Two by Hiroko Oyamada

     I don't view the kind of absurdly inessential jobs Hiroko Oyamada's narrators describe in her novella, The Factory (2013), translated from the Japanese by David Boyd (2019), as a looming threat, now or in the future. Consider the shit job. Granted, some traits overlap - forced contact with disagreeable coworkers, deadening work, unfulfilled potential, lost time. But then pick up your shovel and start adding to that dung heap: pay that's never remunerative, that never meets the definition of a living wage, however one chooses to define the term, whether the work is essential or not. (To say the least. Those unaware of what a "subminimum wage" is are hereby encouraged to look it up.) A dead end that, at best, leads to other dead ends. High stress. Higher than average risk of physical injury. At a company that likely doesn't care about your health and safety one way or another. In the US, health care linked to employment, with other obstacles thrown in before one finally receives coverage, which nevertheless may not be accepted at a health care provider. Also in this category would be gig work, innovative for combining most or all of the above with instability. Another threat: Automation that renders jobs obsolete before new jobs can be found to replace them, leaving a sizeable number of people out on the street or dependent on the state for survival. Compared to these, a sinecure that includes housing in a more or less clean, safe area doesn't sound nearly as bad (or as common).

The ad copy mentions that The Factory was based on Oyamada's experience working in a car plant. But it isn't fiction created entirely out of raw experience. And that's what drew me in, not the social criticism but a workplace, lived-in yet warped. Three narrators start from how they became employed at The Factory and take the reader through daily life on the job. The company has a prestigious reputation, though most of its staff members, as a cost-saving measure, are kept as contractors. Education and background aren't relevant. Tasks are simple or menial. Or pointless. The feel of such a workplace is unexaggerated: Awkwardness. Boredom. Weariness. Hostility (the narrators, mainly). Detachment (no close relationships among them, romantic or otherwise). And it's a world unto itself, located on a large tract of land that boasts such amenities as living spaces and restaurants. Management is cagey, workers hardly provided with guidance on their jobs, much less informed about what the company does.

They all go along to get along. One must collect a paycheck somehow. 

The Factory describes routines, which is to say it has circular rather than forward motion. But dread gathers in the background: unidentified creatures, the Forest Pantser. Since almost all information about The Factory is withheld, there's mystery by default. It brings the reader to an ending that's predictably, not uniquely, strange (and slightly heavy-handed). The novel isn't quite potent enough in form or substance to stand on its own but it did make me wonder how Oyamada would develop her method in later works. Soon after I picked up the second novella of hers translated into English, again by David Boyd, The Hole (2014, 2020).

Another unsubtle metaphor. Nevertheless the novella is an improvement over her first. Since it begins with a woman who does a job reminiscent of those seen in The Factory, it's as if the first bleeds into the second, or as if the second represents an alternate path from approximately the same starting point. Asa, the lone narrator, is also a contractor who appears to have no chance of becoming an employee of the company she works for and advancing. Employees get generous bonuses. Contractors get meager bonuses. (How bout never hearing mention of the word, "bonus." Instead, to take one example, would you like some expired food? Does your landlord accept payment in the form of expired food? We thank you for your contribution, here's garbage.) But unlike her earlier narrators, she's married. She and her husband get an offer they can't refuse from his mother to live in a house in the country rent free. It's next door to hers. Asa leaves her job and the couple moves in. 

This happens early in the novella. From there, it examines the unemployed domestic life. The sun doesn't go down on the first day before Asa gets bored. Another disagreement: I'd be among those who would never get bored of free time and could easily find productive uses for it (as well as fun unproductive uses for it). For Asa, a nap is a good way to kill time, not a good way to replenish your energy to better use waking hours. She's a healthy adult, younger than I am,  and the library is too far away for her, 30 minutes, about the same distance from where I'm sitting to my local library. That's a perfect pairing: exercise and illumination, by book and environment. Like Asa's part of Japan, it's sweltering in Bloomingdale, New Jersey. If you must, reduce the number of trips by checking out several books at once. But I did find less to argue with about the loss of free movement. She has no car of her own and there's no public transportation. And in a place without public transportation, job opportunities are scarce and, I'd bet, neither well paid nor interesting. She's not in contact with anyone her age. And her husband works late. (Oyamada captures marital chilliness with a single recurring detail: Her husband almost never looks away from his phone.) 

