…Dennis Hoemberg and Nick Van Warmerdam, you guys have won the two free t-shirts I promised to give away once the blog’s Facebook page reached 75 likes. Send me an e-mail at admin@nba247365.com and let me know what size you want (M, L, or XL) and where to ship it to. Once again, congratulations to you guys on achieving a new level of swag… for free! As for Thad Young, who needed a hug after hearing that he won’t be getting a t-shirt… it’s alright, I’m sure you’ll get it next time! Moving right along…
Random Obersvations:
- Highlight Recap: Blake Griffin reverse alley-oop slam. Bill Walker denies a Spencer Hawes dunk attempt, gets a dunk of his own. Hakim Warrick throws down a pair of one-handers. I’m running out of time here… gonna have to finish this off with the top 10.
- Lowlight Recap: He had 39/7, but this is just… sad…
- The Lakers dropped their third game in a row (second consecutive to a non-playoff team) with a 95-87 loss in Golden State. Now, we all know that the Warriors can get hot and beat anyone on a given night, but that wasn’t really the case in this game (they shot just 38.7 percent from the field). I’m not taking any credit away from the Dubs, they hit the glass hard (out-rebounded the Lakers both offensively and overall), and they gave the necessary effort on the defensive end… but the Lakers did a lot of things to beat themselves in this game. First of all, they missed 11 of 27 freethrows. That isn’t going to cut it, obviously. Secondly, they did the one thing you absolutely can not do against Golden State: play sloppy basketball. Their 17 TOs helped keep the game uptempo and resulted in 19 Warrior points. Five of those TOs came between the seven minute mark of the first and nine minute mark of the second, the span during which Golden State erased a double-digit defecit and took a one-point lead. LA reeeally fell apart in the third quarter, though. Even though they had just 38 points, they still only trailed by five at the half. They trailed by 17 at the end of the third, however, because they just plain played some dumb basketball. So, here’s what was happening around the 4:00 mark of that third quarter: Kobe Bryant had just brought the Lakers to within nine on a spectacular three-point play…
- He was clearly prepared to activate beast-mode. LA forced Ekpe Udoh to fire a jumper, which missed, and Kobe called for the basketball. Fortunately for GSW, the ball was in the hands of Ron Artest, who decided that it was a better idea to make some discombobulated post moves and fire up an off-balance hook off of one foot. Monta Ellis would then get fouled and make the lead 10 once again at the stripe. Kobe then came down and forced a frustration jumper due to not getting the ball (as he honestly should have) on the previous possession. It was all downhill from there… my main man Dorell Wright proceeded to stretch the lead to 13 with his franchise-record 184th three of the season, and then Lou Amundson showed exactly why everyone thinks Pau is soft by straight ripping an offensive rebound right out of his hands (it was really bad. Gasol had complete control of the ball, and Amundson just decided to take it from him like he was a child). Pau tried to respond in the post, but came with the softness and tossed up a flopping airball. That was pretty much the game… the Lakers closed the gap to single digits near the end, but they never got within legitimate striking distance. Moped led the Warriors with 26 points, and David Lee was awesome with 22/17/5/4 STL. Andrew Bynum was the only guy that played well for LA… he made all five of his shots, scored 13 points, and grabbed 17 boards. So, does this three-game slide leave me having doubts about the Lakers entering the postseason? Hell no. Since the All-Star break they’ve shown that they can be that championship-level team from last year. Don’t go overreacting like some folks did when they were struggling early on. You’ll likely end up looking like a dumby.
- The Spurs beat up on the Kings 124-92, and the win combined with the Laker loss means they’ve clinched the top spot in the West. They haven’t quite cemented homecourt throughout–the Bulls can technically still get that–but it’s highly unlikely. Anyway, San Antonio got 55 points from their bench last night, along with another 25 from Manu Ginobili in just 28 minutes of play. This one can be summed up rather simply: the Spurs shot 60 percent from the field while the Kings shot 40 percent. Said Tyreke Evans: “We didn’t make shots and they did.” Pretty much.
