Kobe Bryant Fires Back at Mark Cuban; The Knicks Bust Their Losing Streak

Should have known. Should have known Kobe Bryant wasn’t going to have everyone be talking about Los Angeles on Sunday and have it be only about the Oscars. A few states away Bean faced off in a game just like old times, a 103-99 win over Dallas that featured an old shootout between stars and one of the best NBA tweets we’ve ever seen afterward. Now this doesn’t mean we’ve filled the gastank in the Lakers bandwagon but it was nice, for a day, to forget about the smoldering fire that’s been the combined Mavericks/Lakers seasons and watch a fun one where Bryant had 38 points — seven in the final three minutes — and 12 boards with seven dimes and Dirk Nowitzki had 30. It was perfect timing, too, coming just days after Mark Cuban made a joke that maybe L.A. should amnesty Bryant after the season and everyone took it to be a declaration of war. Kobe doesn’t need extra motivation and that was like raw meat in a tiger pen. So afterward he fired off one of the best two-word tweets we can ever recall: “Amnesty THAT.” … Miami’s inventing new ways to challenge itself in its 11-game win streak. So going up by 22, then falling behind by eight qualifies as a new but certainly difficult challenge the Heat have again mastered by beating Cleveland, 109-105. In a game where the principals, LeBron (28 points) Wade (24) and Kyrie Irving (17) and Dion Waiters (26) rose to the occasion, it was C.J. Miles’ five dagger threes (including four- and five-point plays on the latter when Spoelstra got a T) and 19 bench points that were nearly enough to tip this game to Cleveland. … Portland’s 92-86 win over Boston reminded us of when the Blazers beat Miami back in January. Then as in Sunday night, they did it with a huge three by Wesley Matthews (24 points despite terrible leg pain all week) and a key bucket by Damian Lillard (12 points, six dimes, six boards) on a three-point play to curb Boston’s late rally. Eric Maynor made his debut and had two points in his 15 minutes. We missed this on Friday night but Lillard is the first NBA player to record 1,000 points and 300 assists in his first 55 career games since LeBron himself. We’d say we told you so but… In other games, the Spurs beat the Suns, 97-87, despite Tony Parker sitting out (he is human it turns out) with a bad triceps, and finished their rodeo road trip 7-2; Jarrett Jack is well on his way to Sixth Man of the Year with 23 points and eight dimes in the Warriors 100-99 win over Minnesota; the Hornets got nice games from Eric Gordon (17 points) and Anthony Davis (20 points) to sleepwalk past the Kings; and Tony Allen iced the Nets, 76-72, with a couple free throws in the final 20 seconds in the Grizzlies’ road win … Hit the jump to read about the Knicks’ streak-busting win. …


Was it that much of a coincidence the Knicks’ recent troubles came away from Madison Square Garden? We ask because once they hit the court late Sunday afternoon against Philly (also with a four-game losing streak) it looked like the Knicks from November. Amar’e (22 points) was beasting on back-to-back possessions, with a pretty low-block spin and finish. Not long after he got a follow bucket off a missed shot and New York was on its way to a 99-93 win. That final’s a little deceiving because the game never felt in doubt until the final minute and even then it was a feeling of mild annoyance by Knicks fans, not the fear Philly could win it. The mini-rally to get the game within three possessions basically only meant New York was absolutely not putting in Kenyon Martin, he of the new 10-day contract and one practice. A couple things stood out and stood in the way for Philly to win this: New York’s defense on Evan Turner frustrated him and left Jrue Holiday (30 points — dude loves MSG) without a consistent second scorer. Yeah he had 21 points but it was on 7-of-18 shooting. Another was the Knicks’ 17-4 run in the second quarter, a run that surprisingly came on the heels of consecutive possessions where NY had beautiful ball movement in half-court sets and transition, only to break down horribly two feet from the cup. Well, they figured it out and that run set the rest of the game up. Carmelo had 29 points. Even before ‘Melo, Philly’s Spencer Hawes and Tyson Chandler got into a shoving match and smack talk [Maybe Spencer was still feeling himself after he bullied LeBron]. The Knicks had found the spark that was so elusive away from home. … OK, so here’s the bad news: The Bulls got smacked around and looked lifeless (29 percent shooting, worst in the NBA all season) in scoring just 72 points to lost to OKC, 102-72. We expected Scott Brooks to call for a doctor for his opponent and bring a defibrillator to the court to do something to make that game even somewhat challenging. Kevin Durant had 19 points, 16 boards and six assists. So, what’s the good news? Derrick Rose gave us a glimpse into his recovery by dunking easily in pregame warmups. … Robert Swift, you might remember, was the Sonics center who arrived in the league looking just as you’d expect a red-haired, 7-foot guy to right out of high school (geeky), and left it looking like a tattoo artist’s sketch notebook. We’d forgotten about him until we saw he was squatting in his recently sold house, refusing to leave. … We’re getting deja vu: Derek Fisher is joining the Oklahoma City Thunder, according to ESPN, for a second straight season after the trade deadline. Since he hurt his knee and asked Dallas to release him in the season’s first month, Fisher’s been filling his time as president of the players union (which is in chaos). This season he will revisit his role as OKC’s third point guard. … We’re out like “Argo.”

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