The Post Up: Chris Paul…

by Holly MacKenzie

It’s Friday! How? We go through this every week. Or at least, I do.

My goodness.

I’ve got a busy one today, the Heat are in town. I’ll be welcoming Moon and JO back to town while checking out the rest of the squad for the second time this season. Looking forward to seeing how Beasley has improved from a few months ago. I can’t lie though, I’m sad that there will be no Shaun Livingston in the locker room. You all know how much love I have for that guy.

I’ve got to take this off of the NBA track for a moment and give a HUGE shout out to my boy, Christian TBear Upshaw. The sickest point guard I know, the brother I never had, my family for life and also the newly awarded MVP of the AUS. I’ll be keeping tabs on the your game tonight via Twitter and I’m so ridiculously proud of you!

The games were pretty good last night, considering they both ended up being blowouts. I enjoyed having a change of pace from the Lakers or Celtics for a Thursday.

Chris Paul. There are no words. Besides, amazing, unreal, beauty in motion, awe-inspiring… You get the picture. He was a joy to watch last night.

And then in his postgame interview saying he was happy to have T.C. back? He may as well have said, “Don’t you eff with my guys again, front office.” Six in a row since the trade was rescinded and I can see them continuing to roll.

During the Nuggets game, Andersen preening his “feathers” after blocking Rudy might have looked good, but he sure looked silly when LaMarcus Aldridge came back and dunked on him.

That’s what he gets for taunting. Just ask Kobe how the Cassell-dance worked out for him. Be gracious.

Although, speaking of tauniting. JR Smith is sort of exempt from this category.

JR with the taunting foul after a putback dunk. Of course. Classic JR.

As Russ said, in the final minutes of a blowout, if he shoots a three, it’s just the only thing he knows to do. He plays on instinct and talent and not much else.

Melo’s sprint to the bench was some funny stuff. I like that he dealt with it and chose to move past it and make light of it. Karl appeared to enjoy it as well.

Man, I can’t lie. I’m so excited about the AUS playoff games tonight. What I’d give to be in Nova Scotia right now.

New Orleans 108 Dallas 88

With a dribble behind the back he was off, dancing towards the basket, threatening to score on another layup before going up into the air and dropping off the pass for a trailing James Posey. That wasn’t Chris Paul’s prettiest play of the night, though. That one was an unbelievable full-speed dribble between Jason Terry’s legs, without missing a beat to dish off a pass to Rasual Butler who finished with an easy dunk. Paul was the star in this one, finishing with a game-high 27 points to go with 15 assists as he led the Hornets on a 15-3 run that put them up twelve. While the Mavs went into the fourth down eight, when Chris Paul left the game with 3:59 remaining, the Hornets were up 20, 98-78 as they won their sixth straight game since Tyson Chandler returned from the rescinded trade. Besides Paul’s wizardry, David West had 19 points and 10 rebounds, Tyson Chandler added 10 points and 11 rebounds and Rasual Butler added 18. The Mavs had 27 points from Dirk Nowitzki, 13 from Jason Kidd and 10 from Jason Terry.

Denver 106 Portland 90

Coming into this game off of back-to-back last second win against the Pacers, the Blazers were unable to match the pace of the Nuggets. After allowing them to bust out to a 32-18 lead after the first quarter, coming back in the third wasn’t enough as they ran out of gas in the final period,  and Denver took advantage. Coming back from a one-game team suspension, Carmelo Anthony scored 38 points for the Nuggets and had them up 15, 85-70 when he came out of the game with 10:55 remaining in the foruth. Unlike last time, when he refused to leave the game at the resquest of Coach Karl, earning him the suspension, he turned, and sprinted to the bench, sitting down to his teammates and coach getting a smile over his joke. With the Nuggets shooting 52% for the game, there was plenty to smile about as they took the 106-90 victory and maintained sole ownership of first place in the Northwest division. Besides Melo’s night, the Nuggets got 17 points from JR Smith, 16 from Nene and 15 from Linas Kleiza. The Trailblazers were led by 20 points from Brandon Roy, 19  from LaMarcus Aldridge and 15 off of the bench from Travis Outlaw.