Denver and Phoenix decided to play some XBox style ball last night. In a game where your average pickup player from the local YMCA probably could’ve scored 15 points, the Nuggets defeated the Suns 138-133. How many OTs were there, you ask? None. That’s correct, 271 points were scored in regulation. A total of 95 shots were made in the game, which means there was a basket being scored approximately every 30 seconds. I wonder how many years George Karl and Alvin Gentry lost off their lives last night?
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: Jose Calderon lobs a pass to Joey Dorsey, who crushes it with one hand. Jamal Crawford makes a nice move, Marvin Williams finishes it with power. CJ Miles flies to the rim. Blake Griffin throws it down. Jason Richardson alley-oop slammer. Rip Hamilton lobs to Rodney Stuckey. The top 10 has a couple decent plays that I didn’t list.
- Lowlight Recap: Hakim Warrick takes off for a dunk from the dotted line, but comes up short. Notice how Denver stands around and watches as Hakim clanks the dunk, then see how Phoenix allows Nene to run right down the center of the floor for an uncontested dunk of his own. This is how 271 points get scored in 48 minutes. It should’ve been 273, coughHAKIMcough.
- Let’s take a look at some of the numbers from that Denver/Phoenix game: 271 total points. 118 bench points. 29 three-pointers made. 62 assists. 185 shots attempted. …the scary part? There could’ve been a lot more points scored in the game if either team could’ve made their freethrows. Phoenix went 16-24 from the line, and Denver was horrendous with their 36-52 brick-show. As for individual numbers, Jason Richardson led all scorers with 39 points. Carmelo Anthony left the game with flu-like symptoms after playing just a few minutes, which opened the door for JR Smith to drop 30. Eleven other players scored in double-figures, and all 20 players who saw the court scored at least one basket. Steve Nash missed a three with a few seconds left that would’ve sent the game to OT. At the rate they were going, another five minutes would’ve put the total points in this game at damn-near 300.
- The Knicks and Pistons needed two overtimes to score 241 points of their own. Amare Stoudemire had 37 of those points along with 15 boards and seven assists while leading the Knicks to victory. Tayshaun Prince, who hadn’t scored more than 19 points all season, exploded for 31/8/7 (season-highs in all three categories). He hit the game-tying jumper at the end of regulation as well as the old-fashioned three-point play that sent the game to a second OT. Tracy McGrady played 28 minutes, his most this season, and scored 13 points on 6-10. The Knicks pulled out to a big lead in the second OT by knocking down four threes, and won the game by five.
- The Indiana Pacers, who tend to live and die by the three, clanked 19 of 23 attempts from long distance… yet they were still able to beat the Lakers in LA. Roy Hibbert was a beast with 24/12/6… he outplayed Pau Gasol, who was only able to score 13 points on 5-15. Kobe had 41 points, but needed 33 shots to get them. LA simply didn’t make shots in this game (34-88). Their bench had another not-so-productive game with just 14 points. Kobe Bryant missed a long three at the buzzer that would’ve tied the game, and the Pacers escaped with a 95-92 W. Apparently the Lakers like to take their Ls in pairs: they’ve only lost four games all season, but this is the second time they’ve dropped two in a row. I’m confident they’ll get it together next game against the struggling Grizzlies.
- San Antonio trailed by 17 in the second half to a Hornets team that was yet to lose at home… but they won anyway, because that’s what they do these days. Manu Ginobili scored 15 of his 23 points in the second half to lead his Spurs to a big-time, come-from-behind, 14-point victory. The Spurs dropped 109 points, the most allowed to any opponent by the Hornets this season.
- The other games: Josh Smith notched a triple-double (12/13/10) as the Hawks beat the Craptors by 18. Blake Griffin had 35/14/7, but the LA Sailboats still got abused by the Jazz. Six players scored in double figures for Utah, who won by 12. Kevin Durant missed what would’ve been a game-winning jumper at the buzzer as the Thunder lost to the Rockets. Kevin Martin led H-Town with 23 points. Lastly, Portland lost by two to the Nets. The Blazers have dropped three in a row and have fallen to 8-8.
Quote of the Day: Josh Smith admits to getting his Ricky Davis on…
“When it was coming down to it, I was like ‘Man, I’m not going to get it.’ We ran a couple of plays for me to try and get the assist.”
Andray Blatche is probably reading this wondering why the Wizards never ran a play to get him that 10th rebound.
Photo of the Day:
I bet he could still get more rebounds than Bargnani.
