Tuesday was fun, but Wednesday took things to another level. Twenty-six of thirty teams played, a guy scored 40+, one game had 260 total points, and there were highlights everywhere. I will tell you all about it right now! I will begin with this really long list of highlights (NOTE: I haven’t figured out how to make these links external yet, so if you want to stay on this page right click the links and choose “open in new window”).
- Highlight Recap: Kevin Durant toasts Luol Deng and throws it down. Russell Westbrook coast-to-coast monster slam. Derrick Rose wrap-around pass to Gibson for a dunk. Derrick Rose up-and-under layup. Jeff Green erases a shot by Keith Bogans. That covers the Bulls/Thunder game. Moving right along… Ronny Turiaf dunks on Bargs. Amare denies Bargs at the rim. Eric Gordon driving dunk. Brandon Roy beats the second quarter buzzer. DeMarcus Cousins putback slam. T-Will lobs to Favors. Evan Turner goes Allen Iverson on Dwyane Wade’s inner Michael Jordan. Also, the Top 10 has a few that I missed.
- Speaking of highlights, which rookie had the best first NBA basket last night? Wes Johnson put Luther Head on a poster, DeMarcus Cousins wrecked the rim, and Blake Griffin made an acrobatic alley oop. If these first baskets are any indication of the future for these young guns, the NBA’s future is looking quite entertaining!
- I’m officially joining the Blake Griffin bandwagon, if there’s any room left. What a great game he had last night: 20 points, 14 rebounds, and 4 assists on 8-14 from the floor. Not only do the numbers look great, it was impressive to watch. We all already know that he’s an amazing athlete, so I’m not even going to elaborate any further on some of the high-flying plays that he made. I was impressed by things that he did that didn’t have anything to do with his athleticism. I recall him making a few nice moves in the post including one great spin move. He handled the ball well in transition a few times and hit Eric Gordon with a beautiful pass for a layup. He was all over the court all night long, chasing down offensive boards and hustling after loose balls. Even though LA lost, if I’m a Clipper fan I’m feeling great simply because of Blake Griffin. One last thing about the Clipper game: DeAndre Jordan played a very productive 9 minutes in the first half, and then Del Negro decides to give his second half minutes to Jarron Collins? Why? Why is Jarron Collins even in the NBA? Speaking of “why is ______ in the NBA”, I noticed that Brian Cook is also on the Clippers. I guess LAC has replaced Charlotte as that team where players who you thought were out of the league go to collect dust on the bench and play a little garbage time here and there.
- A couple other major rookie debuts: DeMarcus Cousins went for 14/8/5 on 5-10 as the Kings beat the Wolves. Wesley Johnson had 13/4/1 in the same game. Derrick Favors had some nice offensive boards (and 10 rebounds total) to go along with 8 points in 20 minutes of play. Evan Turner had 16/7/4 on 7-10 in a loss to the Heat. John Wall plays tonight at 8, we’ll see if he is able to out-do Griffin’s monster game.
- Fun fact: the Knicks started a rookie (actually two rookies, Fields and Mozgov) on opening night for the first time in 24 years. For Knicks fans it was a very fun fact because they won the game. Wilson Chandler led the Knicks with 22 points off the bench. Amare Stoudemire had a rough game, and Reggie Evans deserves much of the credit. Reggie almost had one of those 0 point 20 rebound games (he fell short by 4 boards), and his defense on Amare was outstanding. Reggie was driving Amare nuts all night, and it wasn’t just because he was doing what he did to Chris Kaveman. Andrea Bargnani led the Raptors with 22 of his own, he had a hot start but cooled down later on, finishing only 8-21 from the floor. No one on the Raptors shot very well… they finished at 38% as a team. That’s not going to get it done when your squad isn’t particularly good at defending the other guys.
- Golden State’s first game under new coach Keith Smart did not disappoint. There were 260 total points scored as the Warriors edged out the Rockets by four. Kevin Martin managed to flop his way to the line 17 times, and he connected on all 17 attempts. Luis Scola shot 12 FTs, Courtney Lee shot 9 FTs (made all 9)… it was a parade to the line all night long for Houston. Good thing the Warriors got rid of Corey Maggette, there may have been 100 freethrows in this game if he was still around. There were 78 freethrows shot in this game, 56 of them by the Rockets. How did the Warriors manage to win? Monta Ellis and his 46 points on 18-24 was a big part of it. Stephen Curry helped out with 25 points and 11 assists. The other three starters (Lee, Biedrins, and Wright) all played well from what I saw too. Great game from GSW.
- The Miami Heat recovered from Tuesday’s ugly loss and beat the Sixers by 10. Dwyane Wade was the 30-point scorer this time around, and Chris Bosh had a much better shooting night than he did against the Celtics. James Jones made six threes off the bench. The Sixers bench outscored their starters 57-30.
- Guess what the Boston Celtics did last night? That’s right, they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers! The LeBronless, Mo Williamsless, Antawn Jamisonless Cleveland Cavaliers. JJ Hickson led the way with 21 points, making 8 of his 11 shot attempts. Cleveland fans, enjoy this while you can, because while I give your squad credit for this victory, I don’t see a lineup of Ramon Sessions, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon, JJ Hickson, and Anderson Varejao having a better record than the Miami Heat for very long. Throw Mo-Will and Jamison back in there… still not looking very good.
- The New Jersey Nets did in one game what it took them 18 games to do last season: they won. Anthony Morrow hit a big three with 26 seconds left which put the Nets ahead for good. T-Mac had an uneventful Pistons debut. He played 13 minutes and missed all three of his shots. According to the Pistons commentators he’s still hurt and he’ll be 100% in a few months… I’ll believe it when I see it.
- There were five more games yesterday about which I have nothing interesting to say. I’ll just give you a list of scores: It’s a new season, but Utah still can’t win on the road, they lost to Denver 110-88. The Hornets beat the Bucks by four, the Spurs beat the Pacers 122-109, ATL beat Memphis by 15, and the Mavericks remain undefeated all-time vs. the Bobcats (13-0), 101-86 was the score.
Quote of the Day: Blazers coach Nate McMillan when asked how he plans to keep Blake Griffin off of the offensive glass…
“Tackle him?”
The way Blake was hitting the boards last night I’m not even sure if that would’ve worked.
Photo of the Day: From Yahoo! Sports…
