Jarrett Jack threw Dorell Wright's shoe into the 10th row during a NBA game.

The Golden State Warrior have been one of the biggest surprises of the 2012-13 season. Nobody expected them to be anywhere near where they are at right now. At least not with this roster. But they are currently 5th in the West and much of their success has come from an improved defense. Mark Jackson has instilled new defensive principles into this team and you can see Jarrett Jack using one of them here:

Who knew Jarrett Jack would close 2012 with arguably one of the greatest moment in the NBA history. This is what you would call a perfect play. First, Jack breaks the distance record of shoe thrown in an NBA game by an NBA player, and then knocks down a three on the other end to complete it. He even added an evil smug at the end to put the cherry on top. I bet that was not the way former Warrior, Dorell Wright thought he would be welcomed back in his old arena.

If you are wondering, there are other players that have thrown their opponent's shoes out of their reach and coincidentally the victims were all embarrassed in their former home.

Metta World Peace was of course involved in one these incidents. As a matter of fact, he might be the innovator of this movement. Trevor Ariza should be proud to be the first.

Dwyane Wade, who is slowly gaining a rep of being a dirty player after sending his leg directly into Ramon Sessions's reproductive organ, was part of the sneaker throwing history too.

The NBA is the best.

The Golden State Warriors' success and the Heat's return.

Golden State Warriors 97 - Miami Heat 95

The Good

Warriors: This TLC group are no scrubs and neither are the rest of the Warriors. It is always great to see a team exceed the expectations that the NBA subliminally sets in our minds. If you follow NBA basketball at any time, you would know what I mean. Surprises are rare and miracles always come to an early end. Prior to the start of this season, Golden State was considered a borderline playoff team in the West. The pick was based on the assumption that Andrew Bogut would return and provide the defense this team has been missing since ever. But fast forward two months later into the season, the Warriors are playing solid defense, their record stands at 15-7 and they are doing it all without Andrew Bogut, who is out indefinitely.

Despite the failure Mark Jackson had in the first year as the head coach, he has turned this team around. He instilled a defensive principle and learned to utilize his personnel to the best of their abilities. His team by no means are a defensive juggernaut. Hell, they don't even have a designated stopper, yet they make up for it with effort. A few weeks ago, I was laughing at David Lee's lateral movement, and now he actually looks decent. They are committed on this end on the floor as well as the other. The best thing is that there is nothing spectacular about it either, they just talk and help each other out.

The potential of this team is almost sky-high, you have a soon to be best back court of the league, with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. A David Lee in his prime to compliment them. I think Lee is among the league's current greatest stretch four, with the likes of Marc Gasol and Joakim Noah. The rookies have a lot of work to do, but they are good fits. Festus Ezeli stands out above all though, he has this Serge Ibaka thing going on that I really like. He reads the offense well, has the quickness to respond and doesn't fall for every single pump fake. He could become a steal if he develops any offensive game. And since you can never count out the importance of the veterans, Jarrett Jack is the perfect guy to teach the young guards of the team, even though he does those unpredictable Westbrook-esque pull ups.

Heat: The defense that once made them champions is in a process of coming back together. After the impressive ass-whooping from the New York Knicks, they are finally playing with a purpose. It helps that Shane Battier is back, even if he is still recovering from his injury because he is key in Miami's defensive scheme. They did two things particularly well, they clogged up the paint and took Stephen Curry out of his offensive flow, but there is a trade off that ended up hurting them, which I will explain in the other section.

Offensively, they are a totally different team when Ray Allen is on. The ball moves around and players cut. Without him, everyone stands around and waits for either LeBron or Wade to create for them. Bosh was huge in stretches and bailed them out a few times.

The Bad

Warriors: They played a great game, there is not much bad you can take away. They didn't shoot terribly, or got out rebounded and there were only 13 turnovers. The Heat wanted this game and the fact they pulled it out in someone else's house is remarkable.

Heat: When you focus your defense on a particular player, there is always a trade off. And whether a team is able to take advantage will determine the results. In this case, the target was Stephen Curry. Even before tip-off, Miami's intention was to prevent Curry from shooting at all costs. While the game plan worked, it completely ignored his under-appreciated passing ability.

Golden State read this early too. They spaced the floor with their shooters for Curry, so he could get a good look at his surroundings and make the right pass before the Heat commences with his ancient Egyptian burial. This is a considerable amount of risk for the Heat, because if Curry manages to kick the ball out, it leaves his teammates wide open for a jumper. For the past couple games, Miami's biggest issue on the defense was getting out to shooters, something they sacrifice due to their worry over dribble penetration. And it remains unsolved. There were multiple possessions where I caught guys giving up after the screen. They just stopped and watched as their responsibility knock down easy shots. Winning requires effort and Miami have not worked all 48 minutes.

Notes: Denver Nuggets vs. Golden State Warriors [11/29/12]

Golden State Warriors 106 - Denver Nuggets 105

The Good

Warriors: They managed to put together a strong enough defensive effort in the 4th quarter to comeback for the victory. The offense was not a problem in the 1st quarter. They were hitting everything in sight, until other quarters came along, and they couldn't put anything in the basket. Here's the problem, the Warriors are a jump shooting team. Without Andrew Bogut, the only option inside is David Lee. Stephen Curry and Lee's two man game can be at times overwhelming for some teams, as Lee is very capable of being an offensive juggernaut. However, on nights without a massive game from the lefty, Golden State relies on the shooting of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, who hasn't given a consistent output. These two are of the few most dangerous shooters that can hit a barrage of shots in any given night, at the same time, they can also take you out of the game.

Luckily it didn't happen tonight, in the fourth quarter of this game, Klay Thompson came back to life and brought the energy back to the rest of his guys. The sudden outburst of effort on both ends on the floor caught the Denver Nuggets off guard and they crumbled in crunch time.

Nuggets: Kenneth Faried. This guy just does everything right, he might not always show up on the box score with huge numbers, but I can guarantee you that every second he is on the basketball floor, he is going to give you a 100 percent. He never gives up on a play, he will hustle back on defense even if he didn't get an offensive opportunity and will impact the shot on the other end. I think he pinned like 4 warriors shots against the backboard.

Danilo Gallinari looks like he finally found his stroke, hitting 3 of Denver's total 10 three pointers on the night. The Nuggets need his shooting to space the floor, with Ty Lawson struggling early in the season, he needs help. If his teammates can hit shots, it will open up the lanes for the little guy to attack the basket, if not he can still kick out to get other guys going.

The Bad

Warriors: Let's face it, GSW is not a great defensive team (Yes, they have dramatically improved this season compared to the last - it is still too early to tell though), they can go from holding their own for a few good stretches, to getting ripped apart like Christmas presents. Individually, if you look at the roster, there are a lot of liabilities. The starting back court can improve, Curry has good hands, and Thompson has the length. The rest of the team, is a bit worrisome. I am going by minutes here, Carl Landry is undersized, David Lee moves like his legs are chained to a ton of cement blocks and Andris Biedrins is genetically incapable of staying in front of his man.

Andrew Bogut is the potential solution. He is, when healthy, one of the best current defending big man (there is not a lot of them). What he is missing in athleticism, he makes up for with smarts and width. The best thing is that, he can help on offense as well, like every foreign center, he is very adept to the pick and roll, can stretch the floor with his mid range shooting and pass the ball effectively. His skill set will heavily benefit the shooters of the this team and make the Warrior half court sets better.

Nuggets: Like their opponents, Denver is not great in the half court. While they can score seamlessly in transition, they cannot for some reason find a way to execute a play. If they can not get a shot off early with their quick ball movement, they will usually take up the shot clock and throw up a tough one (see Andre Igoudala. He really needs to take shots closer to the paint). A lot of this has to do with Ty Lawson, as the point guard he can't seem to navigate as smoothly as he did last year. Hopefully, this issue will fix itself, or Andre Miller is going to take his minutes.

On the other end, their defense was lacking, rotations were especially slow in the 1st and 4th quarter.
Also, Andre Miller completely botched the inbound pass for their last possession. (Jarrett Jack of GSW did too, it just wasn't as critical).