Asa is isolated and pretty much housebound. Without work, and feeling guilty about even turning on the AC without collecting a paycheck - but then why save money if it means torturous deprivation? - a feeling of oppression comes over her. Strange things begin to seep into her daily life, heat and fatigue, boredom and lonely rudderlessness blurring real and unreal. It's then that she falls into a hole in the ground, "a trap made just for me."

Somewhere in the middle of what follows, reference is made to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. Usually referred to as one work, as it is here, "Alice in Wonderland." I must take the time to marvel and pay tribute: A universal classic if there ever was one. Unforgettable situation, images, characters. Truly dreamlike fiction that speaks to children and adults, generation after generation. Invulnerable to screen adaptation. Outrageousness never to be outdone. Pure kick on the page to be continually rediscovered.

Again, not too subtle, at least in theory. But I enjoyed Oyamada's variation - spare, boiled, drowsy, closer to the everyday. And when Asa comes back from Wonderland, the final image the reader of The Hole is left with has surprising poignancy. The trap isn't just hers after all. 

Excellent Women

     Put two people together and something will eventually cause friction between them. Once it does, one weighs the bad, weighs the good, and decides to accept, or tolerate, speak up in hopes of promoting change, or make an escape. This is probably obvious to most, not all. Mildred Lathbury, the narrator of Barbara Pym's early novel Excellent Women (1952), is beginning to think she's destined to be a drab lonely spinster. Her comic style provides one clue as to how it came to be. In her world, no one is quite desirable. Outwardly she remains polite and can be counted on to lend a helping hand whenever someone needs it. Everyone needs it and she hardly complains. Good old reliable Mildred. But she doesn't like Helena Napier. She doesn't like Allegra Gray. Winifred Malory is simple. Julian Malory does nothing for her. Dora Caldicote is irritating (and she insists on wearing that brown dress). William Caldicote is a gossip. Everard Bone has a gruff manner. Rocky Napier is superficial. Don't get her started on her past schoolmates. And she's unsparing of herself too. Her observations produce tart lines and consoling laughter from a comfortable distance, the bad at best negating the good, leaving her where she started, nowhere with anyone. She's the sort of person who can't get past the fact of human imperfection. I think of a scene from Seinfeld. At the coffee shop, George listens as Jerry details yet another silly cause for a breakup. Then, fed up with his own quibbles, he runs both hands through his hair and says with a sigh: "What kind of lives are these?" Not the kind conducive to romance.

For all her awareness of her faults, Lathbury doesn't face a similar realization. (Jerry learns nothing because that's the joke: "no hugging, no learning.") Awareness doesn't inevitably lead to forgiveness. Hyperawareness of faults or "faults" is antithetical to forgiveness. But then again, our narrator doesn't always quibble. At a planning meeting for a church function, she overhears an exchange:

"Really, Mr. Mallett, it's a good thing your wife isn't here," said Miss Statham indignantly. "Whatever would she think to hear you talking like that?"

"My good lady leaves the thinking to me," said Mr. Mallett, amid laughter from the men.

Later that same day, as the discussion winds down, she notes another separation between the genders.

The men went on smoking and chatting while we gathered the cups together and struggled to fill the heavy urn between us. They belonged to the generation that does not think of helping with domestic tasks.

Nor does Lathbury have routine contact with men besides these, in church, at work, or anywhere else. Another reason for persistent loneliness: few options to get excited about.

Lathbury is dismissive of her own physical appearance and taste in clothes, notices when she blends among other "excellent women," doesn't seem to have a record of getting approached by eligible bachelors. A third reason: the intriguing stranger from outside her routine never materializes and says hey. And a fourth: A disappointment so traumatic one loses years, decades to fear of a repeat of The Incident. 

Together these form an imposing barrier to companionship. In presenting the situation, alongside such mundane problems as an uninspired meal or a shared bathroom or flowers that wilt upon turning around, Pym is as true to the melancholy in it as the comedy. But, whether as a concession to an audience demanding to go out on some uplift or in eagerness to rescue her character, she wraps up the book with a forced resolution. It isn't happy, precisely, but pat. I've known seemingly mismatched couples bonded together mysteriously and tenuously. It's hard to believe Mildred Lathbury, so skeptical and satirical, so exacting in her estimation of others (and rather unimpressed by her findings), and protective of her humble bit of independence, would settle for a mismatch so willingly, then suggest it'll last without a better explanation. Suddenly the fog breaks and the reader gets celestial choir and strings, technicolor Hollywood. Did Pym really want to end the novel like this? Excellent Women is good enough that I'd track down at least another of hers to see.

3 and DA: Notes on the 2021-2022 NBA Finals

Game 1:

I couldn't watch the game as it aired but caught it later on NBA.com. The problem is that the site plasters the final score everywhere. So I knew how it ended before I watched. And it was a Warriors L, at home. Not a confidence-shaking L, though. All went right for three quarters. Steph Curry started the night making history. Jayson Tatum was largely held in check offensively. But the Celtics came back in the 4th quarter, their role players hitting 3 after 3. Down by double digits, they ended up winning by double digits. Mark Jackson, part of the play-by-play crew, had the key comment of the night. Marcus Smart is filmed coaching his teammates on the sideline. Jackson applauds his leadership and advice. As a coach he'd heard other players attempt to do the same and was forced to step in: "Forget everything he just said." How are the Warriors going to respond?

Game 2:

In the run-up to the game, photos appear online of trash cans outside Chase Center outfitted with cutouts of hall-of-famer, analyst, and Warriors hater, I guess, Charles Barkley's face, his mouth the hole. They read: "Chuck It." 8 pm, game time: I was able to secure the TV. Miguel joined me, providing some good D against our rampaging baby nephew, Emiliano, so I could eat and drink undisturbed and get some open looks. Hours before I accidentally left the beer out. Would it be cold by tipoff? And who are you going to stop? The stars or the role players? The Warriors forced turnovers and shut down those role players. Jayson Tatum got his offense going, at least from 3, but it wasn't enough. Gary Payton II made his return after a 10-game absence due to an arm injury. Play of the night: Jordan Poole following up a 3 with a buzzer-beating halfcourt 3. ("OOOH!" We clapped and threw a blanket over the baby.) The response to game 1 was a near-blowout W. Three Celtics starters combined for 6 points. The momentum of the series has shifted, those Barkley trash cans are overflowing. We're tied up heading East, to Boston.

Game 3:

Jayson Tatum played through an arm injury, which flared up early on, and still got his star numbers. Jaylen Brown got his star numbers. The greenhaired Marcus Smart made up for a bad game 2 with a good game 3. The Warriors had to play catch up. And they did. The 3rd quarter Warriors made their predicted push and took the lead. Briefly. As experts raised doubts, Klay Thompson had a big night. Once more Steph Curry played like the soon-to-be Finals MVP. Then came the 4th quarter. Turnover after turnover - the phrase "dangerous pass" stung me - the Celtics kept getting second and third chances. And Curry, chasing down a loose ball, hurt his foot after Al Horford landed on top of it. (And the Celtics got that loose ball!) I've become a connoisseur of the slow zoom-in on sadness and defeat at the end of NBA games, typically of the bench realizing that an L is imminent. Unfortunately it was the Warriors who got the slow zoom-in. On the other side: An ear-to-ear grin on Jayson Tatum's face. I choose to forget the statistic presented at the end of the game of how many teams go on to win it all after winning game 3. Steph Curry says he's playing in game 4. But I anticipate his support will have to fill the void. Let's go, Warriors.

Game 4:

Or Steph Curry can go for 40-plus points and make more history. Robert Williams III is the biggest man on the court and plays like it - blocks and lobs, blocks and lobs. Health doesn't seem to be holding him back now. I groaned as the Celtics got to the free throw line possession after possession. The team looked steady if not scary (except perhaps in the 4th quarter, when there were signs of desperation after minutes without a single basket). Even that seems like too much to say about the green guys. This was Curry's game. Miguel doesn't watch basketball but by the end he was standing too. At one point he asked: "How does he do that? That step back?" I had no explanation but: "That's what he does. He's the greatest 3-point shooter of all time." Inwardly I reminded myself: that's not hyperbole. I've already been satisfied with how he's played. Recovering from injury, there was uncertainty about whether the kitchen would be open. He answered by serving dinner, seconds, dessert. My personal favorite play of the night: Curry dropping Marcus Smart, dancing around Williams III to make the floater. Klay Thompson had another good game, Miguel rightly impressed by that catch-and-shoot. On defense and offense, Andrew Wiggins has been a relief (a double-double, with a career-high in rebounds). ...Even Draymond Green's mom went public on his practically nonexistent offense. What's important is that Celtics fans started filing out of the arena early and the series is tied at 2 apiece as we head back West. The Warriors have an excellent record at home, home court advantage, and Steph Curry. And I watched every minute of his game as it happened, kids.

