What you missed while Jim Morrison was getting pardoned for a 31 year old indecent exposure charge…
Celtics102, Sixers101: Probably the most entertaining ending minute of a game this season.
It started with what looked like a dagger three from Ray Allen (followed by the staredown) with 1:04 left that put the Celtics ahead. How Allen — as good a pure shooter as the game has ever seen — continually gets open looks late in games baffles me. In this case, it was Jodie Meeks (who had some key baskets a few minutes earlier) cheating off Allen to cover Rajon Rondo out by the three-point line. Maybe you should let Rondo have the three and stick with Allen next time. Just a thought.
But then Andre Iguodala answered with a big time 10-footer that was well defended by Kevin Garnett. Then Big Baby Glen Davis answered that by hitting the 11 footer when the defense sagged off him. Which was followed by Iguodala answering again with a high-degree-of-difficulty leaning layup with six seconds left. Credit the Sixers, they answered every time they got a chance.
For its final shot Boston ran an interesting play — a Rondo/Garnett pick-and-roll where the Celtics bet the Sixers would switch it (as most teams do late in games). They did and that left Jrue Holiday trying to roll to the basket with Garnett, Rondo threw the lob and KG got the layup for the win. It worked. But as Basketball Prospectus’ Kevin Pelton pointed out on twitter, what was the second option there, to let Rondo take the three?
Philadelphia really just has some rough luck at the end of games.
Trail Blazers 97, Magic 83: Dwight Howard was a beast — 39 points, 13-19 shooting, 13-18 from the free throw line, 15 boards. He scored the teams first 12 points. But his teammates shot 33 percent and were just generally unimpressive. Orlando needs to hit threes for their offense to really click and they were 6-21 on the night. When the threes are not falling they need to get out and run a little, they need some easy buckets from somewhere, and they did not do that. That is three straight losses for the Magic.
The Magic did not lose this however as much as Portland won it. After a six-game losing streak they are starting to figure out how to win with what they have — a lot of LaMarcus Aldridge and Andre Miller, plus some Wes Mathews and Brandon Roy. Also credit the Blazers for attacking mismatches. Really just attacking all night — they got to the line 20 times in the fourth quarter alone.
Mavericks 102, Nets 89: Avery Johnson, back in Dallas. Four Mavericks scored in double digits — Dirk Nowitzki, Caron Butler, Shawn Marion and Jason Terry — and they combined shot 63.8 percent. Efficient night for the Mavs offense overall, as they had good ball movement, evidenced by the 31 assists as a team. Harris left in the first quarter with a shoulder sprain, which didn’t help the Nets offense.
