Trail Blazers – or any team – and get an earful of blind support for the home team. It’s entirely another when some of these broadcasters extend their undying support when they vote on the NBA’s season-ending awards.

Knicks guard J.R. Smith won the Sixth Man Award today. The league released the voting breakdown and … well, here. You take a look.

Sixth Man Voting: Smith got Twice as Many First-Place Votes as Crawford

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JR SmithNEW YORK — Well, you can’t exactly call it a landslide.

But it certainly was a more decisive vote than many might have anticipated.

J.R. Smith, who led all reserves in scoring, received 72 first-place votes to Crawford’s 31 in winning the NBA’s Sixth Man award Monday.

Jarrett Jack of Golden State received 14 first-place votes and finished third.

My vote went to Smith, who had seven 30-point games in which the Knicks went 5-2. Crawford scored 30 once — one of the deciding factors I used when casting my official NBA ballots, which you can review here.

Here are the vote totals from the NBA:

 

Player                      Team               1st Place (5 pts)  2nd Place (3 Pts)    3rd Place (1 Pt)   Total Points

J.R. Smith                   New York                 72                       39                          7                      484

Jamal Crawford        LA Clippers              31                       59                          20                    352

Jarrett Jack                Golden State           14                       15                          55                    170

Kevin Martin             OKC                               2                         3                            12                    31

Ryan Anderson         New Orleans              1                         1                            3                      11

Andre Miller              Denver                        –                         –                            7                      7

Jordan Crawford     Boston                          1                         –                            –                      5

Manu Ginobili           San Antonio               –                         1                            1                      4

Carl Landry                Golden State              –                         1                            1                      4

Nate Robinson          Chicago                       –                         –                            4                      4

Corey Brewer            Denver                        –                         1                              1                      4

Ramon Sessions       Charlotte                    –                         —                             2                      2

Shane Battier             Miami                          –                         —                             2                      2

Luke Babbitt              Portland                     –                         —                             1                      1

Gordon Hayward     Utah                            –                         —                              1                      1

Vince Carter              Dallas                          –                         —                              1                      1

J.J. Redick                 Milwaukee                –                         —                              1                      1

VIDEO: Sheridan on Life Without Kobe, Coaching Carousel

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Life without Kobe Bryant for the Los Angeles Lakers began Sunday night, and it wasn’t so bad. In fact, it was pretty good.

With Dwight Howard having a big game and Steve Blake somehow outplaying Tony Parker, the Lakers defeated the suddenly struggling San Antonio Spurs and need just one more win to clinch a playoff berth.

Bernucca: The Envelope, Please

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Stern-trophy1The 1,230-game NBA regular season ends Wednesday. The following morning, editor-in-chief Chris Sheridan will submit his ballot for the season-ending awards.

I don’t have a vote but I am hoping to influence his thought process with my choices, which are below.

If not, I am hoping I will make him laugh with my snotty remarks.

Let’s get to it. 

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