What you missed from a strange Sunday around the NBA:
1) Warriors take a vacation in Los Angeles, fall to Lakers for sixth loss of season. First, we need to give the Lakers credit here — Julius Randle attacked and owned the glass early, the Lakers bigs played the pick-and-roll about as well as you can against GSW, D'Angelo Russell has played well of late and found that groove again, and Jordan Clarkson was hitting threes. The real sign it was there day is this — when Nick Young is hitting step-back threes under pressure, it’s just your day. That was as well as the Lakers can play, and it’s a sign of the strides they are making (I would say in spite of Byron Scott, but that’s another discussion).
That said, it was a one-off bad shooting day by Golden State. Yes, they miss Andre Iguodala (hamstring). Yes, they have been playing down to the competition more lately then getting bailed out that shooting. But at the end of the day, they went 4-of-30 from three — Stephen Curry went 1-of-10 — and many were shots they just usually knock down. It was just a bad shooting day. It happens to everyone. Steve Kerr tried to use this to send a message about showing up ready to play every night, and I pity what will happen to Orlando Monday because of it, but it still just felt like a one-off.
The Warriors need to go 18-3 the rest of the way to beat the ’96 Bulls record. If you are saying “the Warriors aren’t as good as the Bulls” because of this loss, remember those Bulls lost to an expansion Raptors team that year, and had a couple of other ugly losses. The Warriors have still not lost to the elite of the NBA, and that’s a bigger deal.
2) James Harden went off in the fourth, and the Rockets upset the Raptors. Saturday, Houston looked terrible in losing to the Bulls. Dwight Howard was a mess, the rest of the Rockets were not good enough. Sunday James Harden was not going to let that happen — he had 20 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Rockets to a win over a good Raptors team. In Toronto. Harden was pretty good in Chicago (except when Jimmy Butler covered him), but he got help in Toronto — Corey Brewer had five threes, Howard had 21 points and 11 boards. The Rockets have been up and down, but they needed this win to keep their hold on the eighth seed in the West.
3) LeBron James is becoming the king of cryptic tweets.
Last season LeBron James sent out a tweet he later admitted was aimed at Kevin Love trying to get him on the same page with the rest of the team. You can be sure LeBron is targeting someone on the roster again the last few days with these.
Maybe LeBron is just messing with the media (and fans), that is how he’ll spin it, but he’s too savvy in my mind to do this. He is sending a message. I’m not going to speculate from far away about whom that message is for, but he’s sending one.
4) Reggie Jackson deserved a high-five for his performance against Portland — and Stan Van Gundy left him hanging. Reggie Jackson and the Pistons need wins to make the playoffs but going up against the Damian Lillard/C.J. McCollum backcourt is a real challenge — and Jackson was up to it. He dropped 30 on them and controlled the game in a Detroit win. He was phenomenal. The man deserved a high-five and Stan Van Gundy left him hanging.
5) Giannis Antetokounmpo continued his run of great play, but it wasn’t enough against the Thunder. Oklahoma City was better than Milwaukee and deserved the win — they opened the game with a 22-4 run and never trailed, while Kevin Durant had 32 points. That said, the Greek Freak had 26 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, and one dunk on Serge Ibaka. Antetokounmpo has played fantastic ball lately, and it’s a good sign for Bucks fans looking ahead to next season.
