Nono, the Heat didn’t score 96… they scored 107. LeBron, Wade, and Bosh scored 96. James was the leader of the three-headed monster with 44, Wade was next with 34, and then Bosh with 18. No other Heat player made more than one bucket. This doesn’t seem like a formula for success, but consider who else is out there for Miami. Carlos Arroyo put up five shots… probably about five too many. Joel Anthony knows his role, he didn’t take any. Big Z tried and failed twice, but as long as he was wide open then I’m cool with that. James Jones and Mario Chalmers fired a few threes, which is all good. Juwan Howard made his only shot. Some of these guys are decent role players, others are bonafide scrubs… but none of them are prolific (I listened to Clyde last night) when it comes to putting the ball in the basket. LeBron, Wade, and Bosh are going to have to drag these guys on their backs if this team is going to win a Championship. With just a single loss since the 29th of November, they’re looking capable.
Random Observations:
- Highlight Recap, Clippers Edition: DeAndre Jordan swats The Moped. DeAndre cleans up the mess. Blake Griffin dunks a lob from Baron. Blake can even make rebounding highlight material. Al-Farouq Aminu blocks a shot, heads the other way for a lob. I just realized something… I’ve been messing up Al’s name all season. The hyphen is between Al and Farouq, not Farouq and Aminu. Oops. I was wondering why the back of his jersey doesn’t include the Farouq part. Dur.
- Highlight Recap, Everyone Else Edition: Monta Ellis flies down the lane. Nicolas Batum denies LeBron James. LeBron decides he won’t be denied this time. D-Wade throws it down. Jose Calderon hits DeMaR DeRoZaN with a one-handed lob. Shannon Brown must’ve read my little blurb about how he never dunks anymore. Ill Will drives and drops the hammer. See the top 10 for a nice crossover by D-Wade and a sick slam from JR Smith.
- LeBron’s 44 were a season high, and he scored alot of ‘em down the stretch to help his team pick up their second OT win in a row. LBJ dropped eight of Miami’s 14 in the extra period, right after he scored 13 in the final 3:08 to lead the comeback which put the game in overtime. He made all four shots he took in the extra period, two threes and two freethrows. LaMarcus Aldridge had yet another monster game: 31 points, 14 rebounds, and 7 assists. Fellow Texas native Chris Bosh was unable to do much of anything to slow him down. LaMarcus scored on him in the post and drove past him for layups throughout the contest. Nicolas Batum was great with 22 on 9-16 and Patty Mills scored 13 on 5-10 off the bench, but the rest of the Blazers struggled to put the ball in the basket. As a team, the Blazers went 5-24 from three-point range. They did pull down 15 offensive boards, but Wade/James/Bosh simply scored too efficiently… they made 41 of 65 shots (63%).
- The Clippers picked up another victory to make it seven of their last ten. Eric Gordon scored 25 and Blake Griffin set a franchise record with his 23rd consecutive double-double (23/12) as the Clipps easily defeated the Warriors. My main man Dorell Wright scored 27, but LA didn’t give up anything to anyone else. Monta Ellis struggled with just 13 points on 4-19. Stephen Curry fired six long-distance bricks and went 2-13 overall for eight points. David Lee also scored just eight points and couldn’t even muster five boards. Neither team shot well (both teams sub-40%), so the Clipps had to win this one at the freethrow line. LA converted on 33 of 43 attempts… Griffin surprisingly hit 9 of 11. Baron Davis had another good game with 17/11… he finally appears to be interested in playing basketball again.
- Heads up to all Fantasy players: Anderson Varejao is likely out for the season with a torn ligament in his foot, and JJ Hickson has moved into the starting lineup. Hickson played 35 minutes last night and was able to produce 23 points and 17 boards, although I feel the need to point out that he had six of his shots blocked. The minutes should be there now, so if he’s a free agent in your league go pick him up ASAP. As for his Cavaliers, they lost again, to Phoenix this time. That makes it 20 of the last 21, and with Andy V out of the lineup it’s not going to get any easier. Steve Nash had an excellent line: 20/7/17.
- The Knicks disappointed me with an awful showing against the Lakers. Raymond Felton struggled to make basic passes, Amare Stoudemire got off to a bad start, and the whole team fired contested threes throughout the first half. They probably did the exact same thing in the second half, but I wouldn’t know, because I turned it off early in the third. Stoudemire, who was 1-10 at the half, did finish with 23 points, but he, Wilson Chandler, and Ronny Turiaf simply could not compete with the Lakers’ size. LA absolutely abused the Knicks on the glass (62-41 overall, 17-7 on the offensive end). You can’t give a team as good as the Lakers 28 second chance points, especially when you’re out there shooting 36%. That’s the recipe for a 22-point loss. I was watching the beginning of the game with my dad, who hates the Lakers. When Lamar Odom got up off the bench I said, “there’s the guy I’d be worried about.” Sure enough, Lamar was responsible for 18 of those rebounds. He always tears these undersized frontcourts to shreds. Bynum and Gasol were good as well with a combined 38 points and 21 boards. Ron Artest contributed in the only way he can these days. He can no longer score or lock anyone down, so he has resorted to choking scrubs and decking scorers. I’m disappointed in Shawne Williams… he had every reason to knock Ron’s teeth out, but did absolutely nothing. Dammit Shawne, you could’ve been an NBA247365.com hero for the rest of eternity.
- The Nets and Nuggets are supposedly close to completing a a big trade that would involve a couple other teams and a whole bunch of players, most notably Carmelo Anthony, obviously. Melo has been shoving the trade rumors aside all season, but last night he certainly played as if he’s on his way out of the mile high city. Anthony went 3-11 and scored just eight points as the Nuggets lost by nine to the Hornets. As I expected, Denver has fallen apart. A team who’s best player’s heart isn’t in it won’t be achieving any sustained success. The Nuggs have now dropped three in a row, including blowout losses to the Kings and Clippers, and have fallen all the way to seventh in the West. It’s most certainly time to send Melo packing, his stay in Denver has run it’s course. Chris Paul led the Hornets with 20 points. I swear, even when New Orleans wins, no one ever puts up a stat line that stands out. Even CP hasn’t been doing any huge numbers. He hasn’t scored more than 25 points all season and has only dished 15+ dimes twice. Back in 08/09 it seems like he was doing 30/15 like every other game.
- The other games: DeMaR DeRoZaN has suddenly turned into a scoring machine. He dropped another 28 points as the Craptors scored 60-something in the paint and beat the Queens 118-112. Normally I only change the name of the losing team to the insulting version, but in this case I feel that both teams deserve the degradation. DeMarcus Cousins continues to produce… he had 18/10. The T-Wolves have come within a few points of beating some of the league’s best teams over the past week, but haven’t been able to get over the hump. Anthony Tolliver airballed a three at the buzzer that would’ve sent Minnesota to OT in San Antonio, where they most likely would’ve lost anyway, I guess. Michael Beasely played just 11 minutes… apparently he aggravated that ankle injury.
Quote of the Day: Carmelo Anthony was booed by Denver fans last night. Here’s how he felt about it…
“I hear it. Does it affect me? No. It hurt a little bit knowing that it’s here coming from my home fans. But other than that, I try to go out there and play hard every night, do what I’ve got to do. If they like it, they like it. If they want to boo, then they want to boo.”
It hurt a little bit? Dude, you asked for it. What you’ve basically done by refusing to sign an extension with the Nuggets is say ”Denver blows and I don’t want to play here anymore”. GTFO with the “hurt” BS. You want to skip town and play for the Knicks, which is fine. You’re about to be a free agent, play wherever you want… but don’t expect Denver fans to love you as you bail on ‘em.
Photo of the Day: Shannon Brown… I wish he slammed this one…
