If you didn’t believe it before, believe it now: the Memphis Grizzlies are for real, and they hammered the point home by heading to Oklahoma City just a single day removed from defeating the Spurs and beating the team that had posted the West’s best playoff record to this point. Even with just one day of rest, Memphis came out with their signature energy and forced 18 Thunder turnovers, resulting in 23 points. Seven of nine Grizzlies who saw the floor had at least one steal, and they were deflecting balls all over the place. While I give Memphis all the credit in the world for disrupting OKC’s offense, some of the passes that got intercepted were just plain careless. The Thunder are going to have to be far more cautious with their passes if they plan on winning this series, because the Grizz will play the lanes, swipe any lazy dish, and head the other way with it 100 miles an hour.
Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol were absolute monsters in this game. Memphis only held a slight rebounding edge over the Thunder, but they out-scored them 52-38 in the paint. Many of Z-Bo’s playoff-career-high 34 points came around the basket, and Marc Gasol added 20 points (and 13 boards) on 9-11. Gasol had the best game I can recall ever seeing him play, and Randolph was, once again, the guy who set the tone early and took care of business late. He scored his team’s first seven points, then dropped eight more in the final six minutes of the game. The dude is pretty much the f@ckin’ man right now… he feels like his team is supposed to be winning these games…
…and that’s why it’s working out so well for he and his squad. Confidence: how a pudgy, unathletic dude can eat the lunches of a bunch of athletic freaks on a baketball court. Says Z-Bo: “We believe. We definitely believe. Our confidence is up high. I tell the guys we can compete and play with anybody.”
As well as Memphis played, this 114-101 W would’ve been a lot closer had Russell Westbrook been able to make a layup. I wish I could credit Memphis’s size for causing him to miss around the rim, but I don’t think they had much to do with it… he was just missing point-blank shots. I’m not talking once or twice, either… the dude missed 14 shots in the game, and when I say at least five of them were layups, I’m not exaggerating at all. Had he not been given a couple of gifts from the officials he would’ve had even more Xs on his shot chart. There was one layup he missed where he pushed off on Darrell Arthur and they sent him to the line, and another one where he just dove on the floor and they called a foul on Marc Gasol. Alright, maybe the game shouldn’t have been any closer… I forgot how one-sided the officiating was. I don’t expect game two to go any differently.
Back to Z-Bo and Marc for a minute… hey, Kendrick Perkins, where you at, son? Actually, my problem isn’t really with Perk himself–I already know he sucks–my problem is with the idiots that act like he’s actually a good basketball player. NEWS FLASH: KENDRICK PERKINS HAD TWO POINTS, SIX REBOUNDS, ZERO BLOCKS, AND TWO TURNOVERS AS MARC GASOL AND ZACH RANDOLPH HAD THE GAMES OF THEIR LIVES… please, people, for god’s sake, realize that Kendrick f@ckin’ Perkins is a big body and nothing more. He doesn’t rebound, he doesn’t block shots, he’s not a particularly smart player (I’m putting that nicely), and he’s a major liability on the offensive end… and I’m telling you, his man defense isn’t even all that good. Open your eyes, this dude has been getting owned all postseason long. That’s correct, what happened last night was not some exception to the rule… Nene just got finished averaging 14 PPG on him, exactly his regular season average, while making just 56 percent of his 10 FTs per game (Perk couldn’t do sh!t but foul him). Had Nene been able to hit his usual 70 percent from the line he would’ve been at nearly 16 PPG. So, the fact that Kendrick Perkins got sh!tted on yesterday afternoon shouldn’t take anyone by surprise, even though I’m sure it did, because he’s somehow mindf@cked all of you into thinking he’s actually useful. Kendrick Perkins sucks balls, period. And if you think he’s a good basketball player, you’re clueless. If this motherf@cker didn’t play with KG and the Celtics for the first however many years of his career, I figure he’d already be riding the pine train to obscurity town. Hell, I thought Nazr Mohammed was more productive than he was last night in eight damn minutes. At least Mohammed rejected an attempted poster slam by Darrell Arthur while refraining from turning the ball over. The f@ck did Perkins do? I’ll answer that one for you: nothin’.
