And Rose leads Bulls over Pistons.
by Holly MacKenzie / @stackmack
Bah.. I feel like my season ended with the Raps last night. 12 games on the schedule last night and I was so damn antsy all night watching that this has taken me forever to write. Seriously. I’ve been struggling.
And then the stupid Raps/Wiz have to go and have a close game when I said I wasn’t going to write about matchups with non-playoff teams. If you’re a non-playoff team, you get exactly one line today.
Also, my stupid left side of my neck is screwed. No clue why. Whenever I cough, from my ear down to my shoulder hurts. How do I manage these things? I am the clumsiest girl ever, not sure if I’ve ever mentioned that. I feel like I officially hit the rookie wall last week and am only feeling the effects now. Yikes.
Derrick Rose deserves the ROY award and whatever else is lying around for his efforts. He is unreal. Really.
JR Smith is better than most of you thought he’d be this year and I love watching him shoot even more now than before. 11-18 from three. Kinda crazy, just like JR. 45 points in 29 minutes. Off of the bench. Yeah, Denver’s scary. Scariest team in the West besides LA.
Mo Williams whipping that pass to LeBron James for that slam that just wasn’t human, that was nice.
The Hornets hurt my heart. Really, they do.
In brief: Bosh hit a three with 9.6 seconds left and Juan Dixon inexplicably threw the ball out of bounds on the Wizards’ final possession. The Raptors won 97-96 to avenge the buzzer-beater from Caron last week. Bosh and Marion finished with 25/15 apiece and Pops Mensah-Bonsu had 9 points, 12 boards and 5 steals in just 20 minutes off of the bench. Caron had 28 points and 12 boards for the Wiz while Antawn Jamison scored 23.
37 points for LeBron and the Cavs won again, clinching first overall and homecourt throughout the playoffs. Blah, blah, blah. They are so good it’s just ridiculous! Danny Granger had 38 in the loss and perhaps is reminding people to think of him in the Most Improved category. Brandon Rush scored 27 for the Pacers.
18 points and 20 boards for Brook Lopez as he moves up to the second place for ROY, while the Nets took down the Bobcats, 91-87.
The Bulls pulled out a HUGE one on the road against the Pistons as they try to wrap up the sixth seed in the East. While the Pistons lead for most of the fourth, a layup and free throw from Derrick Rose put the Bulls up and then on the following possession, he blocked a shot attempt from Rodney Stuckey as he singlehanedly changed the game. Ben Gordon then went to the hoop and got the layup, while also taking a shot from McDyess’s hip to his “parts” and he certainly felt some pain on the play. It was worth it though, as the Bulls escaped with the 91-88 victory as a Stuckey heave at the buzzer was short. Rose finished with 24 points and 8 assists, Gordon had 19 and Joakim Noah added 11 points and 13 rebounds. Stuckey had 16 points, 7 boards and 9 assists for the Pistons as Rip Hamilton added 25 points.
Milwaukee took down Orlando 96-80 in their final home game of the season as the Magic sat Dwight Howard and were without Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu. Marcin Gortat had 10 points and 18 rebounds while Courtney Lee scored 17. Richard Jefferson scored 24 points for the Bucks and Ramon Sessions added 18 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists.
The Spurs pummeled the Warriors, 101-72. It was the umpteenth time the Warriors had eight guys in uniform, with seven who actually were available to play. Yikes. 34% shooting for the Warriors in this game, including 4-21 from Kelenna Azubuike. Anthony Randolph had 24 points and 16 boards as a bright spot for Golden State and CJ Watson scored 18. Drew Gooden had 20 for the Spurs while Tony Parker scored 17 and Tim Duncan added 16 points and 13 rebounds.
Portland killed Oklahoma City, 113-83. They had doubled them at the half, 62-31. Enough said on this one. 16 points and 9 boards for Greg Oden, Travis Outlaw scored 21 and Brandon Roy added 20. Earl Watson had 16 for OKC and Russell Westbrook added 15.
Phoenix over Memphis 119-110. Nash had 18 points and 12 assists for the Suns while Hakim Warrick scored 26 ponts to go with 9 boards for the Grizz. Make the playoffs or get a one-liner.
The Nuggets continued to roll, this time over the Kings, 118-98 behind a huge night from JR Smith who keeps getting better. I knew this was coming when many of you doubted JR. Yeah it’s the Kings, but it’s undeniable, he’s figuring it out. 45 on 13-22 from the floor and a ridiculous 11-18 from three. 18 three-point attempts from Smith. 45 points in 29 minutes of action. Denver outscored Sac 32-19 in the fourth quarter as Melo finished with 21 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists and Linas Kleiza added 17 off of the bench. Ike Diogu had 32 and 11 boards for the Kings and Bobby Jackson scored 18 points to go with 12 assists in the loss.
Scoring 13 in the second quarter and 11 in the third equals getting blown out. Last night, the Rockets did just that to the Hornets, taking them down, 86-66 as the Hornets shot just 34% for the game. Yao Ming scored 22 points for Houston and Von Wafer added 13 off of the bench. Chris Paul came back to earth with 9 points and 7 assists while David West had 14 points and 10 rebounds. This one made me sad.
Jason Terry hit a shot at the buzzer to give the Mavs a 96-94 victory over the TWolves and Dallas survived despite being outscored 25-14 in the second quarter of this one. Dirk Nowitzki had 34 points and 9 assists, Terry added 22 and JJ Barea added 12. Mike Miller flirted with the 3×2, finsihing with 18 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists for the Wolves while Kevin Love had 10 points and 11 assists and Sebastian Telfair added 14 points and 12 assists.
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