I’ve been trying to figure out how many times Paul Pierce dunked in the ’09/10 season for the past 30 minutes. I’ve searched google, 82games.com, cbs sports, etc… and I can’t for the life of me find that statistic. Why am I even looking for such a number, you might ask? Well, it seems to me that Paul Pierce is dunking a lot more frequently this season than he has in the recent past. Every time I watch a Cs game P2 is throwing down. He threw this one down last night, and he dropped this hammer a couple nights back. He has 28 dunks so far this season, and I’m curious as to how that number compares to last season. Any Cs fans out there care to help a blogger out? I’d really appreciate it.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: DeAndre Jordan with one of his… I can’t even remember how many dunks. Nazr Mohammed dunks on top of Mo Speights. Speights gets his. Manu Ginobili puts a sick move on Jason Maxiell. Jared Jeffries lobs one to Landry Fields. Dwight Howard goes up and over DeMarcus Cousins. Chris Wilcox looking vintage. Ryan Hollins… inspected, rejected. Gerald Henderson with a layup worth watching. And last but not least, here is Evan Turner with some hustle that deserves the embedded video treatment…
- I do a lot of talking about the flashy aspects of the game here at NBA247365.COM, but don’t get it twisted, I also recognize the value of a player who does the dirty work. That’s some excellent stuff from Turner in that video.
- The Knicks appeared to be on their way to an easy victory over the Memphis Grizzlies. They led by 14 as they inbounded the ball to start the fourth quarter, and they hadn’t trailed since the first. What happened next shows precisely why you can’t rely strictly on your offense to win games, as well as why you can’t start settling for jumpers with 12 minutes left in an NBA game, where it seems as if almost no lead is safe. New York missed their next seven shots… six of which were threes or midrange js… the other a runner by Anthony Carter that was erased by Sam Young. This four-and-a-half-minute drought allowed Memphis to cut the lead in half, and another Knick slump that essentially lasted the final three minutes and 30 seconds had the score all tied up at 108. The Grizzlies scored 10 of this game’s final 12 points. Fortunately for New York, the only bucket they got in the final 3:35 was the one that follows:
- Tough break for the Grizzlies… they’ve been playing very well lately and made a hell of a comeback in this game. I feel bad for Tony Allen. He couldn’t have defended Carmelo any better on that play. He forced the step back and got a hand in his face, but good offense beats good defense. Melo connected on an unguardable shot (as he tends to do in crunch time). It was fitting that it came down to Melo vs TA on the final possession… they led their respective teams with 31 and 22 points. Amazingly, the Knicks won this game with 29 fewer makes from the stripe than the Grizzlies. Memphis got to the stripe 35 times, connecting on 33 occasions. The Knicks went 4 of 4. I’d love to know what the winning percentage is for a teams that attempt four freethrows in a game… it can’t be good. They made up the difference by knocking down 12 of 24 threes… but this is why they are nothing but pretenders as of right now. Live by the three, die by the three.
- I was curious to see how DeMarcus Cousins would fare against Dwight Howard last night, so even though I was tired I stayed up late for the west coast special. I’m glad I did, and I came away very impressed by Cousins’ effort. I’m not just saying that because he dropped a career-high 29, either. Dwight Howard makes most of his opponents look physically inferior, but I can’t say he did that on this occasion. He was able to out-leap DeMarcus to catch one lob, but it certainly didn’t appear as if Superman Jr was playing his little brother on a nerf hoop… which is precisely what it looks like with most opposing bigs. As for the offensive end, DeMarcus’s 29 points pretty much do the talking. He was able to get comfortable looks against Dwight and didn’t appear to be rattled by his athleticism. Howard had a routine game with 16 points and 15 boards on 4-8, so it’s not like Cousins tooled on him or anything, but it was a promising performance from the young man. If he is able to get his head screwed on straight and put in some work on his conditioning I feel that the sky is the limit. He’s huge, he’s talented, and he’s confident. A splash of maturity and a little hard work will make this guy an elite center… it will simply come down to whether or not he wants it. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, there was a game going on here… Orlando won it by four, 106-102. Jameer Nelson scored 26 points. Twelve of those came in the final six minutes of the game as Orlando came back and took the lead. Orlando missed 14 of 32 freethrows, but made 10 of 23 threes.
