We were hyped for the John Wall/Brandon Jennings head-to-head matchup of two of the league’s best young point guards last week, but the epic battle we hoped for never really materialized. Last night we were fired up for Derrick Rose to face off with Wall, but the results were about the same as last week. Both of those guys did their thing, but the Wizards are so bad, that it never really felt like the heated battle we were hoping for as Chicago rolled 98-79 … Rose is always impressive (23 points, seven assists). He’s so fast it’s impossible to keep him from going wherever he wants to on the floor – which is usually in the paint. With a defense as poor as the Wizards’, his effectiveness is magnified. He does his thing and the defense is left so out of position trying to help on him, guys like Kurt Thomas are left wide open to drill wide-open 10-footers at will … How about JaVale McGee with the triple-double? 11 points, 12 boards and 12 blocks … Kind of crazy though, the Wizards spent the final four minutes trying get McGee the points he needed for the triple-double. He didn’t get it until the end of the game and everything in between was disgusting. There were airballs, horrendous bricks, and JaVale trying to go one-on-one from the top of the key … The win put Chicago in sole possession of first place in the East and the loss put the Wizards somewhere in the NIT … So yeah, this is what Bill Wennington looked like last night:
After a Danny Granger-less Pacers teams pantsed the Knicks last week at MSG, you figured the Knicks would come out and kill the Pacers last night in Indy. They didn’t, losing a very winnable game, 119-117, to make New York an unimpressive 6-6 in the Carmelo era … With the game tied at 117 and just a few seconds to go, Granger took a page right out of Paul Pierce‘s playbook, giving Shawne Williams the two-dribble to the right pullup J in his face. Pretty impressive considering that Granger was being guarded by 6-7 Shawne Williams. That’s a lot of wingspan to shoot over. Again though, as with Pierce, how come no one ever forces these guys left?? … The Knicks had a final chance. After calling a timeout, they ran an inbounds play with Jared Jeffries passing it in. He looked off Melo who seemed to have an opening and opted for an ill-fated alley oop try to Landry Fields. Melo was pissed and let Jeffries know about it right there on the court … Have some of Tyler Hansbrough. The guy has set a career high in scoring three times in the last week, giving Philly 26 on the 8th, the Knicks 29 on Sunday, and then 30 last night. It’s pretty incredible that a guy has been able to score close to 130 points over the last week almost exclusively on jumpers from the same spot at the top of the key and dunks. It’s almost like scouting reports and video recordings of previous games don’t exist … Read More: Brandon Roy turns back the clock against the Mavs, Blake Griffin speaks out, and an NCAA secret weapon is revealed …
Great game in Portland last night as the Blazers beat the Mavs 104-101 in a hard-fought back-and-forth, physical game. When games are that tight and teams know each as well as these two teams do, one sequence can seal the deal. It came last night when the Mavs had the ball down three, 102-99. The Dallas offense did what it does best and got favorable matchups on screens and switches. Jason Terry had the ball with LaMarcus Aldridge on him. After dancing with the rock, he kicked it to Jason Kidd, who dumped it in to a more favorable mismatch – Dirk with Wes Matthews on his back. As Kidd made the entry pass, Matthews timed it perfectly and tipped the ball away. The Blazers recovered and a version of Brandon Roy from two years ago (21 points) hit the Mavs with what seemed like his fifth step-back baseline jumper to basically seal the W … We can’t stress how good Roy looked last night. Dude was clearly feeling it and there wasn’t a player on the Mavs’ roster that could stop his herky-jerky pullups and drives. They’re a real problem if the playoffs if Roy is feeling healthy … Be on the lookout today for Grant Hill‘s response in the New York Times to the Fab 5 documentary that’s been getting so much attention this week. We will be sure to post it up in the morning … Joe Johnson welcomed the Bucks to the Bong Show last night. The guy had 28 in the first half and 36 for the game in what felt like a wave of deep threes. It also helped him that it also seemed like he was never being guarded. The Hawks rolled 110-85 … Blake Griffin reached out to ESPN on Tuesday to voice his displeasure over the Jeff Capel/Oklahoma situation, calling Capel’s firing “unfair.” He was also quoted saying the following: “What bothers me the most is that everyone is saying he did all of this when Blake Griffin was there. Well to me, you say he deserves no credit when a certain player is there and then, when things go bad, throw all the blame on him. To me, they’re piling it on. He took over the program after Kelvin Sampson and all of those sanctions and he put his faith in everyone. This is what he gets? Within two years we’re in the tournament and now two years later he’s fired? It’s completely unfair.” … The NCAA Tournament officially started last night with two play-in games. In a battle of 16 seeds, UNC-Asheville beat Arkansas-Little Rock in overtime for the right to get mauled by Pitt. Congrats, fellas … UNC-Asheville rocks unis made by this guy … Clemson rolled UAB (one of the teams many critics were railing against for getting into the tourney) in a 12-seed matchup. Clemson now faces West Virginia … One last note: Coach K has reportedly confirmed that Kyrie Irving will play in Duke’s first round game … We’re out like exhibition triple-doubles …
