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The Side Part: Week Seven – Lambo

The Side Part: Week Seven – Lambo
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Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images

O-o-o-o-o-okay.

There is a moment that rises above all others when it comes to relaxation. And this is not some white like talcum powder beach, suntanned and toned someone laying at your side, snuggled up in a hammock under a palm the size of a water tower, Mai Tai on the sand below you rubbing elbows with some Grisham book you wouldn’t read in front of your friends, Neil Young’s “Midnight On The Bay” aching out of an old Magnavox with a Parrothead sticker over the speaker while the breeze runs all over you Corona commercial type of relaxed.

The relaxation I’m talking about is slightly different, if only because it could be reality for those who don’t have money enough to frequent the Virgin Islands. That relaxation I’m speaking of finds its lane in Dillon, TX. It’s Tim Riggins, sitting with his brother in front of his unfinished home, Igloo full of Shiner at his feet, looking out on his land, the sun dying between the trees at the top of the hill painting the sky a monarch orange, everything in the valley below him green. If he belonged anywhere, he belonged right there.

Jeremy Lamb’s jumper falls like that, his shots floating away from him like chill little butterflies that enjoy dancing and naps.

Lamb is coming into his own now. He’s finding his spots and figuring out how to play alongside Durant and Westbrook. His play has been so good of late that, at least among some, it’s slowly changing the narrative about the Harden trade. His per 36 numbers so far this year are resting at 16.7 PPG, 3.9 RPG, and 1.8 APG. He’s shooting a respectable 47% from the field, 40% from three, and, perhaps most impressively, he has not missed a single free throw all year. He’s 13-13. Which, sure, means he’s hardly getting to the line at all, but let’s knock on every piece of wood we can reach so as not to jinx anything and look at the glass half full. [quote]

Perhaps the most important development has been his ability to give quality minutes in crunch time, allowing Brooks to deploy what has to be his most athletic lineup in recent memory: Durant, Westbrook, Reggie, Lamb, and Serge. That’s a lineup that can move and with Serge protecting the rim the way he has been, all the while beginning to grab more and more contested rebounds, that small lineup is becoming a very formidable possibility to get extended minutes that matter come play-off time. It’s just another chance for Durant to play the 4 where he has been going into complete Raiden mode this season, lighting up our world and whatever other ones exist.

And with every game Lamb has like the one he had last night, he gains more confidence and becomes more of a problem for opposing defenses. The more he’s an issue, the more the floor is spread, the more Durant and Westbrook and Jackson can cut up scrambling defenses to get forays to the rim, drop-offs to Serge, and open wing threes for him. A shot he’s hitting, just, an absurd amount of time. So much green.

Butterflies, though. That’s what I see when he shoots. Not the bad ones that infiltrate stomachs before big presentations and breakups you had to be the one to pull the trigger on. The ones that inspired butterfly doors.  His nickname should be Lambo. And if we’re talking about Lambos, we might want to ride out on Push.

Check the neck, check the wrist, them heads turning, that’s exorcist

My Audemar like Mardi Gras, that’s Swiss time and that’s excellence

Two-door preference, roof gone, George Jefferson

That white frost on that pound cake so your Duncan Hines is irrelevant

Lambo, Murci-lago