Game 5:

Okay, this is more like what I thought would happen to Curry in game 4. Changing shoes at halftime had no effect. 0 of 9 on 3s, which ends his 133 playoff game streak of hitting at least one. Modest scoring overall, for him. Damn. We got served a snack for dinner. And yet the Warriors got another W, comfortably, at home. Let's keep those sweet Boston turnovers coming. Tatum and Brown have had good games but no great games. Fittingly, my favorite plays came from three different Warriors: Three seconds left before the end of the 3rd quarter. Jordan Poole makes another buzzer-beating 3, getting the ball out of his hand with .1 seconds left on the clock. Golden State takes the lead. Klay Thompson sees an opportunity to create some space by launching Marcus Smart across the floor and makes a 3. And Andrew Wiggins, hero of the game, with the dunk. Also, his defense isn't necessarily the kind of thing that fits easily on the highlight reel but his tenacity, contests, right on Tatum without fouling, were on display all night, as they have been throughout the series. His time with the Timberwolves is often mentioned (and criticized) but it makes hardly any impression on me. I've only known him as a Warrior. Now he and the rest of the team are one win away.... 

A noteworthy detail about our time in between the action (baby): I'm watching the playoffs on television. There are commercials for Pizza Hut, commercials for All State Insurance. The usual. Then there are various commercials promoting cryptocurrency. For a while I've made it a point to learn very little about it. Always sounds like a hustle. My bet was that if I held out long enough, maybe it'd go away soon and cease taking up what scant mental space it already does. The reason it matters now - besides the recent crash that wiped out $2 trillion dollars of its value, besides the fact that crypto money is being poured into elections (one more special interest cutting checks in exchange for favorable legislation), besides the warnings about its environmental impact (something that affects everyone, investor or not) - is that some of the most famous basketball players, Curry included, have appeared in them, giving their endorsement. Did they get paid in crypto or US dollars? Anyway, as another one of these commercials urged viewers to take part in the revolution, I looked up from Montaigne, Miguel opened his eyes, and we laughed. You want to stick to basketball but then you get sold a revolution in losing your shirt by the stars of that sport.

Turn on the TV at the start of Game 6: crypto!

Game 6:

Steph Curry makes a 3. The Celtics call time out. Mark Jackson narrates as Curry points to his finger for a now humbled Boston crowd: "Steph Curry says: 'Put a ring on it.'" Before the game, ESPN analyst and former Celtics player Kendrick Perkins predicted Curry would be made a non-factor. He goes for 30-plus points (with crucial steals and blocks thrown in for good measure). Al Horford, after successive games without much to offer on offense, got hot in the 3rd quarter. Robert Williams III continued to devastate with blocks. Jaylen Brown had 30-plus points himself, albeit quietly. But otherwise, the Celtics didn't look nearly aggressive enough to force a game 7. And the flopping was egregious at times. Meanwhile, the Warriors made a run that hasn't been achieved in 50 years (21-0) and never relinquished control of the game. Those sweet turnovers did in fact keep coming. And I enjoyed every single one. Part of me thought the Warriors would get the final W of the series at home. But around the 3rd quarter I decided they were going to close out tonight. Again: Boston fans could be seen filing out early. And again: I enjoyed it. After the game ended, I told Miguel about the player, Kent Bazemore, who declined more money from the Warriors this season to join the Lakers. His reason: a chance to win a ring. This Warriors dynasty now has its fourth championship. Coach Steve Kerr now has 9 in total, as a player and coach. Curry has a Finals MVP to add to his résumé. Dancing, hugging, tears, photos, a crowded stage, shouting, champagne, "holy cannoli!," a Mexican flag, a Canadian flag, gold, champagne, goggles, night night....

My 2021-2022 postseason journey has ended in thee W. Feeling a little sore, actually. Congratulations, Warriors. WOO!

