Our nightly roundup of all the action in the NBA. Or, what you missed while thinking maybe you should lay off those breakfast sandwiches….
Lakers 103, Kings 90: The Lakers are 2-0 in the Bernie Bickerstaff era and all anybody wants to talk about is Phil Jackson. We break it all down right here.
Grizzlies 104, Heat 86: As we all expected, Wayne Ellington was an unstoppable force who completely overwhelmed the Heat wing players. Okay, maybe not, but it turns out Memphis is a lot like the Heat in that if they are getting outside shots to fall — and they did, Ellington was 7-of-11 from three — then they become impossible to stop because they have Zach Randolph (18 points, 12 rebounds) in the paint. As a team, the Grizzlies were 14-of-24 from three. Oh, and they have the very good Rudy Gay, who scored 21.
In some ways you could see why Erik Spoelstra thinks that Chris Bosh can hang with big centers — Marc Gasol scored two points while Bosh caught the ball away from the basket and drove around Gasol on his way to 22 points on 12 shots. The problem was Heat players not named Bosh or LeBron James (20 points) shot just 25 percent against the Grizzlies defense.
Thunder 106, Cavaliers 91: This was the best OKC has looked overall this season. Russell Westbrook hit a few midrange jumpers early, seemed to get his confidence going and he went on to score 27 and dish out 10 assists — plus hit a key buzzer-beater three at the end of the third quarter — to spark the Thunder to a win. OKC played good defense and looked every bit the powerhouse in this one. Kyrie Irving had 20 points to lead the Cavaliers because he is really, really good.
Clippers 89, Hawks 76: The battle of two deep teams who love the jump shot went to the Clippers which went on a couple second half runs (including a 20-5 across the third to the fourth when the Clips pulled away) to seal this. The Clippers got double-digit scoring from three guys off the bench — Jamal Crawford (11), Eric Bledsoe (12) and Matt Barnes (10). And what should scare teams is that is not some one-off night. They can do that whenever they want. Blake Griffin led the Clippers with 16 points (on 11 shots). For the Hawks, Al Horford is playing well — he has such a well-rounded game — and scored 11.
Nets 82, Magic 74: The Nets have a thing for giving up leads — there was a 22-point come-from-ahead loss to Minnesota a week ago, Sunday Brooklyn raced out to a big lead with a 35-point first quarter, led by as much as 20 but had to scramble at the end to secure it. The Nets took their foot off the gas and while the Magic are not talented then are playing hard for first-year coach Jacque Vaughn. Kris Humphries had 14 points and 21 rebounds.
