January 5th was an exciting night of NBA basketball which presented a lot of potential headlines, but I wasn’t about to pass up a rare opportunity to post something negative about my least favorite team. The Spurs have been playing too damn well, I haven’t had a chance to bash ‘em all season. Thanks to an excellent effort from the Boston Celtics, San Antonio is sub-.500 in 2011. In other news, The Machine was clutch in a Nets victory, BFFs Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan led the Clipps to a blowout win, and the Cavs broke 100 for the first time in eight games… but still lost.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap, Clippers Edition: DeAndre Jordan reverse oop from The Baron. DeAndre goes waaaay up high for a lob from Griffin. DeAndre swats the hell out of Arron Afflalo. Blake throws down a one-handed oop slam. Griffin with a spectacular miss. Eric Bledsoe denies Carmelo Anthony.
- Highlight Recap, Other Teams Edition: Kobe with one of the circus shots of the season. Tyrus Thomas with a sick alley-oop. Top 10 plays. What the hell is that routine reverse layup by DeMaR DeRoZaN doing in there at #9? That might be the lamest play I’ve ever seen in a top 10. Is some fanatical Canadian in charge of this operation? Also, listen carefully as Kris Humphries executes his nasty putback slam. “Humpin’”? Keep it PG-13, dude. Kids are watching.
- In the first game of their Atlantic Division back-to-back, the Spurs gave up a Duncan-era record 128 points to the Knicks. In the second game they were lit up by Boston’s 61.3% shooting… another Duncan-era record. Despite the crazy shooting by the guys in green, San Antonio was able to stay in the game by getting to the freethrow line and grabbing offensive boards. With eight seconds remaining they trailed by just two, but with Ray Allen at the line the situation didn’t look promising. Shockingly, Shuttlesworth bricked a pair. His chokejob would not cost the Cs because Paul Pierce came through and stuffed Manu Ginobili’s last second three-ball. Rajon Rondo came up four steals short of a quad-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds, 22 assists, and six swipes. The 22 dimes weren’t even a season high… you may recall his 24-assist game against NY way back in October. Ray Allen was the game’s leading scorer with 31 points on 13-16. Manu Ginobili dropped 24, and Glen Davis scored 23.
- In a game which oozed highlight film, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan combined for 36 points, 38 rebounds, 10 assists, seven blocks, and at least four dunks while leading the Clippers to a 13-point victory over Denver. As usual, LA came out of the gate strong. They scored 30 in the first period and held an eight-point advantage at the half. Uncharacteristically, they didn’t blow the lead in the third or fourth quarter, and actually built on it. The closest Denver got in the second half was three, and LA blew it wide open with about six minutes to go in the fourth. There was a stretch during the second quarter where the Clipps went on a 13-1 run that was some of the most entertaining basketball I’ve seen all season. Baron Davis was pushing the tempo hard while Jordan and Griffin busted their asses to get up the floor and finish with monster dunks. I thought BD played one of his best games yet in a Los Angeles jersey. His numbers were fairly routine (16/8), but he did an excellent job distributing the ball and simply seemed to be playing inspired basketball. Clipps are 6-3 over the last nine.
- Derrick Favors was out-shined by Kris Humphries in his first ever NBA start. Favors played just nine minutes because Hump was out there racking up 20 points and 11 boards. The Nets blew a 13 point lead, but managed to beat the Bulls by two. With New Jersey up two, Sasha Vujacic foolishly fouled CJ Watson on a jumper with 11 seconds left. CJ knocked down both freebies, tying it at 94. Sasha would redeem himself on the next possession. The Machine collected a loose ball and deposited it into the basket to give his team the lead back with five seconds left. A terrible look at a three from Derrick Rose was the best the Bulls could do in a last second attempt to avoid embarrassment, and they took the L. Rose led the Bulls with 21 points, but recorded just one assist and five turnovers. Brook Lopez continues to suffer from a severe case of the Bargnani flu… he had 14 points and three rebounds.
- Antawn Jamison is tearing it up for my fantasy team… he dropped 30+ for the second game in a row last night, knocking down five of seven threes and 11 of 21 overall. Unfortunately, my fantasy team sucks almost as bad as the Cavs do. Cleveland still lost, of course, even though they had their best offensive showing since they beat the Knicks back in mid-December. Their 105 points were 15 too few as the Raptors shot 57% and won the battle of the boards by nine. Anderson Varejao should be ashamed for allowing Andrea Bargnani to match his rebound total (8). Bargnani, Barbosa, and Calderon all scored 20+, and three other Dinosaurs also notched double-figures.
- Kevin Martin knocked down 13 of 18 shots and 13 of 15 FTS on his way to 45 points, but the Blazers defeated the Rockets for the second time in four days. This is a matchup that should be one of importance, but both teams are missing half of their roster, which is straight depressing. Anyway, Martin didn’t get much help… the rest of his team went 20-52. LaMarcus Aldridge came up big once again. He made a key bucket to stretch the lead to three with 14 seconds left, grabbed a big rebound at the five second mark, and simply did his thing with 27/13. Six other Blazers also scored 10 or more. The Rockets turned the ball over 16 times, which I would assume hurt them, but I can’t say for sure because I can’t freaking find the points off of TOs statistic for this game anywhere.
- For just the fourth time this season the Atlanta Hawks actually beat a playoff-bound team. The worst 24-14 squad ever blew the Jazz out on their home floor, 110-87. This one’s pretty simple to sum up: Atlanta made shots, Utah didn’t. The Hawks went 40-79 (including 14 threes) from the floor while the Jazz made just 28 of 71 attempts. Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford are finally starting to look like Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford: They both scored 25+ for the second game in a row.
- DJ Augustin missed 11 of his first 12 shots, but scored 12 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter and OT as the Bobcats narrowly defeated the T-Wolves 108-105. Tyrus Thomas also came on strong late in the game and finished with 21/10 off the bench. Guys like Augustin and Thomas were forced to step up because Stephen Jackson and Gerald Wallace both missed the game with injuries. Michael Beasley and Kevin Love both had monster double-doubles (28/12, 35/15 respectively), but they didn’t get any help. The rest of the Wolves did nothing but construct brick buildings and hand the ball over to the Bobcats.
- The other games: The Bucks clanked 17 of 32 freethrows (leader of the masons: Andrew Bogut, 2-10) as they lost to Orlando by 10. Come on, Andrew… even Dwight made 10 of 15. John Wall did 18/14 with just a single turnover, but the Wizards lost by 12 to the Sixers. Jrue Holiday and Lou Williams had 26 each. The Hornets clanked a ton of freethrows and gave the ball up 18 times, which resulted in a 110-103 L to the Warriors. Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis collaborated for 50 points. Lastly, the Lakers defeated the setting Suns, but only by four. Jared Dudley scored 21 points. Kobe Bryant had a game-high 24.
Quote of the Day: Coach Byron Scott on his Crapoliers…
“Every time I think we’re taking a step forward, we’re taking two steps back.”
What the hell made you think you were taking a step forward?
Photo of the Day: No story behind this one, it’s just an interesting shot…
