No one knows whether or not the San Antonio Spurs really care about the regular season, and the strange events that took place at Madison Square Garden last night didn’t give us any better indication. After hanging within striking distance of the Knicks throughout the second half, the Spurs found themselves down by 10 with three minutes left after Ray Felton (28 pts, 7 asts) went berserker in crunch time. That’s when Gregg Popovich pulled all of his starters — bringing in Chris Quinn, Gary Neal, Ime Udoka, Matt Bonner and Tiago Splitter to replace Tony Parker (26 pts), Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson, Tim Duncan and DeJuan Blair. Felton and Amar’e (28 pts, 9 rebs, 3 blks) predictably took advantage of the backups and iced the win … So did Pop do what he did as a motivational tactic so his starters don’t lose focus despite having the best record in the League, or was he throwing in the towel in a game that was still winnable? Or maybe he was just disgusted with the fact that his guys gave up 128 points, the most ever allowed by a Spurs team in the Duncan/Pop era … Back when the Spurs weren’t infuriating their coach, Blair caught Ronny Turiaf under the rim for a chest-to-chest dunk. On the landing, Turiaf reacted like a child and threw his shoulder into Blair’s chest for no reason, drawing a tech. Next play, Blair got a steal and went coast-to-coast for a finger roll, which was the perfect time for Mike Breen to dust off the contractually-obligated “Blair has no ACLs” story … Clyde Frazier complemented one of his sickest outfits with one of his best lines of the season. Describing a Toney Douglas bucket, Frazier said, “Driving adroitly along that left baseline.” That was while he wore a cow-print themed brown and cream jacket that would have stopped the music at a Mississippi pimp convention … Anybody who was watching NBA TV’s broadcast has the same question we do: What did Chris Webber do at Grant Hill‘s house when they were teenagers that was worth an apology to Grant’s mom? Was it anything resembling a scene from American Pie? … One member of the Dime crew is convinced Wilson Chandler looks like a Black David Schwimmer. Ponder it … In a game where Kevin Durant (28 pts, 9 rebs), Russell Westbrook (28 pts, 7 asts), Rudy Gay (27 pts) and Zach Randolph (31 pts, 16 rebs) were prominently involved, you wouldn’t believe Tony Allen was the most clutch player in the building …
With under 1:30 to go, Memphis was up two when Durant was about to force Gay into a shot-clock violation, but Gay found TA on the wing, who knocked down an ugly three in Westbrook’s face. After Durant and Randolph traded buckets, Marc Gasol bricked two free throws and Westbrook powered his way for a layup to make it a one-point game with 15 seconds left. When it looked like the Grizzlies were going to inbound to Allen, one of their announcers let out an anguished, “Don’t give it to” but caught himself before he said Tony’s name. Allen (19 pts, 3 stls) made the free throws, however, and Durant missed an unnecessarily rushed 30-footer that pretty much ended it … When you pit the statistically worst offensive team in the NBA (Bucks) against the third-best defensive squad (Heat), you figure it’d be like watching Cee-Lo Green try to beat up Floyd Mayweather Jr. — a lot of ugly misses. But the Bucks hung in there for a while, actually leading by four on the road at halftime … But then the Heat woke up. Defensive playmaking led to transition points by the usual suspects, as LeBron racked up 25 points and 9 assists, and Dwyane Wade had 34 points in another Heat victory. John Salmons was held to 4 points in the second half after scoring 14 in the first … Meanwhile, Milwaukee’s best defensive play in the second half was when Scott Skiles wandered onto the court and bumped into Carlos Arroyo during the middle of a play, drawing a technical foul … The Blazers really need Brandon Roy back. Playing the equally banged-up Mavericks, Portland was down four with under a minute to go. On a possession where they’d normally clear it out or run a high screen for B-Roy, the Blazers put together a string of terrible cross-court passes and skittish pump fakes before Wes Matthews luckily banked in a trey to beat the shot clock. Jason Terry casually drained a J on the other end, so again down by three, Portland produced another disaster of a possession that almost resulted in a turnover. They got another chance with three seconds left, and all they could get was a wild miss by LaMarcus Aldridge (28 pts, 10 rebs) … If you haven’t heard, Caron Butler is likely out for the season following knee surgery. After DeShawn Stevenson hit a huge three in the fourth quarter, one Dallas announcer asked, “I wonder what Caron Butler is doing right now?” His partner yelled, “I hope he’s enjoying the hell out of this one!” … Other stat lines from Tuesday: Luol Deng scored 24 points to help Chicago beat Toronto; Jamal Crawford scored 31 off the bench in Atlanta’s win over Sacramento, while Tyreke Evans had 29 points, 8 dimes and 5 steals in the loss; and Pau Gasol posted 21 points (7-11 FG) to lead the Lakers in a rout of Detroit, while Kobe added 17 points (6-18 FG), 7 rebounds and 8 dimes … We’re out anybody challenging Clyde Frazier’s suit game …
