…because that’s mostly what this post will consist of. I’m feeling a mild case of the writer’s block, and I think embedded videos will be more effective than my words on this occasion. Ah crap, I like to make this intro section a little longer than two lines… what to say… hm… oh, this has nothing to do with the NBA, but who saw what that guy cheerleader from Louisville did? His tossing of the ball resulted in two technical freethrows for Pittsburgh, which put them down just three, giving them a chance to tie it up. Fortunately for the fruitcake, Pitt missed on a halfcourt heave at the buzzer. I’m sorry, but guys shouldn’t be cheerleaders, and girls shouldn’t be players. Basketball is basketball my ass… GTFO WNBA!
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap, LeBron James Edition:
- SMH @ Ericka Dampier. You catch a pass like that and you’ve got to drop the damn hammer. That dunk was some serious weak-sauce. C’mon son! (I’ve been watching this guy for the past few hours. He’s hilarious.)
- Highlight Recap, Everyone Else Edition: Andre Iguodala with a weird putback dunk. Russell Westbrook kinda tools on Kobe and proceeds to throw it down. I can’t seem to find much else for some reason… YouTubers appear to have been slacking last night. Here are the top 10 plays.
- Lowlight Recap, Iggy’s making a habbit of this Edition:
- Channing Frye, who has been hotter than the hinges of hell as of late, knocked down the first game-winning buzzer-beater of his career to put the Suns over Pacers 110-108 in OT.
- Frye actually posted his lowest scoring total in his last six games (14 points), but he connected on three of seven triples and obviously knocked down the big one. Grant Hill carried the Suns early, scoring 20 in the first half. He finished with 34/9/4 on 14-26. Keep in mind that this guy is damn near 40 years old, he has an ankle full of hardware, and he did those numbers while checking Danny Granger. Incredible. Speaking of Danny Granger, he led the Pacers with 25 points on 8-17. Phoenix led by as many as 13 in the third and by 10 at the start of the fourth, but they were only able to muster three points in the final five minutes. Frye then took over with eight points in the OT. Channing credits his fortune to the Basketball Gods: “I was tired. I was like, ‘God, if you can let me make this shot… ’ I’ve never asked for anything like that before, and what do you know? He gives me a game-winner.”
- The Knicks trailed by 15 at the four minute mark of the second quarter, yet they led by one at the half thanks to a 16-0 run which was capped by this momentum-builder from Bill Walker…
- That made it 52-51 New York. The Knicks would only score 39 points in the second half, yet they won this game by five points… dare I say that their defense won them this game? See for yourself…
- Not only that, the Knicks held Miami to 36 percent from the field and forced 10 turnovers in the second half. Impressive effort from New York, but I still don’t think anyone out there is feeling like they can do this nightly. Mike D’Antoni knows it ain’t happening: “The bigger the game, the bigger the stage, the bigger they play.” …that’ll keep ‘em losing 120-125 to the Clevelands, Minnesotas, and Torontos of the world. Word to Tony Allen. I should probably give you a few numbers here… Carmelo Anthony was the game’s leading scorer with 29. Chauncey Billups scored 16 and came up with two huge steals. LeBron led the Heat with 25 on 10-20, but two of his misses were big ones. You’ve seen the blocked layup, and he also missed another three. At least it was a lot closer than the one against Chicago. Fun fact: only two teams have worse records than Miami in games decided by five or less: Minnesota and Philly. Ehem… one of these things is not like the other one…
- The Minnesota Timberwolves hosted the Golden State Warriors in a game which resulted in 249 total points. Anyone care to take a stab at Kevin Love’s numbers? I’ll give you a hint: he posted his fourth 30/20 game of the season (the rest of the NBA has combined for a total of one, courtesy of Pau Gasol). Okay, did you happen to go with 37 points and 23 boards? If so, you’ve won absolutely nothing, but you’re right on the money! Kevin Love’s 8,645,109th consecutive double-double (I’m sorry but I lost count at 44) resulted in a Timberwolf win, their first in eight tries. Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 33 points, and my main man Dorell Wright notched 26, although he needed 20 shots and 12 three-point attempts to get that done. Lids were placed on the buckets late as a total of two points were scored in the final 1:40 of this one… both of them on freethrows by Anthony Tolliver.
- The Thunder dropped their sixth nationally-televised game in a row with a 90-87 L to the Lakers. OKC was looking pretty good up five with 56 points at halftime, but a near six-minute stretch of the third where they scored just one bucket cost them the lead (and ultimately the game… both teams scored 18 points in the fourth). Similar to the T-Wolves game, only one bucket was scored in the final two minutes… but it was a jumper by Kobe Bryant rather than freethrows from Anthony Tolliver. Oklahoma City had two pretty good shots to tie the game as the clock was within ten seconds of expiring, but Kevin Durant and James Harden’s beard both rimmed out threes. Kobe didn’t play particularly well with 17 points on 22 shots. Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol got the job done with a pair of double-doubles (16/10, 18/11). The Thunder somehow outrebounded LA as a team, but cost themselves with 19 TOs that resulted in 22 Laker points.
- For just the seventh time this season (in 33 tries) Gilbert Arenas made over half of his shots. Gilbo, who hadn’t made a three since February 8th or shot 50 percent since January 22nd, made five of seven shots and four of six threes for 16 points, his best scoring effort since a December 2010 game at Cleveland. Said JJ Redick: “Everybody is going to go through slumps. Gilbert stayed aggressive and that’s all you can really ask of him. Tonight he got it going and it was fun to see. It really was.” I’d ask him to shoot less and throw the ball to that Dwight Howard guy more, but whatever, we all have our opinions. Speaking of Dwight Howard, he put up another 20/10 in the 100-86 Orlando win.
- The Other Games: Philly moved one game over .500 with a 95-91 win over the Cavaliers. Cleveland shot themselves in the foot with 11 missed freethrows. The Craptors failed to score 100 without the services of Andrea Bargnani… and you know they aren’t holding the Mavs under 100. They lost by 18… Dirk scored 31 and the bench tacked on 64 (none of which came from my main man DeShawn Stevenson, who’s minutes have evaporated. Come on Carlisle, what the hell man?!) Zach Randolph did what Zach Randolph does (24/17), but in a losing effort… 95-88 at the hands of the Tony Parker-less Spurs. Z-Bo and company shot just 37.5 percent. Manu Ginobili dropped 35. The Rockets came back from ten down at the start of the fourth to beat the Hornets 91-89. Kevin Martin was the game’s leading scorer with 33 points on 13-13 freethrowing. Gerald Wallace’s Blazer debut could’ve gone better… he went 4-12, his team went 32-82, and they lost by seven to the Hawks.
Quote of the Day: I cannot find a single quote from last night’s action that is at all worth your time… so I will instead hit you with a video that I find rather hilarious…
Photo of the Day:
