Our game recaps from Monday, or what you missed while taking the day off to visit Dunder Mifflin...
Cavaliers 97, Spurs 95: Got to start with this -- Manu Ginobili is a beast right now. Beast. Best player suited up for this one. Scored 38 points and was killing it from the outside -- 7 of 11 from downtown. Attacked and got to the line seven times (hitting every one). This is the player opposing coaches feared in 2007 but had been slowed by injury. He is back. But it still wasn’t enough as the Cavaliers gutted one out while LeBron was in street clothes, Shaq was still out, and Jamison had to leave early because of his knee.
First Cleveland with without LeBron in three years. In honor of that three other guys of note: Delonte West just makes smart plays for the Cavaliers -- he had his hand in the final five Cavaliers baskets. Tim Duncan was up against a small lineup and only had 13. The Spurs should get more out of him in this one. Finally was Roger Mason -- he was 0-8 on a Spurs bench that shot 27% on the evening. That is what lost the game more than anything, Cleveland’s backups stepped up and San Antonio’s did not.
Knicks 99, Hawks 98: I really have no idea how Atlanta ha lost three times this season to the Knicks. I think you’d have a better chance of explaining how a particle accelerator works to me than this.
This one got exciting because the predictable Knicks late game collapse made it so. With five minutes left and the Knicks up 10, it was just a matter of time -- the bad shot choices, missed open looks and turnovers were coming. And they did. And he Hawks took advantage. But this time the Knicks survived a horrific late-game turnover by Toney Douglas (who played very well otherwise) thanks to a dramatic game-saving block by Wilson Chandler on Josh Smith. Came from the weakside and just shut down one of the best finishers in the game. Al Harrington’s only contribution -- other than taking away shots from the hot hand of Danilo Gallinari (8 of 12 from the outside) -- was a clutch late jumper. David Lee also had a nice dunk late.
The Hawks struggled against the Knicks zone defense. They got sucked into settling for jumpers rather than attacking the soft middle of a zone. The Hawks had the advantage along the front line and didn’t exploit it.
Grizzlies 107, Nets 101: You cannot waste the rare good shooting night by Mike Conley, who just dominated the first half like he was still feeding the ball to Greg Oden at Ohio State (Conley finished with 21). Memphis took the second half off so this one got close, but it was never really in doubt.
Mavericks 125, Timberwolves 112: This game was played at a blistering, Golden State in the late 1980s pace, 108 possessions. (That’s eight possessions more than the Warriors average this year, and they are the fastest-playing team in the Association.) The Mavericks are built to handle that kind of pace much better than the Timberwolves, and it showed. Minnesota turned the ball over on 24 percent of their possessions, which fueled Dallas. Shawn Marion felt at home and dropped 29, Kidd had 10 dimes. Great night for Al Jefferson though, attacking that soft inside of the Mavericks, scoring 36 on 15 of 21. Wasn’t nearly enough at that pace, though.
Hornets 135, Warriors 131: Another fast paced game (101 possessions) but as always, it was about the Warriors getting dominated inside -- New Orleans grabbed the offensive rebound on 44 percent of their missed shots. David West had more offensive rebounds (six) than the entire Warriors team (4), and West finished with 28. Another big night for Darren Collison -- 20 assists and 16 points.
