Cavalier fans: don’t jump, everything’s going to be OK… but if you missed the game last night then don’t read any further. These past couple of days have been one giant nightmare for Cleveland. Losing by 28 to LeBron’s Heat as he dropped 24 in a quarter on TNT was pretty ugly… and getting blown out by the Minnesota Timberwolves is no way to recover. Minnesota had already scored 73 at halftime, and ended up leading by 40 at one point. In other odd offensive explosions, Brad Miller set a career-high in three point shots attempted and Jodie Meeks hit an absurd number of triples in a single quarter.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: Jamal Crawford puts a nasty move on Chris Bosh. Tyson Chandler big-time dunk. LeBron flies to the hoop for a powerful slam. Andrew Bogut spins on Gortat and dunks. Leon Powe drives and dunks. Brandon Jennings finds Bogut for the dunk. Iggy sick behind-the-back pass to Thand Young. Rose crosses up Kyle Lowry and throws it down. Tyreke crosses Kidd. Iguodala fastbreak dunk.
- Lowlight Recap: Brad Miller and Courtney Lee collide on a pick-and-roll. Lee ends up bleeding from his face, and CJ Watson (who never touched anybody on the play) was called for a foul. Poor execution, poor officiating, and a headache for Courtney Lee all in one play.
- The T-Wolves scored a season high 129 points as they beat the Cavaliers by 34. How’d they do it? Well, first of all, they hit a franchise-record 18 triples in just 26 tries. Secondly, they made 30 of 55 two point attempts. Lastly, they knocked down 15 of 18 from the line. Basically, the T-Wolves couldn’t miss from anywhere on the Target Center floor last night. Kevin Love led the attack with 28/19. He credited his brilliance to a cold shower: “For me, I took the coldest shower I possibly could just to wake myself up.” Whatever works for you. A couple more impressive statistics: Minnesota shot over 59% from the floor, assisted on 30 of their baskets, and out-rebounded the Cavs by 17. They did all of this without leading scorer Michael Beasley, who sat out with a sprained ankle.
- Brad Miller went four of nine from long distance, but clanked a freethrow to set up Derrick Rose for the biggest long-ball of the night as his Bulls got an OT win over the Rockets in Chicago. You shouldn’t really blame Brad, though. Two of his four threes were big shots in the fourth quarter, so the Rockets wouldn’t even have been in position to brick a freethrow and lose without his contributions. As for D-Rose, he’s now made at least one three in 10 straight games and is gunning them at a solid 35.7%. Carlos Boozer had his first big game (25/9) since his return earlier this week. Luis Scola led Houston with 27/8.
- Sacramento was in excellent position to snap their seven-game losing streak, up nine with 5:25 to go. I think you already see where this is going. Their opponents on this particular night, the Dallas Mavericks, had won eight in a row and weren’t about to go down without a run. The run came–15-4 over the remainder of the game–and Dallas eeked out a two-point win. The Queens should’ve had a shot to tie or win at the buzzer, but Carl Landry (who has been demoted to the bench in favor of Jason Thompson who went just 1-5 sorry run-on sentence alert) made a bad pass and it was all over. Dirk Nowitzki had 25 on 11-15 as he continues to light it up (69% shooting over the last two games). For the Queens, Tyreke Evans had 25 and Donte Greene had his monthly scoring outburst with 19 points. The Mavs improve to 13-2 with DeShawn Stevenson in the starting lineup.
- Jodie Meeks knocked down six threes in the first quarter (7-10 for the game) on his way to a career-high 26 points as the Sixers got their third win in the last four games. Philly dropped 109 points and beat the Bobcats by 18. I don’t need to tell you how the ‘Cats lost, I’ll just let Larry Brown do that for me: “You can’t win in this league if you don’t have 15 guys playing hard. We don’t play together, don’t move the ball and don’t defend.”
- The other games: The Dwight-less/Jameer-less Magic lost to the Bucks by 11. Andrew Bogut took advantage of Dwight’s absense and went for 31/18. The Magic began intentionally hacking Bogut midway through the final period, and it worked–he missed eight FTs in a row–but Orlando still couldn’t complete a comeback. The L.G.O.P. Crew combined for 75 of Miami’s 89 points as the Heat beat the Hawks by 12. Take a look at Miami’s section of the box score. Every single digit larger than nine appears in either LeBron, Bosh, or Wade’s column. The other two starters combined for two points, two assists, and two rebounds. For some reason that box score just looks really funny to me… it’s completely barren aside from three lines. Based on that you’d think Miami was playing three on five.
Quote of the Day: Antawn Jamison on looking at mirrors…
“I think it’s time to look in the mirror and just say we’re playing bad basketball.”
You mean you hadn’t done that already, Antawn? You guys are 7-12 and haven’t had a winning record since November 9th… and you’re just now realizing that you suck?
Photo of the Day:
