The Knicks rarely found themselves on the losing end of the turnover battle in their undefeated start to this season. They also never had someone so thoroughly at ease against their defense until Chandler Parsons‘ first half Friday. The Rockets forward upended the Jeremy Lin vs. Knicks/Raymond Felton narrative when he didn’t miss in the first quarter, knocking down his first eight shots en route to 26 points — in the first half. The Rockets torched the Knicks’ defense that had been at or near the top of league statistics for the season’s first two weeks for 131 points in a 28-point win. In a game where Carmelo had 37 points (on an impressive 7-of-12 from deep) and James Harden was smooth like water to 33 points, Parsons’ 31 were the game-changer from the start. Lin had 14 points, seven boards and four turnovers while Felton had 17, eight dimes, four TOs and four triples, but Parsons had as many hoops as all of NY in the first quarter. By the time it was the third quarter it was out of reach with a 21-point cushion. … Paul Pierce (27 points) may have had 22 points in the second half in Boston’s 108-100 win over Oklahoma City at home but he had a stretch with the C’s up about 10 with less than three minutes left that made Doc Rivers almost have a coronary. He set a Garnett-esque blocking sled of a moving screen that negated a Jason Terry triple that would have essentially ended the game on offense. Then he didn’t stick with Kevin Durant (29 points) on a pick-n-roll, letting KD make a 26 footer. The lead got slimmer, and slimmer, taking us on a Jason Williams-at-Maryland comeback flashback where a 10-point lead vanishes like David Copperfield was coaching. JET’s triple with 30 ticks left sealed it though. This was a game of crazy lines: Russ Westbrook went for 26, eight dimes and seven boards and Rajon Rondo had 16 assists, eight boards and six points. Not that he did a ton the rest of the game but Brandon Bass‘ southpaw tomahawk through the lane in the third was big-time, too. … The Hawks took the Bobcats to the woodshed, something the 101-91 win doesn’t fully show. Atlanta shot the leather off the ball in stretches and was 55 percent for the night. Key to that is, of course, a 50-point night by the team in the pain alone, led by Al Horford‘s 26 points and 13 boards, but the game was like Jekyll and Hyde for stretches, where they couldn’t miss but couldn’t always get the ball even halfway through their sets because they turned it over 22 times. Something we didn’t remember seeing on Michael Kidd-Gilchrist‘s scouting report was his knack for blocks, but he picked up four in the loss. Side note: we’re digging Charlotte’s new shorts with the ‘C’ breaking up the piping. … The Cavs are in free fall without Kyrie Irving, not that it wasn’t expected. Even with really nice nights by Dion Waiters with 25 points and Anderson Varejao‘s 19 points and 17 boards, there’s not enough to beat even the Orlandos of the world, losing 108-104. Big Baby Davis nearly killed three rows of fans in this one when he dove for a ball going out of bounds, choosing the option of diving over 12 feet of spectators rather than letting that one get away. … The Gasol brothers were pimping their faceoff Friday as #2gasols1win on Twitter (before you laugh, it’s not the worst hashtag we saw this week) but Rudy Gay crashed the party. His 21 points helped keep L.A. winless away from Staples Center. Kobe had 30 points but it wasn’t enough plaster to cover the holes of his team’s deficiencies. … We think it’s cool and all that Memphis is now partly owned by Justin Timberlake but when he showed up to Memphis’ 106-98 win over the Lakers (with wifey Jessica Biel), we didn’t forget that he once gave Kobe dap in the middle of the game.
Was Brooklyn’s 86-76 win about the Nets’ D or the Clippers’ offensive offense? Both, but credit where credit is due: The Nets did the near impossible by keeping Chris Paul scoreless in the fourth quarter. That would be Chris Paul of “give me the damn ball” fourth quarter fame last season, when he closed out games better than Brian Wilson. He still had 14 points, nine dimes and five boards but his struggles were indicative of the whole team, which made just 10 buckets in the second half. Brook Lopez had 26 strong points, getting tough buckets to go on fades and offensive boards. In a battle of big men whom few are sold on with DeAndre Jordan (12 points and 13 boards but why just 24 minutes?) Lopez was clearly the alpha dog. … Deron Williams might have the love of an entire borough but even the most loyal Nets fan’s eyes bulged when he went in for a dunk only to get the ball violently taken from him by Blake Griffin (14 points) at the top of his leap, all in one smooth motion. … Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has been open about his “concern” that Tony Parker hasn’t been finishing at the rim like he used to be able to. His 33 points and 10 dimes in a comeback 104-97 win over Indiana were a clear reaction to Pop’s public fault with his game. Early on it was really David West (22 points) doing work with his jab-step jumper at the elbow but before you could say “back on track Pacers” they were in the middle of missing 11 straight shots in the fourth quarter. … Brandon Knight‘s knifing layup with 8 second to go got the Pistons a 91-90 win over the Raptors despite 34 points from Andrea Bargnani. That makes two, one-point heartbreaks in a row for the Raps after a no-call on an admitted foul Wednesday. … Andre Iguodala‘s 29 points led Denver past Golden State 102-91, and JaVale McGee had some hellacious alley-oops in this one, including off an alley-oop where the ball never hit the floor for 90 feet on two passes. … Gordon Hayward played hero in the Jazz’s 104-102 win over Sacramento by hitting the tie-breaking jumper off a curl screen with 4.5 seconds left. … Ryan Anderson had 34 and 11 and was untouchable from the arc but New Orleans wasted a 19-point lead in the third quarter to lose to Phoenix, 111-108, in OT. … Some things don’t change: Kevin Love is a beast even with still a still-healing broken hand (24 points and 13 boards) and Portland’s Damian Lillard is on the fast track to ROY. He had a career-high 28 points with zero turnovers in the Blazers’ 103-95 win at home. … We’re out like Deron’s dunk attempt on Blake.
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