Highlight Recap: Blake Griffin attacks the rim. CP3 puts the moves on D-Rose. Shannon Brown with a dunk. Luke Ridnour tosses a lob to Kevin Love. Marvin Williams from midcourt. Pargo sees Josh Smith running the floor and knows where to throw it. Amir Johnson flies in for the putback dunk. Jarrett Jack punishes Steve Nash’s ankles. Emeka Okafor pounds one. And last but not least, Dwight Howard…
Lowlight Recap, Jose Calderon Edition: Jeff Van Gundy would’ve blown a gasket…
Lowlight Recap, Marshon Brooks Edition: Even young, promising Nets are still Nets…
Lob City finally looked like Lob City, and I feel much better. They did get their asses handed to them by the Bulls (114-101), but after those first two games I was just looking for them to prove their entertainment value. They certainly did that in the home opener as Blake Griffin got the game off to a promising start and DeAndre Jordan stole the show…
During one brief break in the up-and-down action, Clippers color commentator Mike Smith called DeAndre Jordan the “highest-jumping big man” he’s ever seen. I know commentators get carried away in the moment from time to tome… but I was thinking… could it be? Could DeAndre Jordan’s elevator reach a higher floor than Blake Griffin’s? There’s no doubt that both of ‘em are all-time freakazoids imported from another universe, but I’d love to see a head-to-head verticle competition between the two. That would be something.
I was also thinking… who would be the superior dunker if both players had the capability of creating their own slam-dunk opportunity? Blake Griffin will go down as the better dunker because his other basketball skills allow him to dunk in a wider variety of situations, but if both players had identical skill sets, who would be the more electrifying finisher? I guess it doesn’t matter, but I couldn’t help but pose the question.
As for the game that the Clippers lost… like I said, I was just glad they looked like a fun team again. I was too busy enjoying the show to concentrate on why exactly they weren’t winning. I think it had something to do with a steady stream of Bulls three-pointers raining down on them in the fourth quarter, along with a second-half failure to force turnovers and run like they had in the first half. Derrick Rose may have had a little something to do with it too… he and his 29 points, 8 rebounds, and 16 assists. I’m not even gonna talk about him. If you haven’t figured out how awesome Rose is yet then you’re hopeless.
Call me crazy, but I kind of like the Bobcats. Let me rephrase that: I kind of like watching the Bobcats. I think the key was drafting Corey Maggette to my fantasy team. See, I can’t stand Maggette, but now I’m forced to be excited when he falls on the floor and Violet Palmer sends him to the stripe, or when he takes one of those awful-looking jumpshots and somehow manages to put it in. So, with the eyesore that is Corey Maggette taken care of, I can actually observe the rest of the team. I must say, I like what I see. Kemba Walker has NBA-level scoring moves. He has limitations, too, but definitely a game that translates to the professional level. This was probably obvious to people who know more about college basketball than I do, but it’s news to me so I’m gonna report it. There’s also Gerald Henderson; a guy who won’t do anything spectacular, but has all the fundamentals necessary to be a solid all-around wing player. In addition to those two obvious submissions, I like what I’ve been seeing from DJ White (who seems to have a smooth jumper), Derrick Brown (active), and Bismack Biyombo. Let me say something about Biyombo: this guy’s shot-blocking ability is as good as advertised. He’s got good instincts, and they don’t teach those. He’s still raw, but f@ck, he was born in 1992. What does that make him, like, 14 years old? This kid will pan out just fine.
Basically, I’m saying I like the group of young players the Bobcats have collected. They make the team a lot more watchable than I had envisioned. Had MJ received a better assortment of picks in the Gerald Wallace trade they’d probably be looking great. Thus far Gerald Wallace has been turned into Tobias Harris and a little cap space. Who the hell is Tobias Harris? I guess he didn’t even make the team. If the conditional pick in 2013 turns out to be a non-factor then the ‘Cats will have litterally given Wallace away.
Dwyane Wade scored his second game-winning bucket in three days to put the Heat over the T-Wolves, 103-101. With six seconds to play and the score tied at 101, Wade curled towards the hoop off of a Chris Bosh screen as LeBron James threw a perfectly-placed and flawlessy-times lob pass…
If you’re Minnesota, don’t you make an offense/defense substitution to get Rubio off of Dwyane Wade? It was a well run play that could’ve allowed Wade to lose any defender, but still… maybe Wes Johnson?
Speaking of Ricky Rubio, he became the first Timberwolf to score 12 points, grab 6 rebounds, and dish 12 assists since Sam Cassell, according to my good friend STATman. He hit a catch-and-shoot three-pointer and drove to the basket for a layup, which doesn’t exactly make him Steve Nash, but does show that he’s not completely incapable of putting the ball in the basket. I didn’t come away as impressed as I was after his debut, but it was another good showing. Some of his passes were more basic in this game, and he even threw one lob to Anthony Randolph that was just way off the mark. He’s human!
Kyrie Irving, I feel for you, man. Young Kyrie made a beautiful drive to the basket that should’ve won the game, but he blew the left-handed layup at the buzzer…
I’m sure he didn’t sleep a wink last night. It would’ve been a great play to ooo and aah over had he been able to convert, but a blown layup doesn’t really make it any less impressive. Yeah, he f@cked it up it this time, but I’m pretty confident that Kyrie Irving will go on to make the majority of his uncontested layups. What we learned about him on this play is that he’s got not only the skill, but the confidence to fracture a set of ankles on his way to a point-blank opportunity with the game on the line. He missed the layup? More ping-pong balls for the Cavs. That was one hell of a take, blown layup or not.
Check out this layup by Brandon Jennings…
I’m not putting it in the mix with the rest of the highlights because I want to make sure everyone sees it. How does this not make the top 10?
Box Score Observations: Dwight Howard grabbed 24 rebounds for the second game in a row. I think NBAtv said he’s the first to do such a thing since Dennis Rodman. Andrea Bargnani gave the Mavs 30 points on 18 shots. He had 7 rebounds, too. The Mavericks did manage to win, finally. Ian Mahinmi came off the Dallas bench for 19 points on 6-6… I imagine that that has to be his career high. Derrick Favors doubled his scoring output from his first two games with a 20-pointer against the Sixers. John Wall went 1-9 with 4 TOs as the Wizards lost to the Bucks by 21. Boston got off the schneid with an 11-point win over Detroit. Jermaine O’Neal’s 19 points are the most he’s scored since the industrial revolution.
