4/5/11: Hands Fail

Following a deep, game-tying triple by Kobe Bryant, rookie Gordon Hayward stepped to the line for two shots. The first one was taken anything but confidently, and it clanked off the back iron. He did make the second, which prevented a Kenyon Martin situation, and that left Mamba with six seconds to win the game. I can’t honestly say I was feeling like it was going to end well for Utah, who came in losing eight in a row (17 in a row at Staples), at this point. Kobe took Hayward one-one-one, pulled up around the top of the key, pump faked… you know he’s about to win the thing…

…but no! Hayward didn’t bite on the fake, and the basketball slipped right out of Kobe’s hands as he tried to step through. Game over, Jazz win. Not only did young Gordon Hayward play exceptional D on that final possession, he had a career night offensively, too (who was it again that suggested him as an addition to your fantasy squad? Looks like that guy knows his stuff!). Here’s what Kobe had to say about him: “I’m very, very fond of him. He’s a very skilled, all-around player. I think he’s going to have a very bright future in this league. He reminds me of a more talented Jeff Hornacek. Jeff couldn’t put the ball on the floor as well as (Hayward) can.”

Somewhere, Jeff Hornacek is reading this like “was that really necessary?”

Also, can we get just one more person to like the Facebook page? We’re at 74 likes… I need one more to give away a couple of free t-shirts. Oh, and we set a new site record with 1,196 visits yesterday. Apparently 996 of those people were here to see Jamario Moon’s ridonkulous over-the-rafters trick shot. That’s the least involved post I’ve made in the history of this blog… I think it had like three sentences in it… but hey, I’ll take it! Thank you, Super Jamario! And thank you readers as well.

Random Observations:

Highlight Recap, Soccer Edition:

Highlight Recap, Basketball Edition: Gordon Hayward rips Kobe, takes it to the other end for the score. Blake Griffin……. is ridiculous… but you knew that already. Tony Allen busts out a windmill on the break. Steve Nash with a Steve Nash-like pass. See the top 10 for more. Note Sam Young’s sick spin move and dunk at number seven.
Coming off of a 19-point game against the Queens, Gordon Hayward’s confidence was likely at an all-time high as far as his time in the NBA. He showed that against the Lakers with a career-high 22 points on 9-14, including the game-winning freethrow/defense. Not only did Hayward score the ball effectively, he set his teammates up with easy buckets (5 assists) and helped Utah out-rebound the Lakers (6 boards), even though Andrew Bynum had 23 boards on his own. That was really the key to this game… Utah had out-scored the Lakers 11-2 on second chance points with a few minutes to go in the third. They were shooting rather poorly, but their scrappy play helped them tie the game up by the end of the quarter, and then they managed to win the fourth 29-28. Neither team played particularly well offensively. There were 35 combined turnovers, 23 blocked shots, and poor shooting all around (UTA: 40%, LAL: 37.8%). Kobe Bryant filled up all the wrong categories on his stat sheet (7 TOs, 5 PFs) as he scored just 20 points on 6-18. LA pretty much just layed an egg in this one… and I think we can give ‘em an egg or two considering how hot they’ve been lately. That being said, this one is costly when it comes to the race for homecourt advantage. San Antonio beat the Hawks 97-90, and are now 3.5 games ahead with just four to play. Even if Los Angeles goes 5-0 the rest of the way, all San Antonio has to do is finish up 2-2. I think they’ll get that done seeing as three of their remaining games are against non-playoff teams. The other is against the Lakers. As for SA’s win last night, Tony Parker dropped 26 as they won the second half 54-44 to complete a comeback victory.
Down one with five seconds remaining, Marc Gasol badly needed to win a jump ball against Chris Kaveman. If I was Vinny Del Negro I think I’d have had Blake Griffin jumping for that ball… but Kaveman got the job done, slapping it back to Mo Williams, who evaded a diving Shane Battier and dribbled the clock out. This was a rather significant choke by the Grizz seeing as they could’ve jumped ahead of New Orleans and tied Portland (who choked against the Dubs) for 6th. I think they’d much rather see Dallas in the first round than LA or San Antonio… anyway, the way that jump ball I was just talking about came to be was rather controversial. Eric Bledsoe made an out-of-control crossover and drive to the basket… he reached the foul line, where he ended up colliding head on with Tony Allen. It looked like an obvious charge to me… and one official called it that way, but another called a block at the exact same time. They couldn’t make up their minds, called a double-foul (stupid ruling in this situation… gotta make a decision), and they went to the jump at halfcourt. You can see the play at the end of the game highlights. I feel like that’s an easy call: charge. Bledsoe was stumbling into the paint and ran him over. He wasn’t moving, and even if he was I’d still say it’s a charge because you can’t just run a defender over out at the freethrow line. So yeah, the refs really dropped the ball, and it may have cost Memphis dearly… but you can’t put yourself in position to let the refs do such a thing. The Grizzlies scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, missed six freethrows, and shot under 40 percent as a team. You’ve got to win the games that you’re supposed to win down the stretch. Anyway, give Mo Williams a lot of credit… he dropped six straight points in the final two minutes. That makes me wonder why Eric Bledsoe was given the ball in the closing seconds… Mo Williams was open on the other wing ready to catch and make a move… but I guess that didn’t matter. Oh wow! I’ve just realized who it was calling the block on that play! Take a wild guess…………………… Violet motherf@cking Palmer, the worst official in the history of professional sports. Leave it to her to f@ck the game up.
The Houston Rockets could’ve moved within two games of the Grizzlies and given themselves an outside chance at a miracle… but instead they essentially eliminated themselves by losing at home to the Kings. Sacto is playing much better lately–this is their 6th win in 8 games–but you still can’t be losing to ‘em at home if you want to make the playoffs. The Kings had built a 12-point lead with 5:55 left in the game, but Kevin Martin and Kyle Lowry would each hit threes, helping to cut the lead to four. Marcus Thornton then responded with 2 of his 21 on a pullup J at the 1:25 mark… and that was pretty much it. The final score ended up at 104-101. Samuel Dalembert posted some more monster digits, 21/15, and four more Kings also scored in double figures. Kevin Martin scored 30 points, but uncharactaristically bricked four of eight freethrows. Houston missed seven freebies in the game, and the poor shooting cost them.
I’ve got more chokejobs for you, they just keep on coming today. Portland dropped a home game by 21 to Golden State, who came out of halftime and straight up demolished the Blazers. They won the third quarter 37-21… Steph and Moped were dropping threes (combined to make seven, four in the period), David Lee was controlling the boards (20 in the game), and Lou Amundson even got in on the action with a pair of freethrows. They basically just ran Portland right out of their own gym. Some 3-21 three-point shooting didn’t help the home team’s cause. With this L, the Blazers remain just a half-game ahead of the Hornets for 6th… and that top six is where you really want to be. Said Brandon Roy: “We didn’t play well at all.” Nope… you didn’t. I feel bad for Brandon… he looked like he was struggling last night. He fired a midrange airball and was swatted on a dunk attempt by David Lee on his way to five points on 2-11. You think David Lee would’ve been able to deny this at the rim? I think not. Unfortunately, Brandon Roy isn’t that anymore. It’s really sad.
The Nuggets had another underwhelming offensive showing, but they couldn’t pull out a W this time. In a likely playoff preview, Oklahoma City went on a 16-0 fourth quarter run with backup PG Eric Maynor on the floor and took a 101-94 victory. The Nuggets had cut the once double-digit lead down to four with 30 seconds left, and they elected not to foul. I felt like they trapped Russell Westbrook successfully and forced a jump ball/travel/turnover (Westbrook fell on the floor, Nene kind of had his hands on the ball), but the officials of course whistled a foul. Like I said in the bullet about the Grizzlies game… you can’t put the refs in position to f@ck up… ’cause they’ll f@ck up, and you’ll lose. Denver obviously did just that by allowing the 16-0 fourth quarter run led by Eric Maynor (got it started with an FT and dropped a pair of buckets before being removed). Said Kevin Durant, who dropped 32: “It’s a regular season game. Playoffs are much different. They’re a great team at home. It’s going to be tough to win here, but we’re up for the challenge.”
The Phoenix Suns clearly were not ready to roll in Chicago last night. Steve Nash took the court with his practice shorts on…

