There is just too much to write about today. My goodness.
Before I begin writing anything else, I’d like to say, I’m hoping Rudy Fernandez is doing okay after a flagrant-2 from Trevor Ariza last night in the Trailblazers blowout win against the Lakers. He went down hard, Roy charged at Riza, LO jumped off the bench (lovely, just lovely), Powell, Outlaw and Aldridge jumped into the skirmish and we had a big mess of guys acting tough, shouting eff-bombs among other mean words and poor Rudy still lying on the floor, trying to catch his breath.
Rudy was eventually taken off of the court on a stretcher but had movement in his extremities and was conscious when he was taken to the hospital. It was an unfortunate injury all the way around as the replay clearly shows Ariza was swiping at the ball. He just caught Rudy in the head, hard. Honestly, I think Ariza just plays recklessly. I don’t mean that he’s careless, I just think he gives up his body on both ends of the floor and he’s involved in more flagrant plays and hard fouls than anyone else I can think of, both as the receiver and the deliverer of the fouls.
It was wild to see Roy fly at Ariza in defense of Rudy. Crazy to see Pau look positively ill as he waited to see if his close friend was okay. Touching to see the Blazers huddle up and say a prayer for their guy. I think (and hope), this was one of those things that looked worse than what it actually was.
It was also wild (but entirely unsurprising), to see the Blazers handle the Lakers easily at the Rose Garden. The Lakers just cannot find a way to get a win in Portland. By halftime, they were trailing 60-38 and went on to lose 111-94, but it was only that close because the Lakers poured in 38 points in the fourth. Brandon Roy led the Blazers with 27 points as Lamarcus Aldridge had 16 points and 13 rebounds, including going 2-4 from beyond the arc, Joel Pryzbila finished with 12 points to go with 18 boards and Travis Outlaw added 22 points off of the bench. Kobe Bryant had 26 points for the Lakers, but it took him 29 shots to get them, Pau Gasol had 18 points and 13 rebounds Jordan Farmar added 12 off of the bench in an ugly loss for LA.
Happy news of the day: Shaun Livingston has signed with the NBDL’s Tulsa 66er’s. The NBA it is not, but it’s a step. Stepping stones for Livingston to get back into the league. I’m following his journey and wishing him only good things and lots of them.
Now, onto the Miami game. I hope some of our Heat family were in attendance last night, because Mr. Wade put on quite a show and Luther Head was super into watching it. I’m happy to see him on the bench loving life.
Quote of the night: “I knew we had a timeout and I was about to call it, and then I said, nahhhh”
–Dwyane Wade on what he was thinking after he got the steal on the final play of the game.
I’d also like to take this time to tell all readers, there are lots of games on at the same time, if you’re watching a ridiculous game like the one last night that you think people NEED to see, twitter it, so I know to flip. I missed most of this one (for reasons you’ll read about below), but thankfully flipped over just before the finish of regulation.
The game went into double overtime with Wade giving the ball up to Udonis Haslem who missed a jumper. Bulls ball with 11.2 seconds left in the game and Wade lunges forward (like Jonny Flynn did in an overtime win for Syracuse against Marquette this past Saturday), gets his fourth steal of the game and hits a running three-pointer as the buzzer sounds. Jumping up he runs across the court, jumps up on the scorer’s table and tells the fans, “This is my house!”
He was spectacular. While Ben Gordon had 43 points on 14-23 field goals, including 8-11 from three, the star of this game was Dwyane Wade with 48 points (15-21 from the floor), 12 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 blocked shots. While he missed a what would have been a game-winning layup in at the end of the first overtime, perhaps it was only to set up an even more dramatic finish.
If he continues to play at this level, shooting at such a high percentage, being solid defensively, continuing to play the right way and look for his teammates, he gets my MVP vote.
If you’re wondering, LeBron would be a close second. This is of course, only if he continues to play as he has. If there’s any slippage, I’d say the award goes to LBJ.
Also, if you’re wondering, Wade received a text from Bron post game, congratulating him on the win and his performance. I think it’s so fun that these stars watch each other when they’re not playing.
