Hornswaggler | The culture, the humor, a bit of the sports, not so much the politics, and the workplace distraction
Hornswaggle is an alternate spelling of
hornswoggle, an archaic word that means to bamboozle or hoodwink. I take my
pronunciation from the late Harvey Korman in "Blazing Saddles" --
"I want rustlers, cutthroats, murderers,
bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits,
vipers, snipers, conmen, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers,
buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train
robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, shit kickers and Methodists!"
Brutal collapse by the Thunder last night. I've watched parts of several of their games now in the playoffs and their problem seems to be a tendency to rely on jumpshots, many of them contested. Which is especially bad when you consider they're arguably the most athletic team in the league. When they need clutch baskets, their best offensive players -- Durant, Westbrook and Harden -- need to be driving to the basket to finish, draw the foul or create for their teammates.
Part of the problem is Durant, their best player, is so long and spidery that he doesn't have that explosive burst to the basket that other top players like Lebron and D-Wade have. Still, he needs to drive more. And in the long run, he needs to develop his intermediate game and learn how to post people up.
Nowitski used to have a similar problem. I always thought the Mavs would never get over the hump if their best player settled for fallaway jumpers in the clutch. What appears to have changed for Dirk though is that, in addition to getting better at driving and creating either separation or contact, he's gotten so good as a midrange shooter, through talent and tireless repetition, that fallaway 15-footers are almost automatic for him.
