Last Night In The NBA: Make Sure You Tape Your Ankles
Good morning everybody happy Tuesday and welcome back to another edition of Last Night In The NBA where we bring you up to speed on everything that went down from the night before in the Association. While I’m sure a majority of you were watching the football blowout, there were a total of 8 games last night and frankly it was a night mostly like the football game. Every single game was decided by at least 10 points. It’s not often we don’t at least have one or two close finishes, but last night was blowout city. That’s OK, that just means there are awesome highlights to get to so if you didn’t happen to catch the action on Monday night, here’s what happened.
San Antonio Spurs (24-17) 119 vs Detroit Pistons (17-21) 107
Well if the Spurs are going to start winning on the road, it’s time we take them a whole hell of a lot more seriously. They are slowly making their way back to .500 on the road at 7-12, and that’s sure as shit a whole hell of a lot easier when you’re two best players show up like they did in this one
These two were fairly unstoppable, but what is really starting to stand out to me with DeRozan is his improved passing. I feel like we haven’t seen him pass like this in his career and the numbers back that up. Not only if he averaging a career high in assists at 6.4, but his AST% is also at a career high of 29.2%. That’s made a huge difference for him I would say and he deserves credit for finally expanding his game. The Spurs were very Spurs like in this game, shot 54%, didn’t really turn it over, and played some legit defense. SA now has 13 wins in their last 16 games, they’ve won 5 in a row, and they are getting great contributions from everyone which is what makes them so tough. They used a great 2nd quarter to get some separation, and from there it was a wrap.
For DET, Blake was pretty unstoppable as you would imagine
and then Drummond chipped in with 19/14 of his own, the problem was there wasn’t much else outside of those two. As a team they struggled from deep, going just 9-32, and they are quickly approaching a .500 record at home shich isn’t going to get it done. Now 3-7 over their last 10 the Pistons have to be careful here because they are already on the outside looking in of the top 8out East, but any sort of slide is going to make things all that more difficult.
Denver Nuggets (26-12) 113 vs Houston Rockets (23-16) 125
Huge showdown out West right here. On one side you had Denver, the top team in the conference, finally healthy and playing well. On the other side you have the Rockets who may be the hottest team in the entire NBA. A good measuring stick game for both opponents and it did not disappoint. But here’s the thing, if the Rockets are going to come out and shoot 50/46% with 22 3PM, it doesn’t matter who they are playing, it’s over for them
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I mean sheesh. You may have not seen it in those videos, but we need to revisit the murder by James Harden. Poor Jamal Murray, he had such a young promising career
I think this is the Rockets team we were all expecting when the season started, James Harden HAS to be the leader for MVP right now, and they are running a buzzsaw through whoever stands in their way right now. Things were close early, they exploded for 37 in the second quarter, and that was that.
For DEN, their own MVP candidate showed up that’s for sure
but their two stud guards in Jamal Murray and Gary Harris combined to shoot just 9-24, and while they did get a lift off the bench from Monte Morris
and Malik Beasley who had 35 off the bench, they simply couldn’t get the stops they needed. Giving up 70 first half points is never ideal, so even when they follow up by only allowing 55 in the second half, the damage was done.
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Brooklyn Nets (20-22) 95 vs Boston Celtics (24-15) 116
We’ll be talking about the Celtics a little later, so let’s take this time to relive the only positive from a BKN perspective which was the shooting of Rodions Kurucs
Let’s be honest, the entire Nets team was out hurt, so this was pretty much expected.
Utah Jazz (20-21) 102 vs Milwaukee Bucks (28-11) 114
A defensive battle between two stout defensive teams, what we learned here is that it doesn’t really matter who it is, Giannis is going to Giannis
You give him even the smallest amount of help, and more often than not the Bucks are going to pull it out. Case and point was last night
Guys like Malcolm Brogdon also had 21, the Bucks shot 47%, only had 10 TOs, and used a big fourth quarter they won 31-16 to seal the deal. So tough to beat at home they are now 19-4 in that building and are now 11-0 following a loss.
