On his way to dropping 22 points in the first quarter of what looked like a blowout in the making, Dwyane Wade‘s best play of the night was an assist: He got a defensive rebound, turned without dribbling and fired a 90-foot dart that LeBron caught in mid-air for a layup. Incredible. Wade’s awareness to turn and immediately make that read, then the accuracy to throw a pass Tom Brady would’ve been proud of, is why he really might be the best basketball player in the world. He finished with 41 points (16-29 FG) and 12 rebounds … The Heat were up by as much as 24 in the first quarter, but Indiana cut it down to four by halftime, and used an 8-0 run in the third quarter sparked by Paul George to eventually take the lead. From there until the latter stages of the fourth quarter it was nip/tuck, until LeBron (27 pts, 6 rebs, 5 asts) flipped an off-the-glass pass to himself for a dunk that took almost all of the air out of Indiana’s gym, then scored six straight points a couple minutes later to help put it away … Chris Bosh (22 pts, 8 rebs) had a real bad sequence in the second half. It started when Josh McRoberts powered past Bosh for a layup and must have accidentally kicked Bosh in the nuts, because when McRoberts was scoring, Bosh was bent over looking like he needed to puke. On the next possession Bosh airballed a layup, and soon after that he got brain-freeze on a crossover by Darren Collison … When things were getting tense in the first half, it seemed Miami fell into extra whiny mode. LeBron stopped playing a couple of times to complain to the refs about no-calls, Erick Dampier got a tech for shoving Roy Hibbert out of frustration, and D-Wade apparently wanted somebody to call a foul on the rim when he missed a dunk right before halftime … As the Pacers went to the bench during a late-game timeout, Hibbert casually drop-kicked the ball behind his back to the ref. Did we just see the beginning of Paul George’s second dunk in the 2012 Slam Dunk contest? … You might not believe this, but once upon a time, Channing Frye was considered the future of the New York Knicks and drawing comparisons to Tim Duncan. Six years later, Frye has yet to match his rookie-season stats (12.3 ppg, 5.8 rpg) until this season (12.0 ppg 6.5 rpg), and last night he played the best game of his pro career — and it was very un-Duncan-like. Frye dropped 6 threes on his way to 31 points as Phoenix beat Utah, including 19 points in the first quarter where he was like Reggie Miller on HGH …Read More>>
The Jazz are now 0-2 under Ty Corbin. They were up by eight in the fourth quarter before the Suns went on an 11-0 run sparked by Frye and Mickael Pietrus, who got dimes from Steve Nash, who during the game passed Gary Payton for 7th on the all-time career assists list … The Suns were up one with about 10 seconds left when Frye went to the line and split a pair. Corbin drew up a nice inbound play that resulted in Paul Millsap getting the ball with a driving lane to the rim, but he ran into a wall of Phoenix defense and turned the ball over, allowing Nash (20 pts, 14 asts) to ice it at the line. If Millsap was a superstar he probably would have gotten a foul call there … Yesterday we were talking about the best young backcourts in the NBA (25 and under), and the Warriors tandem of Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis were a popular pick. Last night they went up against Chris Paul and Marcus Thornton — which could be a explosive duo if Monty Williams ever wanted to give Thornton some consistent playing time. Curry (14 pts, 8 asts) and Ellis (21 pts) didn’t put up crazy numbers, but they got a convincing win … The Hornets have lost 8 of their last 10, a stretch the began right around the time Emeka Okafor went down with an oblique injury. People act like N.O. is a one-man team, maybe a two-man operation with CP3 and Dave West, but Okafor is the X-factor … Other stat lines from Tuesday: Derrick Rose put up 18 points and 13 assists to lead Chicago past Charlotte; Daequan Cook dropped 20 points and 5 threes off the bench in Oklahoma City’s rout of Sacramento, while DeMarcus Cousins had 21 points and 13 boards in his backup role, part of his punishment for acting like a five-year-old the last time the Kings and Thunder played; and Zach Randolph posted 21 points and 10 rebounds as Memphis beat Philadelphia … O.J. Mayo returned from his PED suspension and made a six-minute cameo in that Grizzlies/Sixers game. When O.J. first checked in, he didn’t realize he still had a shirt on over his jersey. So apparently it’s been a while. Of course, when you’re coming off a drug-related suspension, the worst thing you can do is pull a stoner move like forgetting what clothes you have on … We’re out like The Next Duncan …
