Nets and Raptors Play the Game of the Year in London; Kevin Love Zeroes in on Moses Malone
It wasn’t surprising that the Nets and Raptors saved their best of the year for a game in London that no one outside of their respective fan bases was watching on a Saturday afternoon. That was expected. But what wasn’t expected was that it could’ve been the best NBA game all year … Maybe David Stern knew what he was doing when he scheduled an international matchup in London with New Jersey and Toronto. Two teams that were a combined 35-88 coming in ended up playing in an epic game that took nearly three and a half hours with the Nets finally getting the win. It wasn’t until Andrea Bargnani‘s (35 points, 12 rebounds) jumper was off in the third OT that New Jersey was able to survive as the winner. The game probably should never have gone as long as it did, but crazy shots from Sasha Vujacic (25 points) and Deron Williams (21 points, 18 assists) kept the game going into into the final extra period. From there, Travis Outlaw took over in the third overtime, scoring the last eight points of the night for New Jersey, including the winning free throws with only 12 seconds left … Some other big lines from the game: DeMar DeRozan (30 points), Kris Humphries (20 points, 17 rebounds) and Brook Lopez (34 points, 14 rebounds) … The game had four missed buzzer-beaters. But we guess that wasn’t enough for the English fans in attendance, as many of them left before the game was even over (reportedly to catch the final train rides home) … While it didn’t go three overtimes, Utah‘s seven-point overtime win against the Kings was exciting as well. For the final two minutes, the teams played through DeMarcus Cousins (18 points, 18 rebounds, 7 assists) and Al Jefferson (27 points) and the lead seemed to change hands on every possession. Marcus Thornton‘s (22 points) three with 14 seconds left forced OT. From there, Utah finally opened it up with a couple of long jumpers from Raja Bell, pulling away in the final minute. This was actually Utah’s first home win since they beat Charlotte on the final night of January. “The agony! The agony is over!” Utah’s color guy yelled … There was a period in the second quarter where Francisco Elson, Earl Watson, Darnell Jackson, Donte Greene and Gordon Hayward were all on the court together. It wasn’t one of the prettier moments of the season … In Washington, the Wizards got a big night from John Wall (18 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists) in a seven-point win over Minnesota (Check out Wall’s new TV commercial). The rookie carried Washington for most of the game, but late in the fourth quarter, Trevor Booker made the difference with two consecutive follow-up jams. The second one, which put the Wiz up by five, was just ridiculous. You hear this description a lot, but this time it is absolutely true: Booker was eye level with the rim. Don’t believe us? This guy will tell you … We were surprised Kevin Love (20 points, 21 rebounds) didn’t go off for 40 rebounds considering who he was playing against. The Wizards frontline, while very athletic and pretty talented, aren’t exactly beasts. Love still finished with his 50th-straight double-double, giving him the chance to tie Moses Malone’s all-time record in his next game Monday against Dallas. He also now has three straight 20-20 games … During the second quarter, the Wizards’ announce team started talking about Wolves Coach Kurt Rambis and his “mad man” days as a Laker. They said he looked like a mad scientist with the crazy hair and the rec specs. Then, the camera panned to a fan in the stands that looked exactly like Albert Einstein. Supposedly, the guy is at every game, but we laughed out loud seeing him in all of his bearded glory … Other headlines from around the league: a few night ago we asked if Mike Bibby was the least-deserving player ever to get a standing ovation. Last night in his return to Portland in the Blazers 24-point blowout of Charlotte, so did Joel Przybilla; Houston destroyed the Pacers by 17 behind Kevin Martin (20 points); and the Clippers beat Denver by six as Eric Bledsoe (20 points, 7 steals) dominated the fourth quarter and had one of the best blocks you will ever see when he met J.R. Smith at his apex on a fast break, catching all ball … On senior night against Duke, North Carolina jumped out early behind three walk-ons and never looked back, beating the Blue Devils by 14. Harrison Barnes (18 points) had a big night, Dexter Strickland had a sick dunk and Nolan Smith (30 points) was good despite the loss … Has there been a more disappointing college team this year than Baylor? Texas is very good and beat them last night by six. But still, this is a team that was hyped as a contender early in the year. Now, they are in danger of not even making the tournament … We’re out like the Brits.
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March 6th, 2011 at 8:10 am
old school says:
the london-game was bad. there were 3 ot only because of so many mistakes. londoners were right to leave. and Przybilla was so much more deserving than bibby.