- Kevin Durant forced an extra period in Philly…
- …which they won 9-4, resulting in their 40th victory of the season. KD scored 34, Russell Westbrook dropped 27, and Nick Collison kicked in 13/10 off the bench in the 110-105 victory. Lou Williams gave the Sixers a five-point lead with nine straight points between the four and two minute marks of the fourth, but the Sixers failed to score the rest of the way in regulation, allowing KD to score the five points that forced OT. Durant also racked up 16 boards in this one.
- Kevin Love (16 points, 21 boards) broke Moses Malone’s post-merger NBA record for consecutive double-doubles (52) as the Timberwolves beat up on the Pace Makers 101-75. I’m happy for Kevin that his historical night came along with a victory. Every time I hear him talk about the streak on NBAtv the first thing he mentions is that he cares about winning first and how disappointed he is that his numbers aren’t resulting in more victories. It’s almost as if he feels guilty that he’s getting so much individual attention. I don’t get the feeling that it’s an act, either… this guy is a hard worker who wants to win basketball games… the T-Wolves just aren’t a very good team. For those people who want to write this streak off because of Minny’s suckiness, consider this: How many garbage teams have there been since 1976? How many guys have averaged 21 and 16? These numbers simply don’t happen in this era of NBA basketball. What Love is doing is incredible, and his detractors need to STFU.
- DeAndre Jordan dropped four first-period hammers as the Clippers busted out of the gate with a 30-point first quarter against the Celtics. So they’re going to blow it later on like they normally do, right? Wrong. The Clipps had extended the lead to 18 by halftime, and were still up 10 when the third quarter buzzer sounded. The Cs would get it down to three with some stellar last-minute three-point shooting, but they just couldn’t quite get over the hump… and you’ve got to credit the Clippers for hitting big shots and making their freethrows (perfect 9-9 in the final six minutes). They say every team has a run in them, and you know a team as good as Boston is no exception to that rule. I wasn’t at all disappointed in the Clipps when the lead was cut to three… you pretty much knew it was going to happen… I was just very impressed with their composure as they held on. Mo Williams hit a monster three with 2:46 left as he lit Rajon Rondo and Carlos Arroyo up for 28 points. DeAndre Jordan made 9 of 10 shots as he dunked his way to 21 points. The Clipps shot 52 percent from the field and knocked down 9 of 20 triples. Nenad Krstic had 20 points and nine boards for Boston, but he also allowed DeAndre Jordan to neutralize that production.
- The Other Games: Jarrett Jack knocked down three freethrows to put the Hornets over the Mavs 93-92. He had 21 points in the game as he continues to fill in for Chris Paul. The Nets out-scored the Warriors 20-13 in the fourth and picked up a 94-90 W. Brook Lopez recorded his second consecutive double-double.
- Al Jefferson scored 34 points and beat the Craptors with a game-winning tip. Reggie Evans played for the first time since November 26th and grabbed 11 boards. The Bulls beat the Bobcats 101-84, but Kwame Brown put a hard foul on Carlos Boozer that left his with a sprained ankle… x-rays negative. Milwaukee got 18 points from little Earl Boykins as they beat the Cavaliers 110-90. The Spurs shot 64 percent from the field and beat the Pistons 111-104. Tony Parker led the way with 23 points.
Quote of the Day: Gilbert Arenas on Jameer Nelson…
“I call it wonderman basketball. He’s out there, but he’s not out there.”
What does that even mean? It must be a compliment because Jameer basically won this game for the Magic… but that’s about all I got out of it. A little clarification, Gil?
Photo of the Day:
