Welcome to PBT’s roundup of the day in NBA action. Or, what you missed while making sure our nation was prepared for a zombie apocalypse….
Wizards 105, Heat 101: Now do you think there might be a problem with the Heat defense? Giving up triple digits to the worst offense in the land? We broke it down in more detail here.
Rockets 107, Lakers 105: The Lakers gave up 34 points in the fourth quarter and lost. Which is better than the 40 points they gave up in the fourth in a loss Sunday. See a pattern here? We talk about the Lakers woes and the Rockets resiliency in another story.
Thunder 117, Brooklyn 111: For the past couple weeks the Nets have been playing pretty good defense. Not so much in this game with Brook Lopez sitting — neither team played much of it but the Nets were worse and against a high-powered offense (OKC had an offensive rating of 125.9 points per 100 possessions, which is 15 points better than their already second best in the NBA average). The Thunder shot 65.7 percent for the first half and 60 percent for the game.
This game was close late because the Nets made a third-quarter comeback going small with Gerald Wallace at the four (and Scott Brooks was too slow to adjust).
The key play of the game came with 1:52 left and the Thunder up two. Kevin Durant (he finished with 34 points) drove hard to his right and went off the glass for the layup — but just as he as did Kris Humphries came flying in for the amazing block. Except it was ruled goaltending. Looking at the replay the referees couldn’t overturn it, I would say he hit the ball simultaneous with it hitting the backboard. The result was a 110-104 lead and he Thunder went on to win.
Russell Westbrook had 25 for the Thunder. Deron Williams had 33 points on 20 shots and seemed to break out of his shooting slump. Which would be good news for the Nets
Timberwolves 105, Sixers 88: Minnesota put up 65 first half points while shooting 59.5 percent (and that was despite Kevin Loves still being cold and shooting 2-of-7 in the first 24). That shooting dropped all the way off to 53.2 percent for the game but that was still impressive against the Philly defense (which kind of took the night off). Seven Timberwolves in double figures, including Josh Howard with 16 points and Alexy Shved with 17. This was the one game of the night that never was really in doubt.
Pacers 80, Bulls 76: This wasn’t a pretty game — both teams shot under 40 percent (Indiana shot 36.3 percent, Chicago 38.4 percent) and the Bulls had 19 turnovers on top of it. The Pacers had two things that got them the win. One was Paul George who had 35 points and was the best player on the floor. The other was a key no-call: The Pacers were up two with :06 left when Loul Deng cut along the baseline, got a pass from Joakim Noah, then as Deng shot he ran into Roy Hibbert — there was a lot of contact but no call. It was a Hibbert block and a Pacers win.
Grizzlies 108, Suns 98 (OT): Zach Randolph got the Grizzlies this win — he had 10 points in the fourth quarter to get the game to overtime then had six points and five rebounds n the extra frame. Randolph finished with 38 points on and 22 rebounds. He was in beast mode. He looked like the playoff Randolph of two seasons ago.
The Suns led most of the way in this one but the Grizzlies were within striking distance and took the lead with 1:10 left. Then the Suns took it back and it took a Rudy Gay jumper with 15 seconds left to force overtime. Then overtime started with a Mike Conley three and a healthy dose of Randolph and it was over. Goran Dragic had 19 to lead a Suns team that wen 1-5 on a six-game road trip.