So, the final score of the Bulls/Heat game was 130-127 Heat, in double overtime. Derrick Rose had 23 points and 9 assists for the Bulls while John Salmons had 29 points and Joakim Noah had 11 points and 15 rebounds before fouling out. Salmons was big for the Bulls down the stretch before losing the ball on that final play. Mario Chalmers had 17 points before fouling out, Michael Beasley had 18 points off of the bench and Jamario Moon added 13 for the Heat.
I think it’s pretty disgusting when a player throws their gum at an official in protest after foul call. Pretty sure that’s what went down with Tyrus Thomas last night. Yuck. I’d be tempted to toss him out if he threw gum at me. That’s just so disrespectful.
And now, the reason why I missed a good chunk of the Heat/Bulls game:
I’m slowly becoming sucked into the world of television programming that is not basketball and that’s a scary thing.
Last week it was Rodman on The Apprentice, last night it was bits and pieces of, dare I say it, Dancing With The Stars. They always manage to get a former (or current), NFLer on the cast and for whatever reason, I feel this overwhelming urge to watch the guy look like a bull in a china shop. Or, surprise the hell out of me, like Jason Taylor. I kind of can’t believe I’m admitting to this.
Okay, enough dancing talk. You can’t blame me, it’s whoever keeps on creating these shows. And, according to his facebook status, Mr. Rubenstein was watching last night, too! Because of the lack of real NBA “Post Up” watching last night, well, yeah. we’re condensing things today. Really, the two games mentioned above were where the majority of the action happened, but we’ve gotta go into the Pistons win against Orlando and the Rockets pulling out the victory over the Nuggets.
Gotta switch to college for a minute here. My heart hurt for Pat Mills. 2-16 from the floor in his second game back from that broken hand injury? Yikes. I didn’t get to see any of that game last night, but sounds painful.
Detroit hung on to take down Orlando, 98-94 thanks to another huge night from Rip Hamilton and a surprise hero off of the bench in Kwame Brown. Rip finished with 29 points and 14 assists for the Pistons, and Brown came into the game after Rasheed Wallace left the game in the first quarter with a strained calf. Brown gave Dwight Howard trouble on the defensive end and helped “hold” Howard to 27 points and 14 rebounds. These two teams traded leads throughout, but Rodney Stuckey hit a jumper to give the Pistons a one-point lead with two minutes remaining in the game and they would not relenquish it. Antonio McDyess finished with 13 points and pulled down 18 huge boards, TayShaun Prince scored 20 points and Brown added 10 off of the bench. The Magic had 21 points from Rashard Lewis and 10 from rookie Courtney Lee.
Atlanta 89 New Orleans 79
Ryne is surely smiling over this one. While his Jazz are gunning for their 12th straight win tomorrow, the Hornets dropped a 10-point decision to the Hawks last night, behind a 30-point performance from Joe Johnson. The Hawks took control of the game in the second quarter as they outscored the Hornets 27-12, to take a 47-40 lead at the half. They would not give up the lead from there with New Orleans unable to get any closer than five in the final period. Besides Johnson’s big night, Josh Smith had a 13-point, 13-rebound double-double while Flip Murray added 14 points off of the bench. The Hornets were led by David West’s 16 points and 20 rebounds while Chris Paul scored 24 points and dished 10 assists and Rasual Butler added 18 in the loss.
Houston 97 Denver 95
With a loss in Sacramento last night, the Nuggets needed to regroup and get a win. It didn’t happen last night against the Rockets, Yao Ming and Ron Artest made sure of that. While the Nuggets started out strong and led 27-18 at the end of the first quarter, their offense died in the second quarter as they managed only 13 points. By the third quarter, the Nuggets trailed by as many as 19. They came back in the fourth, and cut the deficit to only two in the final minutes, but could not finish the comeback as Houston hit their free throws in the final minutes when they needed to. Ron Artest had 22 points to lead the Rockets as Yao added 15 and Aaron Brooks scored 19. Luis Scola added 15 rebounds. Chauncey Billups scored 27 points for the Nuggets as Carmelo Anthony added 21 points JR Smith added 15 off of the bench.
