That poor little kid in the upper left corner… he was all excited about his second row seat, bragging to his buddies back at school about how he’d definitely be on TV… and he ends up directly behind a human wall. Hey kid, if it makes you feel any better, you only missed a Nets game. Moving right along, I can’t tell you it was a competetive day of NBA basketball… all four games were decided by 11 points or more. To be honest, it was kind of a boring day of NBA basketball. Fortunately, the football game turned out a little better (aside from that god-awful halftime show). The NFL doesn’t really do it for me, but I genuinely enjoyed watching the game and munching on some pizza. I was happy it went down to the wire, and I was happy the Packers came away victorious… not because I’m a Packers fan, but because my dad is. Our home wouldn’t have been a pleasent place to be in the case of a Steelers’ victory, that’s for damn sure. Congratulations to Aaron Rodgers on his new Camaro convertible. I wouldn’t mind having one of those myself, but this blog isn’t bringing in car money… yet.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: Griffin misses what would’ve been the alley-oop of the century. He did not miss this windmill. Or this putback. Chris Bosh tries to immitate. Paul George putback slam. Lou Williams steals, Iggy finishes it off. Iggy finds Thad Young and hits him with the fancy dish. KG hits Paul Pierce for the slam. Top 10 plays. Dwight’s over-the-glass shot deserved better than number 10.
- Rajon Rondo did something he should probably do more often: he aggressively looked to score, and it worked out well for the Celtics. Although he had six turnovers, Rajon’s team-high 26 points came on an efficient 9-15 from the floor and 7-9 from the line. He confidently knocked down a couple jumpers, but when he scores 26 points you know most of the damage was done in the paint. Dwight Howard didn’t block a single shot in the game, and obviously didn’t effect Rondo’s ability to score at the rim. You can’t be too mad at the guy, though… he kept Orlando in it for one half, the only half they were in it for. Howard scored 22 of his 28 before halftime, but the Celtics held him to just six points after the break, and no other Orlando player got anything going at all. The Magic lost this game because they couldn’t hit a jumpshot: 34 percent from the floor and 3-24 from downtown (Hedo Turkeyglue, bonafide scrub: 1-10, 0-4 threes) isn’t going to get it done against the Boston Celtics. After trailing by just three at halftime, their offense completely fell apart and they ended up losing by 11 (91-80). In case you’re still wondering, Marquis Daniels, who left on a stretcher, is alright. He’s got a bruised spinal cord and is expected to miss one or two months of basketball, but no serious harm was done.
- The Heat avenged their road loss to the Clippers by putting the clamps on them in Miami. LA was held to 79 points, 33 percent shooting, and under 20 points in all but the third quarter in the 79-97 beating. Both teams got off to shaky starts–it really did look like a game that started at noon–but while Miami had their game together by the second quarter, the Clipps never really got anything going at all. Blake Griffin missed more easy looks around the rim than I’ve ever seen him miss in one game before. He went just 7-17 from the field, but did lead the Clipps with 21 points and 16 boards. LeBron James had a really quiet night with 12/6/4, but when you play with Dwyane Wade you can get away with that. Wade scored 28 points, grabbed eight boards, and dished eight assists. Eddie House came up big off the bench with 15 points, 11 of which came in the fourth quarter, putting the game out of reach. House has been excellent since returning to the rotation after spending almost the entire month of December and the first half of January on the bench. Eddie is shooting 52 percent since he was let out of the doghouse on the 13th of January. I do have a little beef with the guy, though: he bumped Blake Griffin on an attempted alley-oop late in yesterday’s game. It wasn’t nearly as bad as some of the fouls that have been put on Griffin, but it was called a flagrant one. Blake gets hit with these non-basketball-play types of fouls far too often, and one of these days he’s going to get hurt. Give Griffin credit for fighting through the abuse… he’s never lost his cool and he hasn’t gone away from playing his high-flying style.
- Amare Stoudemire stepped up with 41 points to make sure the Knicks didn’t drop two in a row to the Sixers. Spike Lee’s hero (Landry Fields) knocked down five threes on his way to 25 points (and another 10 boards, this guy’s amazing). New York didn’t defend well, allowing 103 points on 54 percent shooting, but they couldn’t be stopped, either. Stoudemire’s 41 led a 117-point, 59.7-percent offensive onslaught. This was a big win for New York, who had lost 10 of their last 15. These teams will be battling for the sixth seed in the East over the second half of the season, which will likely turn out to be a duel to see who dodges Miami and Boston in the first round. I guess it doesn’t really matter, because neither of these squads have an ice cube’s chance in Hell against Chicago anyway.
- The Pacers won their fourth game in a row… which isn’t very impressive when you consider the competition. First they beat the Craptors, then the Cavaliers, and now the Nets. There was a solid victory over Portland mixed in there, I’ll give them credit for that one. Yesterday’s 105-86 stomping of the Nets didn’t even require the services of Danny Granger and Roy Hibbert, who combined for just 22 points. Dahntay Jones, Paul George, and Mike Dunleavy were like a three-headed monster, each of them scoring 14 or more. Dahntay went 7-10 from the field, Paul had a couple monster dunks, and Dunny JR knocked down five of six from long distance. New Jersey could’ve helped themselves by making some freethrows… they tossed nine bricks in 21 tries. After the game, Dahntay Jones explained how Frank Vogel has got the Pacers playing better: “He always has positive things to say. He tries to make you feel special. He’s giving a lot of guys confidence. …What Frank is doing is making sure that every day starts with a compliment and that’s what we need.” Uh… this is basketball we’re talking about, right?
Quote of the Day: LeBron James being the Miami LeBron James. From the AP’s game recap…
House left his mark on the Clippers in the fourth. He fouled Griffin on a fast break with 7:08 left, sending the presumptive rookie of the year sliding into the basket support.
“Barely pushed him,” James insisted to his longtime manager, Maverick Carter, who was sitting courtside.
Crew chief Ed Malloy huddled with referees Eric Lewis and Tommy Nunez Jr., who determined House’s foul merited an ejection as a Flagrant-2. They also gave Davis a technical for the way he reacted to the play, then went to a lengthy video review.
“I’ve got a Super Bowl party, man,” James yelled at them. “C’mon.”
Oh sh!t, call the game, LeBron’s got places to be! I’m getting tired of this dude acting so f@cking important. He’s made himself awfully difficult to like since packing up his talents.
Photo of the Day:
Pierce: Nice take Rajon.
Allen: Way to be aggressive.
Baby: Yo, that guy’s pizza’s looking scrumptious…
Garnett: $^%& #@%& $@*# %@$# %*$@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL at the photo of the day captions
DD