3 and DA: Notes on the 2022 Conference Finals

     Following NBA basketball more closely, I've been stunned and saddened by the extent to which injury shapes the game. One day a team is putting on a show. Then, after what initially looks to the viewer like any other landing or stumble on the court, a key player screams in pain. It's a torn ACL. His season is over, he faces a long recovery, he may not return the same player he once was, and in the meantime the team has to compensate for his absence somehow. Then another player gets injured: out for weeks. Then another player gets injured: out during a crucial stretch. Losses mount. The team falls down the rankings. The show is over. They were contenders, fully healthy. Maybe next year. Or maybe age and contract intricacies and other circumstances put last year's contenders in the shadow of this year's contenders. From a distance, I thought it was the better team that eventually wins the championship. That's not exactly right. It's the better team that isn't too battered by the end of a long regular season and a high intensity postseason to prove it. 

The Heat, the number one seed in the East during the regular season, on the verge of elimination, limped into Boston for game 6. Tyler Herro, a player who achieved his stated goal of being named (almost unanimously) as the 6th Man of the Year, was shut down by the Celtics when he was healthy and on the court. Now he was out entirely with a groin injury. Kyle Lowry was in but not at 100% as he recovered from a hamstring injury. And their star, Jimmy Butler, struggling with a knee injury, hadn't been able to make much of an offensive impact in recent games in the series, and no one else on the team could score like he can. I didn't watch but I heard all about it the next day: I, along with most everyone else, had made the mistake of counting out Jimmy Butler, who scored 47 points to beat the Celtics on their home court. That's a star for you. (Compliments went out to the Heat medical staff.) 

Game 7 back in Miami. I made sure to watch. Boston looked healthier. They have a marquee tandem in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. And that defense, led by the Defensive Player of the Year, Marcus Smart. Yet with Jimmy Butler on the floor, one couldn't be so sure anymore. Could he do it twice in a row?

He came close to his hero numbers, leading in scoring for both teams again. Tyler Herro made a brief appearance somewhere in the middle of the game and never returned. The team didn't do so well on free throws, overall. Max Strus stepped out of bounds just barely so the refs took away his 3. But Bam Adebayo was fairly aggressive on the offensive end. Little by little the Heat came back from being down seventeen - a clutch 3 from Lowry, a clutch 3 from Strus, drawing offensive fouls, forcing turnovers - and had a chance to take the lead. It's the next part that is the subject of some debate: There are about 20 seconds left in the 4th quarter. Jimmy Butler, rather than attack the basket against Al Horford, who was on his heels, and Jaylen Brown, who had five fouls, took a 3. He's not the best 3 point shooter but a 3 would put the Heat ahead by 1 in the closing seconds. The ball hits iron and bounces off. Al Horford collects the rebound. Boston wins the series and the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Celtics are now heading West to face the Western Conference Finals champions: the Warriors. 

Oh, seems I forgot to mention the Warriors's success.

Years ago, when the Warriors, the hometown team, were first headed for the Finals, I wasn't there. I heard about it from a friend. He never talked basketball but suddenly he was criticizing the game like a veteran coach. I said: You fair weather fan! He heard the Warriors were winning so he slipped on a jersey! I told that story to everyone we knew. But it wasn't until I moved East that I bought my own team merchandise. The bubble playoffs finally hooked me - LeBron James's dunk on Russell Westbrook that sent him to the parking lot, Jamal Murray's perfect Jordanesque layup on James, along with the prominence of Black Lives Matter messaging - though the Warriors were nowhere to be seen that year. The team didn't make it to the postseason the next year either. I came into the fold as the organization was dealing with catastrophic injuries to key players. Steph Curry, the face of the franchise, was making a comeback after an extended period spent recovering. But Klay Thompson, another star and fellow 3 point shooting master, had just suffered a second injury that would keep him out another year. 

Even so, as I followed along in that first season after Curry's return, the franchise didn't seem completely adrift like certain others, I didn't fall into despair or frustration. Somehow it felt like there was a plan, moves being made in the background. And Thompson, who seemed pretty skilled based on the highlights I found, would return one day. Steph Curry won the scoring title. He spoke of the special distinction of sticking to one franchise for his entire career. The team ended the regular season strong. And after they lost in the first ever play-in tournament, he said farewell with a warning: "You don't want to see us next year." 

This year: Every Warriors player seemed to bring their best game to close out the Mavericks, making it the best Warriors W of the postseason. Luka Dončić didn't have an easy time, no smiling through the night here. Spencer Dinwiddie made me a little nervous, draining shot after shot. But Klay Thompson drained a few more, ending the night with 32 points. Draymond Green, another star, flexing. Andrew Wiggins, who had the play of the series and the dunk of the playoffs and a career highlight all in one: the dunk on Dončić. Jordan Poole, Kevon Looney.... And Steph Curry: The inaugural winner of the Western Conference Finals Magic Johnson MVP award.

Severe injuries presented major setbacks to the team's title aspirations. But they overcame them and, after another gentleman's sweep, now return to the NBA Finals, their sixth trip in eight years. Let's go, Warriors.

3 and DA: Notes on the 2022 Playoff Season

     I think it's safe to say that winter is gone, no fakeouts. Sunday in the 70s. A breeze pressed a cherry blossom into my hand. By the time I returned home from work, the fog had dissipated. I opened the front door, letting in the birdsong. I had leftover spaghetti with a glass of lemonade. Then I grabbed a beer and an ice cream and settled in for some PLAYOFF BASKETBALL ACTION, BABY! TWO! second round game sevens: Bucks and Celtics. Suns and Mavericks.

I hadn't watched a full game of the Milwaukee-Boston series. Milwaukee: The defending champs led by an MVP candidate. Boston: An interesting story. The team struggled early in the regular season. From my own amateur observation, they seemed disorganized, ineffective on offense and defense. Saddled with a losing record, there was talk of breaking up their two stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Then in the second half of the season, they became one of the best teams in the league. Marcus Smart won Defensive Player of the Year. And they secured a spot in the playoffs. The outcome of the game didn't come as a shock. The Bucks were missing a star, Khris Middleton (knee injury). Giannis Antetokounmpo didn't put up his usual superstar numbers: missed layups, a crowded interior. Barely any of the team's 3s went down. The Celtics, on the other hand, had several players in double figures (the leading scorer was a role player named Grant Williams, who had the biggest game of his life). The team made many 3s and never stopped applying defensive pressure. For a moment, it looked like a Celtics bench player had managed to seriously injure himself at the end of the game, when the victor was already clear. Then he came back and made a 3. Now they're off to Miami to face the Heat. Prediction: Jayson Tatum will be looking for revenge against Bam Adebayo.

As for the Suns and Mavericks, I doubt any game will be more shocking. The Suns, the team that dominated throughout the regular season and ended it as the number one seed, were of course favored but there was a note of caution from most every basketball expert: Luka Dončić, the current face of the Mavericks franchise, is a superstar, the best player in the series, known for being at his best in the clutch. So maybe, just maybe. Still, I expected a hardfought, back-and-forth game decided in the final minutes or seconds of the 4th quarter. Instead the Mavericks went into Phoenix and stomped the Suns. Jawdropping. At halftime, Dončić had as many points as the other team (27). Let me repeat: The Suns had 27 points at halftime. 27. The Suns contained no one - not Dončić, Spencer Dinwiddie, or eventually Jalen Brunson. The Mavericks rained 3s. On the other side: For a long stretch, Deandre Ayton, Devin Booker, and Chris Paul, star players, had a combined 0 FGs. All three would end up having a bad night. No one on the Suns showed any life. When the Mavericks had possession of the ball, I began to think: that's going in. When the Suns had possession: that's not. Dončić smiled through the night, seemingly at ease in hostile (and increasingly quiet) territory. He had the representative play of the night, sending his defender, Cam Johnson, sliding along the floor and draining a 3 as Johnson looked on helplessly. (Dončić didn't need to play much if any of the 4th quarter.) Key commentary: Kevin Harlan remarks on the hot weather in Phoenix. Reggie Miller pauses and says, well, the Suns's shooting is cold. I can't remember any time in the regular season or postseason when the Suns looked like they couldn't take control of the game. And the team, practically unrecognizable, fell apart at the worst imaginable time. The only thing they managed to do was anger Boban Marjanović, a Mavericks player who doesn't seem to get many minutes and is praised every time he steps on the floor for being a nice, gentle giant. A sour ending to a sour ending. It was so bad it erased the previous worst game of the playoff season, which is now lost to NBA history, or should be. 

They closed out, losers.

The cat is so clingy! Can't be petted enough. I've been using a pillow as a shield and my D is good. I'm hoping the same is true for the Warriors. Let's go, Warriors.