Amar’e Stoudemire Is Finally Back; The Clippers Finally Lose A Game

Every so often, the teacher becomes the student, and last night in Madison Square Garden, the return of Amar’e Stoudemire was overshadowed by Damian Lillard one-upping the ultimate clutch player, Carmelo Anthony, in winning time. If the NBA ever gets its mind right and puts together a “Rookies Performing Under Pressure 101” class, they’ll have to bring in Lillard as a guest speaker. Bookended by a Carmelo Anthony triple and a three-point play from ‘Melo courtesy of the dumbest foul of 2013, Lillard (21 points, six assists) hit the biggest shot of the game: a step-back triple in Pablo Prigioni‘s grill. It was all the breathing room the Blazers needed in their 105-100 win, overcoming two monster games from Anthony (45 points) and J.R. Smith (28 points, 11 boards, five dimes, one incredible putback layup) … Apparently, Terry Stotts and the rest of Portland’s bench have never heard of the double team before. They left Wesley Matthews alone on Carmelo to start the game, and the Knicks star warmed up by dropping 10 points within the first five minutes. The Blazers came back with a zone, and ‘Melo promptly trained another triple. By the time they switched up the defense again and put Nic Batum (26 points, six triples) on him, it didn’t matter. Anthony was breathing fire. He’d later make a wild shot with .1 seconds left in the half that had to be 30 feet from the hoop … As for Stoudemire, he entered in all of his knee braces glory with just over three minutes left in the first quarter, receiving a standing ovation in the process. Then he went out and moved like a statue for most of his 16 minutes, finishing with just six points and one board … These days the Wizards are so bad that their fans are doing whatever they can to pass the time, like chanting R-G-3 in the stands and tossing Bradley Beal bobbleheads from the upper deck. Both those things took place as Washington became Dallas’ saving grace yesterday in a 103-94 Mavericks win … The Wizards lost this one in the third quarter, when they threw and fumbled the ball all over the court, giving up easy shots at will on the other end. At one point eight minutes into the third, they had six turnovers and five made baskets … If Vince Carter (23 points) somehow got traded to Washington, he’d probably be the best player on the team. We’re not sure if that’s congratulatory of VC or if it’s just that bad in D.C. The Wizards’ collective intensity level makes VC look like Bane from The Dark Knight Rises … Carter had a dunk down the middle of the lane in the fourth quarter that might’ve been the best slam we’ve seen from him in two or three years. They should make a TV show out of the rare glimpses of the old VC, and model it after “Finding Bigfoot” … And the Hawks took control of their matchup with New Orleans in the third quarter, blowing the Hornets out of the water and then finishing it off, 95-86. Josh Smith had one of the best games of the year, finishing with 23 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, four blocks and three steals … Keep reading to hear about how the Clippers finally lost a game …

We wanted to rip the Clippers for willingly conceding a loss to Denver last night, a loss that ended their 17-game winning streak. Outside of Chris Paul, and maybe Blake Griffin, who was locked in a bloodbath with Kenneth Faried (14 points, 11 rebounds), the rest of the team had the energy of an 86-year-old man. But honestly, the Nuggets played so well during the second half of their 92-78 win, that we can’t really be mad. If you’re the Clippers, how can you expect to win when JaVale McGee starts flying around like a 7-foot Julius Erving? Late in the third quarter, McGee (11 points, seven rebounds) officially declared Lamar Odom dead, first drop-stepping and dunking on his mug, then catching an alley-oop as Mr. Kardashian was stuck to the floor, and then nearly finishing a slam over the top of Odom where McGee jumped from 12 feet away. The cherry on top was a 27-foot three-pointer McGee made at the third quarter buzzer … Greg Monroe (18 points, 11 rebounds) and Detroit beat the Kings by six, but during a stretch in the second quarter, you really saw how dominant DeMarcus Cousins can be when he gets rid of the extra fluff. He was ripping Detroit’s big men apart as if they were paper mache – he had a three-point play/dunk on Tayshaun Prince, and completely manhandled Austin Daye on a drop step, drawing a foul as well. It probably didn’t help Detroit that they were playing DMC with guys who are about 100 hamburgers lighter. Then, amazingly after all this, Cousins got into a situation where he had Will Bynum checking him. The ball instead swung to the other side, and left the Kings commentators saying, “With the way Cousins has been going these last few minutes, wouldn’t you like to get him the ball down low?” Yet the guards didn’t see the mismatch. That’s why they’re Sacramento … Late in the first half, Charlie Villanueva dropped Isaiah Thomas with a hard foul on a drive to the rim. Thomas got up like he was ready to fight, and appeared to take a swing before everyone started into the customary “hold ’em back” routine. Who wins that fight though? Thomas is smaller than most in your immediate family, but Villanueva has the heart of an American Eagle mannequin … And Philly beat the Lakers by four, getting 26 points and 10 assists from Jrue Holiday … We’re out like 18 wins in a row.