Jr was having a rather ordinary game through three quarters. He had knocked down a pair of triples and scored 10 points, but there was no indication that he was about to turn that 10 into 31 over the following 12 minutes. The game was decided at the time, so I guess JR figured it was okay to get expirimental and switch up his strategy. Here’s how he explains it:
“Everybody’s been telling me to catch and shoot and stop trying to make plays off the dribble. The last month and a half, two months, I’ve been passing up a lot of open 3s to get to the basket. Everybody wants me to catch and shoot, so that’s what I did tonight.”
Catch and shoot is indeed what he did… 12 times from distance in the fourth quarter alone. He connected on 7 of those 12 bombs, and to George Karl’s dismay he continued to fire away right down to the final buzzer. Karl actually called for a timeout in the closing minutes after JR had pulled up and launched from about five feet behind the line. He had gotten a rebound and was clearly about to pull up for another try, and I’m 99 percent sure that’s why Karl stopped the game. JR wasn’t taken out, though, so you don’t really think he was done, do you? Hell nah… he fired two more in the final 40 seconds, including a 41-footer at the buzzer in a 30-point game. Gotta love JR Smith… no shame whatsoever.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: DeMarcus Cousins gets his Steve Nash on. Joel Anthony gets his LeBron James on. John Wall probably wishes he hadn’t attempted this shot. Javale McGee alley-oops in the vicinity of Blake Griffin. Griffin gets his. LeBron throws down with force. The top 10 includes most of those plays and more.
- Lowlight Recap: Hey LeBron, you may want to watch where you’re going while you try to earn foul calls…
- It wasn’t just JR Smith banging down threes as the Nuggets beat the Pistons 131-101. Denver hit a franchise-record 18 triples, but JR was only responsible for half of them. Ty Lawson hit three, Gary Forbes connected on a couple, as did Raymond Felton. Wilson Chandler and Al Harrington each hit one. Eight Nuggets scored in double figures in this game as they shot 56 percent as a team. Keep in mind that they did this without the help of Danilo Gallinari and Arron Afflolo, two of their better long-range shooters. Denver has done a really nice job sharing the shots amongst their many scorers since the Carmelo Anthony trade. They’ve had no fewer than five players score in double figures in five of their last six, and they are also averaging 26.3 assists per game over that stretch. To give you a little perspective: 26.3 APG would easily lead the NBA. Denver is just 14th in the league in assists on the season with an average of 21.8. This team isn’t as good as the ’08/09 squad, but I definitely feel that they’re better than they were with Carmelo this season. One final note on this game: Rip Hamilton was in the starting lineup. I’m not sure what that means… but I felt that it needed to be said.
- Everybody’s talking about Miami’s 118-85 win over the Grizzlies. The 33-point margin of victory made it their most lopsided win of the season, and I’m sure it felt great seeing as it came just one game removed from that disasterous five-game stretch where LeBron clunked all of the game-winners. They set a season high with 11 blocked shots (five by Wade), they shot 58 percent from the field, Mike Bibby dropped 17, and they knocked down 12 of 19 threes. Excellent numbers all around. That being said, none of it tells us anything we didn’t already know about the Heat. They are more than capable of kicking the sh!t out of average teams. They’ve been doing it all season long… that’s why they currently stand at 45-21 even though they’ve lost damn near every one of their games against the league’s other top teams (0-3 vs CHI, 0-2 vs DAL, 0-3 vs BOS, etc.). So… I’m not going to do much talking about this one. A 33-point victory is always impressive, but again, this doesn’t tell us anything about the Heat that we don’t already know. They are good enough to beat the crap out of ordinary teams. Old news.
- The Hawks trailed by five with 13 seconds to go in the first quarter. They didn’t even have the ball at the time, yet they would lead by one going into the second. How the hell does that happen? Ask Jeff Teague…
- Teague continued his tear with a career-high-matching 24 points (and five steals) as the Hawks took this one 91-82. The Blazers shot just 35 percent from the field, but were able to hang around by knocking down 21 of 25 freethrows.
- This does not look like an ankle roll that a guy returns from in any less than a few months’ time…
- Kobe somehow came away from that with no serious injury and was back in the game knockin’ down clutch buckets just a few minutes later. Bryant had another rough shooting night (6-20), but he hit a key step-back J in the face of Shawn Marion late in the fourth to help the Lakers hold on to beat the Mavs 96-91. Andrew Bynum was the story in this one with his 22 points and 15 boards. His presence also caused Jason Terry to miss a chippy down the stretch that pretty much sealed Dallas’ fate. The Mavs shot poorly; just 43 percent from the field and 4-16 from distance. Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Marion both played well with 25 points (and 10+ boards) each, but no one else stepped up. Dirk did have one key turnover late where he should have shot the ball but opted to try to pass to Tyson Chandler instead. Anyway… I’d be lying if I told you the Lakers don’t look damn good right now. They’ve won eight of their last nine and Andrew Bynum has been showing up on a regular basis. Watch out.
- Blake Griffin scored all 26 of his points in the first half… his services weren’t really needed from that point on as the Clipps ran away with a 122-101 victory in Washington. Eric Bledsoe’s plan was pretty much the opposite of Griffin’s… he scored 21 of his career-high 23 in the second half (including a variety of dunks… this kid is a freaky athlete). John Wall also had a big first half with 19 of his own, but he would quiet down a bit and finish up with 25/7/8.
- The Other Games: Chris Paul returned from his concussion and casually put 33/15 on Sacramento in a 115-103 New Orleans victory. Former Hornet Marcus Thornton led the Queens with 25, and former Queen Carl Landry dropped 20. I’d say that was a fair trade, eh? The Sixers slipped up and dropped one to the Bucks, 74-102. Milwaukee is now just a half game out of the playoffs, which makes me want to scrap the conference thing and simply send the league’s 16 best teams. The Spurs dropped 36 in the first and 34 more in the fourth as they beat the Rockets 115-107. San Antonio’s bench contributed 42 points. Derrick Rose and Luol Deng scored 26 each and combined to make eight three-balls in Chicago’s 118-100 victory. The Bulls have now won 9 of 10 and are tied with the Celtics for first in the East. I figure they’ll take the lead soon seeing as their next four games are against Washington, New Jersey, Indiana, and Sacramento. Ten of Chicago’s remaining 17 games are against sub-.500 teams, and they only have two games left against top four teams from either conference. I’m going to officially predict that the Chicago Bulls will win the East. I guaransheed it.
Quote of the Day: Kobe Bryant thought he was toast after he turned his ankle…
“I thought I was done, like done. I was praying that when I stood up, my foot was lined up straight. I thought I dislocated it.”
“I just walked around, let it settle in, then went back out. We were all pretty scared because it looked horrible and felt worse. When I stood up, I was happy it was still lined up. I walked around, my strength felt good. It was a little sore. But I had to stop being a chump, suck it up and go out and play.”
You know what is really sad? There were probably a lot of people out there hoping he was toast. The level of hatred that some fans feel towards certain athletes truly disturbs me. How one could wish injury on a man they’ve never met before over some basketball games… I’ll simply never understand nor condone that.
Photo of the Day: I’ve selected a lot of photos of guys dunking lately. Hopefully that doesn’t bother anybody.
