Blake Griffin can do a lot of things for the Clippers, but stopping Derrick Rose isn’t on the list. While Blake seemed on pace for about 600 points and 300 rebounds against Chicago early on last night, eventually it turned into No Country For Bearded Men, starring D-Rose and Baron Davis. On his way to 32 points (11-18 FG) and 11 dimes in a Bulls win, Rose had Baron — and Eric Blesoe, and Randy Foye — looking at the back of his jersey all night as he made layup after layup in the lane. One time Baron took out his frustrations on Carlos Boozer by shoving him in the back, but Boozer just laughed in his face. It was still the third quarter when fans at Staples Center started chanting “MVP” for Rose. Wonder if Kobe was watching that … Griffin (32 pts, 13 rebs, 7 asts) had a baseline reverse dunk on Kurt Thomas that was borderline senior abuse. And as for the alley-oop he caught and threw down on Kyle Korver‘s back-neck? Well, Korver should have known better than to challenge that one … K.D. Aubert was sitting front-row next to the Bulls bench. Much respect to the players and Tom Thibodeau for even being able to concentrate long enough to get the win … The last time the Hornets and Thunder hooked up, Chris Paul‘s annoying defense helped keep Kevin Durant scoreless in the fourth quarter, and Dave West won the game for N.O. by sticking mid-range jumpers at the same rate Bob Cousy was hitting free throws in Blue Chips. Last night, West (20 pts, 15 rebs) did his thing again, but that whole shutting down Durant thing didn’t work out so well. KD put on a laser show, dropping 43 points (14-19 FG, 10-11 FT) to go with 10 boards and 5 assists, on a night where CP3 was hobbled by an ankle injury and Trevor Ariza had to leave with an ankle injury. So that left Willie Green and rookie Quincy Pondexter to stand in the line of fire; Green’s best defense was to stick his hands in the air whenever Durant got the ball (didn’t work), while Q-Pon should have only drawn that assignment as punishment for forgetting to buy donuts or something … When your team is on a losing streak that has run longer than Forrest Gump, does it even matter anymore if you get blown out or if the L is close? For a minute last night — like, literally one minute — the Cavs appeared ready to finally stop their skid with the Pacers in town. With 3:30 left in the fourth quarter, Ramon Sessions hit a jumper (“Court is in Sessions!” screamed a Cleveland announcer), then Manny Harris (“The Motor City Madman!”) made a runner to push the lead to three. The Q was rocking at that point and the team was building a little swagger …Read More>>
And like that, it was gone. Danny Granger made two free throws and Mike Dunleavy Jr. hit a go-ahead three. Antawn Jamison tied it back up with 1:30 on the clock, but Darren Collison answered with a three, and Granger’s free-throw shooting the rest of the way spelled 22 L’s in a row for the Cavs … On Cleveland’s last real chance in the final seconds, they were down three and opted for the quick two before fouling. Except when Sessions (25 pts, 9 asts) drew the defense and found J.J. Hickson open under the rim, Hickson “caught” the ball like it was a spiked grenade marinated in fish grease and turned it over. Byron Scott looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or fake his own death … The Rockets should have been able to mop the Jazz with Deron Williams, AK-47 and Memo sidelined, but they still found themselves down by two with 10 seconds left. So Kevin Martin cut into the lane, corralled a bad pass and went up between three defenders for an off-balance layup plus the foul. Of course K-Mart (22 pts) made the free throw that was ultimately the game-winner … Whether the Bucks are unfortunately injury-racked or just plain bad, it seems they’ve thrown in the towel on this season. Milwaukee was awful last night in Phoenix — so bad that their overall 31 percent shooting from the field only happened after an improvement from the first half, when they only hit 24 percent. Brandon Jennings said he wants more playing time, and he did start last night, but if this keeps up he’ll be looking for reasons to turn away from this mess … Other stat lines from Wednesday: Dirk Nowitzki went for 29 points and 11 rebounds to lead Dallas past New York; Jrue Holiday had a triple-double with 11 points, 10 boards and 11 assists in Philadelphia’s win over New Jersey; Stephen Jackson found a healthier way to terrorize people inside The Palace of Auburn Hills, dropping 39 points to lead Charlotte past the Pistons; too late to steal any All-Star votes, but Zach Randolph posted 23 points and 13 boards to Kevin Love‘s 10 and 10 in Memphis’ rout of Minnesota; Nene put up 22 points and 10 boards as Denver beat Portland, while J.R. Smith had another Dunk of the Month entry with a ridiculous follow dunk that he brought from his hip; and Joe Johnson‘s January hot streak extended into February, as he dropped 37 points, 5 threes and 8 dimes on the Raptors in an Atlanta win … Justin Bieber was in the building for Knicks/Mavs. That was the first night in a long time that Danilo Gallinari wasn’t the man in Madison Square Garden with the most groupies … We’re out like fearing certain beards …
