| 04 March 2009
The Cleveland Cavaliers treated this game like pretty much every other game they've played so far this season. They hosted a team at home, played suffocating defense, and allowed most of the starters to take it easy down the stretch of the fourth quarter. Cleveland was fueled by 18 Bucks turnovers in which eight of them were caused by Delonte West steals as they became the first team to clinch a playoff berth this season. Delonte West leads the league in being underrated while looking exactly like Ira Newble and showed his under-valuedness (made it up) by helping create 14 of the 27 points off of Milwaukee turnovers. After dropping 55 points on the Bucks last time these two teams played, LeBron James had a modest 23 points on just 11 shots. The Cavs far superior defense held the Bucks to 37% shooting from the field, 4-18 shooting from beyond the arc and only 14 free throw attempts. Richard Jefferson (29 points, 10-20 shooting) was the only player on the Bucks that seemed to be able to do anything on the basketball court.
Miami Heat 135, Phoenix Suns 129 in Miami -
During the Mike D'Antoni years in Phoenix, the Suns had a notoriously short rotation due to either Mr. Pringles not trusting his thinly talented bench or just not wanting to have much variation in who he threw out on the court on any given night. And with the way that this Suns bench played tonight, it seems like the mustachio'ed man knew what he was doing. The Suns bench was outscored 55 to 24 due to two huge performances from Michael Beasley (28 points) and Daequan Cook (27 points). Now, 24 points from three bench players isn't necessarily bad and the two young Heat reserves did play a lot of minutes against the Suns' starters but nobody on Phoenix was interested in playing any defense last night, especially against the Miami bench.
The Heat scored three quarters of 31 or more and started off the game right by scoring 40 points to the Suns 29 points in the first period, which ultimately proved to be the deciding quarter. Dwyane Wade accounted for 74 of the Heat's 135 points with 35 points and 16 assists. Miami as a team shot 57% from the field, thanks a lot to Wade's 13-21, Beasley's 10-16, and Cook's 9-14 (including 6-8 from three). They had 32 team assists on their 48 made shots. The Suns transition and secondary transition defense left much to be desired with their 15 turnovers resulting in 25 points. Matt Barners and Jason Richardson continued their hot play by combining for 41 points. And Steve Nash shook off the internet (incorrect) rumblings that he might be losing his effectiveness with a 29-point, 10-assist effort with 12-17 shooting. I'm expecting an epic retort to the Nash bashers from Ben York.
Boston Celtics 115, New Jersey Nets 111 in East Rutherford -
The Boston Celtics have certainly handled themselves like worthy champions this year as they have tried to set the tone in their growing rivalry/collision course with the Cleveland Cavaliers. And they sure as hell weren't going to allow the Cavs to spend one morning this season as the sole team in the NBA to have clinched a playoff berth. With the Bucks loss, the Celtics needed a win over the Nets to join the Cavs as early playoff clinchers and with some timely scoring and defense at the end of the game, that's exactly what they accomplished. The Celtics win pushed them to 4-2 since Kevin Garnett went down with a knee injury and they used his established defensive intensity and tone in the final minute of the game to pull out their 23rd road victory of the season.
Vince Carter hit a pull-up three-point shot over Paul Pierce to give the Nets a 111-108 lead with 1:14 left in the game. It seemed like the Nets were in control of their playoff destiny since a win would put them into the eighth seed. But the Celtics made big shots and bigger stops with their championship composure. Ray Allen answered Vince's three with a three of his own on a play where Ray took advantage of Brook Lopez not closing out quickly enough off the screen. The Celtics followed that by Kendrick Perkins blocking a Devin Harris runner in the lane and Paul Pierce answering with a baseline jumper to leave the Nets with the ball and 20.9 seconds remaining. Pierce then defended a Vince Carter attack of the basket and Ray Allen put the game away with two free throws. Poise, execution, and defense are three things that all title teams have and the Celtics once again showed that.
New York Knicks 109, Atlanta Hawks 105, in New York -
Don't fire up that old Larry Hughes website yet, Knicks fans; he had at least one good performance for the fans of Gotham last night. Hughes scored 23 points on 9-18 shooting to help the Knicks move to just two games behind the eighth-seeded Milwaukee Bucks for that final playoff spot in the East. The Knicks rallied from Nate Robinson's absence due to a sprained ankle by giving a complete team effort to beat a Hawks team that has trodded (is that a word?) through inconsistent play as of late. Six Knicks players scored in double figures with 20 points coming from Al Harrington and David Lee recording another double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds. Al Horford had a nice game with 20 points and 11 rebounds but Mike Bibby combined with Joe Johnson for just 29 points. The Knicks survived a late fourth quarter rally by the Hawks who made the final score look much more respectable than the game actually was.
Oklahoma City Thunder 88, Washington Wizards 83 in Oklahoma City -
In Vegas Vacation with Chevy Chase as Clark W. Griswold, Clark gets an offer from an non-generous blackjack dealer to take his five dollars, buy a bullet and rent a gun. And that's pretty much the advice I would give to the Washington Wizards this year -- especially when they're playing on the road. The Wizards have all but secured the worst record in the Eastern Conference this year, thanks in large part to their 4-25 road record. The Wizards received 57 points from their starting front court, which was led by Antawn Jamison's 29 points and three layers of guyliner, but the rest of the team managed just 26 points on 10-32 shooting from the field. And even with the Thunder missing Kevin Durant and Jeff Green for the second straight game, the Wizards couldn't take advantage. Russell Westbrook shook off a so-so game to knock down a big step-back jumper with 33 seconds remaining to give the Thunder a three-point lead and control of the game.
