This wasn’t really the shocker that initial instinct would
have you believe, the Boston
Celtics
were without Ray Allen and without their games, really.
The team went 4-20
from behind the arc, which is a pretty hard mark to overcome (12 points on 20
possessions? A bit of a disadvantage), and the backup point guard play was
atrocious. Eddie House tries hard and can hit shots, and we’re not saying this
in order to make ourselves look better regarding the Tony Allen rip from
two weeks ago, but he was killing his team last night with bad
decision-making and an inability to get the C’s offense in gear.
Defensively, Paul Pierce continually lost Jason Richardson
on the baseline, and when Pierce got himself together long enough to play some
great defense (which Paul did, make no mistake, for some stretches), Richardson
was still able to nail the same tough shots he was hitting in Richard
Jefferson’s face on Tuesday night.
A veteran crew led by Ken Mauer called a
pretty lousy game, but there wasn’t a whole lot Boston
could do to keep Charlotte
from pulling out another win. These nights happen, even to the best teams.
Give Cleveland
"credit" (?) for making a game of this one, but with five minutes to go in the
third quarter, the Cavs had 35 points. Let me re-state: 31 minutes into the
game, a team with LeBron James on it had 35 points.
The Hawks didn’t play their best game, take away Josh Childress
and a combined 42 minutes worth of bench performers managed to score three
points, but they were able to run judiciously and keep the Cavs at bay after a
late run. Cleveland
was on the second night of a back-to-back, and coach Mike Brown wants to blame
poor ball movement for the loss, but this team’s issues go far deeper than
that.
After Wednesday night, both Larry Hughes and Sasha Pavlovic are shooting
33 percent on the season, and I don’t know how a team (even with the game’s
best player) can be expected to compete with these sorts of dogs in the
starting lineup, and a coach that doesn’t appear capable of devising ways to
get his team easy baskets.
Anderson Varejao went down in the 4th quarter
with what looked like a nasty knee injury, but thankfully the Cavalier
big man is fine.
Toronto
didn’t have its best showing of the season, at times they were pretty lousy,
but it was still enough to pull away from the 76ers in the end.
Chris Bosh was superb offensively (21 points on ten shots in
25 minutes), it was almost enough for us to forget the fact that he had just
one rebound; but then we remembered that we pay attention to things beyond
scoring, don’t think Kobe Bryant is the best player in the NBA merely because
he scores a lot, and reminded ourselves to get on CB over this.
Anthony Parker
also had an efficient offensive night (22 points on 11 shots), Sixers rookie
Thaddeus Young was solid in transition (tying a career-high with 16 points),
and I think four thousand people were at this game.
Orlando
113, Los Angeles Clippers 106
Not on TV? Dead to me.
On appearances alone, forgetting their record, the
statistics behind it, and the context involving the rebuilding process, one
would probably assume Seattle
to be the worst team in the NBA. This group works hard, but they make some
pretty boneheaded mistakes, and have a long way to go.
The Nets played well at home, Jason Kidd (16 points, 11
assists, 6-11 shooting in just 28 minutes) was great, and Richard Jefferson (28
points, six assists in just 29 minutes) was all over the court.
Los
Angeles 109, New Orleans 80
It was so obvious, I’m a little ticked that I didn’t see it
coming.
Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson relied on an old trick
left over from his days coaching the Chicago Bulls: make the hot-shot point man
that you can’t guard beat you by shooting a lot.
The Lakers stayed home on every Hornet save Paul (32 points,
five assists), gave a little help and offered some flailing arms as Paul made
his way into the lane, and as a result no Hornet had anything more than a
passable game. And that’s pushing it, because beyond David West (19 and nine
rebounds, passable) and Tyson Chandler (11 and nine rebounds, passable), the
Hornets were crap.
Look
at this bench: nine points on 3-21 shooting. It’s another thing we should
have seen coming: the Hornet reserves have been alternately playing over their
heads and getting away with sub-standard production, and a game like this was a
long time coming.
Kobe:
19 points, seven boards, seven assists, three steals in only 32 minutes. The
Lakers are rolling.
This was such a dreary game to watch, Dwyane Wade (34
points, nine rebounds, five assists, five turnovers, three steals) was great
and made a nice circus shot in the third quarter, and Andrew Bogut (17 points
on nine shots and eight rebounds) really likes his right hand, but these are
two teams that are waiting for the hammer to drop.
For more help, I turn to Ira
Winderman for the Heat, and BrewHoop for the
Bucks.
There were ten games on last night, and as it usually is
with the nationally televised affairs, I taped this one for future viewing, and
haven’t watched a second of it. Getting up early this morning, I noticed the
16-points Dallas
win, rued my decision to tell my readers to watch this one and the Laker
blowout, and I have to ask: is it worth my time to work through this game? Let
me know.
Looking at the box score, I have to point out that Dallas’ 102 points are a
lot more impressive than you might think. This was a slow-paced game, and the
Mavs scored a pro-rated 121.4 points per 100 possessions. That’s a lot. Phoenix leads the NBA at 115 per 100, and Dallas did this against
one of the premier defensive teams in the NBA.
A great game, as fun to watch as the score might suggest,
but as someone who has watched way too many NBA games, it was hard to watch the
Pacers work in the second because I knew they would find a way to blow this
one.
Phoenix was without Grant Hill (appendectomy, out two or
three weeks), Steve Nash had to leave the game in the third quarter with a
stomach virus, and Amare Stoudamire (in spite of his 25 and 11) really didn’t
feel like playing a 48-minute (or, in this case, 53-minute) game. His attention span left a lot to be desired.
Luckily, Raja
Bell was working as a point forward of sorts, nailing shots (27 points) and
starting the break (nine rebounds) while Leandro Barbosa (27 points on 17
shots) saw a chance to win the game with clutch shooting and took advantage.
The Pacers were without Jermaine O’Neal, and the kids
(Travis Diener in the first half, Shawne Williams all game) played tremendous
basketball, but the shots dried up in a 20-point 4th quarter. No
team could be expected to win with Kareem Rush and Jamaal Tinsley (33 points on
13 of 41 shooting) taking up as much of the offensive load as those two loads
took up.
(Warming up my Charles Barkley impersonation, ‘ere …)
"No disrespect to the
Trail Blazers, but …"
… sometimes the Golden State Warriors don’t feel like
playing. Sometimes they take too many threes. Sometimes they don’t attack and
get to the free throw line enough. Sometimes they fall behind early and decide
to pass on trying to catch up.
Sometimes all of these things happen in one night.
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