- Carmelo Anthony’s 31 points and 11 boards led the Knicks to a key 97-92 victory over the Sixers. I call it “key” because it puts them a half-game ahead of Philly for the 6th spot in the East. I refuse to call it “big” because the difference between 6th and 7th is nothing but the difference between a first-round loss to the Celtics and a first-round loss to the Heat… and with Miami just a half-game behind Boston, we really have no clue how this will all finish up. So… this Knicks victory really doesn’t mean anything more than any other victory. They gave themselves the ability to control their own destiny in the battle for 6th place, and if they win out it could be a nice little confidence builder, but since they’re the Knicks they’ll probably go blow it with a loss to the Nets or something. They’ve still got to play Chicago and Boston too… so who the f@ck knows. As for Melo… in addition to his big numbers, he clutched it:
- That took it from a one to a four-point game with under a minute left. Toney Douglas then sealed the deal with a pair of freethrows. Give Douglas lots of props… he dropped 10 of NY’s final 13. Thad Young led Philly with 25, 15 of which came in the fourth.
- The Bucks were eliminated from playoff contention (Hooray!) last night, but they did beat the Heat in Miami. The Deer out-scored the Dwyane Wade-less Heaters 27-22 in the fourth and came up with a 90-85 W. LeBron scored 29… Chris Bosh had 18… but no one else reached 10. They shot 40 percent as a team, and turned the ball over 16 times (resulting in 18 Bucks points). LeBron scored just seven points in the fourth, many of which came at the line. He missed four shots in the quarter… I’m not going to bother talking down on the guy… tune in to ESPN, I’m sure they’ve got that covered for you. Prince Luc Richard Mbah A Moute came up big with 14 points, 12 boards, and three steals. Carlos Delfino only scored nine in the game, but this big-time shot accounted for three of ‘em…
- Delfeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeenooooooo!!!!! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah!!!!!
- I just told you the Bucks got eliminated… well, here’s how: Pace Maker rookie Paul George dropped a career-high 23 points on the Wizards in a 136-112 victory. George knocked down five of six threes as his team shot 13-24 from downtown. Andray Blatche’s fourth straight double-double (23/10) was not nearly enough for Washington, obviously. Congratulations to Mike Dunleavy, who will be playing in the postseason for the first time in his nine-year career.
- Had Blake Griffin been able to make a dunk with 15 seconds left in LA’s 108-112 L to Oklahoma City, that L may have been a W. Trailing by three, Griffin attacked the rack furiously. He rimmed out a one-handed dunk attempt while being fouled by Serge Ibaka, who he has been unable to dunk over lately. I guess you can’t really be too mad at Griff… he was fouled on the play, and he scored 35 in the game… but he probably should’ve finished the slam. Anyway, he didn’t, and he split his freethrows, leaving the Clipps down two. KD connected on a pair to make it four, and then Craig Smith scored a layup to make it two again with eight seconds left. The Clipps then allowed Russell Westbrook to leak out long for an uncontested dunk off of the inbound pass, sealing the Clipps’ fate. This win earned OKC the Northwest Division Championship (for super-n00bs: OKC plays in the Northwest because it made sense when they were the Seattle Supersonics).
- The Other Games: JJ Hickson, who has been putting up 21/11 over his last 11, put 28/10 on the Craptors in a 104-96 Cavalier victory. Jerryd Bayless was surprisingly demoted back to the bench with the return of Jose Calderon… but the young fella still scored 28 points. Calderon went 0-7. Things got a little heated as the Magic eliminated the Bobcats with a 111-102 OT victory. Quentin Richardson was tossed after a push to the face of Gerald Henderson, and Dwight Howard picked up his 18th T for tossing the basketball in anger after being called for a 10 second violation at the stripe. Assuming the T isn’t rescinded, Howard will be suspended for Sunday’s game against Chicago. I guess it doesn’t really matter seeing as Orlando is locked into the fourth spot. Gilbert Arenas scored 25 points, his most ever with the Magic. Brook Lopez went apesh!t on Detroit with 39 points and seven boards… but his Nets lost 109-116. Phoenix got 58 points from their bench and 20/16 from Marcin Gortat in a 108-98 win over the T-Wolves. Darko Milicic, who’s championship ring could be yours, scored two points. New Orleans clinched a playoff spot (and moved into 6th out West for the time being) with a 101-93 win over the Rockets. They actually have the same record as Portland now, but they hold the tie breaker. The Mavs went on a 23-9 run to end the third quarter, then scored the first bucket of the fourth to put them within one point of the Nuggets, who had led by double figures much of the way. The score was tied with 2:30 to go, but JR Smith came up big with a pair of jumpers, making it a four-point game. His 23 points ended up leading the Nuggets in their 104-96 victory.
Quote of the Day: Phil Jackson on his decision to not rest his starters in the final four games…
“They rested tonight.”
Ooooh… that burns.
Photo of the Day:
