12/17/10: Joe Johnson Makes An Early Return.

Joe Johnson made a surprise decision to return to the court just 15 days after undergoing right elbow surgery that was supposed to sideline him for at least a month.  I did my fair share of ragging on JJ when he was slumping in the early season after signing his monster contract, so I think it’s only right that I give him some props for his latest move.  Like I said, he was supposed to be out at least a month.  No one was pressuring him to return early, and no one expected it… he just felt that he was ready and decided to go for it.  His return went pretty well… he was able to play over 37 minutes and contribute 16 points and eight assists in a Hawks win.  As for the picture, I couldn’t find any good shots of JJ from last night’s game, so I used one of him and his Ford F650 XUV.  I want a vehicle with a train horn, dammit! 

Random Observations:

  • Highlight Recap, Blake Griffin Edition: Two-handed dunk from DeAndre JordanFastbreak dunk AND1360 layup plus the foul.  You’ve gotta slap him harder than that, T-Mac. 
  • Highlight Recap, Everyone Else Edition: Josh Smith two-handed dunkJosh Smith one-handed dunkLeBron contemplates busting a slip-n-slide, but thinks better of it and makes a sick dish to DampierLeBron catches an oop from D-WadeWade drives and dunksWilson Chandler throws it downRudy Fernandez drives and dunksSick double alley-oop play by the BlazersTop 10.
  • Joe Johnson struggled with his jumper a bit upon returning early from elbow surgery, but that’s to be expected.  He went just 1-6 from three-point land and 5-14 overall, but he did score 16 points and account for eight of ATL’s 24 assists on 36 buckets.  The Hawks got a five-point win over the Bobcats, who played without Gerald Wallace and shot just 38%.  Question for Larry Brown: why the hell is Kwame Brown getting more run than Tyrus Thomas?  The Hawks don’t play a particularly large lineup, yet Kwame got 27 minutes last night compared to just 16 for Tyrus.  I’m not just talking about one game, either.  Kwame has averaged more MPG than Tyrus over the entire month of December.  It makes no sense to me… the Bobcats are going nowhere fast (9-17), why not give the relatively young guy (who has been very productive in limited minutes) some time to show whether or not he can actually get it done every night in extended minutes?  Charlotte scores about 93 PPG… that’s third worst in the league.  Kwame Brown can’t even catch the ball, let alone place it in the basket.  Defense is great, but in the words of John Madden, “the team that scores more points will probably win the game.”  Come on Larry, your way isn’t working.  Go small and give Tyrus a chance.
  • If there’s such a thing as a good loss, the Knicks took one to Boston on Wednesday.  Even though Boston won, New York certainly proved their legitimacy.  Friday presented another test for the Knicks… and they failed this one.  LeBron and the Heat rolled into the Garden and embarrassed the Knicks 113-91 for their 11th win in a row.  Everything was swell at halftime… the Knicks had completely recovered from an early 13-point deficit, and the score was tied at 57.  The next two quarters didn’t go so well.  Miami put up 33 points in the third while holding New York to just 17, and unlike the Heat’s first double-figure lead, this one never came close to disappearing.  LeBron dropped 14 of his game-high 32 during the third-quarter run.  Amare Stoudemire’s streak of nine games of 30+ points came to an end.  Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh scored 26 each.  New York’s defense left a lot to be desired in this one.  LeBron, Dwyane, and Chris were allowed to make their way to the basket much too easily on far too many occasions.  Miami shot 55% as a team while the high-octane Knicks went just 39.3% from the field and 56.5% from the line.  If Mike D’Antoni wants to take this team from good to great he’s going to have to find a way to make them D up.  Jumpers aren’t going to fall every night, and when they don’t you have to give yourself at least some chance of competing by relying on something more consistent… like scrappy defense.
  • The Brandon Roy-less Blazers picked up a win in a matchup of the Northwest Division’s two worst teams.  Michael Beasley scored 33 points, Kevin Love dropped 19/17, and former Blazer Martell Webster threw in 19 off the bench… but the Wolves got just 31 points on 35 shots from the rest of the team.  Darko Milicic, who has been the team’s third best player this season, left just a minute in with an ankle injury.  LaMarcus Aldridge, who had 35 in his last game, dropped 36 on 15-22.  Rudy Fernandez stepped up and scored a career-high 26 points, and Wes Matthews contributed 21.  This game may as well have been 3-on-3.  Six players accounted for about 74% of the 209 total points scored. 
  • The Jazz shot 36% from the floor, 16% from three, and 50% from the stripe in a 29-point loss to the Hornets.  Utah was only able to put 71 points on the board, their lowest total of the season by a long shot.  The Hornets, on the other hand, had no problem putting the ball in the basket.  They shot 50/31/86 percent from the floor/three/line on their way to 100 points.  Marcus Thornton suddenly appears to be back in the New Orleans rotation.  He’s played 24 minutes and scored 19 points in each of the Hornets’ last two games.  David West led the Bees with 23 points on just nine shots.  Neither Chris Paul nor Deron Williams did much of anything statistically.  CP had 11/10 on 5-11 and DW recorded just 10/5 on 4-12.
  • The other games: There were a lot of “other” games last night.  Cleveland lost by nine to Danny Granger (30/12) and the Pacers…  that makes it 10 straight for the Crapoliers.  Lamar Odom put 28 points on the Suxers as the Lakers got a 12-point victory.  Andrew Bynum watch: 13 minutes, 3 points, 4 rebounds, 1-5 shooting.  Andrea Bargnani scored 32 in a six-point victory over the Brooklyn New Yorkers.  The Machine malfunctioned in it’s Nets debut (0-5 from distance).  The Clippers took a trip to Detroit and got their sixth win (first on the road) of the season thanks to Blake Griffin and his 24/17.  Brian Cook dropped 12 off the bench.  DeMarcus Cousins had a nice double-double (19/15), but the Queens lost by 15 to the Thunder.  The Memphis Grizzlies, who had won four in a row, got abused by the Rockets (103-87).  Kev Mart dropped 34 while shooting just five freethrows, and Kyle Lowry dished 18 assists against his old team.  Lastly, the Steve Nash-less Suns lost to the Mavs by 15.  Nash collided with Tyson Chandler about five minutes into the game and did not return. 

Quote of the Day:  LaMarcus Aldridge had a chance to set a new career high at the freethrow line, but tossed up two bricks.  He blames a Blazer fan for his choke-job…

“Some fan yelled it to me, and when they yelled it to me, I got tight and missed both of them. Next time, don’t tell me.”

I’d love to see LaMarcus at the line on the road in game seven of a playoff series.  Guaranteed airball.

Photo of the Day: Expect to see this image in a future NBA 24/7 365 header…

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