You hold the Suns to nine points in half a quarter, maybe
even the first half of the second quarter of a game in December, and you’re
deserving of all sorts of plaudits.
You hold the Phoenix Suns to nine points in the fourth
quarter of a game where they’re playing at home on national TV while attempting
to move up the Western Conference standings, and you’re obviously a motivated
bunch of sorcerers. I’ve no idea how a team pulls that off without some weird,
hooded-stuff being involved.
It wasn’t spread out over the full 12 minutes. Dallas held
the Suns to seven points in the last 11:41 of this game, forcing the team into
shots and looks it didn’t want to take, missing 12 of them in a row at one
point, while putting the Mavericks two games up on the Warriors and Nuggets in
the race to stay in the playoff bracket.
And, while it was the defense that took over late, Dallas’ offense was on
point all afternoon: turning the ball over just six times in a 92 possession
game. For a squad with a newish point guard running the show, or even a group
that has been together for years, that’s a great accomplishment.
I’m not going to kill Phoenix
for this loss. I don’t know of too many teams in recent history that could have
dispatched these Mavs in this game.
Also, Jeff Van Gundy? You’re very good at what you do, and
you’ve been that way since your TNT
days after you quit the Knicks. But you’re not writing a blog post, you’re calling
a nationally televised game. Stop making it all about yourself. Learn from
Hubie Brown.
Houston
105, Los Angeles Clippers 79
The refereeing was pretty one-sided in Houston’s favor in the Rocket win, but Rick
Adelman’s crew would have cruised even if things had been even, or if the
Clippers were getting all the calls.
And, though it isn’t fair, credit has to go to the Rockets
for amping up terms of competition - the more you put the onus on certain
referees, the more they’ll pass on making certain calls. The Clippers had to
adjust, and didn’t. An important lesson for whoever gets Houston in the first round.
New Orleans 108,
Golden State 96
Stephen Jackson is incredibly important to the Warriors, on
several levels. A lot has been made about the team’s record with Jackson on the pine, and though the games that Jackson has sat out have
seen the W’s take on some pretty loaded teams, it makes sense that he’d be the
linchpin above all that would keep this team together.
It doesn’t mean that he should be an MVP or All-Star
candidate, because that would be - well, incredibly stupid. But it does mean
that a mopey or indifferent game from Jackson
usually results in a loss like this. Six points on 11 shots, eight rebounds,
five turnovers for Jax, by the way.
Golden State had its chances, but couldn’t hold onto a lead
(three different chances at extending a lead into a double-digit advantage in
the second quarter ended with two boneheaded three-point attempts, and a
botched alley-oop), and the team’s bench gave them nothing.
It seems like just about the worst analysis I could muster
to offer that New Orleans started to take
the game over once its offense and defense started to improve, but that’s
how it goes.
The Hornets couldn’t keep Golden
State out of the lane for the first 18
minutes of the first half, and New
Orleans kept turning the ball over, while looking a
little uneasy offensively. Once those issues were taken care of, the Hornets
romped.
The New Orleans
crowd was obviously preening for its national TV appearance, and I’ve no
problem with that. They offered up a "DE-FENSE" chant on the first defensive
possession of the game, but didn’t give in too much to the typical annoying PA
announcer attempts at imploring the crowd to make a big noise as ABC came back
from commercial. Good stuff.
By the way, the ABC bumper music? "Born To Run," "Start Me
Up," "Low Rider," "Runnin’ Down a Dream," "Smells Like Teen Spirit," some
miserable Creed song, "Happy Birthday," "Greensleeves," "The Star-Spangled
Banner," the theme from "The Twilight Zone," that song that the aliens played
to Richard Dreyfus in "Close Encounters," and whatever the theme to your prom
was.
ABC wants to know what song you’ve heard more than any other song you’ve ever
heard, and they want you to hear it one more time.
Ball movement and a spread offense, we’ll have more on Indiana later in the week (lots of corn, desperation),
but this one came down to Indiana’s
passing touch (25 assists on 38 field goals), the three-point percentage (12 of
30, 40 percent, and that’s a healthy 36 points on 30 possessions), and only
eight turnovers.
Jermaine O’Neal is
complaining about only being able to play 20 minutes a game, but I’d feel a whole lot better
about his chirping had he not been offering one point on four shots in the 20
minutes JON played.
Orlando
didn’t rest its starters in the loss, and that’s pretty significant.
The Magic are guaranteed the East’s third seed, so it would
make sense to give the millionaires a rest, but Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy
apparently still has a whole host of things he wants to work on with his
flighty group, and he’d be right in that regard.
Still, the Magic starters decided to mentally check themselves out of the
fourth quarter, while providing us with an answer to an age-old question: "can
the Knicks beat a bunch of zombies, even if the zombies are using the bodies of
what were once really good players?"
SVG: "It was our worst game of the
year by far. Both ends of the floor, no energy. We did an awful job. I did an
awful job leaving those guys in the game. I should have gone with some other
people in a game like that because the guys out there either couldn’t or
wouldn’t.
We were awful. It was embarrassing. We
shouldn’t be tired. We played a game yesterday, so what? It’s the NBA. You
can’t use that as an excuse. It was just an awful, awful night."
Dwight Howard: "BRAINS!"
Los Angeles Lakers 114, Sacramento 92
I didn’t get to see a lot of this one, but every time I
clicked over (with my TV remote clicker, cord and all), the Lakers were moving
the ball, ending up with an open shot, and nailing the open shot.
Ron Artest
also seemed to be a little too aggressive offensively, which is a bit of a
bummer for a fan that has been begging him to be a little less aggressive
offensively since 1999 or so.
The Kings were killed on the boards (46-33), and though they
did force the Lakers into 19 turnovers, it’s kind of hard to make up for the
deficit on the glass and a 54.5 percent mark from long range for Los Angeles.
This seemed like a good idea back in August.
Detroit’s
bench is 16 points better than the NBDL All-Second Team.
Seriously? Alright.
Mike Miller had 34 points on only 20 shots, with ten
rebounds, six assists, and ZERO turnovers. Of course, Marko Jaric was
prominently involved, so …
Seattle 151, Denver
147 (2 OT)
A pathetic weekend for the Denver Nuggets, who lost at home
to the Kings on Saturday night, and couldn’t be bothered to best the
SuperSonics by a single point in regulation or overtime on Sunday night.
Denver gave up a pro-rated 118 points per 100 possessions in
the loss, and for a team that was giving up about 15 points less than that on
average for the first half of the season, to allow worse than New York’s
league-worst 114.3 points per 100 in the midst of a playoff race is pretty
damning.
I’d say this regardless of his (career-high of) 35 points,
but Jeff Green was hitting shots that reminded of a veteran scorer from the
late 1980s. Smooth, savvy shots that make me wonder if calling his selection
with the fifth pick a "reach" wasn’t a mistake.
Kevin Durant was also on top of it, throwing in 37 points on
24 shots, including one clutch bomb to send things to a second overtime, with
eight rebounds, nine assists, five turnovers, and three steals. Denver missed 12 free
throws in a game that went into double overtime.
A fun watch, I’m sure, as both teams turned in sub-40
percent shooting efforts, while only combining to shoot 32 free throws.
Another reason why the "double-double" stat is incredibly
pointless: LaMarcus Aldridge (12 points, 11 rebounds) picked one up on Sunday,
but his game was shot.
It took him 16 field goal attempts to get 12 points, and got
his 11 rebounds in a game where both squads combined to miss 99 shots and free
throws.
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