What you missed while walking the picket lines is solidarity of the right to drink on the job…
Bulls 109, Cavaliers 108: In the first round, the Bulls can beat the Cavaliers. This game proves it. Providing LeBron James doesn’t play. And Shaquille O’Neal. And Delonte West.
With the game on the line, the Bulls had their go to man in Rose, but it was Joakim Noah who had a key tip in and hit a late 18 footer with his ugly release. Meanwhile Kirk Hinrich had a couple good defensive possessions on Mo Williams, who was playing the role of LeBron James by doing everything.
That meant on the last play, Hinrich was able to keep Williams off the ball, and Anderson Varejao had the ball with and open look, spent three seconds desperately looking to pass, then took the 12 footer and missed. But the offensive rebound came to Cleveland — and again it was Varejao with the open shot. And again he clanked it. That was good defense by the Bulls to get the win.
Bulls and Raptors now tied for eighth. Sunday will be fun.
Nuggets 98, Lakers 96: Let’s be clear — we can read nothing into this game about the playoffs. Kobe Bryant sat out for the Lakers, as did Andrew Bynum. Kenyon Martin did not play for the Nuggets. Denver was on the second night of a back-to-back. This was just a regular-season game.
But a fun one. Entertaining down to the end. Carmelo Anthony was bothered by Ron Artest all night but outscored him 9-0 in the final five minutes. Chauncey Billups was steady and hit big shots key three. The Nuggets made the plays when they had to, including on defense.
Without Kobe the Lakers shot like crap from the perimeter — Derek Fisher 2 of 11, Sasha Vujacic 3 of 12, Shannon Brown 3 of 12, Jordan Farmar the best of the bunch at 3 of 8. For those of you scoring at home, that is 26.2 percent. Then with 14 seconds left and the Lakers down one Brown threw an unnecessary and lazy outlet pass that became a turnover.
Then there was Fisher and Lamar Odom miscommunication on the final play (this was a regular Lakers set but where the screen is set depends on the matchups). Phil Jackson had opted not to call at time out, as is his want, and the result was rather than a play to get the ball inside the Lakers ended up with a broken play where Fisher tried to launch a three over Anthony. The Nuggets made the plays, Anthony got the block. And for now the Nuggets are second in the West.
Kings 116, Clippers 94: Meaningless game, but one team was still doing the little things. The Kings tend to recognize the mismatch and go at it. For a stretch the Clippers tried to put Baron Davis on Andres Nocioni, and the Kings cleared it out so Nocioni could post him up. Two buckets. The Kings were doing that all night, things like sealing off guys in the post then getting a good entry pass. You, don’t see the Clippers doing that. The Clippers are mailing it in.
Tyreke Evans was Tyreke Evans, which was too much for the Clippers. So was Jason Thompson being Jason Thompson. Great games from the Kings future stars. Sacramento also grabbed 35% of their missed shots for offensive rebounds, that’s just a lot of second chance points.
