The Lakers didn’t come through with the most dominant first
half of basketball I’ve ever seen, but tonight’s initial 24 minutes showcased
just about the biggest gulf I’ve been witness to between a team getting
everything really, really right, or really, really wrong.
Now, I know that after my
take on Sunday’s All-Star Game, and what you’ll read in the Seattle-Memphis
comment, that there’s been a lot of "the
___ I’ve ever seen" going around; but this was a remarkable first half. Atlanta could barely get
a play off without turning the ball over (19 first half screw-ups) or taking
and missing a bad shot, while the Lakers’ spacing was impeccable and scoring
touch was on.
Only a trio of late three-point makes for the Hawks kept
this from being a 45-point advantage going into halftime. Los
Angeles’ dribble hand-off game was spot-on, Mike Bibby’s
unfamiliarity with his new team didn’t help Atlanta’s pathetic run (though he was one
issue among dozens), and Mike Woodson (sporting
a All-Star weekend attempt at a beard) appeared to be pining for the
fjords.
I couldn’t blame the man. His Hawks didn’t show up.
On another note, Kobe
was terrific. That said, I’m not looking forward to watching him with baited
breath for the rest of the regular season - I feel like starting a PayPal
account, asking for donations and giving whatever cash I could accrue to each
of his opponents from now until late April, under the stipulation that they
promise not to touch his busted pinkie from here on out.
We’re two months away from what could be the most
competitive postseason in NBA history, with six (or more) championship caliber
teams taking part, and one errant slap from Brian Cardinal could change
everything for Los Angeles.
I can’t stand that feeling, it was there all night, and I don’t think I’ll get
used to it.
On a night where Tracy McGrady (who doesn’t even look close
to healthy, the guy is shooting flat-footed threes now) and Yao Ming (can’t get
his shot off on Zydrunas Ilgauskas, was blocked four times) combined to shoot
nine of 38 (23.6 percent), Rafer Alston and Luis Scola combined for 37 points
to allow the Rockets to hang on.
LeBron James missed 11 of 18 shots in the face of Shane
Battier’s aggressive D, and he turned the ball over five times, but it was his
teammates (save for Big Z) that failed Cleveland.
They just don’t appear to know how to do anything beyond standing around on
offense.
Not a promising game for either team.
Easily the best game of the night, Boston wasn’t on the same
page defensively for most of the night, some of the team’s lesser lights made
some dodgy choices offensively (Eddie House) and on the other end (Rajon Rondo,
going for steals), but managed to hang around on the road.
I’ve been nervous about Ray Allen’s ankles all season; he
came out with 11 points in the first quarter but only managed nine points for
the rest of the game while having a hard time getting his shot off. Allen
finished with an eventually-below average mark of 20 points on 19 shots, Kevin
Garnett didn’t play much … and I really started out trying to praise the C’s.
Where did I go wrong? Problem is, I’m writing this out on a
120-foot roll of tracing paper, which makes edits impossible. That’s how we’ve
had to do things at BDL since
Interpol confiscated our laptops (long story); and while I do miss those the Royal Scam outtakes I
downloaded to my desktop, it does make for an interested adaptation to HTML.
Back to the Celtics: Paul Pierce was great, and he kept his
team in the game by continually attacking (24 points and seven assists). Pierce
didn’t give the Nugget defense a chance to gather itself, which was great to
see. He didn’t have the most prolific scoring night, but both Carmelo Anthony
and LeBron James need tapes of this contest.
Anthony (29 points, six turnovers) had a good game, but it
was Denver’s
overall esprit de corps, and ball movement (29 assists on 41 buckets) that gave
the team a tough win. They had a calculated offensive answer for every Boston run, and the feet
were moving defensively. Tremendous, workmanlike win for the Nugs. Something to
build on.
