I’m really late today, sorry about that. I stayed up way too late last night, and not because I was working on today’s update. Normally when I’m up until 4 AM this stuff is all done, but I was slacking yesterday. I’d like to say it won’t happen again, but it very well may. Anyway, It was a pretty crazy night in the NBA… lots of random career highs and ridiculous stats. Read about it all right here! (…as if you haven’t already heard all this at 2:18 PM. My bad.)
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap: Amare Stoudemire hammers the lob. Javale McGee throws it down plus the foul. Ronny Brewer runs the floor and finishes with a big dunk. Michael Beasley crosses the sh!t out of Marcus Camby and throws down an angry slam. Kobe passes The Big O for for 9th on the all-time scoring list. NBA.com’s top 10 plays… Mike Dunleavy sighting! That was sick. I love how the announcer guy doesn’t even acknowledge the move, just Hansbrough diving on the floor. Give Mike some props for that, if Rondo did it for the 2,645,123rd time you’d lose your marbles.
- DJ Mbenga got his championship ring before last night’s Lakers game. I could’ve put this in the Lakers/Hornets recap… but I’ll give him his own bullet as a token of my appreciation for the eternal joy I have received from this video.
- Amare Stoudemire took no mercy on his old fans, even though they greeted him with an ovation. STAT took his talents back to Phoenix and used them to put up 23/9 in just 31 minutes as his Knicks oblitterated the Suns 121-96. Raymond Felton recorded his first ever triple-double (23/10/11), and as a team the Knicks knocked down 17 threes, which matched their season high. Said Stoudemire: “I had one objective and that was to dominate from the start.” Mission accomplished.
- With an 18-point loss to the Warriors, the Crapoliers of Crapland have dropped 19 of their last 20. Their big three of Mike Harris, Manny Williams, and Antawn Jamison dropped 53, and JJ Hickson had 17 off the bench… but they couldn’t even break 100. I guess 98 is big for the Cavs, but it’s not really an accomplishment against Golden State… that’s probably like 10 points less than average for opponents in the Bay. In other sad news, they lost the battle of the boards, gave up a dunk in traffic to Vladimir Radmanovic, and allowed Monta Ellis to do 32 points in 37 minutes.
- Andrew Bogut pulled down a career-high 27 boards and his Bucks squad managed to score 95 points, so they probably won, right? Wrong. The Deer shot themselves in the hoof with 23 turnovers and lost to the Heatles by six. Heatles… god, it makes me cringe. I was a huge LeBron bandwagoner through last season, but with all these new opportunities he’s gotten to speak, I’ve realized that I made a mistake. I still love the guy’s game, but he needs to have his jaw wired shut. Most things that come out of his mouth make me want to punch myself in the face. I refrain from doing so when I check his stats… another 26/10/5. He truly is a joy to watch, but his inability to STFU has become too much for me to handle. Oh yeah, Compact Disc Recordable aka CDR aka Chris Douglas-Roberts dropped 30 in this game. I feel like that’s worth a mention.
- The Grizzlies are creeping up on .500 (17-19) with their third win in a row. The most recent victory was last night by 11 points over Utah. Rudy Gay is making his case for his first ever All-Star appearance… he dropped another 28/9, making it three in a row with 27 or more, along with four steals (the Grizz forced 23 Jazz TOs in the game). Rudy could end up receiving an All-Star nod from the coaches if the Grizz continue to win games and get themselves in the top eight out West. Zach Randolph had 26 and 11 of his own… it was his fourth 20-10 over the past five games.
- Pau Gasol did his thing with 21/13/7 as the Lakers picked up a four-point W over the Hornets. Kobe Bryant shot pretty well–10 of 19–on his way to 25 points. LA’s won three in a row, but they’ve only won the last two by eight total points, and the blowout victory was over a pitiful Pistons squad. The New York Knicks are rolling right now and will take their high-powered attack on to LA tomorrow, I’ll be curious to see how the Lakers perform in that one. The only .500 team they’ve been able to defeat since November is New Orleans, and they’re kinda like the Hawks… fugazzi. Oh, speaking of the Lakers, what the hell happened to Shannon Brown’s highflying tendencies? I haven’t seen a highlight dunk from Brown since… I can’t even remember, honestly. I see that he’s launching a career-high 3.2 triples a game this season, and he’s knocking them down at an effective 41.5% clip, but I really wish he’d go back to basics and throw down every once in a while.
- LaMarcus Aldridge had another typical game last night (28/10), but it was the Wes Matthews show at the Target Center. Wesley dropped a cool 36 (career-high) on just 18 shots in yet another Blazer victory. Portland’s improved to 20-17, and barring an injury to LaMarcus Aldridge (not a safe assumption), I figure they’ll be in the playoffs. Kevin Love had 30/19 in a losing effort for the T-Wolves.
- The other games: Luke Harrangody (white rookie for the Celtics, has an uglier J than Shawn Marion) put 17/11 on the Craptors, proving that anyone over 6’8 with reasonable athleticism can tear their frontcourt apart. The Cs won the game by 20. Jrue Holiday dropped 24 as the Sixers beat the Bulls by six. Tyler Hansbrough did 23/12, but the Pacers were outscored 26-12 in the 4th… resulting in a three-point chokejob against the Spurs. New Jersey shot 34.6% and turned the ball over 17 times in a 20-point loss to the Wizards. ‘Shard did 16/13/6. Kev Mart continued his scoring spree with another 27 points, but the Rockets lost to Orlando by 15.
Quote of the Day: Flip Saunders on improvement…
“That’s the evolution of becoming a good team. The first thing is you win games at home. You beat teams you’re supposed to beat at home and are competitive against the good teams. Right now, we’re at that first step.”
For whatever reason, that last part made me chuckle.
Photo of the day: No homo?
