Chris Paul does Dallas
At halftime, Mavs/Hornets was anybody’s game. In the third quarter, it turned into Chris Paul‘s game. During a run that covered the last 5-6 minutes of the third that blew what had been a close game wide open and paved the way for the Hornets’ sixth win in a row, CP simply dominated, scoring or assisting on all seven of N.O.’s field goals, and throwing in some free throws of his own as well. Paul finished with 27 points (10-18 FG) and 15 assists. You can’t even really blame Jason Kidd that much, either. CP was racking up the points and dimes mostly on fast breaks and after the Mavs switched on pick-and-rolls; for Kidd, it wasn’t so much that he couldn’t stay in front of CP, it was more like he was a greyhound trying to catch the little fake rabbit. And in this case, the rabbit was also getting picks from Tyson Chandler. The highlights were numerous, but our favorite was probably when he went behind-the-back in transition to freeze J.J. Barea in his tracks, then pulled a Magic-like fake going left and passed back right to James Posey for a layup. And the move where CP dribbled between Jason Terry‘s legs on the break was nasty, too … Aside from the Chris Paul display, the game was also a loosely-disguised commercial for the new CP3.II’s. The kicks got a pre-game mention in the “Inside the NBA” studio (Kenny liked them; Barkley blurted out, “What the hell is that?”), at least a couple mentions/camera zooms during the game, and Cheryl Miller made sure to ask CP about the shoes in the post-game … Dirk scored 27 points in the first three quarters, but went scoreless in the fourth (when the Hornets pretty much had the game won anyway). For some reason the Hornets spent a lot of time actually guarding everyone but Dirk, leaving him wide-open for mid-range jumpers to double on guys like Antoine Wright. Seriously. Dirk scored 14 points in the third, but more memorably he ate a faceful of jumpers from CP after picking him up on switches. And like Kidd, it’s not like Dirk played bad defense; he stayed in front of Paul and constantly had a hand in his face, but CP was just hitting everything … The wisdom of Reggie Miller: “Any time you have a sore ankle, and it gets a little tweak or somebody steps on it or kicks it, it’s gonna bring back that soreness a little.” That’s deep … How long has David West (19 pts, 10 rebs) been sitting on an exercise ball when he’s not in the game? That’s still not as strange as T-Mac‘s grown-man high chair … With all the highlights TNT could have shown during the “Jason Kidd has 10,000 assists” montage, there was no need to make us re-live the blonde hair era …
Thursday’s only other game saw the Nuggets handle the Blazers pretty easily to keep hold of sole possession of first place in the Northwest Division. The Blazers never really had a chance; they were obviously worn down from Wednesday’s tough win over the Pacers, and facing a fresh Carmelo coming off his one-game suspension, it just wasn’t happening for them. ‘Melo dropped 38 points (16-26 FG) on post-ups, transition buckets, pull-up jumpers and drives, dicing whatever defender was in front of him … Doug Collins on J.R. Smith: “He will mesmerize you, then terrorize you.” This was after J.R. threw down a follow dunk over Joel Przybilla and got a tech for staring and screaming at him … When did Birdman Andersen (4 blks) become such a ferocious shot-blocker? Over the last couple weeks it seems he’s been throwing everybody’s sh*t — not just getting a lot of blocks, but sending shots to the beer man on the regular. In the second half last night he sent another one with authority, then did some kind of Kid Rock-meets-Fonzie thing where he slicked back his hair and slapped on an Ultra-Douche face. Birdman wasn’t posing a few minutes later, though, when LaMarcus Aldridge met him in the lane and dunked on his head … ‘Melo insisted after the game that he’d “already forgot” about the whole suspension issue, but who actually doesn’t think he was in the locker room afterwards cracking up about when he sprinted to the bench as soon as George Karl took him out in the fourth quarter? Sonny Weems reacted on the bench like it was the funniest thing he’d seen in years … We’re out like Kid Rock …
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March 6th, 2009 at 6:01 am
knoc says:
melos a bitch but he can sure score efficiently
March 6th, 2009 at 6:02 am
josh tha roc says:
Hornets for conference finals. they’re back. whatever they paid the thunder, it was worth it.
March 6th, 2009 at 6:11 am
mavs all the way says:
man, my mavs got man-handled again… not nice. but it’s aight. we’re cool. we are still gonna make the playoffs for sure and we’ll take it from there. most likely against lakers or spurs or even denver. i like our chances against denver though.
so how about you guys, how do you think your team going to fair with your possible playoff opponent? boston versus detroit in first round would be nice. not so much of the atl-mia series if ever. how about utah against san antone? excited about the playoffs man. bring on the nuggets!
March 6th, 2009 at 7:14 am
rodnets says:
LOL @ ultradouche face
March 6th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Atom says:
Lot of balls for calling out TNT’s “loosely-disguised commercial for the new CP3.II” and linking it to your own loosely-disguised commercial for the new CP3.II which is masquerading as a news story.
NO qualms with you all getting paid, but throwing stones (or basketballs) in glass houses can dangerous.
Otherwise, good call on Birdman. That was a total Fonzie move. You dont see a lot of Fonzie moves in the NBA anymore, it harkened back to an earlier, much douchier era.
March 6th, 2009 at 8:22 am
that's whats up says:
in case no one knows, what is G…
It’s the heart, hustle and soul of the game…
That’s G
March 6th, 2009 at 8:47 am
ticktock6 says:
The answer to the question about DWest’s exercise ball is since Jan 30th, when he came back from missing five games with back problems… Last night during a timeout Posey was bouncing on the ball, and West was like, “The hell.”
