Flotsam and Jetsam Around the League 2019-2020

Last night TNT gave a very balanced highlight for the Portland v. Milwaukee game.

This game turned out to be the NBA return of Carmelo Anthony much to TNT's delight. Unfortunately, POR came up just short. TNT did its post game highlights with Ernie and the Boys. Now the hightlights for Favorable MIL/Unfavorable POR and Favorable POR/Unfavorable MIL wound up MIL 10-POR 5 so it looked a little lopsided. Certainly not compared to the Celtics vs. Clips @ 10+ to 2, but nonetheless not truly balanced highlights for a close game.

Then TNT did an excellent 5 minute expose just on Carmelo and his last year off the court up until now. If you didn't see it, watch it. The guys talking about it afterward was very insightful as well.

That's the way you do it, ESPN!! There are 28 more non-LA teams in the league!! Douche Nozzles!!

db

Another big game going under the radar tonight is Houston vs. Clippers.  It is on ESPN late.  I'm finding myself endeared toward the Clippers lately.  Sam would have shot me by now!

db

Nets have won 3 out of last 4 without Kyrie....

Dallas beat Houston in Houston.  Doncic with 31 on 10-18, 5-11 from 3.  Harden with 32, but on 11-24 and 2-15 from 3.

Houston gives up 115.1 ppg.  We give up 103.8.  I don't know what Mike (No) D'Antoni's team gave up last year with CP3 but could it have been worse than 115.1?!  That's really poor.



bob


.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/rumor-kings-passed-luka-doncic-200003936.html



Rumor: Kings passed on Luka Doncic in draft because Vlade Divac doesn’t like Doncic’s dad



Kurt Helin

14 hours ago






Luka Doncic looks like an NBA superstar — already, at age 20 — and the kind of player that can win MVPs and turn a team into a contender. A true franchise cornerstone.

Anytime a player like that doesn’t go No. 1 in the draft, especially when that player comes in with the level of hype Doncic did (he had just won the EuroLeague MVP at 19), there’s fingerpointing at front offices. How did they miss on this guy?

In the case of the Suns (who  had just hired Doncic’s international coach), multiple of sources around the league say Phoenix owner Robert Sarver pushed for Deandre Ayton, the in-state Arizona player (and, to be fair, he was on top of a lot, if not most, team draft boards).

The Kings are harder to pin down, Vlade Divac is well connected in Europe and had seen Doncic. So why pass? Tim MacMahon of ESPN told this story on The Woj Pod about Doncic (hat tip to Jesse Reed of Sportsnaut).

“My understanding is that [Divac] being so close to Luka and knowing his dad so well factored into their decision. Basically, he didn’t think a whole lot of Luka’s dad, and the whole like father like son … well … no, this is a different dude. You messed that one up, Vlade.”

The Kings will undoubtedly push back on this idea, and there’s certainly no way to prove this rumor. The Kings’ argument for their moves would be a respectable one: They had Marvin Bagley higher on their draft board — and he is a quality young big man (out right now with a fluke broken thumb) — plus they had a primary ballhandler they liked in De'Aaron Fox. From the outside, it is impossible to say what really drove the Kings’ decision, but it would not be the first time that personal feelings got in the way of smart basketball moves.

Even if you buy Sacramento’s reasoning, that doesn’t make this any less of a miss. They either underestimated Doncic or overestimated Bagley (who looks to be good but not on Doncic’s level). Also, having a player a team likes is a terrible reason to pass on the best player available even if they fill the same role. It’s the “we have Clyde Drexler so we’re not going to take Michael Jordan” issue. Talent wins in the NBA. Flat out. Draft the best player, get the most talent, and if a team ends up with too many players at one position or has overlapping skill sets, then make a trade from a position of strength.

Which is to say, MacMahon was right about this, “You messed that one up, Vlade.”

A discussion point on this draft for a future day: Do the Hawks get a pass for setting up the trade of Doncic that netted Atlanta Trae Young and the pick that became Cam Reddish? Young is a special talent as well, so it feels a little too early to make that call, but Doncic has looked the better player.



bob
MY NOTE:  I would call this the "LaVar Ball Effect".



.

I watched some of the Huston Dallas game and that kid Doncic is the real deal.

