Three of ten games played Monday night were decided with two seconds or less remaining on the clock. I think I do less ranking of things than your average sports blog… I’ve never really been into that. I tend to focus on appreciating the wonderful game that is basketball, because I feel like there aren’t enough people out there doing that. There’s a million writers out there frying their brains crunching numbers… I try to bring something different to the table. That being said, I think these three shots are something that I can put in an order for you. Rudy Gay’s shot was the easiest, thus putting him in third place. Terrible D by Julian Wright on the play… at least bend your damn knees! He gave Rudy way too much room to set up a short jumper which ended up being pretty much uncontested. Brook Lopez gets the second place nod with a hook over Ryan Hollins. He left a little more time on the clock than you want to leave, but he also had to deal with Ryan Hollins repeatedly slapping his back and taking swipes at his arms. How the officials missed that… I have no idea. Hollins was intentionally trying to foul Lopez, and while I’d tell him you have to wrap the guy up, I still felt that he made it pretty goddamn obvious. David West is my winner of winners. He knocked down an elbow jumper… in Serge Ibaka’s mug… while falling away… off of one foot. If you’ve ever shot a basketball you can appreciate the degree of difficulty on that shot.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: Youtube is slower than death for me right now, so I’m just going to have to give you the top 10. I’d be here until tomorrow afternoon if I tried to piece this thing together play by play like I normally do. I like to pretend that I’ve got stuff to do, so I’m not gonna do that.
- Lowlight Recap: First up, we have Chris Paul with a cringe-inducing flop. This is probably a top five Chris Paul flop that I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something (Exhibits A and B). I’ve got to embed this one, I want to make sure everyone sees it:
- Things weren’t looking promising for the Hornets early on. They allowed Oklahoma City to score 33 in the opening quarter, which put them in a 14-point hole when the first buzzer sounded. By the time halftime came around, the Bees had taken a five-point lead. OKC made only 5 of 15 shots while scoring just 12 points in second period. They gave up 13 to DJ Mbenga, Jarrett Jack, Jason Smith, and Marcus Thorton (and 18 more to the starters) in that same quarter. OKC would get the lead back later on, and held onto a four-point advantage with four minutes left. David West, who scored 20, would then enter clutch-mode. West knocked down four of the game’s final five buckets, all of them midrange jumpers. Russell Westbrook scored OKC’s only bucket during the final four minutes… his team missed seven of eight shots down the stretch. Chris Paul was the game’s leading scorer with 24 points. Kevin Durant led OKC with 22 on 7-18. Final score: 91-89.
- You have to feel for the Cleveland Cavaliers. The losers of 16 (now 17) straight knew they had a great opportunity to pick up a rare victory against the Nets, and they came so close… the closest they’ve come since a one-point loss to the T-Wolves on the 26th of December. So close that Brook Lopez was forced to hit that tough hook shot with two seconds on the clock that gave the Nets a 103-101 lead. Had the officials seen Ryan Hollins hacking Lopez, the game very well could’ve been headed to OT. That being said, Cleveland didn’t really have the momentum at the time. They had a six-point lead entering the final period, but blew it within about seven minutes. Brook Lopez was the game’s leading scorer with 28 points. He also had an above average game on the glass with seven boards. Antawn Jamison continues to fight, he dropped 26/8. It looks like Cleveland’s losing streak will stretch into the 20s… they don’t play another sub-.500 team until five games from now. Anything can happen in the NBA, but a Cavs win over the Nuggets, Celtics, Magic, or Heat? Don’t hold your breath.
- Rudy Gay went just 7 of his first 19 against the Raptors, but he was allowed to get to his sweet spot for shot number 20, which was also make number eight and the game-winning bucket (final count: 100-98). Julian Wright is apparently the only person on earth who never saw this, because he allowed Gay to take the exact same shot. Oh well, at least he can tell his grand kids that he’s on a list which includes LeBron James. The Craptors have now lost eight in a row, while the Grizz have won their last three. Is Marc Gasol finally coming out of hibernation? He’s dropped 15+ in two straight games, something he’d only done eight times all season through the 21st of this month. His shot attempts have been up over the past few games, and I’ll assume it’s just a coincidence for now.
- The Bulls got a team-high 22 points from a surprising source as they beat the Bucks 92-83. The source?