New York 113,
Washington 100 (OT)
I’m not going to get too upset over this. The Knicks stink,
but New York
is a talented team that - while put together without any regard for chemistry -
doesn’t have to stink. And the Wizards, though they work hard and were at home
on Tuesday, are still without three of last year’s starters.
New York forced too many of Washington’s possessions to end up in the
hands of Antonio Daniels at the end of the shot clock, and though AD (5-15
shooting) has his heart in the right place, there’s not much left in the tank. On
offense, the Knicks spread the floor, let Zach Randolph shoot those accurate
(read: lazy) flat-footed 19-foot jumpers, and worked the ball into David Lee
for one of his 182 dunks.
I had a nice bit all written up about how fabulous Detroit’s
bench is, but the Pistons starters (Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups,
sadly) had to go and ruin things in the second quarter, and the reserves had to
follow suit with poor defensive play in the second half.
Orlando
hit 13 of 20 threes on Tuesday, but they could have made half as many and won
in a walk. Detroit
just couldn’t get on track offensively, couldn’t keep up on the other end (on
the perimeter, at least), and it wasn’t pretty to watch.
Let’s just chalk this one up to getting acclimated after the
All-Star break. Dwight Howard (eight points and five turnovers in 30 minutes)
was pretty lousy too, and let’s just say that I can’t wait to see the Pistons
when they get all back together again.
I’ve seen a bit of basketball in my time, I’ve eaten my
share of breaded and baked Haddock, and I’ve more or less committed to memory
every interaction between Mike Myers and Lara Flynn Boyle in Wayne’s World; so I’m
probably fit to tell you that the final two minutes of this game was the worst
display of pro basketball that I’ve ever seen in a close game.
Not saying that it wasn’t exciting, far from it, but it also
involved a missed fast-break lay-up (in a omne-on-nil situation), bad charges,
bad shots, bad passes, Jason Collins shooting 20-footers, Jason Collins
shooting free throws and offensive rebounds off of missed free throws (guess
who shot the free throws?).
Really, just set a tape of it to the Eagles Greatest Hits
and send it to Interpol should they ever decide to try and interrogate me for
what they think is on my laptop.
Utah
will never get credit for it because they don’t take insipid shots, they don’t
run as much as others, and they don’t play that hip or the hop at a volume that
I find beyond acceptable; but the Jazz are just a devastating offensive club. Quite
efficient. Deron Williams, tonight, had 29 points on 14 shots. Cuss word!
I can’t really tell you much beyond that. This team moved
the ball so well in the first half, nailing shots all over the half-court, that
I flipped away in the second quarter and never gave this more than a cursory
look in the final half.
Mehmet Okur’s not much for help defense.
Worst basketball game of the NBA season. Not even close. I’d
rather watch Jay Mohr crack wise about the WNBA for 2:24 than have to go back
and break this bad boy down.
It might be true that the refs cost Portland this contest with a series of iffy
calls, but as someone who watched the bulk of the second half of this game, the
overriding phrase that kept popping into my mind had to be "stop whining." That, and, "I’m
quite happy that this
album was re-released today."
The Kings did get fouled on the whistles that went their
way, and though the refs could have let things go a few times, credit Sacramento
(working without Mike Bibby, while quite aware of the fact that Brad Miller,
John Salmons, Kenny Thomas and Ron Artest could be soon to go) for working its
way toward a rough road win.
Minnesota 104,
Philadelphia 88
Games like this make you wonder if the 76ers have it in them
to try and fight for a lower-rung playoff seed. The team, made up of players
who aren’t long for the city, a go-to guy looking to field free agent offers
this summer, and a coach who may not be around past this spring even if the
team does make the playoffs, really has to work twice as hard as its opponents
just to keep things close. Even against the crummy teams.
And the Timberwolves are a crummy team. And the 76ers
weren’t interested in playing physical, active basketball on Tuesday. And I
watched way too much of this game. And I’ve written too much about it. And now
my left leg is asleep. And Willie Green can’t see it right now, but I’m
flipping him off.
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