He will never be as athletic as Lebron, but is crafty as hell, shoots as good as any superstar I have ever watched at age 20 and even tries to play some defense.

His impact on the game was so visible I had the feeling Dalas are just trying to survive while he sits and are completely different team with him on the floor.

There is no question he is by far the better player at the moment than Young. He looks like a generational talent to me. Maybe in 5 years the gap will not be so big, but i doubt it.

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"Knicks? No, I'll retire. That's why I retired, they were the one team that offered me a job."

Richard Jefferson said he knew his time in the league was up when the Knicks were the only team that wanted him.


bob
MY NOTE:  If James Dolan doesn't think other NBA players don't hear this and take this into account when they look around to see where they should sign, he should look at his current team.  They are 3-14, the 2nd worst record in the league despite being bottom dwellers for years and having the pretty damn good RJ Barrett. You don't have to be a garbage man to recognize a dumpster fire when you see one.



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Sleeper Game Du Jour - PHI @ TOR 7:30PM.  That should be a good one.  I'm going to go with TOR-2.5 before I check...

Both on win streaks or 4 and 3 respectively.  Home court may be the only thing separating these two.  Yeah, I'll stick with TOR-2.5.  

And the answer is.....A complete miss!  PHI-2/-1.5.  I'll be keeping my day job!

P.S.  Looks like they see BOS vs. SAC as a revenge/let's set the record straight/last game was a fluke with BOS-7.
Glad we didn't have Hayward or Kemba or both playing tonight!

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/sixers-issues-beyond-embiids-scoreless-060539853.html



Sixers' issues go beyond Embiid's scoreless night



Paul Hudrick, NBC Sports Philadelphia

10 hours ago




While certain aspects of the Sixers' offense are starting to come around, Monday's game showed a fatal flaw.

With Joel Embiid almost inexplicably going scoreless, the Sixers held a 96-91 lead with under four minutes to go after Josh Richardson hit a jumper from the corner.

Then everything fell apart.

The Raptors went on a 10-0 run to close out the game as the Sixers lost their sixth road game of the season and had their four-game winning streak snapped in a 101-96 loss at Scotiabank Arena (see observations).

The game was there for the taking, but the Sixers crumbled down the stretch.

"I think just overall the whole game [we had] a lot of mental errors that we didn't correct," Ben Simmons said to reporters postgame. "Jo had a tough night so that also doesn't help. But I mean, we look back at this game, we know we should have won this one. But Toronto made plays."

It was a such an odd game to get a grasp of. The Sixers scored 30-plus points in the first and third quarters but were held below 20 in the second and fourth. During one stretch, two of their best free throw shooters missed four straight.

But in a game where their "crown jewel" was scoreless and their point guard turned the ball over seven times, the Sixers had every opportunity to win it down the stretch.

While Simmons was tremendous at certain points of the game - he had 14 assists and helped turn the tide of the game with an aggressive third quarter - he had a tough time down the stretch. After a Fred VanVleet miss with 18.6 seconds left, Embiid grabbed the rebound and threw an outlet pass to Simmons. Simmons pushed the basketball up the floor in an attempt to catch Toronto off guard. He then tried an ill-advised lob pass to Tobias Harris that was picked off by Pascal Siakam.

The Sixers had one more chance to tie the game. Harris missed a tightly-contested three, but Simmons got the rebound. Not realizing that he still had time left, Simmons took a heave from well beyond the arc with 6.2 seconds on the clock.

"I mean, if we're big boys, you'd say, of course, there has to be," Brown said when asked if his team can learning anything from this game. "You're going to walk out of here and find something that is going to make us better. And we will do that. At this moment, 10 minutes after the game, it stings. You'll wake up in the morning, you'll be wiser for it and learn things that we have to just respond to better.

"We had a stage there where we missed four free throws, they came back and hit a three and it's kind of like a seven-point swing. And you'd like to have a few of those turnovers back at the end of the game, so that's where I'm at."

Harris was understandably frustrated with the way his team closed the game out.

When he was re-signed and Jimmy Butler was sent to Miami, there was some thought to Harris taking over as the team's late-game scorer. He got himself a decent look on a floater that would've put the Sixers up with under a minute to go but couldn't get it to go.

