My favorite of the league’s “Big” Als scored a season high in place of Carmelo Anthony to help George Karl become the seventh coach in NBA history to reach 1,000 victories. After the game, Al gave his coach a mini Gatorade bath. Very nice touch. Karl is now 1,000-679 in the NBA, and 2-0 against cancer. I’m guessing that he’s probably got more important NBA-related things to do today than read my blog, but just in case he’s my biggest fan: congratulations to you on both of those accomplishments, George.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: LBJ with a powerful two-handed slam. Hakim Warrick tomahawk dunk. Kobe makes a nice cut and finishes with a dunk. VC sends it down with two hands. Derrick Rose fakes the Kardashian out of Lamar Odom and hits a circus shot. The top 10 has a few others. Check for Amare’s block on Wall and a sweet dish by Deron Williams.
- One Craptor fan danced with the cheerleaders to dull the pain of losing four in a row. Others sat back and watched as Al Harrington went 6-11 from beyond the arc on his way to 31 points. Denver ended up edging out Toronto 123-116. A couple of former Nuggets led the way for Canada’s team: Linas Kleiza and Sonny Weems torched their old squad to the tune of a combined 47 points and 19 boards. The Raps were down double digits for much of the 4th quarter. They managed to cut the lead down to four with 47 seconds left, but Chauncey Billups made three of four freethrows down the stretch to put it out of reach.
- Amare Stoudemire received “MVP!” chants in Washington as he scored 30 for the seventh game in a row. Stoudemire actually recorded a triple-double: 36 points, 10 boards, and 10 turnovers. Even with 20 TOs as a team, the Knicks were able to knock off the Wizards for their 8th consecutive win. John Wall played in this one (37 minutes) after missing the last game with a sore foot, but had just eight points on 4-14.
- Derrick Rose knocked down three triples, dished nine assists, scored 29 points, and hit a tough jumper to give his Bulls a two-posession lead over the Lakers with 25 seconds left. Chicago knocked down three of four freethrows to maintain the lead. This was the fourth win in a row for the Bulls, who are playing better lately after struggling a bit with the return of Carlos Boozer. After the loss, Phil Jackson criticized Pau Gasol: “They got physical with him and Pau got disconcerted. He started worrying about whether he was getting fouled or not. It changed how he played.” Don’t go calling Pau a girl, though. That would be an insult to these two ladies.
- Michael Beasley sported some WNBA-looking braids as the T-Wolves beat the Pistons by 10. Darko Milicic was a beast on the defensive end… he swatted seven shots against the team that drafted him second overall back in 2003. He only grabbed five boards, but I’m not mad at him because Kevin Love made sure the glass was cleaned. Love collected 18 boards and put in 27 points on 10-14. The Pistons shot just 38.6% and could’ve been blown out had they not made 31 of 36 from the line.
- Orlando lost again, for the fourth time in a row… this time to the Jazz. Deron Williams dropped 32, but it was CJ Miles who sealed the deal for Utah. CJ scored 19 of his season-high 26 in the fourth quarter. Dwight Howard, who scored 39 the previous night, couldn’t do anything against Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson. Howard went just 5-15 from the floor and turned the ball over five times. Millsap and Jefferson combined for 38 points and one TO while shooting 15-29.
- Dwyane Wade was hit in the head by an Andris Biedrins elbow early in the first quarter. He stayed on the floor for a minute or so, but got up and got back on his business. Wade ended up putting 34 on the Warriors as the Heat won by 22 (their seventh W in a row). Four of the seven teams Miami has beaten during this streak I would call bad, and two of the others I would call just decent, but they’ve won each game by at least 10 points. That’s impressive, no matter who the comptetion is. The Heat will have a chance to prove they can beat good teams over the next two weeks. They’ll be playing four teams with records better than .500 (two of those games on the road).
- The other games: Andrew Bogut continued his recent beastliness and put up 24/22 on the Rockets as the Bucks won their third of the last four. Six Pacers scored in double-figures, which allowed Indiana to overcome 26/13 from Gerald Wallace and beat the Bobcats by eight. DeJuan Blair dropped 16/12 and four other Spurs also scored 16+ as San Antonio beat Atlanta 108-92. Russell Westbrook handed Chris Paul 29/10 while leading his Thunder to a five-point W over New Orleans. Brandon Roy was able to ignore the soreness of his knee for 40 minutes and score 26 points to help put the Blazers over the Suns by seven. Marcus Camby had 16 points, 18 boards, and 2 blocks.
Quote of the Day: Dwyane Wade on tomorrow’s game…
“We have a tough game tomorrow, probably the toughest game on this road trip because it’s the last one and it’s on a back-to-back. We can’t have any letdowns.”
So who’s this tough game against? The Lakers? Mavs? Jazz? …nope. The Kings. Those guys that have three wins since October and just lost to the Clippers a few nights ago. Sounds like it should be a real battle.
Photo of the Day:
I’m going to assume he missed, because I’ve watched all the highlights and there was no dunk by Marvin Williams. This play looks like it probably would’ve made the cut. Still, I’d like to see exactly how this went down. It appears that Marvin was damn near high enough to clear McDyess.
