How large does a quantity have to be in order to justify the use of the word “galore”? Is three big enough? …because that’s how many-game winners were hit last night. I’m going to go ahead and assume three game-winners is “galore” worthy. Raymond Felton got the ball rolling by knocking down a three with 2.7 seconds left on the clock. Andrew Bogut was next with a tip at the buzzer. My least favorite player in the NBA was responsible for part three… he beat the Clippers with a driving layup which was just barely released in time. There were nine other games that didn’t come down to the final seconds, and I’ll yap about those too, of course… right after the highlights!
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap, GW edition: Raymond Felton gets like five friendly bounces, resulting in the extinction of the Dinosuars. How ’bout that move he used to create space for the shot? That was… complex. I see an inside-out, a spin, and a step-back. I feel bad for Jose Calderon. Not even a good defender would’ve been able to prevent that shot from getting up. Andrew Bogut tips it in at the buzzer. The excellent screen to get Bogut freed up was set by Brandon Jennings. Derek Fisher drives and somehow floats a layup over the fingertips of DeAndre Jordan as time expires. F@ck Derek Fisher. Lucky shot.
- Highlight Recap, didn’t count edition: Blake Griffin skies for a MONSTER putback slam, but lands on the back of Lamar Odom and gets called for a foul. I’m not a big fan of that call. Lamar shouldn’t be hanging out under the basket not boxing out if he doesn’t want to get landed on. Don’t bail him out like that, make him put his body on somebody.
- Highlight Recap: Blake Griffin hammers it. D-Wade reverse jam. D-Wade dunks, swings on the rim, dangles his nuggets on Andrei Kirilenko’s back. LeBron damn near bumps his noggin on the rim. Kobe dunks a lob from Odom. Shannon Brown drains a buzzer-beater from beyond halfcourt. Amare Stoudemire dunks, Ronny Turiaf celebrates. Top 10: watch Javale McGee block a Tyreke Evans layup attempt directly off the front of the iron.
- Amare Stoudemire had his sixth consecutive 30+ point game as the Knicks defeated the Craptors for the second time in four days. Stoudemire also threw in 14 boards, but it was Andrea Bargnani who had the most impressive game statistically. Andrea went for 41 points, seven boards, and six assists on 16-24 in defeat. Bargs had actually tied the game with a three of his own right before Raymond Felton clutched it for NY. Felton had 28/11 in the game. The Knicks have now won six in a row, their best streak since the Stephon Marbury/Eddy Curry era (that’s January 2006 for those of you who chose to delete the Steph/E-City era from your memories).
- As you saw in the highlight section, the Bucks made the play of the year to beat the Pacers at the buzzer. I’ve got to criticize Jim O’Brien a little bit: why put Jeff Foster on Andrew Bogut when a lob to the rim is almost certainly coming? Roy Hibbert was guarding the inbounder, and I understand the strategy behind that plan, but there’s no way Bogut gets to that ball with Hibbert in front of the rim. No way. Hell, at least put Josh McRoberts on Bogut if you want Hibbert to defend the passer. Anyone but Jeff Foster, the poor guy has the vertical leap of a 45-year-old YMCA player. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20 I guess. Nine times out of ten that play probably doesn’t work no matter who’s guarding Bogut, although the Bucks claim that they practice it all the time. Said Bogut: “We’ve run that probably 100 times in practice just for these situations. Coach is big on late-game plays. If you can’t get a catch-and-shoot, it’s a tip play. It worked perfectly.”
- I’ve seen a lot of NBA basketball in my life, but never before had I seen a team miss a dunk on three consecutive posessions. The Clippers somehow managed to do just that last night, but they did something else even more surprising: damn near beat the Lakers. The Clipps had a one-point lead with just seconds remaining after DeAndre Jordan threw down a thunderous dunk, and things were looking good as the ball was out of Kobe’s hands. Unfortunately, Derek Fisher (not known for finishing around the rim) was able to convert a layup off the high glass as time expired to earn the Lakers their third win in a row. There’s no way D-Fish ever makes that shot if it’s not a game winner. The guy blows much easier layups than that on a regular basis. Anyway, the Clippers were killed by turnovers. Eric Gordon coughed it up twice in the last two minutes, and the Lakers ended up with four crucial points. Blake Griffin spent much of the first half on the bench due to foul trouble, but still managed to put up 16/11. Shannon Brown made four threes and scored 16 off the Lakers’ bench.