He certainly wasn't in the mood for lessons after this one.

"We learned that we got to be better late in the fourth quarter," Harris said. "We got to be better engaged, offensively and defensively - executing on both ends of the floor. That's what we learned."

So far this season, it had been Embiid who was the late-game option.

But there was no reasonable way Brown could go to his All-Star center who was 0 for 11 from the field and 0 for 3 from the line. Normally you'd credit Marc Gasol for such a poor night from Embiid. While Gasol deserves part of it, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse deployed a different strategy than he had in the playoffs.

During that seven-game series, Toronto rarely doubled Embiid and took their chances with Gasol in the post. On Monday, Nurse sent quick and aggressive double teams every time Embiid touched the ball in the post.

Embiid didn't handle the double teams that poorly early but was trying to force things whenever he had any breathing room.

And yet, his teammates almost pulled it out.

"Getting zero production from me offensively and we still end up being pretty close," Embiid said. "That says a lot about the group of guys we've got. We got a lot of talent. We got a lot of guys that can pick it up when someone is cold so that's great to see, but obviously we didn't get the win and in the fourth quarter we made a lot of mistakes and we're going to learn from it."

Is it new starters trying to figure things out? Guys still trying to find their roles? Coaching?

"Honestly, no," Harris said. "Just poor execution offensively and defensively with everybody, including myself. Something that we as a team, we got to be way better at. This was our game. It should have been our win tonight, but it went the other way."


bob
MY NOTE:  Before the season started the "experts" annointed Philly as the best team in the EC because Milwaukee lost Brogdon, Toronto lost Kawhi and we lost Horford/Baynes/Kyrie.  Good thing we still have to actually play the games, huh?

Embiid's next game will be interesting.  He won't go oh-fer again, he may never do that again, but we all know how easy it is to rent space in his head when things aren't going his way.  The Sixers are now in 5th place in the East, they don't even have one home court playoff series as of right now.  Let's see how deep this sinks into Embiid's head. Heheheh.

I know I'm not being very nice but, on the other hand, F-them and that entitled, whiny little horse they rode into the season on.


.

I was amazed how poorly Porzingis played defense last night, vs the Clippers.  The Clippers have Zubac (7'0" with a 7'4" wingspan) and Montrezl Harris (6'8") for their centers.  Porzingis is 7'3", with a 7'6" wingspan, and yet he kept jumping at head fakes and was slow on rotations.  There is no reason for a player who is at least 3" taller and 2" more wingspan than anybody else to jump for head fakes. He almost looked disinterested in defense.

I thought this kid was going to be the new prototypical big in the NBA when he came out.  I thought he was Giannis before there was Giannis.  I forgot that defense is about desire and effort more than just size.

There are people that are saying that the Mavs need a 3rd player to help out Luka and Zinger.  Sure, a 3rd wouldn't hurt although they already have Tim Hardaway Jr, but they could go a lot further if Kristaps Porzingis, aka "The Unicorn", played both sides of the ball with more focus and fire.


bob


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Yeah, this LAC team is the one everyone's been waiting for. Let's get back to them at the start of the new year and see who's #1 out West. I'll bet my wife's paycheck it won't be LAL.

Sans devastating injuries, good luck any team beating this one for quite some time or even coming close.

db

We did not need luck to beat them, even without Gordon. Just honest, competent officiating which was sorely missing.

I'm strangely interested in the SAC v. PHI game tonight on LP. Hopefully, SAC will be so po'ed from losing to us they will take it out on PHI tonight.

db

MIA v. HOU should be worth a look as well. If HOU shows up, it will hopefully get MIA off our back in the standings if we don't lay an egg.

ATL v. MIL...sit this one out.

I don’t think Clippers are all that good, they are good, but we sure can play with them. I think Kawhi made a huge mistake in leaving, Siakim is just getting started and has more upside, they have even been winning lately without Lowry and Ibaka. Right now Raptors playing this competively and winning without Kawhi is an amazing story that doesn’t get enough attention IMHO.

bobheckler wrote:https://www.yahoo.com/sports/sixers-issues-beyond-embiids-scoreless-060539853.html



Sixers' issues go beyond Embiid's scoreless night



Paul Hudrick, NBC Sports Philadelphia

10 hours ago




While certain aspects of the Sixers' offense are starting to come around, Monday's game showed a fatal flaw.

With Joel Embiid almost inexplicably going scoreless, the Sixers held a 96-91 lead with under four minutes to go after Josh Richardson hit a jumper from the corner.

Then everything fell apart.

The Raptors went on a 10-0 run to close out the game as the Sixers lost their sixth road game of the season and had their four-game winning streak snapped in a 101-96 loss at Scotiabank Arena (see observations).

The game was there for the taking, but the Sixers crumbled down the stretch.

"I think just overall the whole game [we had] a lot of mental errors that we didn't correct," Ben Simmons said to reporters postgame. "Jo had a tough night so that also doesn't help. But I mean, we look back at this game, we know we should have won this one. But Toronto made plays."

It was a such an odd game to get a grasp of. The Sixers scored 30-plus points in the first and third quarters but were held below 20 in the second and fourth. During one stretch, two of their best free throw shooters missed four straight.

But in a game where their "crown jewel" was scoreless and their point guard turned the ball over seven times, the Sixers had every opportunity to win it down the stretch.

While Simmons was tremendous at certain points of the game - he had 14 assists and helped turn the tide of the game with an aggressive third quarter - he had a tough time down the stretch. After a Fred VanVleet miss with 18.6 seconds left, Embiid grabbed the rebound and threw an outlet pass to Simmons. Simmons pushed the basketball up the floor in an attempt to catch Toronto off guard. He then tried an ill-advised lob pass to Tobias Harris that was picked off by Pascal Siakam.

The Sixers had one more chance to tie the game. Harris missed a tightly-contested three, but Simmons got the rebound. Not realizing that he still had time left, Simmons took a heave from well beyond the arc with 6.2 seconds on the clock.

"I mean, if we're big boys, you'd say, of course, there has to be," Brown said when asked if his team can learning anything from this game. "You're going to walk out of here and find something that is going to make us better. And we will do that. At this moment, 10 minutes after the game, it stings. You'll wake up in the morning, you'll be wiser for it and learn things that we have to just respond to better.

"We had a stage there where we missed four free throws, they came back and hit a three and it's kind of like a seven-point swing. And you'd like to have a few of those turnovers back at the end of the game, so that's where I'm at."

Harris was understandably frustrated with the way his team closed the game out.

When he was re-signed and Jimmy Butler was sent to Miami, there was some thought to Harris taking over as the team's late-game scorer. He got himself a decent look on a floater that would've put the Sixers up with under a minute to go but couldn't get it to go.

He certainly wasn't in the mood for lessons after this one.

"We learned that we got to be better late in the fourth quarter," Harris said. "We got to be better engaged, offensively and defensively - executing on both ends of the floor. That's what we learned."

So far this season, it had been Embiid who was the late-game option.

But there was no reasonable way Brown could go to his All-Star center who was 0 for 11 from the field and 0 for 3 from the line. Normally you'd credit Marc Gasol for such a poor night from Embiid. While Gasol deserves part of it, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse deployed a different strategy than he had in the playoffs.

During that seven-game series, Toronto rarely doubled Embiid and took their chances with Gasol in the post. On Monday, Nurse sent quick and aggressive double teams every time Embiid touched the ball in the post.

Embiid didn't handle the double teams that poorly early but was trying to force things whenever he had any breathing room.

And yet, his teammates almost pulled it out.

"Getting zero production from me offensively and we still end up being pretty close," Embiid said. "That says a lot about the group of guys we've got. We got a lot of talent. We got a lot of guys that can pick it up when someone is cold so that's great to see, but obviously we didn't get the win and in the fourth quarter we made a lot of mistakes and we're going to learn from it."

Is it new starters trying to figure things out? Guys still trying to find their roles? Coaching?

"Honestly, no," Harris said. "Just poor execution offensively and defensively with everybody, including myself. Something that we as a team, we got to be way better at. This was our game. It should have been our win tonight, but it went the other way."


bob
MY NOTE:  Before the season started the "experts" annointed Philly as the best team in the EC because Milwaukee lost Brogdon, Toronto lost Kawhi and we lost Horford/Baynes/Kyrie.  Good thing we still have to actually play the games, huh?

