Remember how I said I was going to continue to tell myself that yesterday was a fun day until I made it through? I made it, but just barely. Had the Raptors/Nets game last night and it was a good one. And, by good I mean Ryan Anderson having a career night as I had to interview him for a feature that I’ll be writing over at The Score next week.
That was fun. The Raptors missing their first 14 shots of the fourth quarter as New Jersey went on a 22-4 run? That would be the not fun part. Yeah, so the game was pretty ugly for Toronto in the end.
I felt like I was at the arena forever hanging out to get interviews and quotes and finally made it home, freeeezing. Let me tell you, I was not a wise one when I decided to walk home last night. I was so cold that my fingernails were absolutely burning. Fingernails. Burning. Fingernails. Throbbing. Yuck. It was not a good scene.
Anyway, by the time I made it home and transcribed a bit, all of the NBA action that did not involve Nets/Raptors had passed me by. Luckily for us all, there were a whole slew of pointless match ups last night. I know, I know, there is no such thing as a game that doesn’t matter, but Sacramento and Minnesota, well, yeah.
I noticed that Josh Howard returned to the lineup for Dallas from that ankle sprain. Happy to see that.
I’m also thrilllllled to announce that I’m currently first in my fantasy league. First out of 18. And I had the 16th pick in the draft. I’m pretty proud. Stack Jaxxx, number one!
Nash continued to have nothing but nice things to say when the topic was Mike D’Antoni. I can’t help but feel badly for Nash who has lost his coach, best friends and style of play without seeming to have gained anything in return.
I really wish I could have seen Barbosa with Dan D’Antoni pregame last night. The relationship between the two is one of the nicest ones I’ve gotten to observe in the league.
Six head coaches being fired. It’s not even Christmas yet. With the previous record being three for this time of the year, it just seems kind of crazy. Obviously the Kings don’t really surprise me, but still.
Since I didn’t see anything, I can’t do much recapping, but we can talk about the most important games of the night as I catch up with you.
Boston defeated Utah, 100-91. I was pretty impressed that Utah hung around to keep it that close when I saw the boxscore. This is the 15th straight victory for the Celtics who are now 23-2 on the season and show no signs of slowing down. While the Jazz trailed by only four in the final minutes, it was the Rajon Rondo show as he scored a career-high 25 points to save the game for the Celtics. Rondo also had 9 rebounds and 8 assists, narrowly missing another triple-double while Kevin Garnett scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Kendrick Perkins scored 15 points to go with 14 rebounds. Paul Millsap scored a career-high 32 points to go with 10 rebounds in the loss while Deron Williams added 15 points.
Denver defeated Dallas 98-88 to continue their dominance since the arrival of Chauncey Billups. A first quarter that saw Denver outscore Dallas 27-15 set the tone for the rest of the game. The deficit was too much for Dallas to overcome as the Nuggets held them to only 35% shooting for the game. JR Smith (who I just recently dropped from my fantasy team), led the Nuggets with 25 points as Carmelo Anthony scored 23 points and Billups added 15 and 8.
In the return of Mike D’Antoni to Phoenix, the Suns took down the Knicks 111-103. While the game was close in the end with the Knicks trailing by only three with five minutes remaining, Steve Nash hit a three to give the Suns some breathing room and the Knicks were unable to get any closer. Nash finished with 21 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists as Amare Stoudemire also scored 21 points and pulled down 14 rebounds while Shaquille O’Neal had 23 points and 12 rebounds in his first game back following the death of his great-grandmother. Nate Robinson led New York with 27 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists as Al Harrington scored 24 points.
The Magic defeated the Warriors 109-96 despite playing without Dwight Howard. Jameer Nelson scored a career-high 32 points and Marcin Gortat added 16 points and 13 rebounds while Rashard Lewis scored 21. Andris Biedrins led the Warriors with 23 points and 9 rebounds as Marco Belinelli added 19 off of the bench.
The rest of the games didn’t appear to have anything huge going on, but if I missed it, let me know.
