What you missed while you were wondering if you could get fired for what you put on Facebook…
Our game of the night had to be Paul Millsap looking like the best player in the league and the Utah upsetting the Heat in Miami. Read more about that here.
Pacers 144, Nugget 113: Indiana won this with a 54-point third quarter that was like pregame shoot around — the Pacers missed just one shot outside the paint all quarter and hit 12 of 13 that quarter from beyond 19 feet, according to ESPN. Some days you’re just hot, and tonight King Midas touched the Pacers shooting. Well, everyone except Josh McRoberts, he had the team’s one miss in the quarter. For the game, the Pacers had an eFG% of 73.6 percent, which is ridiculous.
Road back to back for the Nuggets, and a game played at a very past pace, which may have had something to do with the lack of defense.
Portland 100, Detroit 87: Portland just owned every aspect of this game. The only time Detroit climbed back in is when Portland got lazy and did a lot of isolation offense.
Cavaliers 93, Nets 91: Two things of note here for Cleveland: First is Antawn Jamison is back, he came in mid/way though the first quarter and had 15 points and 8 rebounds. He was 3 of 4 from beyond the arc and generally moved well. If he can be anything close to that nightly it would be a big boost. Same with Ramon Session, that had 15 points and was a key spark in the fourth quarter.
The other is that the Cavs really are embracing the Princeton-style offense (in a way the Sixers never did last year) that Byron Scott has brought in. They have good movement off the ball, gut cuts and reads.
Hornets 102, Clippers 80: Um, how did you think this was going to turn out?
Bucks 107, Knicks 80: There were 94 possessions in this one, three possessions below the league average for a game. The Knicks stand no chance against the Bucks of the world if they are not getting a lot of easy transition buckets. They should have 100 possessions every game. Good solid win for a Bucks team that could use a few of those.
Brandon Jennings had 12 points in a 41 point Bucks first quarter. This one was over early.
Lakers 99, Timberwolves 94: If you chose Nov. 9 in the “When will the Lakers first mail it in this season?” pool, be sure to pick up your money on the way out the door.
What kept the Timberwolves in this is they grabbed the offensive rebound on 48.9 percent of their missed shots. Kevin Love was the leader with 11 offensive rebounds, and he finished with 23 and 24 against Ron Artest for much of the night. See what happens when you play him 38 minutes a game? Still doesn’t matter, Lakers are that much better that they still get the W.