Embiid's next game will be interesting.  He won't go oh-fer again, he may never do that again, but we all know how easy it is to rent space in his head when things aren't going his way.  The Sixers are now in 5th place in the East, they don't even have one home court playoff series as of right now.  Let's see how deep this sinks into Embiid's head.  Heheheh.

I know I'm not being very nice but, on the other hand, F-them and that entitled, whiny little horse they rode into the season on.


.

Just wanted to add I didn’t think Sixers would be all that, because of Embid’s constant health issues and Al’s age....fools gold.

dbrown4 wrote:Yeah, this LAC team is the one everyone's been waiting for.  Let's get back to them at the start of the new year and see who's #1 out West.  I'll bet my wife's paycheck it won't be LAL.  

Sans devastating injuries, good luck any team beating this one for quite some time or even coming close.  

db

No team in the league is significantly better than the competition.
Yes, the Clippers will be tough to beat if their whole team is healthy in the playoffs.
The Lakers offense is catching up to their defense.
The Lakers are now 2nd in FG% and have moved up to 15th in 3 PT FG%.
Their defense has slipped a little recently due to Avery Bradley missing the last 6 games.

OK.  The whole Kyrie thing.  Of course ESPN is right out of the shoot with it this morning with their Absent Kyrie story again painting Celtics fans as insensitive or boorish.  Story includes part of Kyrie's lengthy response via the intertube or tweeter or facepage.  Some of it good some of it classic Plato-istic Kyrie waxing on about a variety of topics.  Let's wrap this up because this movie's too long.

1.  As my Uncle Goerge always used to say, God rest his sole, "An opinion is like an a$$hole, everybody's got one."  My uncle was the master of the one liner.  I know this one is an oldie but it's still a goodie.  I thought growing up he was the originator of that phrase.  I grew up in an extended family with some very funny people.  Some great story tellers, others one-line, crack up the whole room in less than 2 seconds types, some were great at both.  After attending many family reunions growing up and observing these behaviors, I decided to focus on the latter.  And just like anyone here is free to laugh at/criticize/praise my posts, I refer to this gem of wisdom from my uncle all the time...particularly on my side.  I never think too highly of myself.  Kyrie, thanks for posting, but for the most part, nobody cares what you think off the court.  Some of those reasons why will be posted below.  The Hollywood types are MASTERS of this line of thinking.  They believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that when they speak OFF the screen, we care just as much if not more about them and what they are saying as we do ON the screen with our box office dollars...Yeah, good luck with that.      

2.  I'm a little tired of the on-going Boston references as described above as well as historically back through the 70's and it being a racist city, etc.  Everyone forgets the Celtics, which represent the city of Boston very well, were the first not only to draft the first black player but in the 1964-65 season was the first team to start an all-Black starting 5 team.  Those stellar facts always get swept well under the rug and out the door.  Oh well.  I'm trying to remember, since I was very young during the 60's, whether the Celtics won a championship in that decade with that very forward thinking at the time...

3.  With the league's recent mental illness push, I'm almost certain if Kyrie does indeed have any of those issues, there's a pill for that.  I don't even know if he is pursuing that or even knows he's acting a certain way or if anyone has sat down with him one-on-one and asked him to at least have it checked out.  The league is not going to ban those substances.  Right now, Kyrie, not only Boston people but the trail of people you have left in your wake think you might at least need an evaluation.  No one is going to think any more or less of you for doing so.  And if you don't have anything thank God.  You'll probably just be labeled as an odd duck.  There are plenty of us out there.  The world is FULL of them!  

4.  Everybody has feelings.  With those feelings, others can say things that may rub you the wrong way.  Several ways you can react to that.  You can lash out, have a civil conversation where you examine all the sides of the concern and resolve, or just take it like water off a duck's back and move on.  The latter no one pays attention to anymore.  I'm afraid if I were making anywhere near the money some of these athletes are making (and Hollywood types as well) I would easily move on and keep my mouth shut.  All I would have to do is go open my checking account with its 8-figures and laugh my happy fat ass all the way to the bank.  One of the reasons these folks get paid so much is to provide enough thick $kin to deal with the evidently thin skin some of these players have or what they perceive to the public to have.  Yes, we are all human, but we don't treat these folks as human.  Welcome to the ballpark you have chosen.  You are either a fan or an active professional athlete and both live in two totally different ballparks each with their own idiosyncrasies.  But you can't live in both and expect people to react the same way in both.

