What you missed while surfing huge waves at night while wearing an LED vest….
Pacers 104, Raptors 93: That was the most relaxed and loose the Pacers have looked since early in the season. The question becomes is that because of Frank Vogel being the coach instead of Jim O’Brien, or because the Raptors are that bad at defense? The same question can be asked of Roy Hibbert, who looked renewed and had 24 points and 11 boards against the soft interior defense of Toronto. Paul George added 16 as he got more burn.
The key thing for the Pacers is they were running again — there were 102 possessions in this total. This team is better when running. It kept feeling like the Pacers would pull away in this one, but the 25 turnovers — almost one if four trips down the court — let the Raptors keep it closer than it should have been. We’ll see over the next few games if the Pacers are playing better or if it is the Toronto effect. That’s a dozen losses in a row for Toronto now.
Nets 115, Nuggets 99: The Nets are not a good offensive team, yet they put up a ridiculously good 130 points per 100 possessions against the Nuggets. Denver on the road plays terrible defense, and the Nets exploited them inside — Brook Lopez (27 points), Travis Outlaw (21) and Kris Humphries (15) had big games. Carmelo Anthony dropped 37 in the loss and got to answer a lot of questions after.
Heat 117, Cavaliers 90: This followed the pattern John Krolik described when we stuck a fork in the Cavaliers — Miami raced out to an early lead, then they got a lazy and sloppy and the Cavs were able to hang around. Cleveland scored 37 in the second quarter alone. Then the Heat refocused themselves and pulled away.
Grizzlies 100, Magic 97: Sentences I never thought I’d type include: Mike Conley outplayed Jameer Nelson badly in this one. Conley has really had a good season, I’ll eat some crow on that one. Anyway, that was one of the keys. That and just a good shooting night by Memphis, including 63.2 percent in the first half, against what is supposed to be a powerful Magic defense.
Mavericks 102, Wizards 92: A couple of times a season a coach just needs to rip his players and get his team’s attention. Monday night was one of those times in Dallas as midway through the second the Mavs were losing to the Wizards. Rick Carlisle snapped — admitting after the game is was the maddest he has been all season — and the result was a Mavs turnaround win. A bunch of Steelers players were in the house, by the way.
Jazz 83, Bobcats 78: No Deron Williams again, which meant 19 turnovers on the night for Utah. And they still won. This was just an offensively ugly game — the winning team shot 35.6 percent.
Clippers 105, Bucks 96: The Clippers could not buy anything long range (2-13 from three) but fortunately they had Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, who combined for 48 inside. The Bucks are solid but not nearly athletic enough inside to match up with the Clippers front line.