Numbers… Kevin Durant led his squad with 33 points on 11-21, a hell of an effort when you consider who was guarding him (mostly Tony Allen and Shane Battier). Russell Westbrook dropped 29, but he had a pretty terrible game, as I elaborated on earlier in the post. He was clunking layups and passing the ball to the other team all day long (7 TOs, many of which I felt came due to his attempts to force things that weren’t there). Serge Ibaka had a nice line with 16/11/5 swats, but Randolph and Gasol more than neutralized that production. Memphis got 27 points off of their bench, 11 more than OKC got from their reserves. James Harden was silent with five points on 2-5 (one of which was a BS three with a dude all up in his mug). Harden is gonna have to give them something if they plan on winning this series, because dudes like Darrell Arthur and Shane Battier will be getting the job done for Memphis.
BOS @ MIA was as boring as MEM @ OKC was exciting… and MEM @ OKC was thrilling to me. I can’t even honestly say that I have any desire to write a single sentence about this game… but I’ll aim for a paragraph or two. First off all, so much for Dwayne Wade’s 12.8 PPG on 28 percent… the guy went for 38 big ones on 14-21. Apparently he likes to see the Cs in the playoffs. Aside from Wade, though, no one could put the ball in the basket in the first quarter. When I say the beginning of this game was ugly, I’m not kidding. The Celtics only made five shots in the period, and Paul Pierce dribbled off his foot… twice. D-Wade made all but two of Miami’s baskets. The Heat weren’t playing well early on, but they held a six-point lead anyway because Boston was lookin’ like the Milwaukee Bucks. However, early on in the second quarter, the lid would be removed from Miami’s basket… by James Jones, of all people. Curious George (don’t even try to tell me James Jones doesn’t look like a monkey, because he does) dropped three threes in two minutes, leading Miami on a 10-5 run, resulting in an 11-point edge. He’d drop a Heat-bench-playoff-record 25 in the game on 5-7 from downtown. Boston was down 51-36 at the half, and although they never got much offense going (lost 99-90), Miami would’ve been happy to let them back in it had they been able to make a few shots. As they seem to do on a regular basis, the Heat had a couple droughts in the second half, including a four-minute stretch of scorelessness in the third. Ray Allen tried to bring Boston back with his five triples (28 points), but Paul Pierce got tossed…
…and it wasn’t nearly enough. Pierce’s ejection was rather controversial… as you can see, he didn’t appear to do much of anything on that play. However, we don’t know what he said, and he already had a technical for getting in the face of James Jones earlier in the second half. From the AP’s game recap…
Wade acted like he didn’t hear what Pierce said to him on the play with 7 minutes left, dismissing it as “gibberish.” Crew chief Dan Crawford said Pierce’s second technical was merited because he directed profanity at Wade.
“And in the rulebook, that is a verbal taunt,” Crawford said. “And it just so happened to be Pierce’s second technical foul.”
So, he said the magic word, but I still don’t like the ejection. This is the playoffs; let’s allow the players to decide the outcome of the games, please (not that Boston would’ve won this one, but you get my point).
If Kevin Garnett goes to the store for some milk today, he may happen to see his own face on the carton. KG had six f@ckin’ points–a few of which came when the game was already over–and eight rebounds. He did hold his counterpart Chris Bosh to 7/12 on 3-10, but still, he needs to show up on both ends. OH! I can’t believe I almost forgot to mention this: Rajon Rondo sucked! He was in what I’m going to call “shook-mode“… you know, like he’s afraid of finishing. Anyway, eight points on 3-10 with seven assists to five TOs were the unimpressive digits. He did manage to make both of his freethrows. I’m going to be honest here… I’m so torn when it comes to the Celtics. As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, I think Rajon Rondo is rather overrated, so I can’t help but enjoy it when he plays bad and the Celtics lose. At the same time, though, I think Kendrick Perkins is the most overrated player in the entire association, so I like to see the Celtics win without him. Tough one.
So, Boston, consider this your wake-up call, and bring it in game two. You aren’t playing the Knicks anymore… time to get your sh!t straight… or go fishing.
Quote of the Day: “Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is beat the Boston Celtics in basketball, the game of basketball, four times.” -Erik Spoelstra
Word?
Before I wrap this up, I’d just like to point out the fact that Miami Heat games have apparently become the official passtime of god-awful rappers. Exhibit A…
Exhibit B…
Exhibit C…
Lil Wayne was mysteriously absent. I felt bad for Mark Jackson at one point during the broadcast… JVG asked him to rank Drake, Rick Ross, and P-Diddy. He almost nailed it by giving P-Diddy the top spot (he did make good music a really long time ago in a galaxy far, far away), but he dropped the ball by not having Drake last. Drake is a… goddammit, I can’t find the Kobe Bryant “f@cking f@ggot!” gif.
