The Spurs don’t get much coverage here at NBA247365.com, so I figured I’d use a slow Saturday night as an opportunity to give the league’s best team an extra paragraph. San Antonio became the first team to 40 wins last night with a 13-point victory over the Rockets. I can’t decide what’s more surprising… the fact that San Antonio is fifth in the league in points per game, or the fact that they’ve easily got the league’s best record as January comes to a close. Could things get a little tougher, though, as their annual Rodeo Road Trip begins with the month of Febuary? It’s nine road games covering 17 days, but over the past five seasons they haven’t struggled with it. Since 2006′s trip they’re 25-16 (.640), and I think they’ll improve on that this season. Check out the competition: POR, LAL, SAC, DET, TOR, PHI, WAS, NJN, CHI. That’s five horrible teams, two decent ones, and two worthy foes. I’m not usually one to make predictions, but I’m calling 7-2.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: Blake Griffin’s lowlights are highlights. Randy Foye makes a perfect pass from three-quarters court to…guess who. Foye makes another nice pass from a much shorter distance (same guy on the finish). Griff’s layups can be pretty cool too. DeAndre Jordan swats the air out of the ball. Donte Greene with the clean up in aisle DUNK (that’s right NBA.com, I could totally replace that top 10 narrator). Corey Brewer cuts baseline and drops the hammer. Top 10 plays.
- Lowlight Recap: Tony Allen passes up an uncontested dunk for a little showtime. Unfortunately, his flashy no-look pass ended up flying directly at John Wall’s face…
- Gotta do better than that if you want a highfive, Tony…
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You already know the Spurs beat the Rockets by 13 for their 40th victory… but how’d they do it? You know damn well I wasn’t watching the Spurs (great team, much respect, but even with their new offense they excite me about as much as the Winter Olympics)… SO, based on the box score I’m going to say it came down to freethrow shooting. San Antonio made 24 of 27 from the line. Houston, on the other hand, got there just 16 times and tossed six bricks. The Spurs also held a 24-13 edge in fastbreak points, a department that they suddenly excell in this season. All five Spur starters scored in double figures and George Hill added 14 off the bench. Aaron Brooks went 3-12 from the floor for Houston. Games like that certainly won’t help him take the starting job back from Kyle Lowry, who had 15 points on 6-11. Note to whoever’s in charge of promotions down in Houston: you might want to cut the hope-based ad campaign that features about 15 shots of Yao Ming. I just saw the commercial on NBAtv, and yeah, I would’ve given it a B+… like six years ago.
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Thanks to Martell Webster, I don’t even have to write a review of the TOR @ MIN game… he summed up the Craptors’ entire season with this play:
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The Kings have won two in a row. Okay, so every dog has it’s day. Nono… two in a row over the Lakers and Hornets on back-to-back nights! What the hell? Give credit to DeMarcus Cousins, who may be a toolbag, but is certainly an excellent basketball talent. He hasn’t let his attitude get in the way recently, and he put another big double-double (25/12) on the Hornets last night. He led his Kings to a 102-point effort on 50 percent shooting, an impressive performance against one of the league’s stingiest defenses. The Hornets scored 96, which is normally plenty to earn them a victory, but they simply couldn’t slow down DeMarcus and company. Said David West: “ We couldn’t guard them and we didn’t stop them enough. We didn’t stop them nearly enough to win the game.”
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The Clippers pulled away from the Bobcats during a 33-point second quarter and never looked back. Randy Foye did the best Eric Gordon impression he’ll likely ever do with 21 points and four assists, Blake Griffin notched his 38th double-double (24/10), and Ryan Gomes scored 18 on just eight shots as the Clipps snapped Charlotte’s three-game win streak with a 103-88 victory. Charlotte was only slightly outshot and got to the line at will (36 times), but cost themselves with 17 turnovers that resulted in 23 Clipper points. Refer back to the highlight recap and notice that the ’Cats gave Blake Griffin far too many opportunities to get out on the break and do his thing.
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The other games: Carlos Boozer’s 24/10 helped the Bulls pick up an easy 110-89 victory over the Pacemakers. Z-Bo had the ninth 20/20 game of his career and his 14th consecutive double-double as the Grizzlies dropped the Wizards to 0-23 on the road. Seven Dallas Mavericks (including my dude DeShawn Stevenson) scored in double digits to put the Mavs over the Hawks 102-91. Andrew Bogut showed Brook Lopez how to play center in the NBA with 17 points, 18 boards, and seven blocks as the Bucks beat the Nets 91-81. Lopez put up another shooting guard line with 26 points and six boards on 12-23. Brandon Jennings is back, but he’s playing limited minutes. He went 0-3 in 11 minutes off the bench.
Quote of the Day: Brandon Jennings on his conversation with Packers QB Aaron Rodgers…
“I told him, ‘Good luck, this town is really buzzing right now because of you guys. It’s important that you guys go down there and take care of business just to keep the city alive.’”
If the Packers leave the city on life support, the Bucks will be sure to finish the place off. No pressure, Aaron.
Photo of the Day:
