What you missed while staring at the earth’s two suns....
The Bulls beating the Heat and the Lakers thumping the Spurs were our two games of the day Sunday. In other action:
Sixers 125, Warriors 117 (OT): Teams often exit Warriors games with gaudy statistics, so we’ll chalk Evan Turner’s 20 points up to that. But Andre Iguodala now has back-to-back triple doubles because he is a stud. A stud with an inconsistent jumper, but a guy who can put up points with the best of them.
Golden State, led by Monta Ellis, fought back from 18 back and forced overtime, but that’s when Turner got hot and dropped 8 of his points.
Pistons 113, Wizards 102: Rodney Stuckey seemed to control this game (he was a +22) and finished with 19 points and 9 assists. Tayshaun Prince had 20 points and looked like guy who a lot of teams could have used around the trade deadline.
Hornets 96 Cavaliers 81: Chris Paul went down in the third quarter in what was one of the scariest moments of the season. While we were thinking about Paul, David West took over and the Hornets went on an 8-0 run the rest of the quarter. They then ran away with the game in the fourth quarter.
Knicks 92, Hawks 79: This was New York’s best defensive performance of the season. Either the Knicks forced or the Hawks settled for a lot of midrange jumpers (maybe a little from column A, a little from column B). The Knicks have had a couple good defensive nights, but mixed in with a couple stinkers, so lets not call it any kind of trend yet, just something worth watching. On the other hand, the Hawks seem capable of beating or losing to anyone on a given night.
Thunder 122, Suns 118 (OT): Vince Carter giveth and Vince Carter taketh away. He hit a ridiculous three to help send the game to overtime. But when fouled taking a three in the final seconds of overtime and the Suns down two, he sank the first free throw then missed the next two, and the Thunder got out with a win.
Grizzlies 104, Mavericks 103: Dallas played about as good a first half as it is capable, and this looked like a blowout. Then Zach Randolph and Mike Conley combined for 24 third quarter points leading the Grizzlies to 41 for the quarter. And we had a ballgame. In the end, it was Dirk hitting what looked like the game winner, then Randolph with what actually turned out to be the game winner (on a very Nowitzki looking shot, a high-arcing deep two with a hand in his face).
We keep telling you — nobody wants a part of the Grizzlies in the playoffs.
Celtics 89, Bucks 83: Celtics fans, it’s not you. Every team that plays the defensively strong but offensively weak Bucks leaves thinking it was an ugly game. This is not exception. The Bucks and Celtics were tied with 2:40 left. But the Celtics executed and outscored the Bucks 7-1 when it mattered most.