…and his team lost 97-94. Derrick Rose only had 19 points, but at usual, five of those came in the final two minutes. Joakim Noah returned after missing three games and made six of seven shots for 12 points. Half Man Half Retired led PHX with 23 off the pine.
The Knickerbockers are on a four-game win streak and back above .500 with a 131-118 win over the Craptors… but, as usual, I’m not very impressed. So you put 131 points on Toronto… three guys dropped 20+… you shot 57 percent from downtown… that’s all well and good, but you still gave up 118, and what if your shots hadn’t been falling? I say the same damn thing every time I talk about the Knicks: they win when their shots drop, they lose when they don’t. They’ll win games against teams they should lose to, and lose games to teams they should beat. They will play decent regular season ball and get bounced from the playoffs in the first couple rounds on a yearly basis. I guess it’s better than what they were doing before… but they still really need to make some changes.
The Other Games: Seventy-eight points were (five) more than enough to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks, who shot 36 percent from the field. The Magic shot a relatively-blazing 38.8 percent. Dwight Howard led the way with 18 points and 17 boards. The Bobcats took another big step towards choking their way out of playoff contention by losing to another bad team. They dropped a must-win to the Cavaliers by the score of 99-89. JJ hickson dropped 16 points and grabbed 19 boards. Andray Blatche recorded his third straight double-double (26/10), but came up four steals short of that elusive triple-double in a 107-105 win over the Pistons. Mo Evans dropped 20 points for just the second time this season. Michael Beasley and Anthony Randolph both put 20/10s on the Nets in a losing effort. The Wolves made a valliant fourth-quarter comeback (outscored NJ 30-22 in the period), but Deron Williams came through with a 14-foot J (what the hell is up with the audio in that video?) with just a second left to give New Jersey the 107-105 W. The Celtics shot damn near 53 percent from the floor and beat the crap out of the Sixers 99-82. Will they ever be able to get healthy and maintain any level of consistency? I don’t have the answer to that question… but I’ll be curious to find out come next weekend.

Quote of the Day: Patrick Ewing Jr on college basketball via Twitter…

“Ppl keep saying its a defensive battle. No it’s not. Just sloppy basketball. It’s not the defense.”

We would get along swimmingly.

Photo of the Day: The Cavaliers bowed their heads and prayed for a victory over the Charlotte Bobcats…