Stick to the Script
Kobe Bryant (photo. Chris Sembrot)
Last night, as Kobe Bryant (27 pts, 8 asts) hit a dagger pull-up jumper and the Lakers were turning the screws into the Jazz during a 20-0 run in the fourth quarter, one of the Utah announcers said dejectedly, “You can almost write this script every time we come to town.” Moments later, Carlos Boozer tossed up an airball and Jordan Farmar beasted his way through the lane for an and-one. “Yeah, the wheels are off,” confirmed the other Jazz announcer. Thing is, Boozer and Deron Williams and them were doing OK well into the second half, then L.A. just turned on the “Wait a minute, we own these guys” switch and ran them out the building … It wasn’t just that the Jazz were missing shots — they went 0-for-12 during the run — the Lakers were forced them into five turnovers, three of them 24-second violations. By the time the sweet, merciful buzzer sounded, Utah had scored all of six points in the fourth. Oh, and tonight the Jazz can try to work out the kinks against the second-best team in the NBA … Boozer was called for a foul on Andrew Bynum and the court mics picked him up yelling at the ref, “WHAT DID I DO?” … Exchange between the Jazz announcers back when the team was rolling: “If they’re gonna play this way in those green uniforms, I say keep ‘em on!” “Glue ‘em on, baby! GLUE THEM ON!” Maybe we’re wrong, but didn’t Utah lose to the Wolves wearing the Adrian Dantley Special Editions? … Love him, hate him, or indifferent — whether you can’t get enough or you’re freakin’ sick of hearing about him — ask yourself this about Allen Iverson: Before he came back to the Sixers, would any person outside of Philly or Detroit have had any reason to watch an early-December Sixers/Pistons game? … Lining up across from Chucky Atkins instead of Chauncey Billups (although Chucky looks like he could play Chauncey’s stunt double in a movie), Iverson was noticeably more aggressive with the ball early on, but when his shots weren’t falling he started to pull back. On the other end he began the game guarding Rodney Stuckey, but after the youngster put him on the deck and gave him some quick buckets, A.I. was switched onto Atkins while Andre Iguodala took Stuckey … Iverson (11 pts, 3-10 FG, 6 turnovers) tied the game on a jumper with one minute left in the fourth, and eventually it came down to Stuckey (27 pts, 8 asts) with the ball on a clear-out against Iguodala.
Rodney Stuckey (photo. Tom McKenzie)
Stuckey broke out every move in the Hot Sauce Manual, but A.I.2 played perfect D and blocked his shot in the lane; however the loose ball fell right into Stuckey’s hands and he popped a short jumper with eight seconds left for the lead. Philly ball, Iverson brought it in while Iguodala ran around staggered screens on the baseline. Elton Brand flattened Stuckey on the last screen, setting Iguodala up for a wide-open three where he had time to set his feet, check the wind, make a ham sandwich, and text his girl telling her to turn to Channel 11 and watch him hit the game-winner. But Iguodala threw up a brick, and that was game over … The Rockets are just the kind of balanced, hustling, good shooting, tough defensive team that will give the Cavs problems — especially when nobody besides LeBron happens to show up for the game. LBJ scored 27, but no other starter had more than seven points as Cleveland lost its second game in a row to a team that, on paper, they should have beaten … Shane Battier did a solid job defending ‘Bron one-on-one (8-21 FG), but afterwards gave more credit to Houston’s help-side D and his teammates creating a “wall” behind him cutting off driving lanes for LeBron. On the other end, Battier hit four threes while Aaron Brooks scored 27 and Trevor Ariza had 26 … Other notable stat lines from Wednesday: Chris Paul posted 15 points and 14 dimes in a win at Minnesota; Richard Jefferson put up 23 points as the Spurs beat the Kings; Brandon Jennings had 22 and six dimes in a win over Toronto; Brook Lopez had 21 points and 10 boards in another Nets loss to the Warriors; Jamal Crawford dropped 29 points off the bench as the Hawks destroyed the Bulls and might be responsible for Vinny Del Negro getting fired before the weekend; and Brandon Roy scored 29 to lead the injury-plagued Blazers past the injury-plagued Pacers … Larry Bird was shown in the stands at the Portland/Indiana game, looking irritated/depressed as usual. After one of the Blazers announcers pointed out that Larry Legend celebrated his 53rd birthday earlier this week, the other said, “By the time this season is over he’ll be 63.” … If you missed the news yesterday, Tim Thomas is in trouble for allegedly getting into a fight with a fan at a Denny’s in Dallas. If it turns out Thomas started it, shouldn’t he get suspended for 70-something games like Ron Artest did? If not, David Stern is basically saying it’s unacceptable for players to attack fans in an NBA arena, but what you at Denny’s is your own business. Anyway, we wonder how Thomas would react if somebody went up to him in public and said, “Hey man, I loved you in Above the Rim!” … We’re out like Shep …
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December 10th, 2009 at 5:22 am
alf (from melmak) says:
Six points in the fourth quarter?! Geeez. A division 1 NCAA team could probably do better.
