James Harden And Jeremy Lin Burn Down Atlanta; The Bobcats End An Epic Streak

We don’t know anything concrete about the future of this season – our crystal ball broke a few weeks ago and the Ouija board was tossed long ago. We have our ideas – here’s who we think will take home MVP – but we don’t know, for example whether this Houston Rockets team will contend in the Western Conference. This team will, however, be fun to watch. It’s like this is an “Out to Prove Ourselves” multi-city, national stadium tour sweeping across America. Jeremy Lin is playing bass and James Harden is shredding on his Fender out front yelling on the mic about a revenge song on OKC. Why? Because Harden went for 45 points on a nice 14-of-19 effort with seven boards in Houston’s 109-102 win over Atlanta. Lin had 21 points, 10 boards and seven assists and Omer Asik had zero points but 19 boards. Jeff Teague had a monster, non-counting dunk on a charge and DeShawn Stevenson hit a buzzer-beater to end the first half, but Atlanta was secondary to Houston’s game. … Houston may have “won” its trade for Harden so far but the Thunder aren’t exactly a worthless burned CD of your favorite high school songs, either. In their 106-92 win over Portland, Kevin Durant shredded Sasha Pavlovic‘s ankles like turkey in a meat grinder en route to a 23-point, 17-rebound, seven-dime night, and he wasn’t the unanimous best player of the night. Russell Westbrook had 32 points, five and six (he made Damian Lillard look overmatched). Not earning distinction was the frustrated Nic Batum, who couldn’t get his shot like he did against the Lakers. He played 37 minutes but was just 1-of-11 shooting. … Carmelo looked like he’d cloned his Nigeria vs. USA performance from London and reanimated it Friday night in the season opener. Sixteen points after one quarter, including a heat-check triple from two feet back — plus the buzzer-beater. He had 30 overall and who’s missing Amar’e now? ‘Melo played the four and wasn’t perfect checking LeBron but didn’t let the entire defense falter. LeBron did have 23 points but he couldn’t stop the Knicks’ three-point shooting alone. New York was a ridiculous 19-of-36. A nice touch by ‘Melo before the game, too, when he took the mic and thanked the crowd for the support post-Sandy. Not to be outdone, Rasheed Wallace came in for three minutes and banged home a triple himself. … Turn the panic machines up to 11. The Lakers got skunked thoroughly in their 105-95 loss to the Clippers and yes, just as this sentence was framed, this is all about the Lakers. Even as Dwight Howard is farting and asking for candy in the locker room (seriously), the Lakers’ world isn’t rainbows and wins. Steve Nash didn’t play with a shin injury, and CP3‘s 18 points and 15 dimes, plus 21 off the pine by Jamal Crawford, helped offset Kobe‘s just-like-old-times 40-point night. It’s their first 0-3 start since 1978. … Hit the jump to hear about a 23-game losing streak’s end. …

We were faced with a League Pass crisis early in the 13-game schedule Friday — should we watch Orlando or Charlotte? Both are bad teams but Orlando doesn’t strike us as having much hope so Charlotte-Indiana it was. And yikes, was it rough. Here’s a sample from the first quarter: about three airballs, easy turnovers, a terrible flagrant foul call when Ben Gordon barely restrained Lance Stephenson from behind, a missed layup by Ian Mahinmi with his hand above the rim followed by a botched two-handed Bismack Biyombo dunk on the other end. Tyler Hansbrough rolled for a five-minute stretch back in North Carolina, but Kemba Walker did it mostly the entire game. He had a career-high 24 when the third quarter wasn’t even finished. He finished with 30 (it took 21 shots, though). If Indiana was even with five players in double figures, Charlotte was boom and bust – No. 2 pick Michael Kidd-Gilchrist only had two points on 1-of-7 shooting. … Orlando gave us something we never expected: a 29-point, 10-board effort from Big Baby Davis in an easy win over Denver. JaVale McGee had four points, two boards and just 11 minutes, not including the horrifying baseline fadeaway jumper he took over, um, Jameer Nelson (plenty of room to shoot over) that went behind the backboard. … You can always tell how hot a guard is by how he chooses to whip his passes around, and Brandon Jennings (21 points) ripped off one of the best of the night with a left-handed dime in transition to Monta Ellis (14 points), underhanded, as he backed down Courtney Lee. The best part of the whole play was how Ellis threw the outlet pass and then beat Rondo (14 points, 11 assists) down the floor. Milwaukee easily beat the Celtics by 11, but the game was more one-sided than that. … A nightmare scenario wasted no time turning up in New Orleans when, just hours after it was announced that Eric Gordon would be out for six weeks, Anthony Davis, everybody’s pick for ROY, was sent off the court to be checked for a concussion in the second half. After the shock of that wore off, Greivis Vasquez set the place jumping with his winning floater with just a second left over a slow-to-rotate Al Jefferson. Still, a win-lose situation in ‘Nawlins, the 88-86 winner. … Bad sign in Cleveland: If a denuded Chicago roster can shoot 64 percent on you at home and win by 29 then something’s wrong. Nate Robinson came off the bench for 16 points and 11 boards. … Brandon Roy played a surprising 30 minutes, but he felt just fine in a 92-80 win over Sacramento. Roy’s health was the most interesting aspect of this game, and he had 10 points, six assists and five rebounds. The Kings didn’t put up much of a fight except in the third quarter, which was surprising after their late preseason play. … Stephen Curry might be better than we thought (26 points) on his bum ankle, but the Grizz won 104-94 because Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut never found a rhythm. … Marcin Gortat‘s big 16-and-16 night led the Suns past the Pistons, 92-89. … We’re out like the return of Rasheed.

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