What you missed while planning to your trip to Flavor Flav’s new fried chicken restaurant in Iowa (Yo! Bum Rush the Restaurant)….
Nets 103, Cavaliers 101: To lose 17 in a row takes a combination of bad luck and very bad execution at the end of the game. There was plenty of bad execution on both sides at the end of this one, but that made it oddly entertaining.
Joey Graham was almost a hero for the Cavaliers. Down three late the Cavs ran their set and New Jersey’s Anthony Morrow slid down to stand in the paint to help on penetration when the only thing the Nets needed to avoid was giving up a three. He left Graham open and he nailed it from the corner. Tie game but with plenty of time for the Nets to run a final set.
New Jersey’s plan is to get the ball into Brook Lopez, and they do. Cleveland’s plan in this case to foul Lopez so they get one last shot to win or tie — Ryan Hollins tries to foul Lopez by slapping his back. It was sadly comical. That’s not going to get you the call at this point in the game, not even close (you’ve got to wrap the guy up, Hollins). Lopez ignores the slaps, gets into the middle and hits a jump hook to put New Jersey up two with 1.4 seconds left. Daniel Gibson had a decent look three that almost fell for Cleveland, but it hit the iron and the Nets got the win.
Grizzlies 100, Raptors 98: Another game that went right down to the wire — but Memphis has a legit end of game option in Rudy Gay. Tie game at 98-98 late, Memphis has a final shot and the call was Gay in isolation from the top of the key — he executed it like a max-deal guy. He waited, drove deep right until he was level with the basket then pulled up and nailed the 14-foot baseline jumper with .05 left. Big time play. The Grizzlies Marc Gasol had a good game against what passes for the interior defense of the Raptors, scoring 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting with eight rebounds.
Sixers 105, Suns 95: The Suns made a late 11-0 run to make this look a lot closer than it was. These are two teams heading in opposite directions (the Sixers aren’t great but you can see improvement). Thaddeus Young had a good game in the win — 24 points on 11-of-17 shooting plus seven boards and five dimes. Free Steve Nash!
Pistons 103, Magic 96: Orlando is one of the league’s better defensive teams, the Pistons one of the worst offenses, yet Detroit scored at a ridiculously good 114.4 points per 100 possessions in this one. The Pistons wing players were key — Tracy McGrady, Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye each had 20 points. What mattered more, as a team the Pistons only had 6 turnovers, 10 fewer than the Magic. You kids at home, remember to take care of the ball.
Knicks 115, Wizards 106: Flip Saunders needs to just sit Andray Blatche on nights like this. Some nights he’s fantastic, but on nights like this the Wizards are just better off with someone — anyone — off the bench. Saunders got desperate enough to run out a lineup of Mustafa Shakur, Al Thornton, Rashard Lewis, Trevor Booker and JaVale McGee — and it worked. Better than the starters. Made of game of it, but at the end of the day the Knicks are better.
Rockets 129, Timberwolves 125: Minnesota lets teams take a lot of threes (fourth most in the league) and they don’t defend it well (teams shoot 38.5 percent from three this season, fourth worst in the leauge). In a close game, the 14-of-30 from Houston three and Kevin Martin earning 18 free throws were really the key.
Bulls 92, Bucks 83: The best defense in the league against the worst offense in the league — how did you think this would end?
Hornets 91, Thunder 89: First things first — Chris Paul did leave at the end with what looked like a sprained ankle but he said later it was fine. We’ll take him at his word. For now.
As for the game, it certainly didn’t look like the Hornets were the hot team early with the Thunder up 14 in the first quarter. But these Hornets are nothing if not resilient. They battled back while the Thunder had 17 turnovers — 20 percent of their possessions. If Thunder fans want to blame something for the loss, blame that (and the fact two of those turnovers were in the last 14 seconds of the game).
Meanwhile with it tied 89-89 the Hornets beautifully executed their last shot. Chris Paul was sitting so it fell to David West, who got it up near the three point line, drove to he elbow, pulled up and hit the 18-foot fade away for the lead with 0.5 on the clock. Ballgame.
Kings 96, Trail Blazers 81: The tape of this game is not headed to Springfield and the Hall of Fame — it was not pretty. In the least. But when it got tight late the Kings got a big three from Tyreke Evans, a great tip in from Omri Casspi, solid defense from Samuel Dalembert. All the injuries have caught up with Portland. The effort is there, but you can only lose so many key guys.
Spurs 113, Warriors 102: The two best three point shooting teams by percentage in the league so we expected some real fireworks… 10-of-30 combined shooting by these teams from deep. Disappointing.
David Lee was just on fire from the midrange and finished with 31 points on 19 shots. The Warriors starters played well but the depth of the Spurs was key here — the Spurs bench outscored Golden State 46-14 (and 8 of those Warrior bench points were in garbage time).
