The picture doesn’t really go with the title… but it fit too nicely into the 600 x 200 pixel header image format for me to pass it up, and it’s not like I’m going to stop laughing at the Knicks because they’ve eeked out a couple Ws. They’re still the second most unintentionally entertaining team in the league after the LA Clippers. Anyway, Raymond Felton fell flat on his face, but he did so while having a career night in Golden State. His bright orange Adidas provided him with the fast that he needed to lead the Knicks to their second straight victory over a less-bad California team than they beat in their previous outing. Progress.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: It was an 11-game night which produced a pretty quality top 10. Check out Monta Ellis at #1 jumping from like a mile away from the rim and dunking on Ronny Turiaf. Raymond Felton cooks Beno Udrih with an in-and-out then hits Amare for a dunk. Amir Johnson’s block leads to a Sonny Weems dunk. DeMaR DeRoZaN throws it down. Sonny Weems tells DeMaR DeRoZaN to shut up. Trevor Booker throws it down. Thad Young hammers it. Sessions hits Graham for a dunk. Derrick Brown pounds one. Derrick Rose nice dish to Luol Deng. Monta Ellis spinning and winning. Shawn Marion putback dunk.
- The Knicks got their second straight win on the West Coast as they knocked off the Warriors. Raymond Felton had a career-high 35 points and 11 assists and Amare Stoudemire made 10 of 12 shots on his way to 26/12. The absense of David Lee really hurt the Warriors, they got killed on the glass. They also allowed the Knicks to shoot 57% from the field and sent them to the line 32 times. For the Warriors, Monta Ellis had his second 40-point game of the season and Seph Curry had 29. Golden State really misses David Lee, they’re just 1-3 without him. One final thing from this game: watch the ball get stuck on top of the shot clock.
- It took 14 games, but Darko Milicic finally lived up to T-Wolves GM David Kahn’s ”Manna from Heavan” declaration last night. Darko put 23/16/5 on the Lakers in what I imagine has to be the best statistical game of his career. When I first loaded the box score I thought for sure I was looking at Kevin Love’s line… oddly enough, Kevin had a normal Darko-like line with zero points and seven boards on 0-7. Michael Beasley had his sixth 25+ point game in a row, and he recorded 10 boards as well. The T-Wolves were coming off of a win over LA’s other team… could they sweep the city? Of course not. The Lakers were able to overcome the now-studly Beasley and weather the Darko storm rather easily as they won by 17. Matt Barnes had an incredible stat-line: 24 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists with two steals on 7-7 from the floor, 5-5 from three, and 5-5 from the line without a single turnover. If he had blocked a shot that would litterally be the complete and flawless fantasy line.
- The Spurs made it nine in a row as they beat the Jazz by 12 in Utah. Tony Parker continues to not sweat his divorce, at least not on the court. He dropped 24 and 7 on 11-17. Tim Duncan had a solid double-double with 19/14. San Antonio killed Utah on the glass 46-31 (16-5 on the offensive side).
- Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson combined for 35 boards and the Bulls beat the Mavs by five. Dallas was out-rebounded by 25 in the game, a number which looks even sadder when you consider the fact that Chicago out-shot them too. The Bulls put in 25 second-chance points compared to just 8 for the Mavs, and points in the paint were 42-26 in favor of Chicago. Derrick Rose and company exit the Texas triangle with two wins and a loss. They’ve got four more West Coast road games before they get to return home to face Orlando, then go back on the road to face Boston. Rough schedule.
- Oklahoma City went to Boston minus Kevin Durant and Jeff Green last night, where they missed their final 13 shot attempts. Boston on the road + no Durant + no Green + 13 bricks in the final nine minutes = ………..win? Apparently so. OKC built a 10-point lead and held on to beat Boston by five. Russell Westbrook did most of the heavy-lifting, he had 31 points. Rajon Rondo had just his second game of the season with under 10 assists.
- The other games: Captain Kirk dropped 22 as the Wiz beat the Grizz. Memphis has lost five straight. Thad Young dropped 23 off the bench to lead the Sixers over the Bucks. Andrea Bargnani dropped 26 to lead the Craptors to their second victory in a row. Chris Bosh had another nice game with 22/14 as the Heat beat the Bobcats. The Hornets beat the Cavs by seven, David West had 34/11. The Queens beat the Nets by five and snapped their six-game losing streak.
Quote of the day: Mike D’Antoni on closing out the game in Golden State…
“It’s nerve-racking because we haven’t won (here) in 58,000 years.”
Finishing out an early-season win over the Warriors is nerve-racking? No wonder the Suns could never quite get it done. This dude probably wet himself in the WCF.
Photo of the Day:
Someone with more wit than me should caption this. I feel like it has potential. Leave a caption in a comment and if I like it I’ll add it to the post.