Chicago Bulls 110, Golden State Warriors 88 in Chicago -
The Bulls won a game in which the Warriors couldn't make a shot, couldn't make a three, and hit the free throw line in an amount I'm told is called a "baker's dozen." Part of this was due to tough luck, part of this was due to good defense by the Bulls, and part of this was due to Don Nelson's irritating and confounding rotation, which is tackled here by Mr. Shoals. Golden State tied their fourth lowest scoring output of the season thanks to their 40% shooting from the field with only Stephen Jackson scoring more than 14 points (he ended up with 19 on 8-20 shooting). The Bulls dominated in nearly every facet of the game with a +13 advantage on the boards and giving up just six points off their 13 turnovers as opposed to the Warriors giving up 24 points off their 16 turnovers. John Salmons led the Bulls with 23 points and Joakim Noah gave Chi-town 14 points, 17 rebounds, and four blocked shots.
Utah Jazz 101, Houston Rockets 94 in Salt Lake City -
With the top players in the league, there are certain nights where defensive schemes and full-blown attention thrown their way by the other teams is almost cute and amusing. For Deron Williams, last night was one of those nights. D-Will scored 26 points and generously gave ou t 14 assists to lead the Jazz over the Houston Rockets with a very important home win over a team they now trail by just a half of a game. He helped set up Carlos Boozer for a 20-point game to go along with his 17 rebounds as the Jazz hit half of their shots on the night, all of their free throws (17 attempts) and had a huge +14 advantage to a good rebounding team. Yao Ming scored 19 points, grabbed seven rebounds, dished out six assists, and blocked five shots but fouled out with 1:23 left in the game to leave the Rockets with just Ron Artest to try to carry them to victory. Ron led the team with 25 points but dribbled the ball way too much before getting the Rockets into their chances to score and pull this game to a much closer margin. The Jazz have now won nine straight games.
Dallas Mavericks 107, San Antonio Spurs 102 in San Antonio -
Every time the Mavericks and Spurs have a game going down to the wire, I feel like the Spurs are probably going to pull the game out with some clutch execution and defense. And every time I start feeling this way, Dirk Nowitzki rips the hearts out of the Spurs like he resides in the Temple of Doom and shows it to them before Mark Cuban can illegally trade it thanks to insider information. After chastising his team in the media and threatening 100% roster turnover to prevent another debacle like the loss to OKC the other night, Cubes watched his Mavs team execute in the fourth quarter and outplay San Antonio in another case of history repeating itself in this rivalrous (made that one up too) series. Tony Parker had 37 points for the Spurs but their ball movement sucked and they gave up big outside shots to the Mavs at the most inopportune times. Dirk finished with 24 points and Josh Howard exposed the weakness that is the Spurs inability to guard athletic wing players by scoring 29 points.
Portland Trailblazers 107, Indiana Pacers 105 in Portland -
You have to love this Pacers team and the way that they're fighting without their two best scorers, Mike Dunleavy Part Deux and Danny Granger. Since their injuries, Marquis Daniels (or Quisy as Wade from BTPH likes to distinguish him) and Jarret Jack have joined Troy Murphy in an effort to completely screw over every team that takes them lightly due to their health situation. And for much of Wednesday night's game against the Blazers, it looked like PDX was going to attempt to coast through this game and hope for a win. But with an eight-point deficit headed into the fourth quarter, it was apparent that the Blazers were going to have to step up (in the sports way, not the Channing Tatum way) and make a run to get back into this game. And that's exactly what they did.
After a Troy Murphy lay-up put the Blazers down 10 to start out the fourth quarter, Portland used three three-point shots to fuel a 14-0 run that not only got them back in this game but gave them a lead they'd only relinquish one more time before putting this game away. Brandon Roy scored 13 of his 28 points, including the last six of the game to lead Portland to a win that puts them a half game behind the Nuggets heading into tonight's match-up. The Blazers nearly gave the game back to the Pacers with a stupid foul by Batum on a three-point attempt from Quisy and then when Quisy stole the ball after Steve Blake just decided to leave it around the halfcourt line. It led to a Daniels dunk that tied the game before Roy scored the final two points of the game with free throws from a questionable foul call. Jarret Jack also missed a three at the buzzer.
Memphis Grizzlies 118, Los Angeles Clippers 95 in Los Angeles -
This was not an easy game to watch by any means so I kind of slipped in and out of conscience as I took in this battle of two really bad teams with very little to look forward to. I did get to see Rudy Gay score 35 points, which wasn't all that fun. I saw Marc Gasol nearly rack up a triple-double with 20 points, 10 assists, and eight rebounds. I saw Baron Davis look like he was ready to commit suicide with every turnover, missed shot by a teammate, and moment where he argued a call and Mike Dunleavy just stood on the sideline trying to figure out how to be any worse of a coach instead of backing up his star player. But there was one moment that caught my eye.
It took me a while to figure out that this wasn't Fred Jones in a headband and that it was actually Mike Taylor, the player best known for being the first player to be drafted into the NBA after playing in a D-League game. It's not a great honor but then again neither is playing for the Clippers.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