The Jazz were undermanned and they were playing the best team in the league but that is not enough reason for a very horrible last 12 minutes.
My meal allowance says the Jazz will get annihilated by the Magic.
December 10th, 2009 at 5:24 am
m says:
jazz beat indiana in the greens and then lost to MIN when MIN was wearing throwbacks.
December 10th, 2009 at 6:01 am
davros says:
I have not seen any raptors games this year and was wondering if the big stats Chris Bost is putting up is a case of ‘I’m a free agent and I’m getting mine, to hell with the team’ or if his supporting cast is just really poor and he is trying to help his team win. Not a sly dig, just a serious question for those who have watched some games
December 10th, 2009 at 6:25 am
Coop says:
Jennings finally remmembered how to shoot! My fantasy team says yes!
December 10th, 2009 at 6:49 am
mike says:
@ davros
- nah, bosh is putting up legit numbers with good percentages. He just attacks the rim like crazy now. You can tell that extra weight is helping.
December 10th, 2009 at 7:32 am
UncheckedAggression says:
Evans had another solid game. I think so far he has been the best rookie. Should be interesting to see who falls off more (Evans or Jennings) toward the end of the season. Not to mention Blake Griffin entering the picture in a little over a month.
December 10th, 2009 at 8:28 am
That's what's up says:
John Wall is a legit scorer. Risky defender at this point, but the boy is good.
Tim Thomas has to resort to BUYING a slam these days
December 10th, 2009 at 8:38 am
fallinup says:
Fire Vinny Del Negro?…. hmmmmm… music to my ears.
December 10th, 2009 at 9:00 am
92021SpurMD says:
Really Fallinup? You blame Vinny? I think there are two reasons Chicago is struggling, 1) Ben Gordon is gone, 2) the players aren’t executing offensively or defensively. They don’t seem to be tired of the guy, so my guess is that they are just not executing. When are GMs and owners gonna start holding the high paid players responsible for losses instead of ALWAYS the coaches?
December 10th, 2009 at 9:18 am
jackass says:
dime didn’t watch the uconn kentucky game huh?
December 10th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Chicagorilla says:
Thanks Dime for not mentioning the massacre between the Hawks and that JV team the Bulls sent out. That was terrible. Kirk Hinrich put on one of the worst shooting displays I’ve seen since John Starks game 7 of the 94 finals. Yeah he was coming off injury, but sh!t. Jamal Crawford spent the entire night reminding Bulls fans that he was on our team.
Should the Bulls fire Vinny? Hell yes, but not because he is doing such a terrible job (which he is) and the team is losing (which they are). He should be fired because he should not have been hired in the first place. Doug Collins is the perfect teacher for this team. I’ll take Byron Scott or Avery Johnson also. If they get Doug Collins, he needs to bring in Scottie Pippen in as an assistant coach or at least to work with some of the players. Pippen could do a lot for a guy like James Johnson.
December 10th, 2009 at 10:46 am
92021SpurMD says:
Vinny can’t shoot the ball for these guys…..
