I’ll only be touching on a few key points today because my immune system defends about as well as Derek Fisher. I’m normally not one to get all bent out of shape over the sniffles, but I’ve been some sort of sick for over a month now, and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament I played in last night seems to have brought my flu-like symptoms back in full force. Sorry, but I’m not Michael Jordan.
The Los Angeles Clippers dropped what I’m going to call a “lockout game” to the Phoenix Suns. Both teams were on the second night of a back-to-back, and it showed. Blake Griffin was completely off his game, attempting 19 shots for just 17 points as the Clipps failed to break 80. The Suns, who only scored 81 themselves, got little from Steve Nash but a few clutch freethrows. Marcin Gortat and Jared Dudley stepped up, though, scoring 40 combined points. Channing Frye went just 2-18 from the floor, but give him credit for collecting 14 boards and defending the ineffective Griffin. Like I said, a “lockout game,” but the Clipps better be careful, because they’ve got quite a few potential “lockout games” coming up in the month of March. Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and company will be playing 18 games over the next 29 days with the next four coming on the road. They’ve also got a back-to-back-to-back coming up that features Indiana, OKC, and New Orleans, all on the road. Basically, the Clippers had a relatively cupcake schedule out of the gate, and now they may pay for that. With last night’s loss they’re now tied with the Lakers for third, and they’re only 2.5 games ahead of 8th-place Denver. While I believe that the Clipps are certainly one of the West’s top four teams, March will be an extremely tough month for them and they can’t afford to be dropping too many games to teams like Phoenix if they want to be in the top half of the bracket come April.
Shout out to Kenyon Martin… he was about the only Clipper who could do anything right last night. K-Mart came in off the bench and contributed 14 points, 8 boards, 3 blocks, and a steal. He also made some non-box-score plays that would’ve been huge had the Clipps been able to capitalize more often. In LA’s last-ditch comeback effort, Martin set a huge screen the free up Chris Paul for a three-pointer. He was also able to deflect a ball from Steve Nash after being forced to make a switch. I feel like he had a big blocked shot as well. Had the Clipps won, K-Mart would’ve been the hero.
If you only watched the Jazz play in Salt Lake City you’d probably fear them about as much as you may fear a team like the Grizzlies or the Rockets. Utah took a big lead early and snapped Miami’s nine-game win streak last night, and in their previous game they knocked off the aforementioned Rockets. It’s funny that they can come home and pull some sh!t like that after losing nine of nine road games in February (Utah last won a road game on January 15th). The Jazz are currently two games out of the 8th and final playoff spot, but looking ahead at a six-game trip that begins tonight in Dallas, as well as more road games than home games remaining on their schedule… you can probably forget about ‘em. F@ckin’ Jazz had me fooled for a while. They looked awesome back in early January when they were playing all their games on their own floor.
“Give LeBron a dollar and he’ll give back three quarters in change.” A tired joke indeed, but I’ll admit that I cracked up when Matt Harpring actually broke it out on the air last night. Sh!t damn near backfired on Harp, though. Well, I suppose LBJ did deliver just three quarters in Miami’s 98-99 loss, but the one that was missing was the first, not the fourth. After scoring just 4 first-quarter points, LeBron delivered 17 in the last 12 minutes. He made all eight of his shots, but it’s the one he passed up that’s got everyone in a tizzy.
Said LeBron: “I just try to make the right plays and do what it takes to win basketball games.”
Was it the right play? Personally… I think it was. Yeah, okay, I understand the argument that James had 35 points and Haslem had 4… but does that make a jumper over a double team, which is the shot LeBron was looking at, a good one? I suppose it does if it goes in, but those who understand the game know that shots are to be judged when they are released, not when they are made or missed. So, I’m not mad at LeBron for making the pass. Four points or 40 points, Udonis Haslem has made a living off of hitting that 15-footer for the past nine years. He happened to miss this one. How ’bout Dwyane Wade fouling Devin Harris on a circus shot with 5 seconds to go? That little folly resulted in the game’s deciding point. Funny that the AP’s game recap only mentions Wade to point out that he “made a few key baskets.” Let me tell you what… authoring this blog would be a whole lot simpler if I took their approach… just leave out whatever bits and pieces of the game that don’t contribute to the storyline.
The Bulls trounced the Irving-less Cavs, and since Miami lost Chicago takes sole possession of the #1 spot in the East. I happened to see the second quarter of this game, and despite Cleveland’s inability to compete, I was impressed by their effort. The second was actually the quarter during which the Bulls made their first big run, but both teams fought very valiantly. I don’t think the “NBA players don’t play hard” crowd reads this blog, but if there are any of you out there… you’re full of sh!t.
Kenneth Faried is about as impressive as a player without any basketball skills can possibly be. There’s really nothing more to be said about the young man… I mean, all he ever does is run and dunk, but he does it with impressive effectiveness. Last night he was able to come up with another big double-double of 16 points and 11 boards to help lift the Nuggets to a big road victory over the Rockets, despite some impressive floppery from Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, and Kyle Lowry. I suppose Martin does deserve some credit for keeping the Rockets in it until a late Denver run. He scored 35 points on 6-9 from three.
Andrew Bynum stepped up and gave DeMarcus Cousins 18 points and 15 boards in a 115-107 Laker victory. Cousins had 13 rebounds of his own, but he scored just 10 points on 16 shot attempts. I didn’t see much of this game, but the numbers represent the big difference between these two players: Bynum is a game changers on defense, and Cousins isn’t. Oh, also, Kobe dropped 38 in his second game with the mask.
