One of the best games of the year.
*Dallas was
able to hang in there against an inspired team at home, in spite of limiting
the minutes of their starters, and seeing Josh Howard (who made some
bone-headed plays, sadly) have to dodge foul trouble.
*Jason Terry is BACK, cats and kittens. He had one of those nights where you
could trust that the bad shots were going to go in (when Jet struggles, it’s
the open shots that fall flat), so if you see Terry taking a 24-footer with a
hand in his face, you know that he knows to trust the touch, and that you
should too. Dig.
And he had the touch: 25 points on 16 shots with seven assists in 34
minutes.
*Devin Harris was right there with him, using his strength to mess with Beno
Udrih defensively, and scoring 25 points on only ten shot attempts, while
adding nine assists. Great game for the 24 year-old.
*Kevin Martin might be my favorite player in the history of the world. I was
sending out gushing emails about this guy last night and meant every word I
wrote: 39 points on 14-16 shooting … who does that?
The man was dominant for most of the game, then took a seat with a
little time left in the third, and for intents and purposes should have
been too creaky to do much upon returning in the fourth after about 20 minutes
of real time rest. It wasn’t coach Reggie Theus’ fault, Martin is returning
from a groin strain that has to be handled with kid gloves (stop sniveling;
you’re going to some plastic surgeon a rich man), I just didn’t expect him to
play as well as he did in the fourth.
*John Salmons, meanwhile, struggled to fit in the newly Martin-o-centric
offense for the first three quarters before going off for 14 points in the
final frame. Didn’t mope, just picked his spots (and had a few roll out) long
enough to put the game away for the Kings.
*Brad Miller, finding cutters like it was 2003. Fresh off watching a tape of
Colin Powell giving a speech at the United Nations, Miller was the welcome
second option for the Kings once the Mavs overplayed the wings and forced Sacramento to dump the
ball into the high post. 11 points, nine rebounds, six assists, and two blocks
for Miller.
*Sacramento’s
year-long bugaboo has been turnovers, but on Monday they turned the tables:
only turning it over nine times in a 96-possession game, while the Mavs coughed
it up 19 times.
Denver
dropped another stinkbomb defensively last night, allowing Gerald Wallace to
roam free for most of the game while alternating half-hearted zones with porous
help defense. Shot-blockers like Marcus Camby (in spite of his six rejections)
and Kenyon Martin (because of early foul trouble) were left watching as the
Bobcats got to the rim time and time again.
Carmelo Anthony was gimpy but played a good offensive game
(35 points on 19 shots), but the Nuggets (who entered the game averaging about
104 points allowed per 100 possessions) gave up 120 per 100 on Monday, to a
struggling team that scores about as much per 100 as the Nugs usually give up.
No excuse for that.
The Celtics shot better than Washington and turned the ball over less,
but the Wizards still pulled out a win after a spirited fourth quarter
comeback.
(Tell me, can a "fourth quarter comeback" ever be anything
else but "spirited?")
Boston
has a real point guard problem. With Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen too hurt to
effectively get the ball up court, Eddie House and (to a lesser extent,
thankfully) Tony Allen were left to try and initiate the offense, and they had
issues even getting rid of the ball after squirming their way past the
half-court line. House and Allen are not point guards, their assist ratios and
turnover ratios (not assist-to-turnover ratios, that’s all way in the past) aren’t
even good for shooting guards, and they shouldn’t be forced into this position.
Danny Ainge: sign Randy
Livingston. Sign Ron
Livingston. Sign anyone.
The Celtics kept having to start their possession with 13-14
seconds (or far less, even) on the shot clock, and sometimes didn’t get the
ball into the hands of one of their isolation targets (Paul Pierce or Kevin
Garnett, usually, with Allen obviously pulling up lame with a pinched nerve)
until six or seven seconds remained on the shot clock.
This meant ball
movement, or the extra pass, was out of the question as Pierce and KG had to
rise up and save the day with one (usually perimeter) shot.
