I think about this play very often and I have always been appalled that there was no technical called. Who cares if it was unintentional, he full on punched a ref.
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The fist pump heard round the world
Iāll have to look again for the closed fist. Heās swinging for the ball against another player and Moussa happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Stew does some dumb/over-the-edge stuff, but this didnāt look like it. Certainly a reputation call.
His fingers bend towards being closes but not to the point of making a fist. If youāre gripping for a ball while youāre swinging, youāre naturally going to start closing your hand. Only if youāre slapping at a ball might you keep your hand straight. One or two of his fingers even hit Bridges hand first. And Stew isnāt really even looking at Moussa until itās too late.
I wouldnāt be surprised if the tech is rescinded.
The Hornets called it a right eye injury and not a concussion. So that sounds like good news.
JB caught on audio
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In case you missed it:
I know I shouldnāt be laughing at this but the timing, I canāt hold it in
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Hard times for the Mavs.
21 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks for Moussa tonight! (in a loss)
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wait, he went to Williams? That means youāre telling me he was aā¦D3 transfer?!
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AS Break update
Jett Howard played 4 of the Magicās past 6 games, averaging 12.3 minutes in that span - this is heavily weighted by getting 25 minutes in a 16 point win over Charlotte. Jett scored 3.75 points per game and shot 5/14 from 3 in these 4 games. All thatās fine? He did hand out 5 assists in that 25 minute shift vs. Charlotte.
Caleb Houstan played in 3 of the same 6 games, shooting 3/7 in 8.8 minutes per game. Like Jett, his minute load skewed up during the uncompetitive Charlotte game. He had 1 rebound in each of the three games, but registered no other stats.
Moussa Diabate started 3 of the Hornetsā 6 games (missing one after being ASSAULTED by Isaiah Stewart (Iām joking (sort of))). In the 4 games he played that was not cut short due to getting knocked in the face (7 minutes in that game), he played nearly 25 mpg, scored 11.25 points per game, and grabbed 11.25 rebounds (3.75 of which were offensive). Iām not sure which game deserves a call out more, so Iāll call them both out: Moussa aided a win vs the Spurs by contributing 9 points, 15 boards, and 6 assists, and also put up a 21/10 with 2 blocks in a loss to Brooklyn.
At out last update, the Magic were in a 2-10 tailspin, with Franz doing a LOT. Since then, theyāve recovered a bit to 3-3 in the past two weeks. In that span, Franz has cracked 20 shots half the time, falling 1 attempt of 30 twice. Heās scoring 25.3 ppg, grabbing 6.3 boards, and handing out 3.7 assists. He shot 49.2% from the floor and shot 35.5% from three - both pretty marks for him - but his free throw rate fell markedly from last week. Still, this is a jump in overall efficiency (though a small drop in usage) on very high shot volumes.
Jordan Poole had TWO 40+ point games in the past 2 weeks and scored nearly 25 ppg all in all. Perhaps most notably, he took 32 threes in those two games (they lost both obviously). Not sure what else to say here - team is a joke, hopefully he gets relocated.
Caris Levert was traded to the Hawks, and rewarded them with 18 and 22 point games in his second and third appearance, putting up a 22/10/7 in a one-point overtime loss to the Knicks. Levert is still a high-minute reserve here, but seems to be getting a few more shots as a Hawk than he did as a Cav (makes sense, itās a worse team). He is 6/15 from three as a Hawk!
Other than scoring 20 in a three-point loss to Cleveland, Tim Hardaway continues to do very little. He averaged 8 shots a game in these 6 games in almost 28 minutes, scoring 8 ppg (if we exclude that 20 point game, it falls to 5.8). Again, the shooting is fine - 36% from three (thatās basically all he takes), but he does little else.
Duncan Robinson is also going through it a bit - heās failed to crack 10 shots in all but 1 game in the past two weeks, and only cracked double digits in points once (when he got 10). His shooting hasnāt been great, but not bad - 36.4% from three - but itās more a role issueā¦heās taken 4 two pointers total in the past 2 weeks, didnāt attempt a free throw, and while heās had good passing games in his past two games (4 and 5 assists), that was preceded by 5 games where he notched a single dime. If you recall, his renaissance last year was signficantly driven by a diversification to his game - more two, more cuts, more playing with the ball in his hands. While thatās happened at times this year, itās happening far less regularly, and is role does seem to be diminishing - not in terms of minutes, really, but just in terms of what heās asked to do.
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In Court of Gold on Netflix they unfortunately donāt really follow the German team (presumably cause they got 4th) but thereās a really sad clip of a sobbing Mo Wagner after the semifinal loss to France
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Yeah, I was hoping for Germany because they did win the World Cup the year before.
Took me a minute to realize that was the onion 
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Fun article about Caleb Houstan
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gives us some more info for this question!
Puff piece on Jordan Poole and the Wizards coach from the Athletic ($):
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