Sloppy Laker handles, Durant the superstar, and a weird Warrior win

By Jason Wojciechowski on November 25, 2009 at 3:45 PM

Happy day before Thanksgiving! I'm traveling on an airplane to see family tomorrow and not getting back until late Monday, so it seems very possible that this update may not happen over the holiday weekend. On the other hand, my mother does own a computer, so maybe it will happen. You'll just have to wait and see! (Suspense.)

Sixers 107, Wizards 108: If the Sixers were a relevant team, this would be a tough loss, by one point on the road, losing the third quarter 40-29, winnning the fourth 32-23, but still coming up short. But Philly is 5-9 so nobody actually cares. Antawn Jamison, welcome back: 32/14 (eight offensive). Fab Oberto started for Washington and played 21 minutes without putting a single shot up. That's pretty amazing. He also had just one assist, so it's not like he was just being unselfish. It's possible he only touched the ball three times all game. Caron Butler missed the game, which may lend credence to Gilbert Areans's theories about how Caron's a slacker and how the team is trying hard except for Caron. Elton Brand shot 1-9 for Philly, and Iggy was just 2-10, but Lou Williams had 26/4/5.

Pacers 112, Raptors 123: That's a very Toronto-like score. Danny Granger had 36/9/5, and made seven threes, but the Raptors shot 56%, including 7-7 by Jarrett Jack, 6-9 by Rasho (who I forgot was even on the team), and 8-11 from Jose Calderon. Remarkably, the team won by double digits despite 5-19 shooting from Chris Bosh. He still had 12 boards, four dimes, and four blocks, though. He's just a beast, pure and simple.

Warriors 111, Mavs 103: The Warriors played six guys in this game, and it doesn't look like it was by choice. Corey Maggette is listed in ESPN's box score as DNP-CD, but that's implausible, and a Google reveals that he's got some kind of hamstring strain or something. So Maggette, Bell, Turiaf, Azubuike, and Biedrins are all on the active roster, yet injured. Chris Hunter was just signed out of the NBADL, and he didn't play, but I think he's probably not hurt. Anyway, the Warriors had all this, they turned the ball over 21 times, they put Dirk on the line 12 times, Jason Kidd had 5/10/13, and they still won by eight on the road. Monta Ellis had a crazy line: 37 points, eight assists, four steals, and eleven turnovers. That's just the second 10+ turnover-game this year, the other being Gil Arenas's 12-turnover effort from two weeks ago. Arenas also had eight assists, outrebounded Ellis by one, and had three steals, so they're pretty comparable as far as that goes, but Ellis outscored Arenas 37-21 (despite only outshooting him 29-20), so overall, I think I give the edge in "get the ball out of his hands, coach!" games to Monta.

Nets 87, Nuggets 101: The Nets just weren't going to win this game. The real danger, as they're now on a west-coast swing, is that none of the games in their road trip are winnable. The entire team did get healthy all at once, though: Devin harris and Courtney Lee both played, although both came off the bench. Harris played 31 minutes and only shot 4-14, but by getting to the line wound up with a 19/7/6 line and three steals on top of that. Chris Douglas-Roberts and Brook Lopez look like their offensive sufferenced from the return of the guard-dominated offense (I guess CDR is a guard, but he's more of a combo-wing than a true SG), as they combined to shoot just 2-10. They each had three rebounds, two blocks, three turnovers, and five fouls. So that's a little weird. Anyway, all that about the losing (0-14) team? How about the Nuggets? Nene had five steals. Carmelo scored 27. Well done, fellas.

Thunder 104, Jazz 94: That's a game the Jazz should win. Not because the Thunder are so bad, but because they're probably semi-evenly matched and the Jazz are at home. Carlos Boozer had 26/7, but Deron Williams and Memo Okur shot 10-27 combined. The benches really went at it, though, as Kirilenko and Millsap scored 33 points on 21 shots, while Etan THomas, Kyle Weaver, James Harden, and Serge Ibaka shot a combined 11-15, each of them missing exactly one shot. Ibaka's 21 good minutes were key, as Krstic fouled out for Hijack City. Kevin Durant had 28/5/8, and maybe I'm ready to grudgingly admit that he's turning into a superstar.

Knicks 90, Lakers 100: It wasn't that close. L.A. led by 21 going into the fourth. Ron Artest had 17/7/4 but had six turnovers (his first high-turnover game that I can remember, which is a very good sign considering that this was game number 14 for L.A.), Pau had sixteen rebounds, Bynum managed an assist, and Kobe shot 14-20. Lamar Odom missed shots off the bench, but he added 12 boards and five dimes. The Knicks spread the ball around with 25 assists on 35 makes, but they didn't get to the line, shooting just 12 free throws. If I'm a Knicks fan, I'm not real happy with Kenny Mauer, because the Knicks outfouled the Lakers 23-12. Partially that might just be New York's undertalented defenders trying to stop L.A.'s excellent offense, but partially there's probably a bit of home-court advantage there, too. Anyway, Jordan Hill got 16 minutes and shot 3-4, Toney Douglas shot 5-8 for 12 points, and Wilson Chandler managed to jack up 20 shots and only hit five of them. Granted that the Knicks missed nine more shots than the Lakers, getting outrebounded 60-36 is pretty ugly. I don't think I've ever seen a rebounding disparity that big before. When you're taking that many rebounds, it allows you to overcome a 25-14 turnover disparity. That's a lot of turnovers, L.A. Maybe you should be careful not to be taht sloppy with the ball next time. A good team won't let you get away with it.