Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
The Phoenix Suns, despite losing their most poignant offensive option this summer, still play the best fast-paced basketball in the league. Steve Nash is so good at pushing the tempo, setting up his offense, getting his players moving and dominating the game with his picture perfect shot. Turnovers and getting everybody back into the swing of things was preventing Nash from distributing the ball as well as he usually does over the first few games of the season but the Suns came out and looked very strong against the previously undefeated Hawks in Atlanta.
The Suns dominated the contest for two and a half quarters, but a barrage of three’s from Jamal Crawford, Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson got the Hawks rolling near the end of the third quarter and clutch baskets down the stretch from Johnson, Crawford and Al Horford nearly got the Hawks an impressive comeback victory. But a pull-up mid-range two from Nash and a beautiful post-up from Channing Frye in the final 20 seconds (the 10 inch smaller Mike Bibby was guarding him) got the Suns the win. The Hawks couldn’t repeat last season’s heroics against the Suns in nearly the same situation as a Joe Johnson drive into the lane produced no positive results.
Nash finished with 19 points on seven-of-11 shooting and had a stretch where nobody could stop him from pouring in jumpers. He also had five rebounds and 15 assists, to just two turnovers no less. Nash also iced the game with four free throws late, capping off his magnificent game.
Last season, the Suns’ role players like Grant Hill and Jason Richardson got their looks by committee. Whenever Steve Nash found them, they got their looks. That plan of attack has continued this season, only there are more touches to go around without Amare. And in this game the balance of the offense was fantastic for Phoenix. Six players scored in double figures and everybody that played had at least six points.
Richardson continued his weekend hot streak by going for 21 points with three triples, Grant Hill had 14 and six, and Hedo Turkoglu had his first really impressive stretch for Phoenix, knocking down three straight three’s before becoming a non-factor down the stretch. Still, he filled it up for a pinch and finished with 11 points, four rebounds and four assists. Not quite the versatility he displayed in Orlando, but he’s adjusting to his role slowly.
The Suns’ bench continued their impressive play in this game as well. Josh Childress had a crucial 11 points and six rebounds in his return to Atlanta (for whatever reason, he was booed) and Jared Dudley played his regular role as an irritant and outstanding hustle player, dropping 15 points on five-of-eight shooting with a pair of AND-1′s while grabbing six rebounds. Also, you’d be hard pressed to find me a more impressive shot maker for a back-up point guard than Goran Dragic who seems to hit big time three’s when his team needs it the most.
Not a bad game for Atlanta, they just took two quarters too long to get their shots to fall. Al Horford and Joe Johnson were just monsters and they ate up a porous Suns defense all night long. After struggling from the field to start the season, Joe Johnson had his best shooting night of the young year, knocking down 15 of his 27 shots for 34 points while adding the usual seven rebounds and six assists. He’s not a max player, but games like this show you why it was hard for the Hawks to just let him go. The motion offense has taken a lot off his shoulders, but he is still relied upon to make big plays and he comes up with good results most of the time.
Horford was even more impressive and his performance so far this season has been masterful. 30 points on 13-of-16 shooting. Yes folks, he missed three shots while scoring 30 points. Mid-range jumpers and a lot of pretty post moves that got him some good looks at the rim. Oh, and he had 10 rebounds, five assists, two blocks and a steal. Horford is playing the best basketball of any big man that doesn’t play for the Lakers right now and it is really a joy to watch. You have to congratulate the Hawks on resigning this guy. He’s good enough to be the cornerstone of a franchise.
Josh Smith was impressive as well, scoring 19 points on six-of-10 shooting with a pair of wide open two point jumpers that the Suns forced him to take. Its not a shot you want him to take when he’s covered, but its good to see him swish that look when its in the flow and the defense is conceding it. Smith added nine boards, four assists and three steals.
The Hawks did have 29 assists to 14 turnovers, but scoring wasn’t easy for anyone other than Smith, Horford and Johnson and a late surge from Crawford wasn’t enough to cover for his very poor start.
I know its early, but Phoenix is not getting a lot of good from Robin Lopez. He only played 19 minutes in this game and in that time he only grabbed one rebound while giving up a lot of easy looks to Horford. Something to keep an eye on going forward.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
It was nice to see new 76ers head coach Doug Collins smiling and hugging his players after a big win in New York for his young ballclub. The Knicks should have won this game but turnovers and some pretty good Philly defense down the stretch got the 76ers a lead late in the game and they held on. In his first career start, Evan Turner turned in a 14 point, 10 rebound performance and his jumper looked a bit better when he squared it up. Jrue Holiday put together a line that we should come to expect from him this season, scoring 19 points with four three’s while dishing out eight assists and pulling down five boards.
It must be noted that Elton Brand has been showing some signs of a return to form, at least offensively. He scored 20 on seven-of-11 shooting and now he’s averaging 18 points, eight rebounds and four combined blocks and steals on the season. Amare got his got his 21 and 15, but he had to take 18 shots to get that and when he isn’t scoring efficiently and the Knicks shoot three-of-19 from three, there chances of New York winning aren’t high, even against Philly.
