Tommy Heinsohn called the game “a farce”, but no matter, the old man can piss and moan all he wants and it will still go down as a one-point victory for Toronto. The Young Gunz Onez were pleased with the results… based on the photo, maybe even a little too pleased. No need to go all Steve and Cuttino on us over three wins. Anyway, nice victory for the Raptors. In other news: Rip Hamilton dominates an OT, Pau Gasol has a damn-near flawless game, and the Hornets just keep winning.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: Sonny Weems drives and dunks. Paul Pierce gets an easy dunk. Donte Greene alley-oop slam. Emeka Okafor denies Greene, Paul takes it coast-to-coast for and AND1. DeMarcus Cousins throws it down. Gilbert Arenas sick bounce pass to Cartier Martin. Charlie V toasts Blatche and finishes the AND1. Javale McGee putback dunk. Devin Ebanks stuffs Vlad Rad. Steve Blake half-court lob to Ebanks.
- Lowlight Recap: I’ve always appreciated Matt Barnes for his competetiveness and scrappy style of play, but he does have a tendency to cross the line from time to time. Here he is flagrantly fouling Vladamir Radmanovic in a 35-point game with nine minutes remaining. That probably wasn’t necessary.
- Things weren’t looking pretty for the Raptors early on as Nate Robinson dropped 16 first-quarter points and the Celtics built a double-digit lead, but that didn’t last long. Led by 29 points from Andrea Bargnani, the Raptors came back and went up by double-figures in the fourth quarter. They actually blew the lead and trailed in the final minute, but Leandro Barbosa stole the ball from Ray Allen (it was a foul… oh well) and Amir Johnson got himself to the line and converted two freethrows with 2.7 seconds left on the clock. Paul Pierce rimmed out a jumper at the buzzer. Amir Johnson had 17 points and 11 boards, and Sonny Weems had 16 (took him 20 shots to do it though, he took some questionable ones). Rajon Rondo sat this one out, Nate Robinson led the Cs with 22 on 8-14.
- Richard Hamilton scored 12 of his 27 points in overtime as the Pistons beat the Wizards by five. Hamilton opened the OT making five straight jumpers before he finally missed one. He added two freethrows for his final two points. Charlie Villanueva had 25/11 off the bench. Washington shot almost 54% from the floor, but they missed 6 of 15 from the stripe and turned the ball over 15 times. Agent 0 9 had 19 points and 16 dimes. Javale McGee went for 20/16.
- There was a Donte Greene sighting at Arco Arena (15 points and 10 boards), but it wasn’t enough to help the Kings get a win over the Hornets. New Orleans only shot 32% from the floor, but they still got a four-point victory. Their 15-16 shooting from the line helped. The Kings had just 14 assists and turned the ball over 21 times. Six different Kings players gave it up three or more times.
- The Warriors got their asses handed to them by the Lakers (117-89). Pau Gasol had 28/9/5 with 4 blocks on 10-10 FG and 8-8 FT. The only flaw in his line was a single turnover. The Lakers shot damn near 56% from the field and someone assisted on 32 of their 44 buckets. I’m not a Laker fan (not a hater either, mind you), but I do love watching these guys run the floor and move the ball. Seeing two guys as big as Pau and Lamar who can move and handle the ball the way they do is a beautiful thing to watch. Throw in an athlete like Shannon Brown and that dude Kobe Bryant and you’ve got quite a spectacle. The Warriors need David Lee back badly, they’ve fallen to 7-6 after starting out 6-2.
- AI’s second game in Turkey went a lot worse than the first one (which didn’t go all that great either). AI had two points as his team lost by seven. Iverson can’t seem to catch a break; his latest dud was televised on NBAtv this afternoon. I watched about 47 seconds of the game, some Euro dude had a pretty sick facial dunk, but I think my favorite non-NBA basketball league has to be the CBA. Smush Parker, Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, and my boy Stromile Swift (led the league in dunks per game last season!)… that’s some quality stuff.
Quote of the Day: Doc Rivers on whether or not Amir Johnson was fouled by Paul Pierce in the final seconds…
“You answer that. I need my money, I have four kids. I’ll let you answer that. I didn’t see anything.”
Word to Latrell.
Photo of the Day:
I hear many people call this intensity… I call it insanity.
