OK, so it’s safe to say Vince Carter is back. After a terrible month of January that would’ve made bigger headlines had the Magic had been losing, Vince ran off two straight 20-point games over Super Bowl weekend, then last night he exploded on the Hornets like Shane Diesel at a cougar convention … Vince got going early, scoring seven of Orlando’s first 12 points after tip-off, but was fairly quiet the rest of the first half as the Magic got picked apart by Darren Collison (27 pts, 9 asts, 4 stls) and David West (27 pts) and gave up 70 points by halftime. The defense tightened up in the second half, though, and Vince went nuts. He finished with 48 points, six threes and zero dunks. Read More »
Call it a motivational tactic or simply of moment of brutal honesty, but Doc Rivers delivered what had to be a sobering blow for the Celtics yesterday: “One of the guys said, ‘We’re better than Orlando,’ and I said, ‘No, you’re not. They knocked you out of the playoffs last year.’ Orlando is better than us right now. Atlanta is better than us right now. L.A. is better than us right now.” (Notice how he didn’t include Cleveland, though.) … That quote was following Boston’s decisive loss to the Magic, one of just two NBA games on Super Bowl Sunday. Read More »
Why would LeBron want to join the Knicks when he has such a good time destroying them? Hosting NY last night, ‘Bron turned in another “I own these fools” performance, dropping 47 points (17-31 FG), six threes, eight boards, eight dimes and five steals. Whoever Mike D’Antoni threw at him — Wilson Chandler, Jordan Hill, Jared Jeffries, Jake Sully, Jigsaw, etc. — got their eyebrows singed with a steady stream of jumpers. During one stretch in the first half LeBron scored 24 straight points. For anybody who still claims LeBron is limited to putting his head down and bull-rushing his way to the rim, watch this game … Read More »
Less than a minute to go in Orlando, the Wizards were up one with the ball. And as one of the Magic announcers put it, “Their body language is such that they don’t believe they’re really here.” In other words, the Wizards were acting like they knew they were going to somehow blow the game. As if on cue, they committed a turnover, and a couple possessions later, Rashard Lewis stuck a corner three to put Orlando up one with four seconds left. Given all that’s happened to the Wizards this year, you’d think they might as well just go home at that point, but this time they had one reason to stay optimistic: Caron Butler … Read More »
The LeBron/Dwyane Wade matchup started off well, didn’t it? Despite the fact that ‘Bron came out doing his Kobe “facilitator” thing for most of the first quarter (he started at PG because Daniel Gibson missed the beginning of the game to be with his pregnant fiancée at the hospital), he and Wade both locked in and got down to attacking the hoop. James finished the first half with 19, Wade with 18, and it looked like the second half would be a shootout … Not so much. Wade couldn’t by a bucket ‘til late in the fourth, and by then Miami was down double-digits. The game turned into a yawner and the Cavs rolled to an easy 102-86 win. James finished with what felt like an easy 36 points, seven boards and eight assists, and Wade ended up with 24 and nine dimes … With the guys who were being trotted out to the slaughter by being assigned to guard LeBron Read More »
If we had told you Nazr Mohammed more than quadrupled Kobe Bryant’s scoring total on a night where Kobe played 36 minutes and wasn’t missing a major limb or anything, would you believe that the Lakers still won the game? Moreover, would you believe that we weren’t on ’shrooms? … Following his 44-point performance against Memphis, Kobe scored a season-low five points (2-12 FG) against the Bobcats, and yet L.A. still managed a win. Kobe made a three in the second quarter, hit a fadeaway in the third, and otherwise bricked everything he threw up and hurt his foot when Lamar Odom stepped on it. Read More »
There we were, all ready to make fun of Chris Webber for predicting Shaq would have a big night against Memphis because his “ego is bruised” from his All-Star snub and he wanted to take his frustration out on All-Star Zach Randolph — and then Shaq went out and made C-Webb look like Negrodamus, posting 13 points, 12 boards and four blocks next to Z-Bo’s eight points on 3-of-14 shooting in a Cavs rout … Shaq wasn’t dominant, but he helped set the tone right away. On one of Cleveland’s first possessions he beasted Marc Gasol for an easy dunk, then a couple trips later he took Z-Bo into the chamber and drew a foul. Read More »
Score a few more votes for Lionel Hollins in the Coach of the Year race, because he may have just figured out the best way to guard Kobe Bryant at the end of a game. Last night the Grizzlies were up two on the Lakers with 21 seconds left when Mike Conley blew a chance to ice the win and bricked two free throws. Then it was Kobe’s turn, and as he was going into his move to get space for his trusty mid-range jumper over O.J. Mayo, Marc Gasol switched onto him. The 7-footer kept his arms up the entire time, and was quick enough on his feet to stay in front of Kobe long enough to force him to pass. Kobe did find Ron Artest wide open on the wing, but he missed and Memphis won. Read More »
In a lot of ways, Lakers/Celtics shouldn’t have even come down to Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce looking to trade daggers in the final seconds. The Lake Show dominated the first quarter as Andrew Bynum (19 pts, 11 rebs) took ownership of the paint and Kobe (19 pts) hit his typical array of tough shots that he made look easy. Then, after Boston recovered to make it a ballgame, L.A. found themselves down by double-digits in the fourth thanks to Rajon Rondo (21 pts, 12 asts) carving up the defense and Eddie House throwing in some big threes. So the Lakers rallied, and with 45 seconds left, Ron Artest made an awkward runner — yes, you could say all of Ron-Ron’s buckets are awkward — to cut the lead to one. Read More »
In the free cable TV classic Face/Off, John Travolta the FBI agent and Nic Cage the criminal switch faces (it’s complicated and corny) and go about their good guy/bad guy business while basically being the other guy. Last night was like the NBA version of Face/Off, only instead of Travolta and Cage, it was starring Kadeem Hardison and Dolph Lundgren. Blazers/Mavs saw one guy drop 52 points and absolutely dominate down the stretch, using awkward herky-jerky moves to beat his defenders between sticking jumper after jumper. Dirk Nowitzki? Nope. It was Andre Miller … Read More »