March 6th, 2009 at 10:06 am
BROGDEN says:
“but our favorite was probably when he went behind-the-back in transition to freeze J.J. Barea in his tracks, then pulled a Magic-like fake going left and passed back right to James Posey for a layup.”
It was MY favorite play of the night, too. Chris Paul had it going on last night and it was nothing Dallas could do in the 2nd half. The 3rd quarter, CP went STRAIGHT BANOODLES. That was some good basketball. The way they executed. The pick n rolls. It seemed like the oop was automatic points, ALL DA TIME.
Dallas couldn’t stop it.
And guess what??? I’m thoroughly convinced…
Dallas AINT gettin’ in.
March 6th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Bigdoggchad says:
Bird spiked off Rudy’s face hard. Nice to see melo shake off that shooting slump. Hope he comes out against the jazz like that tonight they need this one.
March 6th, 2009 at 10:32 am
QQ says:
Melo’s a one dimensional bitch who cannot carry his team when it matters. Sure, he can score efficiently, but when his shot aren’t falling, he almost useless. Can’t defend, can’t pass, can’t fucking lead. Well, there’s Chauncey for that job.
March 6th, 2009 at 10:46 am
BROGDEN says:
I just wanted to point out, as I’ve been pointing out, when West, Chandler, and Paul grab some form of DOUBLE DOUBLE in the same game, they WIN.
I did some informal research back to last year. It’s SO true!
Last Night
WEST: 19 PTS, 10 BOARDS
CP: 27 PTS, 15 DIMES
TYSON: 10 PTS, 11 BOARDS
CHA CHING!
Does Byron know this????
March 6th, 2009 at 10:52 am
nola says:
@QQ
some serious hatin going on right there^^
Pretty sure 99 percent of players are fairly useless when their shots aren’t falling… (outside of point guards)
March 6th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Taj says:
You could tell CP has been giddy since they got Chandler back. They’ve been 6-0 since that near disaster and you can see that none of the players wanted that trade.
March 6th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Big Sexy says:
How come nobody has pointed out the title of this smack? Someone in the Dime office watching a bit too much porn? hahahah incase y’all don’t know, “Debbie does Dallas” is a pretty famous porno.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:07 am
jCARR says:
Chris Paul Does Dallas – “Debbie Does Dallas”…. come on now…. that aint right
March 6th, 2009 at 11:14 am
alf (from melmak) says:
big game for utah today. i maintain their deep bench is going to factor heavily against denver and all other teams the rest of the way. they just have to take it one game at a time.
my meal allowance says utah is going to make a very deep playoff run.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:33 am
QQ says:
@ nola:
But Melo is paid and treated as a superstar, yet he can’t do what superstars do: lead his team. He is hyped as one of the best yet he can’t rise on the occasion and carry his team. I’m sure 99 percent of the players out there doesn’t get the hype, the money, the stories that Melo is getting. That’s why Im hatin.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:53 am
zmafuel says:
the ‘cuse is in tha house, oh my god…
March 6th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
K Dizzle says:
Melo sprintin to the bench was the funniest shit since Shaq-Van Gundy
I’m hopin Dallas gets in cuz I don’t need the Lakers catchin any flashbacks if shaq and the Suns get in
March 6th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
that's whats up says:
DIME, you gotta put on NBA tv right now.
Lakers/Celtics – Game 6 of the NBA FInals – in L.A. 1963
Jerry West is killin’ the celts and Elgin Baylor is heating up.
KC Jones and Cousy are keeping the Celtics close. Bill Russell is blocking shots…
the crowd is going nuts and nobody can really even dribble that well.
35-33 Lakers after 1
March 6th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
doc says:
Any player who cant understand why Melo gets press understands as soon as he puts a easy 30 on they head.Stop with the all he can do is score hate when he does it better than 97 percent of the league.When all Big Ben or Rodman did was rebound they didnt get nearly as much hate and Im sure everybody wish they had Melo gift instead.CP3 does go up in Dallas raw everytime.I would think somebody with some balls in Dallas would clothesline his ass one time so he at least think about putting on a condom.But I guess Jet2 tried that last year in the poffs and got served like a cheerleader afterwards.@mavsalltheway-my team play either Cleveland or Boston in the first round so Im getting a asswhipping either way.Yall are too so I wont be lonely.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
doc says:
@thatswhatsup-Them dudes in the early 60′s dribbled like me when I was 6.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
hornetspoets says:
CP3 was a work of art last night. Man, I’d like to read Ring Lardner writing CP3. Hemingway would not be bad either.
While in mid air flying he was given a shoulder by a point guard hoping for one last great game. The old point guard dreamed his fantasy of being the greatest of all times while Chris Paul shredded his reality in the last half of the game.
March 6th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
K Dizzle says:
good show on espn classic Michigan State/Indiana State 79 Championship game.
Never seen the whole game so I’m probably takin a long lunch today lol
Other news – Deshawn Stevenson done for the year…You wanna talk about a bust? Let’s discussion Shawnny…
March 6th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
nola says:
@QQ
Agreed. He is indeed one of the most overrated players in the sense that he is NOT a superstar. He doesn’t know how to lead a team and having AI next to him sure as hell didn’t help. However, now that he has Chauncey, he’ll be able to learn what a true leader is and maybe someday pair that with his undeniable efficient scoring.
He’s the best post SF in the game. There. I said it.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
trips says:
nice post title dime