At the expense of those Raptors.
Happy Monday morning, Slammers.
Highlight of my weekend? Seeing Joey Graham and Brian Scalabrine get into it in the Raps/Celtics game yesterday. Nothing happened, just two guys getting heated, but still it was fantastic to hear the entire ACC cheering “Joey! Joey!”
Unfortunately for that crowd, the Raptors lost, putting an end to the C’s four-game losing skid.
Hope you guys got to watch the Indiana/Golden State game. Granger is fantastic. Stephen Jax in that pink shirt on the bench was fantastic as well.
The Clippers fell apart in the fourth quarter against the Suns last night. Predictable, but man, they are banged up right now. No Baron, Randolph, Hart and Taylor.
Definitely the best news of the past few days is the Grizzlies re-signing Darius Miles. I love the Blazers, but that email was a stupid move on their management’s part. I’m pulling for Miles because, as always, I live for the underdog.
After having the Grizz here the night before they re-signed him and hearing Mayo say what a great teammate he was, then hearing Doc talk about him yesterday and again, echo what Mayo said, that he was a great player for him, I want to see him fulfill his dream of playing in this league again.
Dwyane and Kobe was fun last night. As a Lakers fan, the best part was such a great team effort, with Derek in double figures for assists and Bynum and Pau gritting it out.
I do think that Cook got robbed on that final 3-point attempt, though.
Speaking of threes, Ray freaking Allen. 8-10 from the beyond the arc yesterday and he started out 
the game 6-6. He was amazing on his way to 36 points. Breathtaking, that shot of his.
Be sure to check out my game notes from that game over at my Court Surfing blog. I explain how, for a brief moment in time, I was the middle of an NBA champion sandwich. Really.
Okay, so there were a few games I didn’t catch, one being the Magic and Spurs. Magic took down the Spurs, thanks to 24 and 14 from Dwight, 22 from Jameer and 21 from Hedo while Parker led the Spurs with 31.
The Kings defeated the Mavs 102-95 thanks to six players reaching double figures while the Mavs had only two, behind Jason Terry’s 33. Kevin Martin scored 21 points and Francisco Garcia added 17.
I really feel like I had a few other things to talk about this morning, but I can’t seem to get my head around them. Goodness, I put in work this weekend, with two game days, then a 16 hour double-shift on Saturday, plus a whole wack of writing. I’m probably in too deep, but I’m overdosing on the NBA, how can I complain?!
Anyone not in love with Granger yet, you will be. Trust me.
Boston 94 Toronto 88
At the end of the first quarter, Ray Allen had 15 points and the Raptors had 20. Allen’s 15 came on 5-5 shooting from behind the arc and it was just that sort of night for him as he finished with a game-high 36 points on just 14 attempts from the floor, connecting on 8-10 three-pointers. While the Celtics raced out to an early lead and led by as many as 20, the Raptors used a strong fourth quarter that saw them outscore the Celtics 33-19, to make a game of it before losing 94-88 as the Celtics put a stop to their four-game winning streak. Rajon Rondo scored 14 points and had 11 assists for the C’s as Paul Pierce scored 11 and Kevin Garnett added 10. Andrea Bargnani led the way for the Raptors with his 17 points and 9 rebounds as Jamario Moon and Chris Bosh each scored 15 points in the loss.
Phoenix 109 LA Clippers 103
While this one was close in the first half, a sloppy finish defensively once again did the Clippers in. After arguing for what he thought were no-calls on his rookie Eric Gordon, Coach Dunleavy was ejected in the third quarter and in the second half of the fourth quarter, the Clippers fell apart. Just as Phoenix found their rhythm the Clippers lost theirs, giving up a 14-5 run from the Suns to close out the game and grab the victory. Amare Stoudemire scored 26 points to lead the Suns while Shaquille O’Neal had 15 points and 10 rebounds, Grant Hill and Jason Richardson each scored 21 points and Nash finished with 14 points and 12 assists. Al Thornton scored 23 for the shorthanded Clips who also had 18 points and 18 rebounds from Marcus Camby.
Golden State 120 Indiana 117
This was a wild one. It was in Oracle Arena as well, so that just intensified it. With Danny Granger dropping in 42 points (and becoming my newest favorite, seriously, I can’t help myself!), he was unable to take the final shot for the Pacers but set up a wide-open Travis Diener for a three-pointer that wasn’t close and the Warriors hung on for the 120-117 victory. The fourth quarter was a battle the entire way through as Granger came up huge for his team at every turn until Jamal Crawford drained a huge three with 11.6 seconds remaining to give the Warriors a two-point lead. Another made free throw set up the Pacers to need a three, but they fell just short. In addition to Granger’s 42, TJ Ford scored 15 points off of the bench and Jarrett Jack added 12. Crawford finished with 32 points while Kelenna Azubuike added 21 points and Marco Belinelli scored 17.
LA Lakers 108 Miami 105
In a head-to-head match up between Kobe Bryant and the NBA’s leading scorer, Dwyane Wade, Dwyane’s points couldn’t match Kobe’s teammates as Andrew Bynum gave a scoring punch while Pau Gasol grabbed the boards and the Lakers escaped with a 108-105 victory. With the teams trading baskets in the fourth, it was Bynum who gave the Lakers the lead with 18 seconds on the clock as he tipped in a miss from Kobe. Daequan Cook made a three to cut the Lakers lead to only one with 4.2 seconds remaining, but Kobe made two free throws to extend the lead back to three and Cook missed on a three-point attempt at the buzzer. Bynum finished with 24 points while Gasol had 14 points and 18 rebounds and Kobe had 19 points. Derek Fisher scored 13 points to go with 11 assists. Wade finished with 27 points and 9 assists and Michael Beasley scored 23 off of the bench.
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