The Starting Lineup: Admit It, Lakers… It’s A Rivalry

The Lakers beat the Clippers, but in doing so they lost the war of words.  What I mean by that is that the Staples Center rivalry the Lakers wanted to downplay after the last match up is clearly in full effect.  These teams have racked up a total of 10 techincal fouls through two games.  Last night’s contest brought the Ron Artest out of Metta World Peace and the never-before-seen inner tough guy out of Pau Gasol.  Whether they want to acknowledge it or not, the Lakers didn’t approach last night’s game as if it was any other, and they shouldn’t have.  When’s the last time these two teams played and it could even be argued that a win would mean more to the Lakers than to the Clippers?  You can talk about the 16 titles all you want, and you’d obviously be right; the Clippers don’t have the glorious history of the Lakers.  I’d argue that it’s not relevant in this discussion, though.  As of right now, these are two competitive teams comprised of top talent fighting for divisional superiority.  Throw in a few underlying storylines, such as the Chris Paul non-trade, and you’ve got a rivalry by definition.  

The Nets with no Lopez or Brooks are like a college team.  They’ve got one guy in Deron Williams who is head and shoulders above the rest of the roster and a bunch of offensively-challenged players surrounding him.  They lack a big man with any semblence of a post game and rely on the three-point shot not because they’re great shooters, but because they lack the talent necessary to earn themselves an easier look at the basket.  This is why they rarely win and needed a hurculean effort from Deron Williams to beat a lathargic Sixers team in overtime.  Williams finished with 34 points and 11 assists in what was easily the best game of his season.  He knocked down nearly every big bucket for the Nets, including an overtime three-pointer before which he put his defender on skates with a variety of vintage dribble moves.  I’ve taken a liking to the Sixers and it was hard to watch them lose while being given change after chance, but I’ve got to give credit to Deron Williams… he was a bad man last night, as was Kris Humphries, who racked up 19 rebounds. 

The Indiana Pacers have handed the Bulls their first home loss of the season.  It was a tight contest down the stretch–Indiana’s lead was never larger than seven in the last five minutes, and the Bulls had it down to two in the final minute–yet Derek Rose, the crunch-time assassin, was inconspicuous.  The play-by-play says he missed a couple of shots down the stretch, but he made his final bucket about halfway through the fourth and the only thing I remember him doing after that was kicking the ball out to a wide-open Brian Scalabrine for a potential go-ahead triple.  It was a good play, but Scal missed.  Other than that I don’t recall Rose asserting himself.  Maybe my short-term memory’s shot, or maybe it was as unusual a finish as I feel like it was.  Maybe Neil Funk was ragging on Darren Collison so hard that it broke my concentration… I don’t know.  Anyway, to watch a close Bulls game and not at any point feel like Rose was about to win it by himself… I realized after the fact that it was a little weird. 

The Raptors beat the Jazz in a double-OT game that I can only describe as… odd.  With Andrea Bargnani unable to finish it off due to injury, Linas Kleiza played the role of go-to guy down the stretch.  Somehow that worked out often enough to earn the Raps a 111-106 victory.  Kleiza scored 25 points, his most in over a year.  Still, Paul Millsap (31 points, HUGE three-pointer) granted the Jazz many chances to win this game.  Unfortunately for them, Devin Harris blew them all.  Harris probably played one of his best games as a member of the Jazz, actually.  He scored 24 points on 8-12 and got himself to the line like the Devin Harris of old.  He failed to convert when he got there, though, and that was a huge problem because he happened to get there six times in the second OT.  He clunked four and that was all she wrote.

The Sacramento Kings scored 93 points.  The Denver Nuggets scored 92…………..in the paint. 

In a battle for the worst record in the NBA, the Wizards beat the Bobcats by 17.  Does that mean they really lost?  Tyrus Thomas posted the fantasy line of all fantasy lines in this game.  Check this out: 13 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist, 4 steals, 9 blocks, and 2 turnovers on 5-9 and 3-4.  If I wasn’t at a 537-game disadvantage this week I’d be a little upset that he’s on my opponent’s roster. 

The Cavaliers are now a half-game up on the Knicks after beating them 91-81 at the Q.  Amare Stoudemire took more shots than Melo, it still didn’t work, and the Knicks slip to 10th in the East.  I didn’t get to see this game, but Tyson Chandler did, and he had the following to say: “We have enough talent on this team, but we have to figure out how to play with one another and what it’s going to take to win games. We’re inconsistent with everything we do. To be an elite team in this league, you have to be consistent every night and we lack that right now.”  I beg to differ, Tyson.  It seems to me that there is no lack of consistency… you lose every night.

Highlight Recap: Dirk Nowitzki enjoys an alley-oop slam thrown down by Brandan WrightHe probably LOL’d at Ian MahinmiThis Blake Griffin jam would’ve had be raving if the Clippers didn’t loseThis one wasn’t half bad eitherWin next time so I can be excited about this sh!tKevin Durant now knows who Jason Smith isTop 10 has a few other plays.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>