Last Night In The NBA: Things Are Starting To Get A Little Ridiculous
Good morning everybody, happy Thursday 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. You know I thought the other night where we saw multiple 30 point blowouts with multiple teams dropping 130+ that it was a pretty rare night. Well after another ridiculous night of offensive explosions and insane individual performances, I think we can all agree that this level of play is here to stay, and it makes for one hell of an exciting night of hoops. We had 7 more teams break the 120 mark last night, we saw some NBA history, and even better was it was not a night filled with a million point blowouts. This is becoming a nightly thing in this league, which is why I always laugh when people talk about how boring the NBA is. How can you watch what we’ve see over the last few days and call that boring? I get it, you’re probably a hockey hardo, but the league has never been better than it is right now. Talent off the charts, teams putting up insane 48 minute performances, it’s been incredible. So if you were lame and didn’t watch any of the action last night keep reading, because here’s what happened.
Orlando Magic (19-25) 115 vs Detroit Pistons (19-24) 120 F/OT
See look, even two bad teams can have an OT thriller! The Magic, who seen to be beating everyone these days came into DET and got off to a great start. They came out with great energy, dropped 34 points in the first quarter and seemed to have control. They backed up that start and finished with 63 points at the half. Not bad! Downside is they forgot the whole defense thing in the second half and ultimately blew their lead, got to OT, and ran out of gas. So look, while that’s disappointing, they still had a couple of great individual performances with Nikola Vucevic
and Terrance Ross who has 24 off the bench,
both of who have been balling their faces off recently. You had Gordon pulling off nice dunks
the only downside is DET is a team ORL is fighting with to get back into that top 8, and now trail them by 1.5 games and are down in the H2H series 2-1.
For DET, I don’t want to say this was a must win, but it was pretty damn close. Just 3-7 over their last 10, they needed this win at home. Luckily Blake Griffin knew that and was pretty unstoppable
you add that with a Drummond 13/22 performance and a total of 6 players in double figures
and thankfully their bad fourth quarter in which they only scored 19 points didn’t come back to bite them. DET is now 4-2 in OT games which is much better than I expected, and they trail CHA by just 1 game now for that final playoff spot.
Brooklyn Nets (23-23) 145 vs Houston Rockets (25-19) 142
How about another OT thriller? This time it came with some NBA history attached. In this game we saw the record for 3PA be broken with 106 combined attempts. The Rockets took 70 (!!!!!) in four quarters. That is ridiculous. We know Harden is going to have to carry the load while CP3/Capela are out, but I don’t think we expected it to be quite like this’
115 points in his last 2 games, zero coming from an assist, we are seeing an offensive display unlike anything in history in my opinion. There really is no way of stopping James Harden on the basketball floor. Go ahead and try and convince me there is a better 1 on 1 player in the league right now, I’m not buying it. Back to back 57+ games? That’s just stupid.
I’m sure he was happy to have Eric Gordon back in the lineup who chipped in 20 of his own points
and even PJ Tucker had a nice 20/10 as he was filling in as the starting center with Capela out. We knew the Rockets were going to go small, which meant an offensive approach like what we saw, but my god 23-70 from deep just hurts my brain.
For BKN, it was fitting that this game was played in HOU, because Spencer Dinwiddie gave us a nice TMac tribute with how he took over this game
He legit took over this game and was making big time pressure shots with ease. He played his way into a nice 30M extension and in my opinion is still underrated as one of the more solid guards in this entire league. The man is clutch, this certainly isn’t the first time we’ve seen him take over games late, and he’s proving to be a real steal for the Nets.
Now because the Rockets went small, you knew that meant that Jarrett Allen was going to feast, and feast he did
Dominated the glass, added Harden to his superstar block list, and don’t look now but the Nets are sitting pretty in the 6 spot in the East despite their negative point differential. This is the thing with BKN though, forget their record this is a feisty group. They play all these good teams really hard each and every night, and as a rebuilding team that’s all you really want.
Toronto Raptors (33-13) 108 vs Boston Celtics (26-18) 117
We’ll be talking about the Celtics in their own blog a little later, so let’s instead focus on the Raptors. Listen they may have lost this game, but key guys were out and it still doesn’t change the fact that they are the best team in the conference. Not only is Kawhi so goddamn terrifying
but for whatever readon Serge Ibaka gives this team fits. He had been pretty quiet over his last three games, so of course he sees BOS on the schedule and goes back to being a legit force
The thing with the Raptors is you know during the game no lead is safe. Even with the Celtics getting up by 16 points you knew TOR was going to make this a game, and they did just that. I can confirm being in a one possession game against Kawhi Leonard is legit terrifying, and if not for a second quarter in which they only scored 17 points, things probably end differently.
They also got an egg from Kyle Lowry for the second straight time in this matchup, he went just 3-10for 10 points, and as a team they struggled from behind the line going just 7-29 from deep. Their second unit didn’t do all that much and that’s where the missing guys really hurt them, and honestly this game was about 10000x more important for the Celtics, so I wouldn’t exactly say anything has really changed. Sure they are down 2-1 in the H2H, but they have such a big lead over BOS that probably won’t even matter when nit comes to seeding.
Milwaukee Bucks (32-12) 111 vs Memphis Grizzlies (19-25) 101
Man, the slide just won’t stop for this Grizzlies team. Now 3 losses in a row, 1-9 over their last 10, they’s lost a brutal 17 of their last 20, that’s not great! We’re at the point where maybe it’s time to blow things up solely so they can keep their own lottery pick this summer, and the depressing part was this was actually a close game until a late 15-0 run by the Bucks that ultimately sealed it.
They did get a hell of a night and a hell of a poster from JaMychal Green
but other than that, I mean they shot 38/32% and gave up 61 points in the second half, at home. So much for that grit and grind defense, becasue things have turned into a complete disaster for the Grizzlies.
For MIL. yup Giannis was once again a force
Eric Bledsoe gave him some help with 16 points
and now winners of 3 in a row they find themselves back in the 1 spot in the East. It looks like they are figuring out their road issues where they are 12-8, and if that’s the case well then they become even more terrifying. The difference was that third quarter run, you can’t be giving up 41 points, but when Giannis misses just 4 shots on the night I’m not sure what you can do.
San Antonio Spurs (26-20) 105 vs Dallas Mavericks (20-24) 101
Underrated sneaky awesome game. Not the offensive explosions of some of the others, but definitely had it’s fair share of drama. On one end we had Luka being Luka, throwing up a cool 25/8/8
and being his usual must watch self. We saw the Mavs jump out to a big 15 point lead after the first quarter only to then never score more than 24 in any quarter the rest of the night. That’s the thing about playing the Spurs, they never panic. Even getting down early they are going to defend you at a high level, not turn the ball over and chip away at the lead. Now remember, the Mavs are much better at home where they have a 16-6 record so this was a pretty bad collapse by them, especially when you shoot 43/35% and your other main option in Harrison Barnes goes just 4-18. That’s how you keep the Spurs around, and you keep the Spurs around they’ll kill you more times than not.
For SA, it’s not like their stars dominated or anything like that. Far from it. LMA only had 8 points, DeRozan went 6-13 for 14 poiunts, the reason the Spurs got back in this game and ultimately won it was because of their bench. Three guys in double figures led by Belinelli and his 17 points
not a bad return for Marco coming back from injury. This win has SA 6th in the West and 7-3 over their last 10, and the reality is they trail OKC by just 1.5 for the 3 seed. A bad week from someone and they could find themselves with homecourt in the first round. These Spurs just don’t die it’s crazy.
Cleveland Cavaliers (9-36) 112 vs Portland Trail Blazers (27-19) 129
Yeah, no real surprises here. Really the only starter who played all that well for CLE was Rodney Hood who had 20/4/2
all the other starters struggled, and if not for 66 points from the CLE bench, this score would have looked even worse. They stink though so I don’t want to waste too much time on them when we had quite the showing from the Blazers.
For POR, how does 129 points on 52/55% splits with 16 3PM sound? Pretty good for a team trying to crack into that top 3. Unlike CLE, it was the POR starters that brought the noise, you look up and down their starting five and everyone played well
It was the first triple double of Nurkic’s career, they led the whole way for a wire to wire win, and are now 19-7 at home. Giving up 112 to CLE is a bit concerning since defense is a major issue for this group, but when you’re scoring the ball like this I can understand not caring as much. They also only turned the ball over 4 times which is damn impressive.
New Orleans Pelicans (21-24) 140 vs Golden State Warriors (31-14) 147
So um, the Warriors have scored 289 points in consecutive games. Neither went to overtime. Just think about that for a second. That’s nearly 300 points without any additional basketball. And this team is adding Boogie on Friday. What the fuck.
I tried to warn everyone on Twitter as it was happening, but this was another one of those vintage Late Night Steph Curry three bukkake performances, he came out in that third quarter and shot his team back all by himself. I think they were down something like 17 points as if that even matters. You knew once Steph started cooking that it was a wrap for NO.
We did also get some history with 43 3PM between the two teams, so that was cool
The bad news though, the Warriors are awake and they are a problem. All that drama and fighting seems like years ago, they are every bit as scary as we knew they would be. Great.
For NO, a tough place to play no doubt, but when you have Jrue Holiday and AD both in the lineup you can’t be giving up 140+ points. Can’t happen. Even with AD and Mirotic both being great
none of that matters if you never get any stops. You allow 31, 35, 44, 37 points you sort of deserve what you get, and then you add some sort of injury to AD late, this was about as worse case a scenario as you can get. Now 3 games under .500, every loss feels like 10 given the current status of AD’s deal.
They even got nearly 50 points from Holiday/Julius Randle, and honestly going into Oracle and dropped 140 usually gets you a win, especially when you make 19 3PM, but that just goes to show you how bad their defense was, and it’s going to cost them not only a playoff spot but perhaps a franchise player.
Utah Jazz (25-21) 129 vs Los Angeles Clippers (24-20) 109
Sure feels like we’re going to get another massive Jazz second half doesn’t it? Just like last year, and watching them they continue to make no sense to me. One night they can’t break 90, another night they are going stuff like this
Going into LA and working over a good Clippers team like this isn’t exactly easy, and they’ve now won 5 in a row and are 8-2 over their last 10 to get them into that 8 spot in the West. Did you know UTA is tied with GS for the most road wins in the West? I bet you didn’t expect that because I had no idea until I saw it.
For LAC, they didn’t shoot poorly, they came in at 45/45%, but they also didn’t get much from some of their best players. Gallo only went 3-14, they had just 2 starters in double figures, and really outside of Lou Williams 23 off the bench there wasn’t much to write home about
Things were never really lose, it was a 16 point game heading into the fourth, and unfortunately this is now the 4th loss in a row for LAC who are 4-6 over their last 10. They are very much as risk for dropping out of the top 8 given how well all the teams below them are currently playing. Their 114 opponent points average may have something to do with that.
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 6 more games, and as always if you can’t watch just make sure to check back in the morning and I’ll bring you up to speed on what you missed.