| 25 March 2009
He'll never get the credit that he deserves this season unless the Spurs somehow make it to the NBA Finals but Tony Parker has played like the MVP of this league. You can take the entire body of work if you'd like but for a moment, let's just discuss his month of March. He's only had two games under 20 points. He's had nine games of 25 points or more. He's averaging 26 points per game this month. For the season, he's had 11 games over 30 points or more. Before this season, he never had more than six games with 30 points or more. And now with the Spurs jockeying for playoff position, he's totaled up 72 points and 20 assists in back to back games and shot 31-45 (68.8%) from the field.
Last night, the portion of that 72 and 20 was his 42-point, 10-assist effort that led a Tim Duncan-less Spurs team past the Hawks in Atlanta, just one day after battling the Warriors. Manu Ginobili came back to the team but might as well have been out with an injury. He played just 14 minutes off the bench and made one of his seven shots. Tony Parker made six of 10 shots and made all six free throw attempts for 18 of his 42 points in the fourth quarter. He destroyed Mike Bibby all night long and Joe Johnson couldn't stop him when he tried a crack at him. Tony Parker is literally an unstoppable force right now that can only be slowed down by himself. Nobody is keeping him from winning games for the Spurs whether or not Tim Duncan is on the floor.
Cleveland Cavaliers 98, New Jersey Nets 86 in Cleveland --
There are two players in NBA history that have scored 2,000 points, grabbed 500 rebounds, and dished out 500 assists for five seasons. Oscar Robertson was the lone member of that club before LeBron James entered it last night. With his 22-point, 11-assist, eight-rebound performance he entered that exclusive company at the tender age of 24. The Cavs starters all scored in double figures and Cleveland challenged just about every shot of the Nets in a solid defensive effort as they set a franchise record with their 58th win of the season. The Cavs had a hard time forcing turnovers and only forced seven from New Jersey in the entire game. They also benefited from the Nets missing seven free throws.
The Nets did do one thing really well in making 10 of their 22 three-point attempts. Jarvis Hayes and Bobby Simmons combined for 30 points off the bench with six of 10 threes made. But Vince Carter had a tough time scoring the entire night with a 7-21 effort that led to 20 points. The Cavs dominated the Nets inside with Yi Jianlin and Brook Lopez being completely over-matched by the combo of Anderson Varejao and Zyndrunas Ilgauskas. The Cavs rebounding dominance was result of their inside presence and Cleveland ended up with a 49-32 advantage on the boards overall.
Indiana Pacers 90, Miami Heat 88 in Indianapolis --
To paraphrase Coach D'Amato from Any Given Sunday, "when you add up all those inches, that's going to be the difference between winning and losing. And we were about an inch and a half last night from being flooded with a buttload of Dwyane Wade for MVP stories this morning. On the final play of the game, Dwyane Wade received the inbounds pass on the baseline, turned around, and took a step behind the three-point line. He let go with a perfect look at the game-winning shot, which bounced around the rim a couple of times before falling short. The Pacers got away with giving up such a good look to the star of the opposing team on the final play.
Before that, the Pacers had used an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter to seemingly take control of this game. The 11-0 run from the 8:18 to the 5:43 mark was fueled by four points from T.J. Ford and a nice little seven-point flurry from Danny Granger who finished with 28 points. But the Miami Heat answered with an 8-0 run two minutes later to close out the game. Unfortunately, that only cut the lead to two before Wade missed the potential game-winning three. The Pacers didn't score in the final 3:31 of the game but lucked out with the Heat losing out on the game of inches.
Philadelphia 76ers 96, Minnesota Timberwolves 88 in Philadelphia --
Let me start off this brief recap by saying that Thaddeus Young scored 29 points to out-perform Rodney Carney's 21 points on 7-8 three-point shooting. Now the recap can be perfectly summarized by Scott from Ridiculous Upside's tweet from earlier in the night:
"Twolves starters tonight: Bobby Brown, Kevin Ollie, Rodney Carney, Brian Cardinal, Craig Smith - This is a BAD Summer league team.."
Shoot me, Kevin McHale. Just shoot me.
Washington Wizards 95, Charlotte Bobcats 93 in D.C. --
Even without Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas playing, this was how the Washington Wizards should be playing this season. Antawn Jamison scored 27 points and Nick Young chipped in with 23 points off the bench to lead the Wizards in a rare win. The Wizards used a big third quarter effort by giving up only three made shots to the Bobcats to erase an 11-point deficit and get back into the game. The Wizards survived two big threes by D.J. Augustin to start the fourth quarter and rode eight points by Nick Young and Andray Blatche's seven points in the final period to pull out the win.