March 6th, 2011 at 8:57 am
That's What's Up says:
Forget all that.
Spurs /Lakers this afternoon.
My DVR is warming up right now
March 6th, 2011 at 9:20 am
sean.dynastybball says:
Click my name to check out “The Machine” dropping that 3pt shot to get the Nets to double OT… third post down.
March 6th, 2011 at 10:42 am
Chaos says:
PAYBACKS A BITCH!!!!! TARHEELS BABY!!!
March 6th, 2011 at 11:58 am
kicks says:
Nova also has to be one of the most disappointing teams of the season.. What happened?
March 6th, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Cheech says:
Cosign kicks. It’s been a rough season being a wildcat fan
March 6th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
Colton says:
Przybilla deserves a standing o. suck it dime!
March 6th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
K Dizzle says:
I don’t know what game y’all were watchin. The majority of the fans at Nets-Raps stayed to the end. Yeah, some left, but Dime got it like it was damn near cleared out by the final buzzer…
I usually defend dude, but Bargnani was a pussy at crunchtime. Whenever he attacked the bucket, something good happened. So with two chances to win the game, at the end of ot and the 3rd ot, dude gets the rock, right elbow extended, and proceeds to just let 8 secs tick off before puttin up weak stepbacks that had no chance. After he missed the last one, Derozan and Barbosa were lookin at him like “That’s it? That’s your best shot in this situation?” Weak-ass ending to a great game I didn’t even start watchin til the 4th quarter…
March 6th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Stunnaboy2K11 says:
@K Dizzle
That was the softest, horrendous and pathetic attempt at a buzzer beater. A STEP BACK! Shit Humphries is like 6-8? You 7 foot, post his ass and do something, it was pathetic to watch.
March 6th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
KCL says:
Yea Joel deserved a standing O in Portland, the fans loved him and he put in a lot of hard work for the blazers in his time here always brought his lunch box and hardhat and didn’t take shit from nobody. Portland fans appreciate players like that and don’t forget them it was sad losing him but getting a talent like Gerald Wallace is just something the Blazers couldn’t pass up. It was also probably the last time Joel would be in the Rose Garden because I’m pretty positive he’s hanging it up after this year he’s made his money and he’s just not going to be the player he was cuz of that knee injury.
March 6th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
A. says:
“the london-game was bad. there were 3 ot only because of so many mistakes. londoners were right to leave.”
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yeah, now a game ending 137-136 in triple-OT is bad..Please don’t make me laugh. Mistakes or not, they still managed to score a boatload of points. And the game was super exciting from start to finish.
You have no frickin’ idea what you’re talking about when you say londoners were right to leave. I was at the game and some people, including myself, left early because the final train ride thing, not because the game was “bad”, which it wasn’t. Actually, fans went nuts during the game and the atmosphere, at least in the upper level, was great. People enjoyed themselves so, please, don’t talk about stuff you don’t know, acting like people didn’t enjoy it.
March 6th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
sh!tfaced says:
WTF?! Brooke Lopez gets 12 ribs and Bargnani has 12?! It must be the fish n’ chips…
March 6th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
sh!tfaced says:
***whoops, make that 14, FOURTEEN boards by Brooke
March 6th, 2011 at 4:45 pm
BUFFALO BRAVE says:
LOL @ career backup centers getting standing ovations anywhere besides their high school or church! Are you freaking kidding me?
*DEAD*
March 7th, 2011 at 1:41 am
QQ says:
Are you saying that the London game was once in a lifetime OTHER than Brook Lopez getting double digit boards?
I thought that’s the only thing ‘once in a lifetime’ in the game.
March 7th, 2011 at 3:36 am
old school says:
@A:
good for you if you had it going in the arena. on tv it was one of the worst ot-games I ever saw. and if DIME writes “it could’ve been the best NBA game all year”, that’s pure nonsense.
March 7th, 2011 at 7:37 am
sh!tfaced says:
LOL @ 14
You said it, man. London fans don’t realize Brook grabbing 14 and Barg’s 12 in the SAME game is like the hoophead’s version of the solar eclipse.
Think this is Brook’s way of getting the attention of Coach K and Colangelo to start seriously consider giving him a spot at the Olympic roster for the 2012 London games…? LOL
@ 16
The TV broadcast could’ve been worse. Just be glad they didn’t go FIBA style and have Fran Fraschilla as the announcer. Ugh.