A random photo to go along with some random winning. I wonder how much money I could’ve won had I put a few hundred bucks on the Knicks and Wizards last night? I mean the Wizards winning on the road, and the Knicks winning any game? I guess KG was right: anything really is possible… including the Celtics dropping another game to a somewhat scrubby team. The NBA was completely backwards yesterday, basically: the Cs and Bulls lost, and the Wizards and Knicks won. Maybe that’s what the people of Utah were trying to signal in that photograph. “Hey, no! This day was supposed to go that way! That way!”
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: The top 10 pretty much has it covered…
- I’ve got some beef with the NBA regarding their top 10s. Why is it that every year there’s one player who has to make an appearance every single time he plays… even if he doesn’t do anything worth watching? I’m not talking about Blake Griffin; he earns his appearances. I’m talking about Derrick Rose. I love the guy and enjoy watching him play, but that layup at number five just wasn’t that special. It was two points, nothing more, nothing less. The guy is in the top 10 like every day with a layup, and half the time he’s either ranked waaaaay too high or just shouldn’t be in there at all. Give the guy the MVP, he’s deserving… but stop sticking his routine layups in the top 10! He’s become the new Kobe Bryant/Dwyane Wade. Dude hits a freethrow and it’s a top play. Stop it.
- Carmelo Anthony dropped 39 points and grabbed 10 boards, and more importantly his Knicks actually won a game; their first victory in seven tries. Melo dropped 11 of his 39 in the fourth as Knicks fans suddenly fell back in love with the guy and chanted “ME-LO!” He damn near won the game on a self pass off of the glass in the closing seconds, but his layup rimmed out. I should probably give J-Rich a little love for tying the game up on the previous possession. He clunked 7 of 11 triples on the night, but hit a big one with five seconds left. OT was all Knicks. Orlando only led for about 15 seconds at the very beginning, and they failed to score in the final minute after Dwight Howard fouled out. Superman Jr picked up his 17th T of the season in the process… that means he’ll be suspended for a game (again) if he gets one more. Howard dropped 29 points and grabbed 18 boards in the game… but as usual, Orlando insisted upon firing a sh!t-ton of threes; 32 to be precise. They made 11 of ‘em, which is actually a solid percentage… but as you all know, I still don’t like the gameplan. As for the Knicks… I’ll give ‘em credit for attempting to play defense for a night. That’s probably why they won this thing… that and Melo’s scoring down the stretch. That’s the thing about defense, anyone can do it… it’s just that the Knicks won’t. That’s why they’re frustrating as hell, and that’s why they aren’t going to win jack sh!t.
- The Washington Wizards will not match the ’90/91 Sacramento Kings for the worst road record ever! Jordan Crawford, who bricked a potential game-winner against the Clippers a few games back, sent the Wiz to OT in Utah, and they took care of business. They kinda choked at the end of the fourth, scoring just three points in the final 7:35, but they got their sh!t straight and dropped the first seven points of overtime. That was pretty much the game. Jordan Crawford scored 8 of Washington’s 12 fourth-quarter points… yeah, I know, 12 fourth-quarter points. Eugk. Crawford dropped 25 in the game, and John Wall had 28/6/7. Utah really should’ve won this game. They missed 11 of 21 freethrows, which is obviously inexcusable.
- The Milwaukee Bucks simply cannot… put… the ball… in… the basket…
- That sequence could serve as a metaphor for their entire season. They played the defense to steal the ball, but even with countless looks at the basket, they just couldn’t score the goal. Milwaukee actually led 86-80 at one point, but they failed to score in the final 3:30, making that final possession that much more painful. Look at the bright side, Bucks fan: Michael Redd is back, and he’s droppin’ dimes! He assisted four times in just 15 minutes. Pretty impressive seeing as his team shot 38.9 percent from the field. His 0-3 shooting didn’t help anyone else get an assist, but hey, the dude’s been out for a year. Cut him some slack. Looks like Milwaukee is probably toast with this loss. They are now in 10th place; three games behind the Pacers for 8th.
- The Pacers picked up a huge victory at gome against Boston, who actually scored 100 points for the first time in ages. It was their defense that failed them this time. The Cs gave up 107 points on 54.5 percent shooting (21 points off of TOs). Roy Hibbert was a force with 26 points on 12-17, and Darren Collison made eight of nine shots on his way to 17 points. Collison was big down the stretch (8 of his 17 came in the fourth), and you’ve got to give him props for stepping his game up after being out-played by Rajon Rondo for the first three quarters. Rondo scored 22 in the game, but he didn’t score any in the fourth. As a team the Cs were out-scored 26-15 in the final quarter. At least their offense looked a little less discombobulated. They shot 55 percent and matched Indiana with 42 points in the paint. One of these days I figure they’ll have a good offensive and defensive showing in the same night.
- The Other Games: The Bulls were never able to come back from a 19-point third quarter defecit, although they got close (4). In the end they simply turned the ball over too many times (17, D-Rose had 10), missed too many freethrows (12), and missed to many shots (33-80). The Sixers got 21 points from Thad Young off the bench and took it 97-85, snapping Chicago’s 14-game home win streak. George Hill dropped another 27 points for the Spurs, but San Antonio lost their fourth in a row (92-100 to Portland). Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan, and Antonio McDyess all sat out. Considering the fact that they started James Anderson, Tiago Splitter, and Matt Bonner… an eight-point loss almost like a win. RJ and Gary Neal, regular rotation players who were being counted on to step up, kind of dropped the ball with some 5-19 brickery.
Quote of the Day: Scott Skiles on that metaphorical possession…
“With 11 seconds left to go in the game, if you say you are going to get two layups and a wide-open 3 to win it and you don’t even have the ball, you would take that.”
You forgot the tip attempt, Scott. Anyway, carry on…
“We just couldn’t make that.”
And how did Michael Redd look?
“I thought Mike moved around well.”
And one more from Walt “Clyde” Frazier…
“Melo is all over Hedo Turkoglu like a bad suit!”
Photo of the Day: Ok, I officially want one of these masks…
I’d definitely run around banging my face on stuff, dropping F bombs, and picking on people half my size all day long. When people called me a douche bag, I’d just say “what? I’m not a d-bag… I’m just passionate!”
Oh, and WTF is this all about? That popped up in Yahoo!’s NBA photo stream as I searched for pictures. And I thought Andrew Bogut was Australia’s best athlete…