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38-year-old Kurt Thomas aka “The Big Sexy”. The former Heat/Maverick/Knick/Sun/Sonic/Spur/Buck had Stacey King all riled up as he torched the most recent of his seven former teams with his best offensive effort since January 25th of 2005. KT not only took care of the scoring, he headed up the glass cleaning duties with a team-high nine boards. Distribution? He had that covered too with his five dimes. Throw in a couple swats and a swipe and Kurt’s lookin’ like Dwight Howard on the stat sheet. As for the Bucks, well, they need to invest in a few clones of Chris Douglas-Roberts. CDR dropped 30 on 21 shots, but the rest of the Bucks scored just 53 on 55 shots. Milwaukee actually outshot the Bulls by a good margin, but sent Chicago to the line 25 times, resulting in 22 points. Derrick Rose went just 5 of 15, but made all 10 of his freethrows as he put up 21/10.
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The Knicks needed a home game against the Wizards to snap a six-game losing streak… and they still nearly made it L number seven. New York tried their best to blow it with some 1-6 masonry from the line in the fourth, but Washington couldn’t take advantage, losing 115-106. The Wizards scored just 15 points in the final period on 6-18 shooting. Their start was as ugly as the finish. Washington scored 26 in the first quarter, but turned the ball over 10 times, resulting in 16 of NY’s 33 points. Andray Blatche was determined to build himself a new brick mansion… he continuously forced jumpers off the dribble, resulting in eight bricks and six points on 10 shots. Amare Stoudemire led the Knicks with 30/9/5. Raymond Felton dropped 17 points and dished 15 assists. Wilson Chandler didn’t shoot well, but he still managed to rack up 25 points. Nick Young led the Wiz with 22.
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The league’s leading three-point shooting teams each went 5 for 15 from range, but only one of them got to the line 34 times. It damn sure wasn’t the Warriors. The Spurs knocked down 26 FTs and 41 of 82 shots as they bounced back from an ugly loss to the Hornets by beating the Dubs 113-102. Manu Ginobili led San Antonio with 20 points, but it was their bench production that would put them over the top. Antonio McDyess, George Hill, and Gary Neal accounted for 39 points and 17 boards, while Golden State’s entire bench put up just 14/4. There was a scary moment in this one: Tim Duncan went down and immediately reached for his left knee. Fortunately it turned out to be nothing serious, and Timmy returned later on in the game.
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The other games: Upset alert! Detroit beat Orlando 103-96; in Florida, too. Three Pistons had 20 points: T-Mac, Tayshaun, and Daye. Ryan Anderson was the leading Magic man with 21. Orlando turned the ball over 16 times, resulting in 26 points for Detroit. In another upset, the West’s worst team (Kings) beat the Blazers 96-81. LaMarcus Aldridge went 4-14 for just nine points. Tyreke Evans dropped 26. The Sixers picked up a 10-point victory over the Suns. Philly held Phoenix to just 95 points… which is actually 21 more than they scored in their previous game. Before that disaster they had dropped 100+ five consecutive times, though. Lastly, Kevin Martin flopped his way to the line 18 times to help him reach 34 points in a 129-125 H-Town victory over Minnesota. Kevin Love had a routine game… 24/17/7.
Quote of the Day: Raymond Felton’s a little too gassed up over a nine-point victory against the Wizards…
“Everything was clicking tonight. It was one of our better games.”
He continued…
“When we got (Chandler) and Gallo shooting the ball the way they do, guys coming off the bench contributing, Amare doing what he does, me getting everybody the ball, that’s when we’re at our best. Then our defense was clicking, we were getting rebounds, we were pushing the ball. I think we can play with anybody when we do that.”
I was expecting one of those “it was a little ugly, but a win is a win, and we’ll take it” type remarks. That’s usually the standard after you win by single digits over a team that’s dropped 21 straight on the road.
Photo of the Day: Easily the best selection of pictures I’ve seen all season…
I feel like attempting a caption would probably just ruin it.
“Forget doctor, Machine know lots about knees. Machine fix your knee like Machine hit three.”
Roy’s jacket is made of 100% recycled tin cans.
“London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down…”
“5..6..7..8..MIKE! I have an idea! You could totally tattoo “C-O-O-L B-E-A-S” across your knuckles!”
