And an expensive one at that, because there’s no f@cking way that this should’ve been called an offensive foul…
First of all, Gortat slides in after Griffin is already making his insanely explosive move to the rack. Secondly, his left foot is in the circle. Barely, but it’s on the line. Thirdly, who the hell calls an offensive foul on a play like that? You just don’t do it. I don’t even care if he did run Gortat over… don’t call a dunk of that magnitude a chrage. Ever.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: Shannon Brown sighting. Patrick Patterson attempts to tear the rim down. Patrick Patterson to CJ Miles: GTFO! Gordon Hayward putback slam. James Johnson puts a little extra on this slam. John Wall finds Javale McGee. Anthony Randolph cleans up Luke Ridnour’s mess. Rodrigue Beaubois gets fancy on the break. T-Mac lives. So does cousin Wince.
- I honestly don’t even care to elaborate on the Clippers game because that horrendous call by Mr. Javie totally took the wind out of my sails. Blake Griffin fouled out on the play, which followed a few other questionable calls, and basically the whole thing just sucked. Blake struggled to earn 17 points on 6-18 and grabbed a career-low two rebounds. The young man is certainly sputtering towards the finish line, but hey, he’s still playing much better than I ever expected. The only reason his play has been a little disappointing lately is because it was so insanely good for the first four months of the season. The Clipps were actually doomed from the start of this contest anyway, now that I think about it. Chris Kaveman was forced to start in place of DeAndre Jordan, who was sick. Kaveman recorded 21/11 on 9-16… but no matter the numbers I feel that the Clipps are a much better team with DeAndre on the floor. Jordan is a freakish athlete with defensive capabilities that the far less physically blessed Kaveman has never dreamed of possessing. Jordan will also give you all of his seven of his PPG without a single play being run his way. He’ll catch any lob thrown within a half mile of the rim and clean up lots of garbage tossed up by other Clippers. Okay, I’ve gone completely off course here… Steve Nash led Phoenix with an efficient 23 points, 7 boards, and 13 assists. Phoenix’s bench out-scored LA’s 51-30. Marcin Gortat led that effort with 17 points, 13 boards, and that “charge” that he drew.
- The Dallas Mavericks stuck my main man DeShawn Stevenson back in the starting lineup and beat the Warriors by 28. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Dallas is now 37-14 when he starts (37-7 if you don’t count the games that Dirk missed). Stevenson scored just eight points tonight, but his 16 minutes and 17 seconds of lockdown defense led a stellar Mavs effort which held the high-powered Warriors to just 73 points on 35 percent from the floor. Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis were totally shook by DeShawn’s presence; they combined for just 29 points on 11-30 with five turnovers. Dallas’ bench contributed 43 points, including 17 from Peja Stojakovic. Said Predrag: “I wanted to come off the bench ready, and was able to hit some shots in transition. I need to spread the floor and be a threat out there.”
- Uh oh, the Knicks lost again… and to the Bucks, too. Yikes. This second consecutive loss to a sub-.500 team puts New York at 7-8 since the Melo deal… and they’ve got Boston and Orlando coming up next. Man, they’re lucky the bottom two thirds of the East suck so bad. They’d be in something like 12th place out West. The final score of this one was 100-95, Milwaukee. Carlos Delfino knocked down six triples on his way to a career-high 30 points. Melo added to the heat he will certainly take from his growing band of detractors by airballing a highly-contested three while falling out of bounds down four with 13 seconds left. The Knicks shot 38.6 percent from the field and were way out-scored from the stripe, but I don’t even want to talk about that. They scored 95 points. That should be more than enough to beat the offensively-challenged Milwaukee Bucks (seriously, they only average 91.3 per game). These guys don’t play a lick of defense, and I’m quite honestly tired of saying that every single time I have to go over one of their games. I might have to start throwing them into the “other games” section… I’ve got nothing left to say.
- The Craptors choked a double-digit lead to the Thunder, but Young Gun Amir Johnson came through with 1.4 seconds on the clock…
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Kevin Durant proceeded to launch an airball, and Toronto snapped their Wizard-like 14-game road losing streak. Andrea Bargnani led the way in the 95-93 victory with 23 points and five boards… the most he’s recorded in a week or so. James Harden’s beard led OKC with 23 of it’s own off the bench. The league’s premier freethrow-shooting team cost themselves with seven bricks from the stripe. Twelve bricks from distance and 45 bricks in general didn’t help their cause either. Your man Kendrick Perkins was only able to put up five points. A brief list of big ballers (PF/Cs) who have recorded over five points on the Craptor frontcourt this month: Yi Jingaling, Benedict Wallets, Chris Wilcox, and Kwamay Brown. Okay, so Kendrick’s role isn’t to score, and he did grab 12 rebounds. Guess what? I don’t give a sh!t. You can’t manage double figures against Andrea and company? You suck.
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Some QUALITY garbage time from Sacramento’s 127-95 beating of the Minnesota Timberwolves…
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Amazingly, Minnesota was within striking distance (down just 10) with one quarter to go. DeMarcus Cousins had just been tossed after 20 unproductive minutes, and a signature Sacramento choke-job appeared hardly out of the realm of possibility. What happened next was rather surprising… the Kings pulled off a 21-0 run that emptied the Target Center out early. Donte Greene gave us his monthly teaser with 13 points in 15 minutes, including a few buckets during that huge run. Samuel Dumblembert led the Kings with 26 points and 17 boards… I refuse to say anything further about this game.
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The Other Games: The Wizards were dominated by Jordan Farmar (10/17) and Kris Humpries (18/17) in a 92-98 home loss to the Nets. Washington shot 52 percent from the field, but they gave up 21 offensive boards… mostly to Humphries, who recorded his (I think) eighth consecutive double-double. All five starters scored in double figures for the Hawks as they beat the Pistons 104-96. T-Mac apparently decided to call it a night after that dunk from the highlight recap; he went for four points on 2-8 in 26 minutes. The Rockets (Kyle Lowry and Kevin Martin) went 12-12 from the stripe in the final minute, allowing Houston to sneak past Utah 110-108. Martin made 18 of 18 freethrows in the game as he scored 34 points. Lowry added 28 of his own. Ron Artest is… Ron Artest:
- Fortunately for LA, Artest’s idiotic actions late in the close game didn’t cost them. The Lakers took their 12th win of their last 13, 84-80. Portland has lost their season series with LA for the first time since ’04/05.
Quote of the Day: Marcin Gortat on Blake Griffin’s dunk charge…
“I was just standing there, and I hoped he wasn’t going to crush my face.”
^Quote of the year.
“I think it was a good charge. I think it was the right call.”
Of course you do, because otherwise it would’ve been a legal crushing of your face.
Photo of the Day: The Washington Wizards have mastered the whole pregame swag/player intros thing…
…it’s the 48 minutes that follow where things tend to go awry.
