| 23 March 2009
I don't know if this is a recurring theme for the rest of the season but yesterday, I warned not to be fooled by the final score of the Thunder's win over the T'Wolves. It wasn't nearly that close because OKC was up by 20 to 30 points for much of the game. Well, this game was pretty much a repeat of the night before. The Wolves couldn't have been exhausted from their loss to OKC because they didn't really play hard in that game. In this game, they were just flat out not talented enough to hand with the first unit of the Hawks as they lost their 51st game of the season.
The trio of Joe Johnson, Mike Bibby, and Flip Murray combined to destroy the Wolves starting lineup and pushed the lead to 26 early on in the game. By the time halftime was upon us, Minny was down 25 and sending in the reserves for the second straight night. Let me tell you two things that I know about basketball. First, if you're a reserve on this Wolves team, talent-wise it isn't getting any better when you step onto the court no matter how many regulars are injured. And second, if Flip Murray is dropping 30 points on you off the bench, win or lose you should be absolutely ashamed of yourself. I'm looking at you, Randy Foye.
Chicago Bulls 101, Washington Wizards 99 in D.C. --
I've got to tell you that I watched a significant portion of this game and I can't think of one damn thing to say about this. I've just been sitting here, trying to figure out a way to spin this game as somewhat interesting and unless you were a Bulls fan that was hoping for a win then this game flat-out SUCKED to watch. Derrick Rose had some nice moments, Ben Gordon scored, and Joakim Noah had a phenomenally effective game. The Bulls played good defense that looked better because Mike James had a typical bad game and Nick Young had a tough night shooting.
Other than Antawn Jamison's 34 points and Javaris Crittenton's 18 points off the bench, there just wasn't anything worth caring about for the Wizards. And that's pretty much symbolic of how this season has been for them. They were missing stars and nobody was willing to play defense for a long enough stretch to keep the Bulls from taking over this game. This was a game of runs and the Wizards started and finished the game on one. Unfortunately, the Bulls' run in the middle was simply too much to overcome. Come back, Gilly. Come back.
Boston Celtics 90, Los Angeles Clippers 77 in Boston --
Kevin Garnett's presence in the arena and around the team is enough to inspire them to be an elite team. And putting him on the court takes that to another level, even if it's just 18 minutes against the Clippers. The Celtics got 12 points, 5-5 shooting, and an alley-oop from KG to help them outlast the Clippers and have one too many runs for L.A.'s third team (Sparks are #2) as Boston won their 54th game of the season. The Celtics weathered a 17-5 run in the second quarter that eventually gave the Clippers a lead and used a 14-0 run in the third quarter to put the game, essentially out of reach.
Ray Allen scored 20 points to lead four Celtics in double figures and three other players scored at least eight points a piece. Boston made up for the fact that they shot just 17 free throws in the entire game by making seven of their 11 three-pointers. The Celtics shot much better than their 47.9% from the field would indicate. Glen Davis missed 10 of his 11 shots and Stephon Marbury shot just 1-6 from the field. The Celtics forced 25 team turnovers, which led to 25 points thanks to some shoddy ball-handling and decision-making by the Clips.
Miami Heat 94, Memphis Grizzlies 82 in Miami --
Dwyane Wade set the Miami franchise record for points in a season...again. But this time, he did it with 12 games left in the season, which just sounds kind of ridiculous if you ask me. He needed just three points to match the mark he set in 2005 and finished the game with 27 points on 11-23 shooting to set the franchise mark for the second time. He also added eight assists in the win. Michael Beasley scored 17 points off of the bench on 7-13 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds in 27 minutes.
O.J. Mayo broke out of his slump for one night with 21 points on 8-15 shooting to lead a Grizzlies team that struggled mightily from the field. Only Mike Conley scored in double figures other than Mayo and Rudy Gay had a terrible game with just eight points on 2-9 shooting. The Memphis Grizzlies as a team only took 69 field goal attempts thanks to 25 free throw attempts and 21 team turnovers. The team record just 12 team assists on their 30 field goal makes to round out their atrocious night of scoring (or lack thereof).
Orlando Magic 106, New York Knicks 102 in New York --
For 38 minutes, the Knicks seemed content on letting Dwight Howard and keeping the rest of the Magic's players' opportunities to score scarce. But then Orlando figured out that David Lee can't defend at all against a pick-and-roll play and the Magic closed out the game on a 32-18 run. The Magic played the pick-and-roll perfectly by utilizing Hedo Turkoglu as the point man and Howard as the screener, which forced David Lee to switch to guarding Hedo. Whenever that happened, Turkoglu made Lee his girlfriend for the play and usually ended up scoring with little resistance.
Hedo finished with 16 points on the night with 12 of them coming in the fourth quarter during the Magic's run. Dwight Howard led the team with 29 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots. They also received a huge boost from rookie, Courtney Lee, who scored eight of his 22 points in the fourth, including four clinching free throws. Orlando's 25th win on the road kept pace with the Cavs and Celtics for the most wins on the road so far this season. For the Knicks, they had six players score in double figures with Nate Robinson leading the way with his 19 points. But he shot 6-23 from the field, which was pretty indicative of the Knicks' shooting night as a team (41%).
Phoenix Suns 118, Denver Nuggets 115 in Phoenix --
Grant Hill was robbed of his prime years with a shoddy ankle that never quite healed right until his twilight years were upon us. But since he's healed and put his body in the hands of the
The Suns received a couple of big defensive stops and a clutch basket by Grant Hill to pull out this game. The Suns needed two free throws from Shaq, which he made, to tie the game at 113 and then got a HUGE blocked shot from O'Neal on a shot attempt by Kenyon Martin. After a Martin offensive foul, Grant Hill flashed to the middle of the floor to receive the ball and make a 12-foot jumper to put the Suns up two. Billups then was charged for an offensive foul against Steve Nash and the Suns hung on for the victory with free throw shooting and a missed three by Carmelo Anthony.
Philadelphia 76ers 114, Portland Trailblazers 108 OT in Portland --
Despite Rick Kamla thinking that this was a staring contest, this was actually a basketball game that was quite deceiving to the untrained eye. The Portland Trailblazers were completely out-played by the Sixers throughout most of the game but used smoke and mirrors in the form of three-point shooting and offensive rebounds to stay in this game. The Sixers shot 51% from the field and had a huge 35-16 free throws made advantage to control the tempo for the majority of the game. The Sixers ran constantly to end up with 23 fast break points and consistently had the Blazers on their heels.
But Portland used a big third quarter advantage and 10 threes in the entire game to get back into this game after being down 1 4 at halftime. At the end of the fourth quarter, Steve Blake found Greg Oden for a dunk to put the Blazers up by two with 30 seconds to go. But Andre Iguodala drew a foul from LaMarcus Aldridge and tied the game with free throws before Brandon Roy missed the potential game-winner. In overtime, the Blazers shot just 4-12 from the field and the Sixers never really had to look back thanks to six points a piece from Andre Miller and Thaddeus Young.
Portland got 24 points and 14 rebounds from LaMarcus Aldridge to lead the team and Steve Blake chipped in with 22 points. Brandon Roy struggled badly in this game with 12 points on 5-18 shooting from the field but PDX made up for that with solid bench production from Greg Oden and Rudy Fernandez. Rudy scored 19 points, including two three-pointers in overtime, and Oden registered 13 points and eight rebounds despite five fouls in 25 minutes.
For Philly, they were led by the trio of Andre Miller (27 points), Andre Iguodala (25 points), and Thaddeus Young (25 points) to give the 76ers the win. Philadelphia took only five three-point attempts for the game, compared to Portland's 34, and made three but made up for their lack of long-range prowess with 35-39 shooting from the free throw line.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
