Down a few starters and double digits at halftime, the Grizzlies needed someone to step it up. Tony Allen, who averages 6.5 PPG in 16 minutes a night, gave his team 40 minutes of heart and hustle. He bothered Kevin Durant on defense and contributed over four times what he normally does on offense. I’m thrilled that I caught a large portion of this game. On top of the fact that it ended in exciting fashion, Tony put on a hell of a show… a different kind of show, though. It wasn’t really a highlight-reel performance… it was just 40 minutes of hard work. Very refreshing to watch.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap, LeBron James Edition: Dunk #1. Dunk #2. Dunk #3. Dunk #4.
- Highlight Recap, Dwight Howard is a f@cking freakazoid Edition:
- Highlight Recap, Everyone Else Edition: Randy Foye drives JJ Redick to the hardwood with a crossover. Will Bynum throws it down. James Harden’s beard drives baseline and slams one down. Even in his bad games, Blake Griffin finds a way to entertain. My main man Sonny Weems missed, but Amir Johnson certainly did not. Courtney Lee steals and slams. Top 10 plays. “LeBoom”? Seriously?
- Lowlight Recap: This is about the only thing that went wrong for the Sixers last night…
- On the road, without OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay, and faced with the task of defeating a Thunder team that had won five of their last six, the Grizzlies came through… mostly because Tony Allen came through. Tony was presented with an opportunity to play a bigger-than-usual role, and he damn sure took advantage it… on both ends. He gave the Grizzlies 27 points as he attacked the basket with reckless abandon, all the while forcing Kevin Durant to work for all 12 of his buckets. KD did finish with 31 on some very respectable 12-25 shooting, but keep in mind that he is the league’s leading scorer playing in a game that went five extra minutes. Allen forced a key airball from Durant late in the fourth, and he also accounted for 5 of Memphis’ 11 steals. On the possession that preceeded Durant’s airball, Tony scored the bucket and freethrow that ended up forcing OT. Zach Randolph came up huge offensively with 31 points (which included the bucket that put Memphis up 102-99 with 28 seconds left in OT), but that type of production from Z-Bo is expected. TA’s known as a hustler and lock-down defender, but the 27 points came out of nowhere. It was by far his best effort of the season offensively… the first time he’s reached 20 points. Here’s what OKC coach Scott Brooks thought of Allen’s performance: “The guy was an all-pro all night on both ends of the floor—27 points and he made Kevin work for every shot. I thought he won the game for them. Certain guys in this league compete every possession, and he’s one of them. He competes every possession, and I love guys that hate getting scored on.” Amen, Scottie. I’ve never understood how getting scored on can not bother a basketball player… yet there’s so many guys who don’t play as hard as they could on defense. I find that many players on all levels of basketball seem to feel like defense means getting the two points that they just allowed due to laziness back on the other end. That attitude disgusts me. /Rant. Man, I got so carried away yapping about Tony Allen, defense, and all that good stuff… I don’t think I ever even gave you the final score. Memphis ended up winning 105-101. This was OKC’s 10th overtime game this season. They’re now 8-2 when extra time is involved.
- Kevin Love set a T-Wolves franchise record with his 38th consecutive double-double, and his 20/14 helped to start another streak: Minnesota’s won two in a row! The Rockets couldn’t keep up with Minny’s 51 percent shooting, which resulted in a 112-point night. The Rockets shot a respectable 45 percent, but cost themselves with 21 bricks from beyond the arc. Led by Kevin Martin’s 23, Courtney Lee’s 23, and Luis Scola’s 22, the Rockets still put 108 points on the board, but that obviously wasn’t quite enough. Aaron Brooks went 1-8 from the floor and 0-5 from three… he’s been struggling for a while now. Wayne Ellington had a nice game off the bench for the Wolves with 18 points on 6-10.
- LeBron James kept the Heat in striking distance and ultimately put the Pacers to bed with his 41/13/8. As the Heat came back from a 10-point defecit with 13 minutes to go, the King was quiet. Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, and Mike miller did most of the scoring for the first 10:54 of the fourth, the span in which Miami closed the gap and took a two-point lead. LeBron then proceeded to put the lid on it by scoring seven of Miami’s last nine over the final 2:06. Down three with eight seconds left, the Pacers weren’t able to get the ball inbounded, resulting in a turnover. Eddie House would then knock down a couple freethrows to put the game completely out of reach. Roy Hibbert led Indy with 20/10.
- I’m sitting here listening to Skip Brainless of ESPN yap about how a team can’t be built around Blake Griffin, how he has no game outside of five feet, and how “easily-impressed internet fans” (is he talking about me?) don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. This other dude is saying that Griff may not be the best player on his own team. With all due respect to my man Eric Gordon, this is why I normally don’t watch ESPN. That being said, this is a world of knee-jerk reactions, and Blake’s latest game wasn’t a good one. He went 4-12 from the floor for just 10 points and 12 boards. He missed a variety of shots in the paint as well as both of his midrange jumpers. Now, I’m not saying Blake doesn’t have some work to do, but to say he has “no game” outside of five feet is pretty stupid. He’s displayed a solid ability to hit some jumpers, great ball handling skills in the open court, and excellent passing skills. He does struggle with big, tall frontcourts sometimes, but can we keep in mind that this dude is a rookie? He’s been absolutely unbelieveable, but he’s still just a first-year player. I don’t think the kid should be getting lit up on TV over one bad game, but I guess that’s a biproduct of all the hype he’s received. Some analysts are probably dying to criticize him at this point because there haven’t been many opportunities to do so. Maybe he was just trying to get the audience’s attention (clearly it worked, I’m sitting here talking about it), but I certainly don’t think there’s any basis for Skip’s claim that a team built around Blake Griffin will never win. Anyway, f@ck that, the dude is a bonehead as far as I’m concerned. Dwight Howard led the Magic to their 101-85 victory with his 22 points and 20 boards. Orlando didn’t light it up with their 43 percent shooting (10-30 from three), but that’ll get it done when the other guys can’t buy a bucket. Los Angeles shot just 39 percent.
- The other games: Philly jumped out to a 65-33 halftime lead and beat the Hawks 117-83. Lou Williams was the game’s leading scorer with 20 points off the bench. ATL’s 32-point halftime defecit was their largest ever in a home game. The Spurs rolled in an 11-point victory over the Pistons. Tony Parker made seven of eight shots and led San Antonio with 19 points. Rip Hamilton didn’t play, but it wasn’t a coach’s decision… apparently he pulled his groin. The Craptors shot 36 percent as they clanked three after three after three in a 74-92 loss at Milwaukee. I could’ve tacked on seven more “after three”s… Toronto went 0-10 from downtown.
Quote of the Day: Tony Allen isn’t used to being the guy who does the postgame interview…
…but I love it, because he was speaking almost as passionately as he played. No cookie-cutter answers from TA, that was some real sh!t.
Photo of the Day:
