No One Is Paying Attention To Boston; Kevin Love Is A Monster

Lost amongst the Eastern contenders and pretenders is Boston. No one’s quiet sure what to make of them, especially now that they’re 13-5 since the All-Star Break and are threatening to overtake Philly in the standings. Kevin Garnett (23 points, 10 rebounds) has apparently found the fountain of youth, and last night he mugged the Jazz hard enough that the Celtics survived a monster third quarter from Al Jefferson, winning 94-82 … Yesterday, we said Serge Ibaka had the block of the year. But last night, Gordon Hayward (19 points) might have topped him. In the third quarter, he had two blocks at the rim on the same possession. First, he ran down Keyon Dooling to get his LeBron on. The ball went right to Avery Bradley, who tried him again. But Hayward wasn’t having it, sending him back as well … Deron Williams blitzed Indiana with 30 points and nine assists in the Nets’ surprisingly easy 16-point win. Williams baked Darren Collison and the rest of the Pacer guards, and at this point, it’s obvious: Collison needs to step it up. That lead guard spot is an eye sore for one of the deepest and most versatile teams in the league … Much respect to Luol Deng. He was never a great three-point shooter for most of his career, but the boy has put the work in and last night, he dropped a few from the sky in Chicago’s 21-point blowout of Atlanta. Deng had 22 points and five triples. The Bulls put the clamps on the Hawks in the third quarter, going on a 20-6 run at one point to basically end it … The Knicks looked like beasts in the third quarter of their blowout win over Orlando, barely missing a shots over those 12 minutes. Carmelo Anthony appears to be officially back, scoring 25 in 26 minutes. For the Knicks, the recipe is to just make sure they always have someone hurt. Baron Davis looked like the Baron of old before he started caring too much about his beard and dressing like a lumberjack, and with the extra minutes, Iman Shumpert dropped 25 … Who caught that cat in the stands trying to distract Big Baby‘s free throws with some ice cream? One of the funniest things we’ve seen this year … The Spurs barely survived against the Kings, 117-112, for their sixth straight win. For the losers, DeMarcus Cousins (25 points, 11 rebounds) and especially Isaiah Thomas (28 points, 10 assists) were monsters … New Orleans got back some semblance of a decent starting lineup, and rolled over Golden State by 15. Marco Belinelli (22 points), Jarrett Jack (20 points, nine assists) and Carl Landry (20 points, eight rebounds) all went to work … And Blake Griffin had one of his best games of this season with 27 points (on 19 shots), 14 rebounds and five dimes in the Clippers’ big win over the surging Suns, 103-86 … Keep reading to hear about another insane Kevin Love statline …

With the Bobcats threatening to actually win a game, Kevin Love went off for 14 in the fourth, finishing with 40 points for yet another individual night that had fantasy owners drooling, lifting the Timberwolves to a 88-83 win. In the month of March, Love is now averaging over 31 points a game. When was the last time we saw that from someone who wasn’t named Kobe, LeBron or KD? Even though he hasn’t done anything in the playoffs yet, and even though he’s not lock-down on defense, he has to be the best power forward in the league. If Ricky Rubio was still around, we’d bet the ‘Wolves would be going for the playoffs and Love would be making an MVP push … No one knows what to make of Denver. One night they look like a second round playoff team. The next, they’re losing to Toronto. The Raptors held home court last night in their 105-96 win over the Nuggets as Andrea Bargnani dropped 26 … Jose Calderon, we had to feel for ya. He got caught in one of those two-on-one situations where he couldn’t really get out of the way and ended up getting JaVale McGee‘s nuts full-on in his face. McGee jumped from the circle and smashed all over Toronto’s point guard … In case you forgot about Tayshaun Prince, he still has a little game. He blew up for 29 points as Detroit continued Cleveland’s misery, 87-75 … Can we please drop this whole Kentucky vs. the NBA argument. We’re not sure we can make it any clearer. They would have NO CHANCE again an NBA team. What is so hard to figure out? They have four NBA players on their entire team. NBA teams have 12 NBA players. After we wrote on it yesterday afternoon, we saw the guys on PTI debate it (at least Wilbon had his smart cap on) and then heard the Raptor announcers discussing it during the game last night … And just as everyone anticipated, Shabazz Muhammad won the MVP of the McDonald’s All-American Game after scoring 15 points in the West’s 106-102 win … Kyle Anderson from St. Anthony’s looks like he’ll be ready to put in some serious work next year at UCLA. He’s not real athletic, but the boy is smooth and plays at his own pace. Besides, UCLA needs any help they can get so we’re pretty sure he’ll get minutes no matter what … We’re out like NBA vs. NCAA debates.