The third of January was a slow six-game night in the NBA. A bunch of good teams played a bunch of bad teams… all the good teams won, and most of them did so quite easily. The most competetive battle was probably the T-Wolves three-point L in Boston, which I was fortunate enough to watch from some pretty nice seats in section 19 of the TD Banknorth Garden. Michael Jordan was last night’s real winner, though. He witnessed LeBron’s 38 points from his courtside seat in Charlotte. I’m sure he was thrilled.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: LeBron with a sick reverse on the break. Courtney Lee slams in the vicinity of the Birdman. Rajon Rondo lobs to Shaq. Dwyane Wade finds LeBron for a dunk. The top 10 has a few more nice plays. Check out Jrue Holiday’s ball handling at #9.
- Charlotte looked like the Larry Brown Bobcats, scoring just 82 points in a 14-point loss to the Heat. They shot 38% and failed to reach 90 points for the first time since Paul Silas took over four games ago. LeBron James led Miami with 38/9/5 and Dwyane Wade added 31/11/4 of his own. Chris Bosh’s 11 points helped the big guns account for 83% of their team’s 96 points. The Heat have now won 18 of their last 19, which is impressive, but keep the competition in mind. The triumph over LA on Christmas was a quality victory. The win at Utah was legit. Two wins against the Knicks are nice. Other than that… New Orleans? Meh. The Hawks? Worst “good” team ever. The other 12 wins have come against sub-.500 teams.
- Dwight Howard made 7 of 9 shots and 8 of 14 freethrows on his way to a 22-point 17-board night against the severely disadvantaged Warriors. I say severely because they didn’t even have David Lee, who saw Dwight Howard’s name in the scouting report and suddenly decided his back hurt. That left Lou Amundson and Dan Gadzuric to be destroyed by Superman Jr. The two of them tallied more fouls (10) than rebounds (6) in 29 combined minutes. Eight of nine Orlando players who saw the court scored in double figures… the only guy who failed to do so was Quentin Richardson, and you can’t really blame the guy. It’s tough to drop 10 points in 52 seconds, even against Golden State.
- After taking an hour-long tour of the mess of a city they call Boston, my buddy and I finally made it to our seats just as the Cs and Wolves were set to tipoff. Sports writer Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe showed up around the same time and sat just a few seats away from me. They give people from the Globe fancy little tables and extra wiggle room… I’m not quite sure why NBA247365.com doesn’t get the same treatment. Anyway, my man Super Cool Beas started out the game hot, but quickly picked up a couple BS fouls and was sent to the bench. He only played 23 minutes, but did light it up later on. Kevin Love had 10 boards at the end of the first quarter and damn near out-rebounded the Celtics by himself. He finished with 24, just six fewer than the C’s team total. The final four minutes of this one certainly exceeded my expectations for a Celtics/Wolves game. Minnesota led by five, but would lose the lead on a Shaq layup with two minutes to go. Michael Beasley made a variety of tough jumpers. He knocked down four of ‘em in a row over the last 3:19. Those four jumpers accounted for all eight of his team’s points during the closing stretch. Luke Ridnour was set up with a layup off of a nice inbound play which would’ve given his team the lead with nine seconds left, but he travelled… and it didn’t even matter because he also had his sh!t tossed by the only man he had to beat, Ray Allen. Beas missed a turnaround three at the buzzer which would’ve given me five extra minutes of enjoyment. Oh well.
- The other games: Tracy McGrady fell one board short of a triple double and one three-pointer short of sending the Pistons to OT in Utah. T-Mac bricked a triple with four seconds left that likely wouldn’t have mattered anyway, as I’m confident that Detroit wouldn’t have been able to get it done in overtime. Tayshaun Prince scored 26. Six Jazz players scored 11 or more. Nobody put up a statline that’s worth your time as the Hornets beat the Suxers by seven. Melo did 33/11/5 while leading his Nuggets to a 113-106 victory over the H-Town Rockets.
Quote of the Day: From the AP’s Heat/Bobcats game review…
“With Kwame Brown the only healthy center, the Bobcats fell apart offensively, missing 18 straight shots bridging the second and third quarters.”
…as if Nazr Mohammed and Desagana Diop would’ve done something to help remove the lid from the basket. Kwame’s an easy target, and a funny target… but this guy’s trying too hard.
Photo of the Day: Took this incredible shot myself…
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