Last night was a rather wild one in the NBA. Rudy Gay hit a game-winning jumper to defeat the Heat. Stephen Jackson recorded the first triple-double in Bobcats history. Blake Griffin dropped 44 on the Knicks. Orlando and Indiana launched 48 threes and flip-flopped the lead 20 times. Al Horford had a 20/20 game. Zach Randolph blocked a shot. Read about all of these crazy happenings and more, right after the highlights…
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: Saturday night was jam-packed with highlights, so the top 10 is worth watching. Jason Richardson putback slam. Rudy Gay putback slam. Dwight Howard throws it down. D-Will drops Andre Miller. LeBron lobs to Bosh. Josh Childress tells Derrick Brown to GTFO. Tyson Chandler goes up high for the oop.
- For Rudy Gay, torching the Heat has become a habbit. On December 13th of ’09 he dropped a career high 41 on Miami. Last night he only scored 15, but he knocked down the game-winning jumper in the face of LeBron James. Rudy had this to say after the game: “I don’t care if James Naismith was guarding me, which would be scary because he’s dead.” It seems that LeBron has really lost his edge… I mean, Rudy Gay just stated that he’d be more intimidated by a dead Canadian. Anyway, Dwyane Wade was forced to sit this one out due to a sprained left wrist. Jerry Stackhouse started in his place, but the 78-year-old Stack was only able to muster two points in 19 minutes. Eddie House did his best to fill the void, putting in 20 points with six threes off the bench, but it wasn’t quite enough. Zach Randolph and OJ Mayo did not start the game for Memphis because they were late to a shoot-around, but Z-Bo came off the bench and dropped 21/13. Darrell Arthur, who started in his place, got things rolling with 12 first quarter points.
- Stephen Jackson recorded the first triple-double in Bobcats history (24/10/10) as Charlotte easily beat Phoenix by 18. The Cats, who aren’t known for putting the ball in the basket, scored 123 points in the game… that’s the most they’ve scored since the 16th of this past January when they dropped 125 (also against Phoenix). Boris Diaw had a season-high 26 against his old squad, and Tyrus Thomas had 22/6.
- CJ Miles dropped 25 points (including a career-high seven threes) off the bench for the Jazz as Utah beat Portland by by nine. It was yet another victory of the come-from-behind variety for the Jazz. Utah trailed by nine entering the fourth quarter, but CJ Miles poured in 17 of his 25 in the period to lead the come-back. Portland shot just 4-22 from three-point land while Utah went 10-19. Deron Williams struggled going just 3-13, but the rest of his squad shot exceptionally well. Portland doesn’t play again until Friday, hopefully Brandon Roy will be able to return.
- Blake Griffin came up one point shy of the Clippers franchise record for points in a game by a rookie (45 by Bob McAdoo) as he dropped 44 with 15 boards and 7 assists. These massive numbers did come in a loss to the Knicks, but I’d still call this the most impressive performance by a rookie since Brandon Jennings had 55 last season. The Clippers have now lost nine in a row and have fallen to 1-13. The Knicks have taken advantage of their weak opponents of late as they’ve won three in a row. Amare Stoudemire had his best numbers of the season last night (39/11), and Gallinari had 31. I’ll give the Knicks some props for winning these past three on the road. Even against weak opponents, three straight road wins is an accomplishment. They’ll have an opportunity to extend their winning streak as they play the Bobcats twice in a row this coming week. We’ll see if they’re able to take advantage. The Cats will play far tougher defense than the Kings/Clipps/Warriors did, so the Knicks will have to either get hot from deep or refuse to settle for bad shots.
- Roy Hibbert and Dwight Howard both had double-doubles (25/12 for Howard, 19/10 for Hibbert) as the Magic out-gunned the Pacers 90-86. Even though neither team was able to reach the hundreds, I still say “out-gunned” because the three-point attempts were there… they just weren’t going in. Orlando actually hit a solid percentage, 9 of 21… the Pacers, on the other hand, were only able to hit 5 of 27. Jameer Nelson played hero in this one… he converted a go-ahead three-point play with 30 seconds left.
- The other games: Al Horford had 20/20, but the Hawks lost to the Mavs by five. Dallas’s bench contributed 38 points, 27 of those coming from Jason Terry and Shawn Marion. The Spurs made it 10 in a row and improved to 11-1 as they crushed the Cavs. Tiago Splitter had 18/5 off the bench. Kevin Durant and Jeff Green sat out again, but the Thunder managed to eek out a one-point W over the Bucks. James Harden led the way with 23. Drew Gooden had 16/16 for Milwaukee. Melo and Nene combined for 50 points and 16 boards as the Nuggets beat the Nets by four. JR Smith played 19 minutes after playing a total of just one minute over the past three games.
- The Raptors and Hornets have completed a trade which will send Peja Stojakovic and Jerryd Bayless to Toronto and Jarrett Jack, David Andersen, and Marcus Banks to New Orleans. I like Jarrett Jack and I didn’t feel like he was one of Toronto’s many problems, but I still like the deal as they are a rebuilding team and they pick up an expiring contract in Peja. Bayless has nice potential and will finally have a chance to show what he’s got when he heads north of the border. I like this deal for the Hornets too. Jarrett Jack is a very solid backup and will be able to contribute regularly when CP3 is on the bench. David Andersen is a big man who can stretch the floor with his jumper, and since the pickings are rather slim in N.O.’s frontcourt aside from West and Okafor, Andersen should be able to contribute as well.
- For all of you AI fans out there, your boy will be on NBAtv today at 3:30 ET.
Quote of the Day: Chris Bosh explains his lack of production on the glass…
“It’s a different system. I have to move a lot more than I did before, so it’s just getting used to it, getting adjusted to it. Once I get adjusted to it, I’m blessed with the ability to rebound. That’s one of the things I can do. Once I figure out the system and figure out the spot … that’s just watching more film and seeing where I can rebound the ball more.”
Read more from this interview here. So apparently Chris isn’t used to having to move to get rebounds? Is that what he’s saying? I always thought moving was part of the process, but maybe when you’re blessed the boards just find you. I wouldn’t know anything about that, of course.
Photo of the Day:
