by Holly MacKenzie / @stackmack
Great, great, great Thursday night of games.
The Raptors defeated the Knicks 106-104 in New York, despite falling behind by 16 in the first half on the second night of a back to back. Clawing back to trail by four at the break, Toronto battled against the Knicks throughout the fourth, with the lead switching sides until the final seconds. While Jarrett Jack missed a free throw that would have put the Raptors up three, he was the one to step in to take the charge on a Harrington drive as the clock expired.
I was surprised that the final play of a game was a charging call against the Knicks.
I was shocked to see Hedo Turkoglu finish with 26 points, 11 rebounds and three dunks. If you’re on Twitter you’ll know what I mean when I say, #ball. In Hedo’s postgame interview when he was asked why he was effective offensively, he simply says “ball.” When the interviewer repeats him, he says he doesn’t have anything else to say. He meant he was effective because he had the ball, but meh. Dude has had the ball quite a bit this season, so I’m not buying that. Also, having the ball doesn’t suddenly make you jump up and grab rebounds. I’m just happy he finally had a great game for the Raptors. He had the free throws against the Lakers to get the win and appears to be building on it. Here’s to hoping it continues.
Now, David Lee was showing everyone why he should be on that All-Star list of reserves. He was also fouling the hell out of Bosh as he scored 29 points to go with 18 rebounds. He was a beast. Bosh just happened to outbeast him when it mattered, going hard to the hoop for a bucket down the stretch.
In Orlando, the Magic came back from 11 down to start the fourth and got the W as Rashard Lewis waited, waited, waited and waited some more before driving to the hoop and getting the layup with 1.3 seconds to go. On the C’s final possession of the game they were unable to get the ball into the hands of Ray Allen and Sheed was forced to take a three at the buzzer that was an ugly, ugly airball. Magic win, 96-94.
It was kind of sad and a little painful watching Lewis blow by KG on the baseline. It served as a reminder that he’s not as young as he used to be. I know he would probably want to rip my head off if he was reading this, but it’s true. And it sucks.
With 41 seconds on the clock, JJ Redick came up big, tying the game with a 3-pointer and a miss from Ray Allen from deep set up the Lewis lay in. And even that excitement couldn’t get Mrs. Doc Rivers to pay attention to the game. You guys see her sitting in the stands with her book?
In Phoenix, Jason Terry said the Suns can’t play defense during his halftime interview and then the Suns came out in the second half with some grit, hanging on to get the 111-106 victory. While Amar’e had 22 points, Nash had 19 points and 11 assists.
He was balling down the stretch.
Dirk had 19 for the Mavs and Jason Terry scored 21 in the loss. It was a huge win for the Suns against the best road team in the Western Conference.
Thoughts are with Grant Hill’s father who was taken to the hospital during the game for “precautionary reasons” after he was not feeling well.
What were your thoughts on the All Star reserves? I know Lee got snubbed, but besides that how do you think they shook out? I’m just so happy Gerald Wallace made the team. I’m also so happy Stephen Jackson has had such a great impact on that team since the trade.
Someone ripped Bargnani for averaging 6.4 rebounds per game yesterday as a center. I’ll remind everyone that All-Star Amar’e Stoudemire is averaging 8.1 boards per game on a team where he is the main rebounder (no Chris Bosh alongside him) as a player who plays under the basket. Bargnani’s average of 6.4 needs to go up, but it’s not that despicable, considering where/how he plays.
If you could only name one Hawks player and one Boston player to the All Star game, who would it be? I think Josh Smith would be my Hawks pick and he didn’t even make it. You know Rondo’s my Celtics pick.
Thoughts on the good, the bad and the snubbed?