December 10th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Tbest says:
Yes, Vinny should be fired. I don’t think the players respect him at all. You need to be a leader of men and i don’t think the bulls players look at him that way. There are a lot of problems with the team, but if a coach can’t motivate his players to play hard for him he has to go. And #11 is right, he should have never been hired in the first place. He was their third option and didn’t have one second of coaching experience. Not as an asst or head coach on any level. Unless maybe he has kids and he coached their pee wee league teams or something.
December 10th, 2009 at 11:45 am
No J Mayo says:
Dime, wtf? I mean, wtfuckinf? Where is your discussion of John Wall face effing Uconn and Kemba Walker last night? Yall are the only website not basking in the glory of Blue Jesus this morning…get wit it.
December 10th, 2009 at 11:45 am
No J Mayo says:
Dime, wtf? I mean, wtfuckinf? Where is your discussion of John Wall face effing Uconn and Kemba Walker last night? Yall are the only website not basking in the glory of Blue Jesus this morning…get wit it.
December 10th, 2009 at 11:45 am
No J Mayo says:
Dime, wtf? I mean, wtfuckinf? Where is your discussion of John Wall face effing Uconn and Kemba Walker last night? Yall are the only website not basking in the glory of Blue Jesus this morning…get wit it.
December 10th, 2009 at 11:56 am
isotope says:
Couple things:
I’m surprised no one is on here blaming Iverson for the sixers loss.
The cavs always have a problem playing in Houston. They just always struggle there all the time. If the rockets had more offensive power and would have made the free throws, it would have been a blow-out.
December 10th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
LAballer says:
daaaaaaamn homie..6 points in the 4th? looks like that lakers d can give some people problems when they tighten it up…that was ALL defense baby and everyone was pumped up cause of it from the coaches to the fans to the players themselves, you could see the intensity..
yeah pau wasn’t going to come back and help the lakers thaaat much..i mean its not like they have won almost 80% of their games with him in the lineup or anything..and no wayyy that the bench was going to liven up once he came back and moved odom to the bench..no way at all right? that lakers bench is what was it again? thin? paper thin…lindsay lohan on yay thin…ha wishful thinking is nice but that doesnt make it true..
cant wait to beat down them celts in the finals!!
December 10th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
LakeShow84 says:
John Wall the truth!!
But the kid got the ego the size of New York on him.. OOPS.. i spilled it lol
bet he ends up in NY..
December 10th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
LakeShow84 says:
Lol Iguodala had ALL DAY to make that shit..
Gotta say F THE MOMENT and sink that..
Shit he threw up that fluke shit on us last year.. and i feel Iverson for being happy on playing but dude is just cheesing after these losses.. COME ON MAN, we know ur happy but at least ACT like u dont want to lose lol
AND I DONT CARE EITHER WAY IVERSON SUPPORTERS IM JUST SAYING..
December 10th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Roman says:
did anyone see AI get crossed up last night, I think by Stuckey. Kind of reminded me when AI & MJ went at it, but way worst. Sickest cross over of the year so far.
December 10th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Bron42 aka Had Springs before Slamball says:
@lakeshow, its lose lose man, cuz the second he starts getting pissed about losing games everyone and their mom is gonna complain how hes “acting selfish and costing the team etc…” So right now hes just doin wha they ask and letting Iggy be the man.
@roman, ur stupid if you think that was even close to what AI did to MJ. It wasn’t even really a cross, stucky more bodied him and stepped back. If anything it was more like MJ’s byron russel push off.
are we implying the draft is gonna get rigged sending wall to NY even though the knicks dont have a lotto pic?
December 10th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
H3 says:
Hey Bron, where’s ur dance moves now?
Maybe if u’ve spend more time learning how 2 beat double teams than ur dance routines, u might actually won the last 2 games.
Not hating on LJ, he got hella game, no doubt bout that. But such a classless display of sportsmanship. Is this the example ur setting for ur young fans?
What bother me most is Coach Brown actually letting his players do this during games. Musta been left out in “Coaching for idiots” book that he’s reading.
Not a fan of Kobe either. But take notes, Bron… Champions act like they’ve been there before. U on the other hand, act like.. well… like u can really dance…
Good luck 2 that…