Chris Bosh Is The Closer; Carmelo Scores 1 Point, Knicks Still Win

If you’re LeBron, what’s the point? He could afford to be passive last night because Chris Bosh was getting busy in the fourth quarter of Miami’s 92-85 win over Cleveland. Kyra Sedgwick went off for 17 fourth quarter points, and had two of the biggest buckets of the game: a three-point play off the dribble and then a pull-up J in the closing minutes. His two free throws with 55 seconds left put Miami up eight, icing the win. It wasn’t so much that Bosh didn’t get help. ‘Bron had 18. But Bosh took the Cavs’ best punches all night, drawing foul after foul and finishing everything. He had 35 points, missed only six shots and made all 14 of his freebies. That was his fourth 30-point game of this season, which happened to be the same amount he had last year over the entire season … Are any two teammates more polar opposites than Andy Varejao and Kyrie Irving? It’s hilarious. On one possession in the third, Varejao (11 points, 11 rebounds) got an offensive rebound, dribbled in a circle, lost it down by his legs and then did a “stop, drop and roll” somersault. Irving (17 points) got it later in the possession, and perfectly placed a runner off the glass. Smooth … Alonzo Gee had a baseline dunk with just over three minutes left where he went right over Udonis Haslem‘s head. Haslem might’ve blocked that if he still had braids. It was the eight dunk of the night for Cleveland, a record against Miami this year … Dwight Howard (14 points) became the Magic’ all-time scoring leader last night on a third quarter dunk in Orlando’s 102-83 win in Indiana, passing Nick Anderson. It was the Pacers first home loss of the season, and it came not through the force of Howard but because no one wanted to check Ryan Anderson (24 points, eight rebounds) … Toronto came into the desert with 14 consecutive losses to the Suns, and left with a three-point W because Andrea Bargnani (36 points) styled on ’em all night. Il Mago started dropping bombs in the third, scoring 11 barely four minutes into the quarter. After another trey with under three minutes to go, he had already stacked up 18 in the frame. You know a shooter has it rolling when the ball isn’t hitting anything but the bottom of the back rim. It’s not even a splash. The net doesn’t even move. That was Bargnani in the third quarter last night. “Basketball just isn’t fair when you’ve got a seven footer shooting it two feet beyond the arc,” the color guys said … Late in the game, despite some near heroics from Steve Nash (17 points, 14 dimes), Phoenix just couldn’t get that one big three they needed to fall. And every time they had to get a stop, Bargnani handed them another bucket … The Raptors still suck, but Bargnani HAS to get some All-Star love. He’s scoring nearly 23 with 6.5 glass cleans a night, and in the East once you get past the top seven or so, there haven’t been many players deserving of a spot … Keep reading to hear about Carmelo’s worst night as a Knick …

The Knicks should ask Carmelo Anthony to shoot 0-for-7 and score a single point more often. Even with Anthony having one of the worst games of his basketball life, Tyson Chandler poured in 20 points and 17 rebounds and the Knicks destroyed Charlotte 111-78. ‘Melo was pressing on everything, but with the Knicks’ ball movement (26 assists) the best it’s been in a while, Anthony short-arming shots didn’t matter. Of course, they were also playing the Bobcats. It’d do well to keep that in mind … So Amar’e (18 points) has lost his hops huh? He had a nasty dunk that was all explosion off of one step last night. The only problem though was it came against Fat Magic. A few minutes later, STAT had an offensive rebound putback dunk, so maybe he had put some extra air in the tires last night … DeSagana Diop had a putback shot right at the end of the third quarter that missed the rim by probably five feet… and he was three feet away. You know the dudes who come out during timeouts to shoot T-shirts into the crowd? That’s what the shot looked like … If any one play represented Portland’s 97-84 win over Memphis, it came at the end of the third quarter. With 3:26 left in the that frame, Marcus Camby (22 rebounds, five blocks) already had 19 rebounds and was the one providing second shots on one telling possession. The Blazers missed about four shots on one possession, and kept getting it back off Camby’s tips until finally Jamal Crawford caught a swing pass and banged a trey on his second shot of the possession. Portland beat up on Memphis all night, pounding them on the glass and riding LaMarcus Aldridge to a game-high 23 points to finish off the Grizz’s seven-game run … Rudy Gay had back-to-back dunks at the end of the first half that were so nasty, the Blazer crowd was booing out of embarrassment. The first one you could see coming. It was one of those LeBron-like catch and cock it back throwdowns. Then literally five seconds later, Gay got out on the break and threw down an easy windmill … Is there a more frustrating college player to watch than Perry Jones? He got Baylor back on track last night after two straight losses with 21 points and 12 rebounds in a win over Oklahoma. That big night will probably be followed by a 7-point, 4-rebound stinker … Kentucky’s back at No. 1 and spanked Georgia 57-44 behind 19 off the bench from Darius Miller … And Chris Webber said on NBA TV last night that the Wizards should make Sam Cassell their next coach. We’d love it to. The Big Ball Dance always made for great TV … We’re out like ‘Melo’s rhythm.