I watch a ridiculous, borderline-unreasonable amount of NBA basketball. Because of this, I often find myself bursting with words, or insights if you’re feeling generous, about all of the professional basketball I just imbibed. This will be a new column in which I’ll occasionally give a quick overview of the night beforehand (or at least what I saw of it) and the things I glean from a game that never stops deserving my, or your, attention.
Oklahoma City Thunder 101, New York Knicks 98
What a fantastic mess. Everyone kept shooting everything, so it almost felt like everyone kept making everything, until one looks at any of the numbers. Kevin Durant really stole this one with his isolation fadeaway three in Danilo Gallinari’s face to end it, an almost-too-perfect moment in a season full of coronations and realizations of potential. Saturday night’s buzzer-beater will stick out as the highlight that the quiet kid needed, the Glamour Shot® that the NBA’s new golden child, ever the king of nuanced consistency, can place alongside the other first-namers’ (Kobe, LeBron).
Still, the Thunder would have never given the Kid that shot had OKC not crawled its way out of a more than double-digit hole early on, spurred by OKC’s rebounding dominance (22 offensive boards to NY’s nine). The Knicks crumbled down the stretch, allowing OKC’s defense to power up, stay close and snatch one in the final minutes. Though the pick-and-roll diced the Thunder’s D to shreds all night, OKC actually covered it well in the closing minutes as the Knicks uncomfortably moved away from their bread-and-butter play. Amar’e took 18 shots to get his 18 points, and Raymond Felton is still in OKC’s gym right now, shooting.
Orlando Magic 118, Houston Rockets 104
Pointing to a reason Orlando won the game is like checking for flammable materials after a dirty bomb exploded. Nothing failed to work out for the Magic’s offense in this one, leaving Dwight Howard an entire game to grin endlessly while racking up monster numbers (22 points on 11 shots, 14 rebounds, 2 blocks). The shooters? 40% from deep. The defense? The Magic actually let Houston go to the line as much as the Rockets wanted toward the end, which allowed the Rockets to post up a strong 109 points per 100 possessions; the problem with that is that the Magic got a stupid-crazy 125 points per 100 possessions and left Houston thoroughly trounced by the middle of the second quarter, never to return.
New Orleans Hornets 96, San Antonio Spurs 72
Third quarters are important, so says every basketball announcer who’s ever lived. So when your team outscores the other one 31-10 in that holiest of quarters, that most deciduous of periods? Your team will win, a lot. New Orleans struggled to survive the slow-down, prize-fighter-match the Spurs made the first half, not closing out on corner shooters with any kind of urgency (come on, Monty Williams; it’s the damn Spurs) and allowing Tim Duncan to punish Emeka Okafor and David West in the middle; the Hornets got it together for a late second-quarter run, though, and New Orleans must have smelled blood because it seized control after a few minutes in the third and did not let go.
Chris Paul’s laser-guided passes either hit men like Trevor Ariza (4-4 from three, not taking any soul-wrenching shots) or West right on the hands before they drained a shot, or the intended recipient of a pass would bobble it, recover and chunk up a prayer, which would invariably go in. The third quarter was like a great quarter of NBA Jam for the Hornets, the kind in which you try and crush the other team just to see how big of a deficit in scoring for both teams you can create. Well, way to go, New Orleans. 31-10. Are you happy now? I would probably guess so. The Hornets, though obviously ridiculously hot, did look like an extremely dangerous team on the night, though. Good perimeter defense, Okafor clogging up the middle and Paul controlling the transition game with Ariza by his side… the Hornets look quite well rounded when clicking. Let’s just see it continue.
Miami Heat 120, Toronto Raptors 103
Or “Mike Miller remembers that he was once an NBA rotation player!” Miller and LeBron had too much fun in this one, pouring in 70 combined points on a Raptors team that needs Chris Bosh much more than the Heat did Saturday night. Everything came too easily for the Heat in that 66-40 first half, mostly open looks for three. This game seemed like a Cleveland Cavaliers one from the last couple of years (except that Miller is the best shooter he’s ever played with): LeBron would drive and kick to his open three-point shooters, said shooters represent a collection of no-names waiting to get that perfect pass, even Zydrunas Ilguaskus started! I’m pretty sure I watched a Cavs game last night. Either that, or the NBA can be really weird.
Demar DeRozan and Andrea Bargnani combined to put up 49 shots, scoring 58 points. They were actually two of the brightest spots in a game that saw the Raptors best run bring them within 11 late in the third quarter, before the almighty Norse god that is LeBron came back out for a few minutes to drop the final hammer on a Toronto team that apparently didn’t know it was already dead.
Memphis Grizzlies 94, Milwaukee Bucks 81
Andrew Bogut is not as healthy as Marc Gasol. Such a simple difference determined this one’s outcome, as Bogut just couldn’t keep up with Gasol on the boards and couldn’t comfortably go to work on him in the post. Gasol fought for position on both the block and the boards, and the attention Bogut had to pay to Gasol freed up Zach Randolph (remember him?) and the Grizzlies’ wing players to get inside on one of the league’s premier shot blockers in Bogut (the Grizz posted a stout 56 points in the paint to go along with 51% shooting for the game). Corey Maggette continued his mini-resurrection with a nifty 12/8/5 line, but the Bucks desperately needed more points from him and Salmons in a slow one like this.
Los Angeles Clippers 113, Golden State Warriors 109
What should have been appointment viewing for me last night ended up being the game I watched least of this group (stupid friends, always mucking up my lonely, awesome night of basketball viewing). Apparently, Blake Griffin did his Blake Griffin thing and dropped some gorgeous numbers on his home court, going for 30 points (on 16 shots), 18 boards and eight assists. Whatever. I didn’t see that. I did, however, see this:
May we all smile as Dwight Howard does after watching that.