5.  The problem is we feed the beast or keep feeding the beast.  We support this.  We enable this indirectly with our pocketbooks.  If there were no fans, there would be no arenas stuffed with them, paying hundreds if not thousands of dollars per night watching these guys and gals play.  There would be no NBA.  The Boston fans are free to act out any way they feel within reason regarding ANYTHING!  They/We do pay their salaries directly and indirectly.  We don't have to shut up.  (Payroll and Endorsements)

Kyrie, my advice to you is, thank you for your service here in Boston.  You are a phenomenal talent.  Both sides are taking credit for the best season you have ever had in the league and both you and Boston are taking the blame for everything that went on last season and coming up short.  In the end, it just wasn't a great fit.  Happens all the time.  Nobody's fault.  We hope and pray you will be able to move on from not only this chapter and thrive but everything that has happened to you with your grandfather's death.  My grandfather was the first family death I had to deal with in my 18 year life.  It devastated me.  That was 38 years ago.  I have gotten over it and have had many more crushing family and friend deaths since then.  You will too.    

Your time in this league making the amount of money you make with the talent you possess is very limited.  You can't look over your shoulder and see a season injured KD and the team you left last season at the top of the league this season and thriving, potentially see another year sans a non-LeBronian championship, seeing your team record with Kyrie/without Kyrie and feel you made the wrong choice.  The NBA is a very strange world.  Enjoy it the best you can while you are in it.  Thrive.
Win.  Most when they get out of it after a few years are flat broke and destitute.  Pray you are doing the right things with all that dough so you won't wind up like the majority of those that come out the other end.  Spend your time on tweeter being thankful for all that you have and praying for others.  I have found when I pray, I spend most if not all of my time just on the thankful part, not asking for stuff I don't have or why God hasn't given me this or that.  I feel a lot better when I'm done after I complete prayers of thankfulness and praying for others.  Not posting stuff about how I'm going to change the world or worrying about the media or taking a stand or being a performer and what people think of me.  You are a great person on and off the court.  Thank you for sharing your very unique talent with all of us.  

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving and again thank you for your time in Boston.  We appreciate all that you did on and off the court with your time here.  

db

Dallas beats the Lakers, in LA, by 14. Was up to 19 with 2 minutes left.

Dallas with 5 players in double-digits, LA with 3 (Caruso with 10, his last 2 in garbage time).

Lakers won the first quarter by 5 but lost every quarter after that. That's pretty damn amazing.


bob



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I love this Celtics team, so young and so talented.

bobheckler wrote:Dallas beats the Lakers, in LA, by 14.  Was up to 19 with 2 minutes left.

Dallas with 5 players in double-digits, LA with 3 (Caruso with 10, his last 2 in garbage time).

Lakers won the first quarter by 5 but lost every quarter after that.  That's pretty damn amazing.


bob



.

The Lakers won the 1st and 4th quarters and lost quarter 2 by 2 points.
They sucked and gave up the lead for good in the 3rd quarter.

I'll split the hairs for you two, LAL won the 1st, LAL lost the 3rd badly/Mavs smoked the 3rd, 2nd & 4th quarters were even.

I love LeBron's comments after the game.  "Where did this team come from?!!  How'd they get on the effing schedule?!!  I thought all the teams we play this season are guaranteed sub .250 teams?!!   ESPN?????  Commissioner Silver?!!!  WTF??????  We didn't sign up for this $HIT!!  Priceless, I say, priceless.

db

Don't look ahead LAL but for December you can pick from three team labels to charge into battle...

1)  0-fer December Club
2)  Official Fraud Exposure Month
3)  We'll take 4th Place and no injuries to our starting 5 for $2,000 Alex

Take your pick.

Funny, dbrown. Funny.

All of them are still available so take your choice. I'm sure the first one will have to be revised to just A Losing December Record but it was the first thing that popped into my mind.

The 3rd one is my fave so far! Other label suggestions are welcome!

db

As of December 3rd:

As of December 3rd: