12/25/10: Christmas The NBA Way.

Anyone out there get anything good for Christmas? I got that toaster I wrote about a few weeks ago, along with a few tickets to see the Celtics play the Timberwolves. Kobe Bryant and the Lakers weren’t so fortunate… they got a triple-double from LeBron James, and they can’t return it. There were a variety of other exchanges as well… read about them all, right now!

Random Observations:

Highlight Recap: Monta Ellis with a nice dunk and a retardedly difficult layup. Chris Bosh monster one-handed dunk. Dwyane Wade splits the D and throws it down. Dwight Howard swats Paul Pierce. KD blocks a three, Westbrook scores at the other end. Lamar Odom opens the game with an alley-oop. Amare Stoudemire denies Derrick Rose. Rose makes a great steal and scores a layup. Landry Fields with a ridiculous tip-in off a missed freethrow.
Lowlight Recap: Dwight Howard is called for a 10 second violation at the freethrow line. Never in all my years of watching NBA basketball have I seen this called. Hubie Brown said the same thing, and I think he’s been watching the NBA since the day the league was founded. The call was definitely legit, and Howard is known to take a really long time on his freethrows… but I think they should’ve just told him to hurry up before actually calling the violation. Dwight Howard isn’t the only guy who takes more than 10 seconds to release a freethrow. Tim Duncan turns into a pigeon-toed statue for like 15 seconds before he bricks his freethrows. Oh, LOL @ Paul Pierce at the end of the video. Next up, LeBron James is given a technical for being put into a headlock by Ron Artest. Sometimes I simply can’t figure out what the hell these refs are looking at.
For the second Christmas in a row the Lakers were run off their own court by a LeBron James led team. Unlike last year, nothing was thrown onto the court. I was disappointed. Anyway, LeBron hit the Lakers with the first Christmas-day triple-double (27/11/10) since 1970. This game was a major flop in the competetiveness department, Miami basically led throughout the entire game, and held a double-digit lead entering the final quarter. Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol combined to shoot just 6-24 in the first half, and Kobe never really got a rhythm going… he finished just 6-16. The Heat, on the other hand, got off to a great start. Chris Bosh scored 18 first-half points and his Heat entered the lockerroom with a nine-point advantage. According to Kobe Bryant, his Lakers simply didn’t bring it: ”It’s like these games mean more to our opponents than they do to us. I think we need to get that straight—play with more focus, put more (emphasis) on these games. I don’t like it. …We know what we’re capable of doing, and that’s part of the problem.” I agree with the Mamba. This isn’t the first time LA has flopped in a hyped up regular season matchup… but they always get sh!t straight come playoff time, so I wouldn’t be too concerned if I’m a Laker fan. Highlight of the game: Ron Artest dribbles like a third grader, then dives into Jamaal Magloire while trying to save the ball from going out of bounds. Jamaal, who has been known to get physical, layed a pretty nice forearm on Artest.
The Orlando Magic opened their game against the Celtics on a 13-0 run, but fell behind by the end of the frist quarter and trailed by 10 at the half. No matter, they would out-score the Cs by 19 in the second half. This one was a physical defensive struggle. Neither team shot over 40%. Dwight Howard never got anything going… he only attempted four shots and scored just six points. Shaq fouled out in just a little over 12 minutes… you’ll find out how he felt about that in the QOTD section. Kevin Garnett and Brandon Bass were the only guys who played exceptionally well offensively. Garnett led the Cs with 22 on 10-14, and Bass led the Magic with 21 on 8-15. Big Baby was effective getting himself to the line for Boston. He scored 16 on 8-8 freethrowing. Hedo Turkoglu had a pretty nice night with 16 points of his own. This game was actually closer than the final score (86-78) indicates. It was tied at 77 with just under two minutes to go, then Jameer Nelson hit a huge three-pointer, which was followed by a JJ Reddick jumper making it a two-possession lead. Boston’s win streak comes to an end at 14 games. The Magic have to be feeling great right now, they’ve just ended two double-digit win streaks in triumphs over two of the best teams in the league. I think we’re going to see them run off a nice string of victories in the near future.
The New York Knicks are back to winning again after three consecutive losses to the Celtics, Heat, and Cavs. Led by 20-point outings from both Raymond Felton and Amare Stoudemire, the Knicks picked up a nice win over the Bulls, who had won 9 of their last 10. New York was coming off a victory over the Thunder, so this is their second consecutive victory over a legit team. The Knicks actually won this game with defense: they pulled away over an eight-minute stretch in the final quarter where they didn’t allow a single bucket. Amare Stoudemire swatted six shots on the night. Final score: 103-95, NYK. Carlos Boozer (26/19) came up one board short of a 20/20, but he and Derrick Rose turned the ball over seven times a piece.
Chauncey Billups had his best game of the season, but it wasn’t enough to get the Melo-less Nuggets a win in Oklahoma City. Denver got 49 points from their point guards and 21 more from Nene, but little to nothing from everyone else and ended up losing 114-106. Kevin Durant was Denver’s main problem… he lit them up for 44 points, 21 of which came in a 35-point third quarter for OKC. Durant needed just 10 in the fourth to reach 50 for his first time ever, but decided not to force the issue. He didn’t have to, as Eric Maynor and James Harden combined for a 9-0 run of their own at the start of the fourth quarter which put OKC up by 10. Although Denver got as close as three on one occasion, OKC held that lead the rest of the game and went on to win 114-106.
The Golden State Warriors outscored Portland 31-22 in the final period and picked up their second win in a row. Monta Ellis scored 39 points, 10 of which came in GS’s 18-5 run that covered the last four minutes of the game and turned a six-point deficit into a seven-point victory. The Blazers kinda choked this one… they missed 10 shots in a row at one point in the fourth.

Quote of the Day: Shaquille O’Neal was unhappy with the officiating following his team’s loss…

“We have two premier big men out there today. He is pushing, I’m pushing. Let us play. If I was fan, I would be pissed. You pay all that money for good seats and you have two of the best guys in the country sitting on the bench. That’s what happens when you have control freaks out there.”

“I guess they (fans) come out to see No. 26 (referee Bob Delaney) play. He was a great player out there today. They paid all that money to see No. 26 come play. My thing is, if you’re going to call it, call it the same way every time. Don’t pick and choose who you are going to call it against.”

“Did he take a dive? Of course he did, but the referees fell for it like they always do.”

No word yet on what he will be fined, but I’m sure–as usual–he doesn’t give a sh!t.

Photo of the Day: It’s always Big Baby that ends up in these types of photos…