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For UTA, it’s not as if they played poorly, they just couldn’t shoot. Outside of Donovan Mitchell nobody really did all that much
and the Jazz are now 12-13 on the road and find themselves 2 games out of the final playoffs spot. They picked a bad time to go so cold considering they were hanging around with MIL for most of the night, and who nows maybe things end up differently if they don’t lose Rubio to a hammy injury just 5 minutes into the night.
Memphis Grizzlies (18-22) 95 vs New Orleans Pelicans (19-22) 114
OK, the Grizzlies are in a full on slide. They’ve lost 6 in a row, are 2-8 over their last 10, things are starting to spiral out of control. Poor Mike Conley
Just three players in double figures, a brutal second half in which they scored just 44 points and played no defense was the culprit here, and for a team that may not own their own pick this summer, things aren’t great. Gasol was just 3-10, the bench didn’t give them much, and for a team that grits and grinds, giving up 114 points is never ideal.
For NO, that’s that Anthony Davis shit baby
they also got some strong play off the bench from Frank Jackson who chipped in 17 poiunts
and this was a team who did not struggle shooting the ball, finished with 55.7% and 61 points in the second half. The Pelicans need to start to stack wins if they want to get back into the playoff race, this was their second in a row and they are now 3 games out of the final playoff spot. They are another one of these teams that has to figure out how to win on the road, because they are already a respectable 14-6 at home, but just 5-16 on the road.
Los Angeles Lakers (22-19) 107 vs Dallas Mavericks (18-22) 97
*clears throat*
LUUUUUUUUUUUKKKKKKAAAAAAAAAAAAA
God do I love watching this kid play. More dominance, more stepback murders, he never fails to give us the goods. Now to be fair, the rest of his team stunk, they shot just 41/26% and had 18 TOs, but whatever focus on Luka. Bad idea to score just 30 points in the second half in my professional opinion, and it was a little weird to see considering this came at home where the Mavs are actually good. Call it an off night sure, but DAL has now lost 3 in a row and is 3-7 over the last 10.
For LAL, the kids showed up!
Very proud of them. They didn’t let a poor shooting night get the best of them, they played defense and they shared the ball. The only down side is now Lakers fans will say these kids are good enough for Anthony Davis. Yawn.
New York Knicks (10-30) 101 vs Portland Trail Blazers (24-17) 111
I give the Knicks credit, they hung in this game for the first half which was certainly better than I expected. Hell, if not for one bad third quarter maybe they pull this out. Thankfully for them they didn’t, but I respect their effort.
For POR, their Big 3 showed out and pretty much dominated
and with teams like HOU/SA all winning around them, this was an important one for them to keep pace. Seeds 4-7 are all tied right now, so this is going to change on a daily basis. Making sure you don’t drop one at home to the lowly Knicks is a sigh of relief for sure. As I said this game was mostly close the who way so it could have gone either way, but with POR being so good at home it shouldn’t have caused any worry.
Orlando Magic (17-23) 95 vs Sacramento Kings (20-20) 111
Someone has to free Nikola Vucevic. Please.
He’s having too good a year to be stuck on this dogshit team. They shot just 38/35%, had 16 TOs, and things would have looked even worse had the Kings not had their worst quarter of the game in the fourth. While we can’t cancel the Magic just yet because of their conference, boy are they terrible. Losers of their last 3, 3-7 over their last 10, this team could legit make the playoffs under .500 and that’s just wrong.
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For SAC, you know who’s fun to watch? De’Aaron Fox
Talking that shit to Vucevic was great telling him not to jump with him, and really this was a nice balanced collective effort for SAC
I also love what we’ve seen from Harry Giles in his short stints, you have to be rooting for the guy given everything he went through so it’s great to see him play well. Just 9 TOs for the Kings too was big because they play WICKED fast, and this win now has them just 1.5 back of the final playoff spot.
And that’s it! You’re now all caught up on everything that went down last night in the NBA. We’re back tonight with 8 more games so as usual if you can’t watch them all just check back in the morning and I’ll bring you up to speed on what you missed.