Rudy Gay Saves Memphis; A King Makes A Game-Winner In D.C.

The last time Rudy Gay posted up Evan Turner, the Sixers appointed nerd damn near ripped Gay’s arm out of his socket. That was back in 2011, and since then, Gay, Zach Randolph and the Grizz can’t go a week without someone pointing out that their marriage is doomed for failure. This time, the Gay-on-Turner post-up worked out a little better in Memphis’ three-point win in Philadelphia. Down one in the last minute, Gay had a man’s rebound over Turner, and then went right through a foul to score on a jump hook in the lane. On the other end, Philly countered with an ugly miss from Thaddeus Young (23 points, four steals). Jrue Holiday found Young in the lane, but Thad shot it like the ball was covered in boiling water, flipping it at the rim as fast as possible. After two Gay freebies, Nick Young got a great look at a triple to tie it, but Marc Gasol came out of nowhere and got all ball from behind him. Gasol was feasting all night, scoring 27 points in the final three quarters, and raining perimeter jumpers consistently. But it was Gay who made the difference, tweeting out “I’m long over due!” before the game, and then going out and backing it up with 26 points, seven boards and five dimes. In his last five games, Gay had shot just 29 percent. An email from the Dime crew: “Why is Memphis always trying to trade Rudy Gay and yet they go to him every time they need a late bucket? Why give that up?” Your guess is as good as ours. We’ve seen worse. Two And A Half Men thought they could survive without Charlie Sheen … Without Mike Conley, Jerryd Bayless erupted for 21 points and nine assists. He seems to always put up numbers when he gets the PT. It’s actually getting the PT that’s the problem … Evan Turner must rely on the pull-up midrange jumper more than any other player in the NBA. Last night, he had it cooking though, scoring 14 in the third quarter alone and finishing with 27 points and seven assists. Not bad – the first time these teams matched up he went 0-for-4 and scored one point … In a 12-point win over Toronto, Golden State got Andrew Bogut back on the same night that Stephen Curry rolled an ankle again. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious. Besides that, Bogut played really well, blocking four shots and grabbing eight boards in 23 minutes … Harrison Barnes had another nasty facial. Can he just have his own dunk contest at All-Star Weekend? … At one point in the fourth quarter, our favorite fisherman Aaron Gray went to the foul line, and chants of “MVP!” started rising from the stands. Despite Gray having his best night, maybe ever (22 points, 10 boards), we hoped the fans were trolling … And Allen Iverson might be back after all. That is, if he will accept playing for the Texas Legends, the NBA D-League affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks. The team reached out to him, but AI has yet to respond. Our guess: he never responds. The dude basically refused to come off the bench in the NBA. What makes anyone think he’ll go play in the D-League? The first time someone subs him out for Jared Cunningham would be funny to watch, though … Keep reading to hear which little guy made a crazy game-winner in Washington, D.C. …

Down one at home against Sacramento, Nene found himself one-on-one in a clear-out against Chuck Hayes. He ended up going left, getting up in the air and basically traveling. Sacramento’s broadcasters spent a hot minute trying to give Hayes all the credit, but it was more like Nene forgot to jumpstart his brain … The game still ended up tied with 7.9 seconds left after Martell Webster (18 points) went to the rim and the Kings backed off like they smelled something funny. Yet the Kings finished off the W when Isaiah Thomas (22 points, seven assists) got to his left hand and hit a high-arcing floater in the lane. All 14 of the Wizards fans in the stands let out a hush. But the best part was seeing the Kings celebrate afterwards. Everyone was chest bumping Thomas and taunting the crowd, and then Aaron Brooks came walking over – the guy who’s riding the bench now behind Thomas – and gave Thomas a half pat on the ass. Then, Brooks walked away with a blank expression on his face. We’ve seen more enthusiasm at toll booths … Joakim Noah lit up Charlotte for 13 points, 18 rebounds, seven assists and five blocks in the Bulls’ eight-point win. But the best part of the night was Carlos Boozer sending Bismack Biyombo to the floor with a nasty left-handed facial. Stacey King serenaded the play with this: “Ohh, stop it! STOP IT! Get on the Booz cruise!” … In Utah, the Rockets turned the second quarter into a layup drill, and had every fan in the building raining boos as the lead grew to 21. James Harden (25 points) punctuated the run when he unleashed a rated “R” dunk. We thought that would be the end of of it. It wasn’t. The final score was 125-80, Houston … An Andre Iguodala free throw with 0.4 seconds left saved Denver from a ridiculous collapse in the closing moments against the Pacers, 102-101. Danilo Gallinari led everyone with 27 points … And Deron Williams dropped 20 points and nine dimes as Brooklyn destroyed Orlando, 97-77. There are only a few questions we have. One: if you’re J.J. Redick, how do you go from a 31-point game to following that up with five the very next night? And two: the Nets ran a timeout segment where little kids tried to pronounce Mirza Teletovic‘s name. Why? Half of his teammates probably can’t even do that … We’re out like Aaron Gray’s MVP candidacy.