Reaction on tonight’s slate of games…what a way to kick off this 2nd half of the season.
Blazers drop one to the Kings, one I guarantee they will want back in March and April. B-Roy had that natural All-Star hangover (11 pts, 5/18, 8 rebs, 6 assists) and they couldn’t find a way to stop Artest. I mean they tried anything and everything. Roy, Outlaw and Webster couldn’t guard him. Francisco Garcia (5 threes) shot the zone dead. At the end of the day that was about it. Also we miss James Jones. Like a lot, a lot. 1-5 since he’s been out. Yikes.
All that positive press over the weekend and then the Hawks go out and remind everyone why they are the Hawks. A 122-93 loss in LA where no starter not named Joe scored in double figures. Ugly. The intrigue was to see how Atlanta would do (the answer was horrible) and how Kobe would play. He was dunking, he was scoring, he was Kobe. Case closed. Pau still looks weird in a Lakers jersey for some reason. He has a certain tone of paleness that just looks off in purple and gold.
Denver hands Boston its first loss to a Western Conference opponent. 124-118, who would have thought Denver could put up that many on the C’s. By the way, Boston is winless when they give up 110+. KG was back, playing im limited minutes and apparently with limited game. The Big Ticket had as many points as turnovers: 4. Shake that rust off big fella. Other than that, the Nuggets were on fire. Shooting 51.3% on the game and got a big game from K-Mart (19 points) to help out Melo and AI. The key to beating the Nuggets is really shutting everyone else down. Melo and AI can’t combine for 100.
So….let me get this straight. After getting owned by them for the past years the Magic go in to Auburn Hills and beat the Pistons. Ok. 103-85? Wait, Dwight Howard had 8 points and 8 rebounds? No. Hedo Turkoglu had 12 points and no threes. Then what happened? Rashard Lewis came up huge (20 pts, 8/10 field, 4/4 from deep) but got a lot of help from Maurice Evans (16 points in 17 min, 4/5 from deep) and Keith Bogans (19 pts, 3/4 from deep). Basically the Pistons succeeded in taking Dwight’s scoring away but the Magic proved they can make shots. For tonight at least. If guys like Bogans and Evans can prove that they can consistently nail open shots the Magic deserve to be mentioned in the Eastern Conference talk. Then again, they could combine to go 0-for-10 the next two games. Put JJ in.
Deron Williams smells blood when he sees the Golden State Warriors. Check this ridiculous stat out. Not counting the playoffs, in their last three meetings he is averaging 27.6 points and 10.3 assists. Yikes. Everyone is talking about the big four out West (Phoenix, San Antonio, Lakers, Mavs) but let us not forget about the Jazz. They are tied for the best home record in the league at 23-3 and have been on an absolute tear since getting Mr. Korver. I’m telling you, no one will want to play in Salt Lake come spring time. For Golden State they didn’t play bad as much as they couldn’t stop Utah early and it just snowballed. I’m still iffy on this Chris Webber starting thing. He splits minutes with Biedrins which is rendering them both ineffective. And yes I’m just mad because Biedrins is on my fantasy team and I can’t dump him in a trade.
The All-Star break kills some teams: case in point the Philadelphia 76ers. 5 game winning streak before the break. After…loss at Minnesota. Yucky.
This should tell you everything you need to know about the Knicks/Wizards game from last night. The Knicks won. They scored as many points in overtime as they did in the 1st, 2nd and 4th quarters (23). They were spurred by Zach Randolph and Nate Robinson almost getting in a fight late in the game. I kid you not. Stern has to either a) start filming this team immediately or b) sneak them in the playoffs becuase they are the most fascinating .300 team in the history of the game. Hyperbole? Probably, but you get my point.
And that’s that. For us fans this is a real treat: tonight was just a warmup. On tap for Wednesday:
- Kobe vs. Shaq….or just Lakers vs. Phoenix. Either should intrigue you, if not you probably like hockey.
- Dallas/New Orleans. Jason Kidd vs. Chris Paul in a meaningful Western Conference battle.
- Boston/Golden State. The best team in the league vs. The most exciting team in the league.
This season has been too much.