"Backcourt Fundamentals" - April 30, 2021

A place to discuss the weekly Wall Street Journal Crossword Puzzle Contest, starting every Thursday around 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. Please do not post any answers or hints before the contest deadline which is midnight Sunday Eastern time.
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DCBilly
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#401

Post by DCBilly »

I liked that you could see multiple obviously important things before even starting the solve. As always, the title and the description of the answer. Then there were asterisked clues, so you knew they would give you the first step (and there were 5, same as the number of letters in the answer). Finally, there was the final across clue echoing the words in the title. This helped put the difficulty at an accessible level for me.
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SReh26
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#402

Post by SReh26 »

CPJohnson wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 7:55 am
Softie wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 12:22 am
lbray53 wrote: Fri Apr 30, 2021 12:34 pm

This comment would have been a minor spoiler for last week's puzzle.
Incidentally, my original comment was "up my alley-oop", which was deemed too much of a spoiler for this week's puzzle. :D I thought the basketball theme was obvious but I suppose not in retrospect :?
The first sport I thought of was tennis.....
Me too.
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ReB
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#403

Post by ReB »

I went down several of the rabbit holes already described until I looked at BACKCOURT once more at 9PM Sunday and suddenly had the thought, as a last gasp, to try spelling the theme words backwards.

Having already googled a list of NBA teams and their locales, I quickly paddled my way to shore unimpeded.
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mheberlingx100
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#404

Post by mheberlingx100 »

JeanneC wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 3:17 pm
Softie wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 1:19 am
JeanneC wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 12:58 am ...Brooklyn Nets? That is like saying the Queens Mets or Bronx Yankees. Doesn’t work for me...
Brooklyn Dodgers, perhaps?
True. Until the team moved and became the Los Angeles Dodgers. Funny, though, when a team wins a championship, EVERYBODY in that city celebrates!
The ones that have me scratching my head are the Los Angeles (Minneapolis) Lakers and Utah (New Orleans) Jazz. I know there is brand equity in the team name, but the team name doesn’t fit at all with where the teams ended up.
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DrTom
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#405

Post by DrTom »

Surprisingly I got this rather quickly (I follow little basketball) but spurs in an obvious forced word (heard larrups very often in conversation lately?) tipped it for me and the rest fell easily. However since I DON’T follow basketball I spent a lot of time in the NASIC? hole before Mr. G set me straight.
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
steveb
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#406

Post by steveb »

mheberlingx100 wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 5:05 pm
JeanneC wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 3:17 pm
Softie wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 1:19 am

Brooklyn Dodgers, perhaps?
True. Until the team moved and became the Los Angeles Dodgers. Funny, though, when a team wins a championship, EVERYBODY in that city celebrates!
The ones that have me scratching my head are the Los Angeles (Minneapolis) Lakers and Utah (New Orleans) Jazz. I know there is brand equity in the team name, but the team name doesn’t fit at all with where the teams ended up.
Oh, c'mon! I have it on good authority that there are all of 23 lakes in Los Angeles! That's almost 1 for every 21 square miles!
http://lacitynerd.blogspot.com/2006/06/ ... akers.html
;) ;) ;) ;) ;)
steveb
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#407

Post by steveb »

steveb wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 5:50 pm
mheberlingx100 wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 5:05 pm
JeanneC wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 3:17 pm

True. Until the team moved and became the Los Angeles Dodgers. Funny, though, when a team wins a championship, EVERYBODY in that city celebrates!
The ones that have me scratching my head are the Los Angeles (Minneapolis) Lakers and Utah (New Orleans) Jazz. I know there is brand equity in the team name, but the team name doesn’t fit at all with where the teams ended up.
Oh, c'mon! I have it on good authority that there are all of 23 lakes in Los Angeles! That's almost 1 for every 21 square miles!
http://lacitynerd.blogspot.com/2006/06/ ... akers.html
;) ;) ;) ;) ;)
Come to think of it, I once saw Count Basie in Salt Lake City (yeah, it was a long time ago), so check that box too. :roll:
MikeMillerwsj
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Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 2:46 pm

#408

Post by MikeMillerwsj »

Greetings--we had a landslide this week with correct answers from an unusually high 94% of our 1922 entries.
Plus a smattering of other guesses in small lots, including AGILE (3), LARGE (3), POINT (3), SwiSH (3), MEDIA (2), ALERT (2), and many other ones and twos.
Happy May, hope you are enjoying the spring, and congrats to this week's winner: Kena Alderson of Eastborough, Kan.!
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Kris Zacharias
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#409

Post by Kris Zacharias »

We've been visiting a son and his family, including the one-year-old whom we had never met, and after completing the grid on Friday, I forgot about it until today. It's embarrassing to admit to this very knowledgeable group that I would never have figured out this week's meta, even with a hint. I gathered that basketball was somehow central to the meta and noticed "recap." Even if it had occurred to me to spell it backward, I would not have recognized "pacer" as a team name. I even had to look up what "backcourt" meant. Now I get it.
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Jacksull
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#410

Post by Jacksull »

I was very suspicious. That sent me to google, where I learned that the Nets play in Barclays Center, the Hawks play in State Farm Arena, etc., etc. The Nets’ coach is Steve Nash, the Hawks’ coach is Nate McMillan, etc., etc.

