Thanks to Lang for filling in for me on the Player of the D.A.Y. yesterday as well as a bunch of other stuff on the site. I agree with Mark Blount as the trophy winner. When Stephon was in the midst of his shooting display the other night, I thought it was destiny for the Star on Stars host to win himself a trophy on the day one of his biggest fans had an opportunity to honor him. Alas, it was not meant to be. Almost like a cruel joke. Speaking of which, those new college basketball uniforms… why? WHY!!!
CLEVELAND 101 DETROIT 97 OT
With the Cavs caught in a playoff-intense back and forth road game in the house of the team that stopped them last year, LeBron took over. He hit the game winning three with 0.9 on the clock, but got it off 0.1 too late, so they went to OT. In overtime, it was all LeBron all the time. This was the kind of performance that we wanted to see ALL SEASON LONG. So he rested. That’s over. He has awkened, and made this a statement game. 41, 8, and 7 with 3 steals and one emphatic block in OT. It’s the first time this season that Bron has topped 40. This was his master plan all along, to cruise for a while and then turn it up. It’s waaaaaay up now. Drew Gooden helped out with 22 and 10, while CWebb’s 20 and 11 and Rip’s 29 couldn’t offset the Lebronimation. Lindsey Hunter missed the game because he and his wife have a really poorly organized medicine cabinet.
ATLANTA 100 WASHINGTON 97
The Wizards had the game won and must have taken the Hawks too lightly, cause this is a W they threw away. Washington has their big three back, but outside of them nobody did much for the Wiz. The Hawks were shorthanded with injuries, missing Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams to name a few. Zaza Pachulia had 27 and 12. 19 points for starting PG Anthony Johnson. Washington is not going to catch Cleveland and/or Detroit if they keep giving away games like this.
PHOENIX 115 CHARLOTTE 106 OT
How did this go to OT? Amare was tossed for a double tech, which made that possible. Amare is second to Rasheed in technical fouls this season, something to watch. Gerald Wallace has been having a huge year in meaningless games once again. He sent this one to OT with a drive to the Amare-free rim, but in OT the Phoenix Suns became the Pheonix Suns again. 32 points for Leandro Barbosa, who hit 7 of 11 threes. The Bobcats scared them, but the Suns survived.
MIAMI 103 CHICAGO 70
Shaq seems to be getting younger every day. He’s going backwards through time like Merlin or something. He controlled the game with his passing out of the post, and the Wadeless Heat keep on winning. Eddie Jones scored 23, hitting 6 of 8 threes. The Bulls were never in the game. 24, 9, and 8 for Young Diesel. It’s pretty amazing what the Heat are doing without Wade. They’ve beaten up their main competition without him. Miami still has just as good a chance to get back to the Finals an anyone in their conference. They also have an NBA caliber head coach, which is more than you can say about 95% of the teams in the East.
GOLDEN STATE 110 DENVER 96
Carmelo missed the game to witness the birth of his child. It gave A.I. a chance to jack up as many shots as he could, but he settled for a subdued 25, scoring 35. The Nuggets lost again, and there was even a Baron Davis sighting with 22 and 9. I don’t know what to tell you about Denver. It’s almost like they tried for a week to make the new look work, it hasn’t, so they put it in cruise control. Golden State hit 16 of 34 threes. Let’s hope for a Phoenix-Denver first round series. The Suns could hit 30 threes per game and score 150 four times.
THE REST OF THE NIGHT
Trust me, none of this needs to be analyzed or discussed much further. It’s college basketball season. The Big East Tournament is always on. The Lakers were without Mr. Followthrough and their blowout loss to the Bucks was the equivalent of getting punched in the face 200 times in a row. Toronto beat Memphis by 7 in the ultimate “scoreboard doesn’t tell the story” game. The Raptors killed them. Houston returned the Celtics to the land of the losers, where they belong. Utah beat Indy by 20 and the Sixers got by the Sonics behind a triple double from Iguodala and 20 boards by Sam Dalembert.
