Thursday, 11/9, NBA
By Jason Wojciechowski on November 13, 2006 at 5:27 AM
- Cleveland beat the Bulls (can we still call them the Baby Bulls? I guess with P.J. Brown in the starting lineup, it just wouldn't be right) by 19 as LeBron played playmaker, shooting 13 times and dishing a dozen dimes. It must've worked, because Drew Gooden shot 10-13, Sasha Pavlovic hit 6-9 off the bench, Donyell Marshall shot 5-7, and even Anderson Varejao (Energetic Brazilian Guy) hit 6-7. Maybe this'll be LeBron's indication that he should really use his all-around game and court vision instead of jacking up all those 22-foot fadeaways. Unlikely. He's got shoe sales to make. Ben Gordon did his best to sink the Bulls, hitting just 1-10, but given that the team shot 44% despite that, and turned the ball over just eight times, the culprit looks to be rebounding: Cleveland won that battle by 17. That's inexcusable for a team with P.J. and B-Wall starting in the front court.
- Golden State beat the Hornets by 121-116, which is the kind of score that makes you wish you saw the game. Baron Davis had 36, shooting as many free throws (17) as he did field goals. He managed nine assists on top of that. Troy Murphy and Monta Ellis also scored over 20, and Mickael Pietrus got close with 18. Mike Dunleavy moved to the bench and scored 13 in 32 minutes. Chris Paul scored 34 and had ten assists, but also had an uncharacteristic six turnovers. David West shot 8-10 as well, but had five turnovers himself. In fact, the turnover margin of seven (with a points-off margin of 20) looks to have doomed the Hornets here.
- Dallas finally won a game, beating the Suns in Phoenix, 119-112. The firepower for both sides just went at it: 35 for Dirk (12-12 free-throws, just two three-point attempts); 30 for Jason Terry (4-6 from the arc); 23 for Stack; 30 for Barbosa (5-8 from the arc); 21 for Marion; 20 for Nash (3-4 from trey). The two keys: Phoenix only committed one more foul than Dallas, but the Mavs shot 15 more free-throws; and Dallas actually committed one more turnover than Phoenix's 18, but Steve Nash had a ridiculous ten of them. That's completely out of character. If he has a moderately bad game (say five or six) instead of a horrendous one, this game comes out the other way and Dallas is still winless.