Michael Beasley poured in 42 points and helped the T-Wolves snap a six-game losing streak. Was it the power of the upside-down headband that allowed him to have the best game of his life? I hope not, for his sake, because I’m sure David Stern’s fashion police are already all over that. In non-Michael Beasley news: Utah is now the first team in the shot clock era to win three straight games after trailing by 10 or more at halftime, John Wall damn near had a quaruple-double, and Yao Ming is hurt again. It was an eventful Wednesday night in the NBA, let’s get started…
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: Blake Griffin rises up high for an alley-oop. DeMaR DeRoZaN throws it down. Sam Dalembert alley-oop. Dalembert swats Beasley and swagger-jacks The Birdman. Gilbo alley-oops to John Wall. Javale McGee swats Luis Scola. Yi swats Kyle Lowry. Kris Humphries denies Ryan Hollins. Ryan Hollins alley-oop slam. G-Wall swats the crap out of Linas Kleiza. Lastly, an excellent daily top 10.
- Lowlight Recap: Wilson Chandler gets a tooth knocked out. Ouch.
- Super Cool Beas 12-upped his previous career high of 30 points as the T-Wolves beat the Kings in Sacramento. Minnesota’s six-game losing streak has ended, and they’ll look to make it a winning streak as they move on and play the Knicks. I thought Minnesota actually looked pretty good last night. Obviously Beasley couldn’t be stopped offensively, but I was impressed with his defense as well. He was being very vocal on both ends of the floor, but I really noticed him talking on defense. His teammates seemed to respond well and really step it up. Sebastian Telfair took a huge charge on Tyreke Evans, a play which put the Kings’ best player on the bench with six fouls. Corey Brewer had a couple great hustle plays. Kevin Love, who didn’t score until 7:35 in the fourth, came on strong at the end and put in eight points. Even with the 42 from Beasley, it was a nice team effort where lots of guys contributed.
- John Wall (19/10/13 + 6 steals) recorded the first triple-double of his career as the Washington Wizards knocked off the Houston Rockets, who haved dropped to 1-6. Things keep getting worse for H-Town: They’ve now lost Yao Ming to yet another injury. I guess the good news is that this injury isn’t related to the last one, and that he’s questionable for Friday. Don’t be sad, people of Houston… you’re basketball team may suck, but you’ve still got great rap music.
- The Utah Jazz got their third straight come-from-behind victory, and their second straight impressive road win. After beating the Heat in OT on Tuesday night, the Jazz rolled into the Amway Center and beat the Magic by 10. Paul Millsap only had half the points he had in Miami, but even half of 46 is a pretty nice game. D-Will led the way with 30, making 11 of his 12 freethrow attempts. The Jazz currently have a better road record than home record, which is odd when you take a look at the teams they’ve played on their home floor: Toronto, LA Clippers, and Phoenix.
- David Lee returned to the Garden and helped the Warriors get their second straight road victory. The Lee/Amare matchup did not disappoint: 28/10 for Lee, 33/10 for Amare. The Warriors blew a 19-point second half lead, but Dorell Wright came through late for the Warriors, hitting two huge buckets in the last couple minutes (a go-ahead three followed by a key put-back layup) to help seal the deal. Monta Ellis, who hurt his back on Monday, played 40 minutes and scored 22 points. The Warriors had 74 points in the paint in this game. The Knicks blocked four shots as a team, and three of them came from a small forward (Wilson Chandler). That’s not going to get it done. STAT, I’m talking to you…
- Gerald Wallace had 19/14/5 and four blocks as the Bobcats slid past the Raptors by five. Tyrus Thomas contributed 14 points and swatted five shots in 21 minutes off the bench. The Raptors had a chance to tie with a three on what should’ve been the final possession of the game, but Andrea Bargnani lost the ball to Stephen Jackson as he tried to create space for a jumper. The Raptors got some nice production from their bench, 36 points and 11 boards from Sonny Weems and Amir Johnson, but it wasn’t enough to keep them from falling to 1-7. Toronto’s six-game losing streak is now the worst in the league.
- The other games: Milwaukee beat Atlanta by 17, the Hawks have dropped their last three. Led by 31 points from Devin Harris, the Nets defeated the Cavs. Brook Lopez continues to suck, he had four points on 1-5. Mo Williams left the game with a groin injury, he’s likely to miss Saturday’s game. DeShawn Stevenson started in place of Caron Butler as the Mavs beat the Grizz by 15. DeShawn scored 11, hitting 3-5 from beyond the arc. KD and Russell Westbrook had 31 each as the Thunder beat Philly by six. Baron Davis, Chris Kaman, and Eric Gordon all sat out with injuries as the Clipps lost to the Spurs by 12.
- Want to be jacked like Blake Griffin? Get yourself a Shake Weight. If I could just figure out how he learned to jump so high… I’d be writing about myself on this blog.
Quote of the Day: Josh Smith on how the Hawks lost their third straight…
“When adversity hit us in the face, we went our separate ways.”
…but don’t worry, Hawks fans, J-Smoove’s got this shit under control…
“We’ll figure out what’s going wrong, and we’ll fix it really quick.”
…what’s going wrong is that the Hawks have had to play a few teams that are actually half-decent. By “fix it really quick” he means fix it on Sunday when they play the T-Wolves.
Photo of the Day: Finish Him!!
