It’s been since, what, last Friday since I did one of these recap posts? It was a nice little vacation–I needed it–but I’m ready to get back to work. Anyway, the guy with the sign on the left makes a really solid point. The Nuggets realized that things with Melo had run their course and made a smart decision to trade him for young talent. Cleveland… I’m not saying they should’ve traded LeBron, no way, but I still haven’t heard anything about a potential trade involving Antawn Jamison, Mo Williams, or any of the other LeBron-era pieces that not longer make any sense. Progress… probably wouldn’t hurt for Dan Gilbert and friends to make a little.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap, Blake Griffin’s Ridonkulous Oop Edition:
- Highlight Recap, Top 10 Edition: The top 10 hasn’t been Youtubed yet… I’ll add it in a few hours. EDIT: Here it is. Great news… that annoying dude that usually narrates seems to have been replaced, at least temporarily…
- Apparently George Karl needs to make JR Smith the focal point of the Nuggets’ new offense, because Denver is undefeated when he launches 20 or more shots this season. JR and the Nuggets got the post-Melo era off to a nice start with a 120-107 victory over the Grizzlies. The new personnel is yet to arrive, so the aforementioned Smith had to be temporarily freed. He hadn’t played 40 minutes in a game all year until tonight’s win, and his 22 shots were a season high. He made nine of them on his way to a team-high 26 points (which included six threes). A variety of other Nuggets also posted great numbers in the blowout. Ty Lawson and Arron Afflolo dropped 21 each, Chris Andersen scored a season-high 15, and Nene also added 15. Al Harrington was one of the few Nuggets who played like crap, but he doesn’t care… he’s just happy that the Melo soap opera has concluded: “I’m just happy it’s over with. Period. We won’t have to answer these questions no more.” That’s wonderful, Al, and I’m happy for you. But can you please get your act together now? Melo’s gone, you should be doing numbers in the newly freed-up minutes. Oh, I couldn’t really fit this in anywhere, so I’m just going to tack in on now: Memphis dropped 34 points in the third quarter… and got outscored by seven. Said Zach Randolph:
- Speaking of bad defense, the Clippers played some against the Thunder, resulting in a 23-point loss in Blake Griffin’s homecoming game. Blake did manage to give his hometown fans a show despite the suckiness of his Clipps with 28 points, 11 boards, and 8 dishes. Chris Kaveman played 20 minutes in this game… I think that’s about 20 more than anyone wants to see him play… he went 3-9 and scored eight points. Baron Davis was terrible (1-8, two points), and LA’s other team simply blows without Eric Gordon. Their D has been bad all year, and without EG they have too many of these 88-point duds like tonight’s, resulting in ugly losses. In the 16 games Gordon has missed this season, the Clipps have failed to break 90 seven times. In the 41 games he played in? Seven times. They are yet to win a game this season without scoring at least 90 points. Oddly enough, the only team they’ve beaten without scoring 99 or more is the Spurs. As for the Thunder, Jeff Green led the way with 22 points. James Harden’s beard added 19 off the bench, and the victory was so lopsided that there was a Royal Ivey sighting for the second game in a row… this is the first time that’s happened in 2011. NBA247365.com, where Royal Ivey stats happen.
- I (unfortunately) spent two hours of my night watching the Celtics beat the Warriors 115-93. It was a good game for a little while, and I figured Bill Walton would entertain me if and when it got out of hand. I’m a huge fan of Bill Walton, but goddamn, he did nothing but sip Rajon Rondo’s Kool Aid for the entire freakin’ game. As you’re probably aware, I’m not exactly Rajon Rondo’s #1 fan, so something that would’ve annoyed the crap out of me in the first place ended up making me crave the voice of Tommy Heinsohn. A little slurping was warranted, I guess… Rondo had an excellent game, one of his aggressive games. He scored 19 points on 9-12 while dishing 15 assists to dudes like KG and P2, who had 24 and 23 points respectively. No Warrior played particularly well, and as a team they shot just 39 percent. Fun fact: Rajon Rondo also dropped 15 dimes last time the Celtics played the Warriors. He tacked on 30 points that night, too… but the Cs lost by four.
- Did anyone read my games to watch post for this week? Remember how I said that I can’t trust the Hawks on the road? Yeah? Well this is why: Atlanta shot 36 percent as they barely managed to make it to 80 points in a 24-point loss at Staples. The Lakers, who one could say needed a game like this, killed the Pigeons from the stripe as well as beyond the arc. Marvin Williams went 1-4 from three… his teammates went 0-11. The Lakers, on the other hand, connected on 6 of their 15 long-distance tries. LA also made 34 of 40 freethrows (15 more than ATL made). Because of these massive edges, the Lakers were able to win this game with just two more made shots than the Hawks on 16 fewer looks. Kobe Bryant was the game’s leading scorer with 20 points.
- In his first game as Miami’s starting center, Erick Dampier gave up 18 points and 13 boards to Samuel Dumblembert. See, Erick, this is why everyone makes fun of you. If you don’t want dudes like me and Shaq calling you Ericka, don’t be giving up double-doubles to the league’s stupidest player. Good thing for Damp the Heat won by 20 (107-97)… maybe coach Spo won’t notice that a scrub ate his lunch. LeBron James was the game’s leading scorer with 31. Both Wade and Bosh added 20+. Miami shot damn near 57 percent from the floor as they scored precisely 117 points for the third time in their last 10 games.
- The Other Games: The Wizards had 10 of their shots swatted and their asses handed to them 113-96 by the Pacers. Roy Hibbert had 4 of those 10 swats along with 16 points. My main man Sonny Weems dropped 19, but the Craptors lost the Crap Bowl by 13 to the Bobcraps. DJ Augustin was the game’s leading scorer with 23 points. Patrick Patterson (20 points) and Will Bynum (21 points) led their respective teams in scoring as the Rockets beat the Pistons 108-100 at The Palace. I did a double-take at the top performers section of the box score when I first clicked on it.
Quote of the Day: Bill Walton took a brief break from slurping Rajon Rondo to remind me how hard Andris Biedrins has fallen off…
“What does this guy Biedrins do? I’m not quite sure. He doesn’t shoot, he doesn’t rebound, he doesn’t pass, and he doesn’t screen… but he is tall and does have a nice tan.”
Photo of the Day:
Hey Jon Brockman! What did the five fingers say to the face?
SLAP!
