Amare Stoudemire had his 5th straight game of 30+ points and led the Knickerbockers to their 10th victory in their last 11 tries. New York is now four games over .500 at 13-9. The last time Knicks fans could make such a boast about their team? 10 seasons ago. In other news, Pooh Jeter damn near led the Kings to a come-back win, the Hawks beat a team with a record better than .500 for the first time this season, and Carlos Boozer had his best game as a Bull.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: DeAndre Jordan swats the air out of the basketball. LBJ fastbreak slammer. Blake Griffin makes a spin move, sets up Butler for a dunk. D-Will breaks a guy’s ankles. Brandon Jennings lobs to Larry Sanders. Blake Griffin alley-oop dunk. Griffin swats DeMarcus Cousins, drives and dunks. DeAndre Jordan had an incredible putback dunk and another monster block… neither got youtubed… normally I’d upload those plays myself, but I don’t have the ability to do that today. The dunk is in the game highlights, the block appears to be gone forever.
- Amare Stoudemire put in 34 points on 15-23 and led the Knicks to a seven-point victory over the T-Wolves. Former Pacers/Mavericks nut-case Shawne Williams is apparently NYK’s new secret weapon off the bench. He’s scored 13 points or more in the last three games and has knocked down 10 threes in just 12 tries. Both teams shot over 52% in this game, but the T-Wolves turned the ball over 17 times, allowing the Knicks to get 85 shots up compared to just 78 for the Wolves. Kevin Love had another monster game with 33/15. Knicks-related fun fact that I learned last night: Danilo Gallinari wears number eight because he was born on 8/8/88. Use that one to impress your friends.
- The Clippers entered the fourth quarter with a 16-point lead over the Kings, but 27-year-old rookie Pooh Jeter entered the game and sparked a 12-0 run for Sacramento. The Clippers actually lost the entire lead and trailed by as many as four with just a few minutes left, but Eric Gordon saved the day. Gordon scored 13 of his 29 in the final period and scored seven straight for the Clipps as the game was winding down. Blake Griffin had a slower night than usual with just 13/11, but he did throw in seven assists. Tyreke Evans shot just 5-19 and missed every jumpshot he took until he knocked down a clutch three late in the game. Pooh Jeter, the man who changed the game for the Kings, scored 11 points in just 17 minutes. This game presented me with a tough decision: which feed to watch, LA’s or Sacramento’s? Normally this would be a no-brainer and I’d roll with LA and Ralph Lawler, but Bill Walton was guest-commentating for Sacramento. I switched back and forth all night.
- Carlos Boozer scored 29 points and collected 12 boards to lead Chicago to a nine-point win over Oklahoma City. Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose both had subpar games. They combined for 11 turnovers and both struggled to put the ball in the basket. Rose was just 3-13 and finished with a season-low 11 points. The Thunder simply couldn’t make shots in this game… they finished at 29-82. The only reason they were in the game is because they knocked down 28 freethrows.
- Josh Smith dropped 19/13 as the Hawks beat a team with a record better than .500 for the first time all season. Neither team shot well in this game (both squads finished below 40%), but Orlando was particularly bad from three-point land: just 4-22. Mike Bibby, who’s leading the NBA in three-point percentage, knocked down a clutch three off of a nice play drawn up by Larry Drew to ice the game. This victory had to feel good for the Hawks… you may recall that ATL was swept by Orlando in the second round of last season’s playoffs. Not only were they swept, they lost by an average of about 23 points a night in the series.
- The other games: Brandon Rush put in six threes and scored 26 off the bench for Indiana as the Pacers beat the Craptors by 24. Carlos Arroyo went 6-6, 2-2, and 4-4 from the floor, three, and the line as the Heat beat the Bucks by 10. Dwyane Wade had 25/14 (rebounds). Deron Williams scored 27 points and CJ Miles added 20 off the bench to put the Jazz over the Grizzlies 94-85. The Grizzlies bench, which now includes OJ Mayo, was out-scored 26-16.
Quote of the Day: Pacer’s coach Jim O’Brien on Brandon Rush…
“Larry Bird said to him a couple weeks ago, ‘You’re playing like the guy I thought I drafted.’”
If you’re Brandon Rush, how do you take that? That’s a really weird compliment, because even though Larry Legend is trying to say you’re playing well, he does it while also saying you’ve let him down for two years.
Photo of the Day: I swear I don’t put the Heat here every day on purpose… they just seem to produce a lot of interesting photos.