This was a huge blow to the Bobcats' playoff chances. Their loss clinched a spot in the playoffs for the Hawks and put them 2.5 games behind the Chicago Bulls who have capitalized on the Bobs' last two losses. They face an uphill battle with more road games than home games the rest of the season and with the Bulls playing more home games than road games. Their 19-30 free throw shooting performance in this game is what did them in. And it could end up being their downfall the rest of the season. Hitting just half of their seven missed free throws in the fourth quarter would have won this game. Instead, it's probably sent them to the lottery.
Toronto Raptors 115, Milwaukee Bucks 106 in Toronto --
When the season started, the Basketball Jones desk was littered with Free Darko books, Toronto Raptors bobbleheads and pleasant thoughts and expectations about where the Raptors could be come the middle of April. Now? They have a bottle of Absinthe in front of their computers and it would surprise me if the next 20-point loss turns that into an empty bottle of Absinthe. But with a 40-point second quarter in which the Raptors took complete control of this game, the Raptors may have put the final nail in the coffin for this reeling Bucks' teams playoff hopes. They dropped to three games out of the eighth spot with their eighth loss in 10 games.
Toronto's starting lineup scored 95 of the 115 points, led by Andrea Bargnani's 23 points. Chris Bosh scored 18 points along with Anthony Parker, Jose Calderon had 19 points to go with his 11 assists, and Shawn Marion pretended to be good again with a 17-point effort. Overall, the Raptors made 12 of their 24 threes with Calderon, Parker, Bargnani and Jason Kapono all making three a piece. The Raptors went to the line 40 times compared to the Bucks nine attempts and made 35 of them. The only reason this game looked somewhat respectable with the final score is the Raptors reserves putting up a small fight in the fourth that resulted in the Bucks getting back 14 points from the deficit.
Los Angeles Clippers 140, New York Knicks 135 OT in New York --
Somebody stop Mike Taylor. The former D-Leaguer scored 35 points off the bench on a ridiculous 14-20 shooting performance as he played perfectly alongside Baron Davis. Taylor found every seem and hole in the Knicks defense and completely took advantage of Nate Robinson and Chris Duhon losing sight of him. Zach Randolph scored 33 points against his old team and proved that David Lee needs to play alongside a really good defensive center if he's going to be worth anything on defense. Al Thornton and Eric Gordon combined for 40 points a day after Kenny Smith questioned whether they were starters in this league.
The Knicks seemed to be headed to a completely easy victory after taking a 44-28 lead into the second quarter. But they quickly gave almost all of it back thanks to 17 second quarter points by Mike Taylor. He attacked the basket all night long with no threat of Eddy Curry in the middle, waiting to eat him. Al Harrington scored 38 points to lead the Knicks and Wilson Chandler dropped 22 points but missed the game-winning three-point attempt at the end of regulation. The Knicks are now 5.5 games out of the playoff hunt and look to be headed to the lottery for the seventh time in eight seasons.
Denver Nuggets 101, New Orleans Hornets 88 in New Orleans --
On nights when David West can't make a jumper to save Byron Scott's job, these Hornets are going to struggle mightily. As great as Chris Paul is, he simply can't win games by himself without any help. His bench is weak. His inside scorers can't score. And his outside shooters are no longer shooters. If this is the kind of effort that New Orleans is going to put up in the playoffs, you can pencil in Chris Paul for a first round loss and a frustrated summer that makes him wonder if the Hornets are making the right moves to win a title or be fiscally responsible (see: attempt to jettison Tyson Chandler's contract to OKC).
On this night, the Nuggets' top two scorers were on their game and the Hornets couldn't buy a bucket to save their lives when they needed them. Carmelo Anthony scored 29 points and Chauncey Billups played tough defense on Chris Paul and chipped in with 26 points of his own. The Nuggets got a nine-point, nine-rebound performance from Chris Anderson off the bench and his missed free throw was the only miss for Denver out of their 24 attempts. This win by the Nuggets gave them a much-needed one game lead over the Hornets in Western Conference playoff positioning. Chris Paul scored 19 points and had 13 assists but his team shot 42% from the field overall.
