Ty Lawson Beats The Rookie Of The Year Front-Runner; Hoosiers Lose

Even after Chris Paul‘s right kneecap conspired to scratch Tuesday’s most intriguing point-guard matchup from the schedule — CP3 and the Clippers facing Jeremy Lin and the Rockets — the NBA still delivered a gem by giving us Ty Lawson versus Damian Lillard. In a style clash of playmaker versus scorer, power versus skill, fast versus fearless, the four-year vet Lawson got the best of the rookie Lillard, dropping 24 points and 12 assists as the Nuggets edged the Blazers in overtime. Lillard finished with 16 points, eight boards and five dimes … Denver was threatening to pull away in the fourth quarter before Portland rallied, capped by a Wes Matthews game-tying trey with 30 seconds left. Andre Iguodala missed a good-looking jumper on the other end, Lillard missed on Portland’s possession, and it headed to an extra session. It was tied again with less than a minute remaining in the OT when Lawson, from behind the three-point arc, found JaVale McGee with a lob in front of the rim. And because JaVale can’t do anything normal, he caught the ball with his body turned away from the rim and kind of back-handed the dunk. Not only was the play itself amazing, but the fact that Lawson had the stones to throw such a risky pass to (let’s be honest) a risky teammate in a clutch reminded us of Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp in their heyday … The Blazers forced another tie after that, but Wilson Chandler hit the game-winner with 15 seconds left on a corner three … The Clippers beat the Rockets despite Lin’s 12 points and 10 assists, winning their second straight game without Chris Paul thanks to Jamal Crawford (30 pts) and Matt Barnes (18 pts) leading the L.A. bench mob. Blake Griffin had his standard breakaway dunk from a step inside the free-throw line, and DeAndre Jordan had his usual Stretch Armstrong dunk and a block where he sent Patrick Patterson‘s shot to the guy selling Hakeem jerseys in the concourse, but it was really the backups that carried the Clips … Grant Hill even got into the act with a decent floor game, but his defense is clearly in decline. A couple of times Hill got the blow-by while he stood there like Paul Rudd in front of a broken teleprompter … Keep reading to hear about the big upset in college basketball …

What has the world come to when it’s actually surprising that the Lakers had little trouble dispatching of the Bucks? It’s not like these are the Ray-Cassell-Big Dog Bucks — it’s just Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis running around like they’re on a playground and nobody is keeping score. Yet the result was still in doubt entering the fourth quarter before L.A. finally pulled away … Dwight Howard (14-18 FG) and Kobe (12-19 FG) finished with 31 points apiece, and in the first minute of the first quarter hooked up on a pretty play when Kobe was halfway through his three-point stroke before firing a laser alley-oop to Dwight for a dunk. This is the kind of inside-outside legion of doom everybody thought the Lakers were getting when they traded for Dwight, but it’s already January and we’re only seeing them click on all cylinders against weak opponents … The Nets won their seventh in a row, taking care of the Raptors. Brook Lopez led the way with 22 points and nine rebounds, taking advantage of the only team that could make him look like a tough guy by doing his best Moses Malone impersonation … Not sure if you’ve noticed, but Terrence Ross is trying to hi-jack DeMar DeRozan‘s spot as Toronto’s most dependable highlight machine. Ross had a sick tip dunk against Brooklyn when he took off on one side of the rim and caught the rebound on the other before flushing it in one motion. Between DeRozan, Ross, Quincy Acy and Amir Johnson, we’re guessing Toronto’s practices are more entertaining than their games … Other stat lines from Tuesday: Greivis Vasquez had 23 points and 9 assists to lead the Hornets past the Sixers; and Roy Hibbert posted 18 points and 4 blocks as the Pacers beat the Bobcats … There are six or seven teams in college basketball that could make a solid argument for being the best in the country, and the fact that it’s hard to separate one from the pack should mean we’ll have an incredible NCAA Tournament in a couple of months … One of those teams, second-ranked Indiana, lost in an upset last night to Wisconsin at home. Forget that they aren’t ranked; the Badgers are always tough and demand you play your best to beat them. No one guy really stood out for Wisconsin, as they just out-executed, out-shot and outmuscled the Hoosiers after walking into Assembly Hall like it was their gym … Remember when the Spurs showed up to play the Heat without Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Danny Green and got fined $250,000 by the league? Now a Florida-based lawyer is suing the team for allegedly violating the state’s deceptive and fair trade practices law. This story is so dumb. We get that the NBA felt they had to send a message before another high-profile national TV game was affected, but the principle behind the whole thing is out of whack. In our dream scenario, Gregg Popovich would be a total dick about it and publicly ask David Stern if it’s OK for him to rest Nando de Colo, Cory Joseph and Matt Bonner for a night, or play Duncan a whole 48 minutes and tell reporters he thought he needed permission to take his star players off the court … We’re out like Lance‘s legacy.

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