Pageant me once...
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sharkicicles
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#411

Post by sharkicicles »

I happened to be wearing a Bulls shirt while solving this.
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boharr
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#412

Post by boharr »

sharkicicles wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 7:35 pm I happened to be wearing a Bulls shirt while solving this.
Was it deemed a spoiler?
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Eric Porter
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#413

Post by Eric Porter »

sharkicicles wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 7:35 pm I happened to be wearing a Bulls shirt while solving this.
The best part is that if you look down at your shirt, you would see BULL spelled backwards!

When I see starred answers, the first thing I look for is hidden words. When I see 'BACK' in the title, my first thought is to look for words spelled backwards. Then there's 68A.

I liked that this was a similar solve method to Mike's famous PAGEANT puzzle. Fortunately there was no confusion this time about what the right answer was.
steveb
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#414

Post by steveb »

Eric Porter wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 7:58 pm
sharkicicles wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 7:35 pm I happened to be wearing a Bulls shirt while solving this.
The best part is that if you look down at your shirt, you would see BULL spelled backwards!

When I see starred answers, the first thing I look for is hidden words. When I see 'BACK' in the title, my first thought is to look for words spelled backwards. Then there's 68A.

I liked that this was a similar solve method to Mike's famous PAGEANT puzzle. Fortunately there was no confusion this time about what the right answer was.
I thought about the similarity to the infamous PAGEANT puzzle, too. A critical difference is that this time, the hint was pretty specific: a 5-letter adjective. If the PAGEANT puzzle had asked for a 7-letter noun instead of "an area of competition," people would not have gone astray like they (we) did.
Grover
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#415

Post by Grover »

mheberlingx100 wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 5:05 pm
JeanneC wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 3:17 pm
Softie wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 1:19 am

Brooklyn Dodgers, perhaps?
True. Until the team moved and became the Los Angeles Dodgers. Funny, though, when a team wins a championship, EVERYBODY in that city celebrates!
The ones that have me scratching my head are the Los Angeles (Minneapolis) Lakers and Utah (New Orleans) Jazz. I know there is brand equity in the team name, but the team name doesn’t fit at all with where the teams ended up.
Los Angeles stealing the Lakers name ranks as one of the all time biggest robberies in sports. It was a natural name for any future Minnesota team. We are still bitter about that.
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anaerobe
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#416

Post by anaerobe »

Grover wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 8:49 pm Los Angeles stealing the Lakers name ranks as one of the all time biggest robberies in sports. It was a natural name for any future Minnesota team. We are still bitter about that.
When you get bitter about LA, just remind yourself you have the Boundary Waters. I have a pic I took from my canoe of a moose swimming across the lake and a bald eagle swooping down to catch a fish; all in the same shot. Such a special place.

BTW, that pic is a hard copy that I had to have developed! In a store! By a human!......shows how long it's been since I've been to the BWCAW.
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C=64
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#417

Post by C=64 »

Regarding Brooklyn vs. New Jersey, it was probably too difficult to fit COMPLICITLECTER ("Hannibal bearing some responsibility") in the grid.
Franklin.Bluth
Posts: 199
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2020 10:22 pm

#418

Post by Franklin.Bluth »

MikeMillerwsj wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 6:32 pm Greetings--we had a landslide this week with correct answers from an unusually high 94% of our 1922 entries.
Plus a smattering of other guesses in small lots, including AGILE (3), LARGE (3), POINT (3), SwiSH (3), MEDIA (2), ALERT (2), and many other ones and twos.
Happy May, hope you are enjoying the spring, and congrats to this week's winner: Kena Alderson of Eastborough, Kan.!
Congrats to Kena!

Also...are ALERT, SWISH, POINT, and MEDIA considered adjectives in other dialects of English? Forgive the ignorant question; I'm just a poor ol' southerner...

I'm all for wild guessing, but it should at least fit the most very BASIC parameters :)
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DrTom
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#419

Post by DrTom »

I apologize in advance for missing zoomathon tonight, but I’m in the Florida Keys with sketchy wi-fi
3BF559E4-487F-43ED-8CFC-01E9F9C26BDB.jpeg
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
SewYoung
Posts: 726
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2019 9:25 pm
Location: Meridian, MS

#420

Post by SewYoung »

Franklin.Bluth wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 5:00 pm
MikeMillerwsj wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 6:32 pm Greetings--we had a landslide this week with correct answers from an unusually high 94% of our 1922 entries.
Plus a smattering of other guesses in small lots, including AGILE (3), LARGE (3), POINT (3), SwiSH (3), MEDIA (2), ALERT (2), and many other ones and twos.
Happy May, hope you are enjoying the spring, and congrats to this week's winner: Kena Alderson of Eastborough, Kan.!
Congrats to Kena!

Also...are ALERT, SWISH, POINT, and MEDIA considered adjectives in other dialects of English? Forgive the ignorant question; I'm just a poor ol' southerner...

I'm all for wild guessing, but it should at least fit the most very BASIC parameters :)
I wondered that, too. I, too and a life long southerner, and do not consider those to be adjectives either. Well, alert could be used that way, I guess.
I did not get this meta. After working the grid, I said to myself, "Self, if you don't come up with the actual answer, submit "BASIC" Sunday night. Then I forgot to do it. That was the only five letter answer I could come up with based on "Fundamentals" in the title.
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