- The Cavaliers lost again, but only by five this time, and to a pretty good team (Chicago). Even though every loss counts the same, this had to feel better than getting owned by the Suxers or styled on by LeBron. The Bulls got 29/8 from Derrick Rose, who was coming off one of his worst games of the season. The slump didn’t last long… Rose knocked down three triples and shot 11-22 overall. Cleveland layed enough bricks to construct a small building: they shot 38.3% from the floor, 33.3% from three, and 61.1% from the line. Anderson Varejao was the only Cav who showed no interest in masonry… he shot 7-7.
- Carmelo Anthony didn’t suit up for the Nuggets due to knee inflamation, and Denver once again failed to earn George Karl his 1,000th win. Mr. Brick Shot had a pretty typical game with five points on 2-10, and three of the other starters didn’t do anything either. Aaron Afflolo was nice with 16 points and Ty Lawson came off the bench and dropped 24… but it wasn’t nearly enough. Ray Allen and his 28 points led the Cs to a 16-point victory in Bean Town. Boston’s won their last eight (second best current streak in the league).
- Should I even get excited when Kevin Love does 20/20? He’s done it again, for the fifth time this season. Twenty-two points and twenty-one boards were the specific digits this time around, but the T-Wolves lost to the Thunder 111-103. Minnesota was badly out-shot from the floor and the line (-10% and -27%), although they did grab 15 offensive boards. I figure they would’ve won easily if Darko played. KD posted 30/11/6.
- The Wizards, who competed admirably with the Lakers just two nights ago, must’ve left their talents in LA: they were blown out by 25 in Sacramento. The Kings needed a win badly, they’d dropped eight in a row. Beno Udrih and Jason Thompson came up big with 55 combined points. Thompson threw in 14 boards as well. Looks like JT has taken the starting PF role from Carl Landry for the time being. Hey JT, why’d you wait for me to drop you from my fantasy squad to start beasting? I put up with multiple weeks of trash lines, finally gave up on you, and you decide to turn into Amare Stoudemire. Thanks for making it look like I know what I’m doing, dude!
- The other games: New Orleans, a city which can only be described as winning because of sports teams, got a 19-point victory over Detroit, a city which can’t even use the sports thing to act like they’re not losing. Marco Belinelli scored 22 points. Reggie Williams dropped 31 off the bench for Golden State, but the Dubs lost 111-94 to the Spurs. San Antonio had six players score in double figures. Hedo Turkeyglue EXPLODED for 15 points, but the Suns lost to the Grizzlies in OT. Z-Bo had 34/17. Miami got a nice contribution from someone not named Bosh, Wade, or James: Zydrunas Ilguaskas hung 16/10 on the Jazz as the Heat got their sixth win in a row. LeBron dropped 33/7/9.
Quote of the Day: Zach Randolph’s been called a lot of things over the course of his decade-long NBA career… many of them not nice things. Following last night’s W, Rudy Gay called him something I’ve never heard him called before…
“Zach was vintage Zach tonight. He played great for us. We all know Zach can rebound and score, but the other things we’ve been working on with him and when we needed him to set a great screen he did it. That’s a winner and that’s what we want around here, winners.”
Zach’s appeared in seven playoff games in his career… not exactly my description of a winner, but hey, when you’ve played in zero playoff games like Rudy Gay I guess seven could seem like a large number.
Photo of the Day: I’m going with Raymond Felton because Bogut’s in the other photo and I refuse to post a picture of Derek Fisher doing anything positive on my website. That’s the great thing about having your own website; you can plaster your header with pictures of DeShawn Stevenson and Darius Miles while discriminating against the guys that are always all over the screen pissing you off everywhere you go. F@ck Derek Fisher, I’ll never forgive him for being a hero against my ’07 Warriors.