Orlando Magic 84, Boston Celtics 82 in Orlando --
Matt Moore from Hardwood Paroxysm tweeted and asked if Celtics fans will use Kevin Garnett's limited minutes, bad referees, or "it's only March, we play for June," as the excuse for this loss not being a big deal. And the truth is that any of those excuses could be somewhat valid after this tough and winnable game on the road. Kevin Garnett is essentially on a pitch count with only being allowed to play 17 minutes in this game and you have to wonder if an extended presence from the reigning defensive player of the year would have turned the tide in the Celtics' favor. The Celtics can also hang their hat on the fact that this is only March and without their full compliment of players, which they should have back by the time the playoffs come around, any close game is a moral victory. If you want to trick yourself into believing that then go right ahead.
But you can't blame the refs for this loss because you think Paul Pierce doesn't get enough respect around this league. Paul Pierce is sixth in the league in free throws attempted this season and did not get screwed by non-calls towards the end of the game. Pierce twice looked for the bailout call in the final minutes instead of actually trying to score. He made a weak attempt to initiate contact after a pump fake that got Hedo Turkoglu to barely flinch and there was rightfully no foul called. Then with four seconds remaining, Pierce attempted to throw himself into Dwight Howard on a lay-up in hopes of getting the foul called. But the refs didn't bite on the minimal amount of contact and Howard blocked the lay-up. The Celtics got the ball back down two and on consecutive plays, the ball was forced into Pierce instead of finding Ray Allen for a game-tying or game-winning attempt.
Now, I would never doubt the clutch performance throughout Pierce's career. He's one of the more underrated crunch time players in the past 20 years. But with Ray Allen being guarded by a rookie in Courtney Lee and Pierce having to force up shots over Hedo Turkoglu who is four inches taller than him, it seems like the Celtics should have at least tried to get the ball to Ray Allen. Instead they didn't and ended up losing a winnable game.
Dallas Mavericks 128, Golden State Warriors 106 in Dallas --
The Mavericks shot 58% from the field. 58%!!!! Not even Anthony Morrow's 29 points of f the bench could keep the Mavericks from protecting their lead for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. In three of the four quarter, Dallas scored at least 32 points in a game that did not feature a lot of defensive stops by the Warriors. They seemed sluggish after a tough game in San Antonio the previous night and Anthony Randolph scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds, one night after looking transcendent as a basketball player against the Spurs. In the entire game, Golden State only grabbed 26 rebounds, which put them at a rebounding deficit of 18 for the entire game.
For Dallas, they won their second straight game to try and keep the surging Phoenix Suns from gaining ground on them. Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry each scored 26 points and Jose Juan Barea scored 20 points off of the bench. The Mavericks scored 42 total points off the bench thanks to strong showings by Barea, Gerald Green, and Brandon Bass. The Mavericks outran the Warriors throughout the entire contest with 32 fastbreak points.
Phoenix Suns 118, Utah Jazz 114 in Phoenix --
The Suns may not end up making the playoffs this season due to coaching turnover, poor front office decisions on the direction of the team, and a crippling Amare Stoudemire injury but they aren't going down without a fight. They won their sixth straight game to stay within three games of the Mavericks for the opportunity to knock off the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. And they have Grant Hill to thank for this surge and the victory last night.
During this six-game winning streak, Grant Hill has been sensational in both the running and halfcourt games for Phoenix. He's averaging 17.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, and has shot 60% from the field during this six-game run that includes wins over Philly, Denver, and now Utah. Hill scored 26 points in this win with five rebounds and scored eight points in the fourth quarter to help seal the deal. The Suns weathered the 25-point, 10-assist effort by Deron Williams and the Phoenix starting lineup gave a solid effort on the boards to overcome the 31-rebound performance by the trio of Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, and Paul Millsap.
But the big key to this game was definitely the role players outside of Grant Hill and how they kept the Suns in the game against the deep Utah bench. Lou Amundson was a monster in his 18 minutes on the floor and was all over the court in frustrating the Jazz players. He tipped in missed shots, kept rebounds alive and blocked a couple of shots. The Suns also received a nice effort from Goran Dragic whose 11 points off the bench allowed Alvin Gentry to give Steve Nash some much-needed rest. Phoenix also survived a very big hole in their defensive rotation that found Kyle Korver open on a number of three-point attempts. He ended up converting five of his eight attempts from long range for 15 points.
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