What you missed while watching the story of Oedipus acted out by vegetables and voiced by Billy Dee Williams….
The Celtics holding on for a win over Miami and a Magic win over the Lakers were the games of the night. We threw is a bonus Wizards win over the Cavs story at no extra charge.
Kings 113, Suns 108: It was Star Wars night in Phoenix, but the home team played like they fell into a huge trash compactor and had to battle a dianoga.
DeMarcus Cousins is sitting back in Sacramento after being sent to his room for a time out by the team, and the Kings still pull down 18 offensive rebounds? Carl Landry had 6 of those because he’s a stud. Kings win on the second night of a back-to-back without their best frontline guy, that’s a quality win.
Trail Blazers 105, Pistons 100: LaMarcus Aldridge had a beast of a second half in this game (23 points) when he figured out he could beat the far less athletic Piston bigs down the floor and, if he didn’t score in transition, get crazy good deep position. But thanks to an 11-1 fourth quarter Pistons run this was close through the end and Detroit was up two with 1:47 left but the Blazers kept getting fouled and went 10-of-10 from the line inside the final two minutes.
Raptors 98, Clippers 93: The Clippers just lost to the Cavaliers and Raptors back-to-back.
Think the Clippers don’t miss Eric Gordon? Randy Foye was 2-for-14 shooting. But nobody was terribly impressive shooting the ball in this one for either team (Toronto was 2-for-13 from three). Toronto got 18 second half points from Andrea Bargnani — a lot of them in the third quarter when Blake Griffin could not handle him on the perimeter. Raptors rookie Ed Davis had a solid 13 points and 14 rebounds.
Grizzlies 116, Nuggets 108: Carmelo Anthony handled himself well on the way to his 28 points. The Grizzlies has a good second half, but real difference in this game was that the Grizzlies pounded the ball inside and drew fouls. The Griz had 11 more points from the free throw line, and Darrell Arthur may have been the best, getting to the line 10 times plus hitting from the midrange as well on his way to 27 points. Denver got good play from its bench — Ty Lawson and J.R. Smith in particular — in the first half but it was against the Nuggets bench that the Grizzlies took control.
Denver beat Dallas two nights ago, can’t beat Memphis tonight. Wildly inconsistently team, which is what you get when your defense is hard to trust.
Warriors 100, Thunder 94: Until the Thunder can start to defend they are not a threat in the West. Until they can keep the undersized Golden State Warriors from grabbing 20 offensive rebounds they are not contenders. Great night from David Lee with 23 and 19.