Even with two wins over the Celtics in a three-day term, I’m
still not going to say that the Wizards have some matchup advantage over the
C’s, a la the Warriors over the Mavericks. I will say that they work incredibly
hard just to survive in games that they have no business being in, and DeShawn
Stevenson (16 points on ten shots, four assists, four steals) was Monday’s
unsung hero.
The boo-birds, all 9,000 of them, were out in full force in New Jersey last night.
And the Nets deserved the derision, especially when Vince Carter, Richard
Jefferson, and Jason Kidd combine to shoot 7-33 from the floor.
And, you know what? The "33" is more egregious than the "7."
These are players that shouldn’t be limited to nine (Carter) or 11 (Jefferson) shots in a game. Pathetic.
Dave D’Alessandro has more patience than I do, and
offered this:
"As usual, the Nets fell behind by
double digits early. And unlike the trends of recent weeks, they stayed behind
… and fell further behind … and then simply cried uncle.
In the end, they were
carved to pieces by a bunch of kids, as the Blazers won for the 18th time in 20
games by smashing the Nets, 99-73, at Izod Center.
And as for how they could roll over against a team that played a
double-overtime game the day before, nobody really knows."
He’s still not the answer, but Jarrett Jack (15 points, seven assists, two
turnovers in 27 minutes) is getting better, and better.
San Antonio
89, Philadelphia 82
There’s no need to take any credit away from the 76ers, they decided to make
a game of this early and stuck with it in spite of their many (many, many,
many) limitations; but the Spurs aren’t themselves right now.
New rotation players aren’t yet ready to contribute, older vets are showing
their age; and although Manu Ginobili was impressive in scoring 20 points on
just ten shot attempts, he’s still not all the way back. Manu is still shooting
better in January (42 percent) than he did in a miserable December (36
percent).
Tim Duncan is going to have to have more nights like this (18 points, 16
rebounds, six assists, two blocks, one turnover) just for the Spurs to keep
their head above water. Even at home.
This game was a casualty of having too many great games going on at once. Every
time I flipped over, Deron Williams (brilliant, 33 points on 14 shots, ten
assists, four steals, five rebounds) was using his strength to finish in the
lane, and Andrew Bogut (who still finished with four turnovers) was getting
away with a travel.
Milwaukee entered the game averaging a respectable 105 points per 100
possessions, and we all know Utah is lacking on the defensive end (108 points
allowed per 100) … but that changed on Monday. Utah gave up just 92.6 points per 100
against the Bucks, as Mo Williams (not a shoot-first point guard, apparently)
scored just 21 points on 22 shot attempts.
For more,
check out Brew Hoop’s detailed recap.
Los Angeles
Lakers 123, Seattle 121
This one should have been as entertaining as the Mavs/Kings tilt, but it
tended to worry more than anything.
*It’s nice to see the SuperSonics wake up after a season-long nap on the
offensive end once in a while; they weren’t lights-out on Monday but still put
in 109 points for 100 possessions. The high pace and extra five minutes makes
their offensive game seem a bit more impressive than it was, though.
*Kevin Durant nailed a clutch three-pointer with less than a minute left in
regulation, but he needed 26 shots to score 19 points, and offered (get this)
one rebound, one assist, one steal, and two blocks. 19 years-old. 19. 19. 19.
19 …
*Luke Ridnour was killing it in the second half of this game, keeping his
dribble and finding the Seattle
bigs (Nick Collison was impressive as well finishing near the rim). Ten points
and 11 assists with just one turnover in 26 minutes.
*The Lakers (and I can’t blame them) looked despondent. Kobe Bean Bryant hardly
looked bummed out, but he was about it. It stinks horribly that Andrew Bynum is
out for two months, but the Lakers need to get past that tout bloody suite.
*Bryant was brilliant, I’m not going delve into lame stereotypes and claim
that he likes having the ball all to himself again, because that’s not the
case.
His teammates shriveled, and he had to take over, 48 points (and a few
gimmies rolled out) in 42 minutes in the win.
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
You must log in to post a comment.