An interesting sub-plot: Andre Iguodala missed this game and the 76ers got the win. If you haven’t noticed those have been hard to come by for Philadelphia. Of late, there have been rumors swirling around Iggy’s name as usual, but the difference between these rumors than the one’s from last season is that the Sixers have Turner in town now and he has a similar skillset and would likely step into the role of point forward rather easily. Something to think about going forward. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
After having a little bit of problem with the fast-paced style of the Warriors during the second period, Detroit actually executed fairly well on the break during the second half and came out on top thanks to some nice passing and strong finishes in the open court. Richard Hamilton had a great game, prompting the obvious “now Detroit can trade him talk.” Scoring 28 on the Warriors isn’t enough to justify that contract, but it was refreshing to see that he can still produce effectively, even if its against one of the poorer defenses in the league.
Monta Ellis had 24 points, but he did so in an inefficient fashion, taking 23 shots to get there. Stephen Curry had a rough go of things, missing nine of his 12 shots while watching the potential game-tying shot go half way down before popping out. With these two taking the majority of the shots, David Lee has not found his groove offensively, and while he is rebounding like mad (12.2 boards per game), his scoring has dropped significantly since his days with the Knicks (20.2 ppg to 12.2).Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
The Celtics had control of this game from the beginning. Rajon Rondo finished with 10 points and 10 assists and constantly found Ray Allen in the corner or f on the wing. Kevin Durant had 34 points but took 22 shots to score 24 points from the field while turning the ball over four times. Russell Westbrook had his moments, fueling a 9-0 run that got the Thunder within single digits, but after he made a couple straight jumpers he started to force things and the Thunder never but a real scare into the C’s.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Even without their first and second string point guards, the Rockets dominated the T’Wolves by giving the ball to Luis Scola on the block and spotting up Kevin Martin on the wing. Martin had 21 points on nine-of-13 shooting and Scola had 24 points (six-of-13 shooting, 17 free throw attempts) and eight rebounds. Rookie and third string point guard Ishmael Smith struggled from the field (three-of-11 shooting) but had six assists, four rebounds and three steals.
Minnesota shot 37% from the field and, as usual, the only story was Kevin Love, who had 16 rebounds and 16 points in 30 minutes.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
The Lakers are playing at such a high level right now. Even with a three-of-11 performance from Kobe Bryant, the Lakers dominated this game from end to end, and the Blazers are no slouch. A hard-working, efficient offense and a great team defense topped off by Ron Artest (who held Brandon Roy to eight points on one-of-six shooting) led the Lakers to their seventh straight win of the season.
Pau Gasol was the man of the night, dropping his second triple-double as a Laker. Gasol had 20 points on nine-of-13 shooting with 14 rebounds and 10 assists. His shot has never looked more pure and there is nobody in the entire league playing better basketball than Pau right now. If he can keep this up, Pau may put himself on track to go far beyond being Kobe’s wingman in the broad scheme of things. He’s been the best big man in the league for the past two seasons and three rings, four finals appearances and dominant play like this has formed quite the resume for the 30-year old Gasol.
Lamar Odom chipped in with 21 points on 10-of-15 shooting with 12 rebounds and yet another three-pointer. Its really not fair to have Odom and Gasol on the same team and then when Bynum returns? My oh my is that an unbelievably talented frontline.
And the frontline may have found itself a fourth effective contributor. Derrick Caracter has played some good solid minutes this season and has looked better than Theo Ratliff has during his stretches. Caracter had six points and three rebounds in this game including a power post dunk, a beautiful seal and spin in the lowpost and even a free throw line jumper at the end of the shot clock. Caracter’s defense has impressed as well as his rotations have been quick and his shot blocking instincts have been solid.
Every Laker starter scored in double digits. Besides Pau and Lamar, Kobe and Fisher had 12 points and Artest had 11 to go with his stifling defense. Matt Barnes added 13 points on six-of-seven shooting with six rebounds and four assists off the bench while Shannon Brown had 15 and three three’s in just 19 minutes. Steve Blake added five points and six assists against his former team, including an off-the-backboard alley-oop pass to a trailing Pau Gasol on the break.
Andre Miller had 20 for the Blazers while Nic Batum had 17. As a team, the Lakers scored 130 points per 100 possessions on the Blazers while grabbing 14 offensive rebounds (49 total boards to Portland’s 25).
The Lakers are playing so well that its possible they go into the Christmas day game against the Miami Heat 30-0. They only play six playoff teams over the next 23 games and the only games that figure to be tough are against the Jazz and Nuggets in their respective cities. The Lakers are on fire right now and watching their offense work has been oh so fun to watch. They play Denver on Wednesday in the Pepsi Center. That should be a good one.