As I predicted a few days ago (just have to remind everyone that I got something right!), the Mavs ended the Hornets’ season-opening win streak at eight games. The Mavericks are now at 4-0 when DeShawn Stevenson is in the starting lineup. I choose not to accept that as coincidence…
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: DJ Augustin to Derrick Brown for a buzzer-beating alley-oop. Dorell Wright tosses an oop to Rodney Carney from midcourt. Chris Paul makes a great bounce pass. Kris Humphries one-handed putback slammer. Ronnie Price steals and dunks. Ronnie Price rejects James Harden. Tyrus Thomas beasting in the paint. Tyrus Thomas gets lucky on a bad alley-oop pass then shrugs like MJ. DeAndre Jordan with a big putback slam. Goran Dragic converts a tough layup.
- Lowlight Recap: Devin Harris gets ejected for a flagrant two foul on Blake Griffin. I don’t like Devin Harris at all, but I feel like a flagrant one would’ve been more appropriate on this play. I don’t feel like Harris tried to bring Griffin to the floor, it looks to me like Harris just tried to wrap him up and then Griffin collapsed.
- Every team in the NBA now has a number other than zero at the end of their record. New Orleans lost by three to the Mavs last night in Dallas, ending their eight-game season-opening winning streak. Jason Terry shot just 2-11 in the first half, but went 7-8 in the second half. He hit two huge jumpers in the final minute as he scored a season-high 26 points off the bench. The Mavs and Hornets will play again on Wednesday, but they’ll play in New Orleans this time.
- Michael Beasley and Kevin Love played well yet again for the Wolves, but Minnesota lost a close one t0 Charlotte. Wesley Johnson had an opportunity to tie the game at the line with just a few seconds left, but he missed both, and Tyrus Thomas was then fouled. Tyrus made one of two, giving the T-Wolves one final chance at a three. Kevin Love made a beautiful outlet pass to Anthony Tolliver, but he didn’t get a great look and it was game over. The Bobcats scored the most points (113) they’ve scored since January of last season, and crossed over the 100-point mark for just the third time this season. Tyrus Thomas had 20/10 with four blocks off the bench in what was his best game of the year. In the two games which Tyrus has managed to play 30 minutes, he’s gone for 22/6 and 20/10. Unfortunately he can’t seem to stay on the floor very often. He’s averaging a career-high 2.8 personal fouls in just 21 minutes a game, that’s probably part of the problem.
- Carmelo Anthony recorded a career-high 22 boards, but the Suns came back from 15 down to beat the Nuggets. The Suns had lit up the Lakers with 22 threes the previous night, but they weren’t hot from the beyond the arc at all last night, going just 4-20 from distance. It took a great bench effort to allow them to beat Denver. Phoenix’s reserves scored 37 points, 21 of them coming from Hakim Warrick and 10 from Josh Childress. Phoenix has won three in a row and they’re now 6-4 on the season.
- Utah’s streak of come-from-behind victories has ended at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder. After winning four straight on the road, the Jazz went home and dropped one to Kevin Durant and company, putting them at just 2-2 at home thus far. Kevin Durant made 16 of 16 freethrow attempts while going for 30 points and Serge Ibaka dropped 22/11 with 4 blocks. Both teams shot very well in this game, about 50% each, but the freethrows made the difference. OKC shot 34 of them and made 33 while the Jazz shot just 22 and made 18.
- Detroit at Golden State was a wild one. The Pistons fell down 22-0 to open the game, the Warriors built a 32-point lead, Tayshaun Prince and John Kuester got in a heated arguement, and then the Pistons damn near came all the way back. Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry both ended up on the bench with foul trouble and Detroit managed to get the lead down to two. Keith Smart tried to ride his bench a bit too long in this one, although his hand was kind of forced due to both of his stars getting into foul trouble. Rookie Jeremy Lin played just seven minutes and went 1-3 with one turnover, but watching the game I felt like he was the dude that was blowing it. He made one horrendous pass and shot an airball about five feet too long, maybe that’s why. Reggie Williams took a few shots where he probably should’ve burned some clock instead. The Warriors are an improved team, but they still need to work on some discipline to help themselves hold on to huge leads. Anyway, a win is a win, the Warriors took the game by four and improve to 7-4 on the season.
- The other games: Dwight Howard made 8 of 11 freethrows and scored 18 points as the Magic beat the Grizzlies by 17. Eric Gordon scored 30 points and made 16 of 20 freethrows for the Clippers, but LA lost by 14 to the Nets. The Clipps started a lineup of all young guys, the oldest being DeAndre Jordan at 22. Jordan Farmar had 15 points and 12 assists off the bench for New Jersey.
- Jermaine O’Neal is going to miss at least a few weeks according to Doc Rivers. He actually lasted a little longer than I expected.
Quote of the Day: Blake Griffin explains how the Clipps lost this time around…
“In this game, I thought it came down to scoring.”
Solid observation, Blake… the team that scores the most points does tend to win the game.
Photo of the Day: This disgusts me…
Melo should’ve pulled a Rafer Alston and slapped this bum. Players who put up 10/3 while making 10 million a year should lose their right to make the “hey look I’m awesome because I just made a three-pointer” signal.
