Author: John Paulsen (Page 725 of 937)

There were two sleepy games tonight, but a great one in Salt Lake City. It was tight the whole way, but the Rockets (behind some good mid-fourth quarter play by T-Mac) built a seven-point lead with under two minutes to play. But McGrady missed a couple of shots (badly) and the Jazz capitalized with back-to-back three pointers from Kyle Korver and Mehmet Okur.

McGrady committed a (dumb) offensive foul, giving the Jazz the ball with under 20 seconds to play and down one. Then Deron Williams made two uncharacteristically bad decisions. First, he missed Carlos Boozer wide open in the middle of the lane when Boozer slipped a ball screen, instead passing the ball to a well-covered Kyle Korver. Williams got the ball back and drove into the lane, AGAIN drawing Boozer’s man (Carl Landry) over to help. Instead of wrapping around a bounce pass to a wide-open Boozer under the hoop, Williams tried to put up a shot, which was blocked and saved by Landry. Game over.

I like the fact that Jerry Sloan didn’t call a timeout when his team got the ball back, as that usually favors the better-prepared team. But, on that last play, his point guard looked like a rookie. Otherwise, Williams had a great game (28 points and 12 assists), but when he sees the tape, he’s going to hate himself.

As I was watching Kobe Bryant go off for 49 points in the Lakers/Nuggets game last night, I found it odd to see him run around pulling his jersey forward, displaying the Laker logo. Wasn’t it just last summer that he was throwing Andrew Bynum and Mitch Kupchak under the bus? Wasn’t it just last November that he was sulking around the court, still trying to force a trade? Now that his team is winning, he’s completely happy with the Lakers, which is fine, but that wasn’t the reason he was so angry in the first place (or so he said). Last summer, he was all pissed off when an unnamed source in the front office blamed him for forcing Shaq out of town. Has anyone apologized for those comments? Not to our knowledge, but that’s nothing that a few wins can’t fix. Now that I think about it, he and the Lakers deserve each other – a front-running player playing in front of a bunch of front-running fans.

The first round of the Western Conference playoffs were promising, but thus far, they haven’t been all that exciting. Aside from the Suns/Spurs double-overtime thriller, the average margin of victory in the other seven games in the West has been 12.3 points, and none of those games were closer than six points. Moreover, all four series are at 2-0.

That said, there is plenty of potential going forward. The Suns, Nuggets and Mavericks are all heading home for must-win Game 3’s. The ESPN Friday night doubleheader (Hornets/Mavs, Suns/Spurs) could set up important Sunday games in those series.

Hornets 127, Mavs 103 (Hornets, 2-0)
Chris Paul’s average line through two playoff games: 33.5 points, 13.5 assists, 3.5 steals, 64% from the field. He and the Hornets are on fire and right now it just looks like Dallas is in the way…After dropping two games in New Orleans, I’m sure Dallas fans are seriously second-guessing the Jason Kidd trade. He is averaging just 9.0 points and 8.5 assists, while shooting 40% from the field in the playoffs. I bet Devin Harris is looking awfully good right now and he’ll look even better if the Mavs make a first-round exit…Even though he plays the same position as Dirk, Brandon Bass keeps earning more playing time. Last night, he went for 19/8 and his strong play off the bench has earned him minutes when Nowitzki moves to center…Josh Howard has been a no-show. He is shooting just 27% from the field, which is surprising because he’s being guarded (mostly) by Peja Stojakovic, a suspect defender.

Magic 104, Raptors 103 (Magic, 2-0)
Everyone is talking about Dwight Howard, but how can you not? He had his second straight 20+ point, 20+ rebound effort to help the Magic overcome a combined 11 for 36 shooting effort from Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis…Jameer Nelson came up big with 18 points and six assists. The knock on him when he came out of college was his height, but the recent rule changes that promote more dribble penetration really helped his game flourish. His points were down for the second straight season, but he said a career high in assists (5.6) and upped his shooting percentage to 47%.

Spurs 102, Suns, 96 (Spurs, 2-0)
The Suns were doing just fine until an 11-point third quarter did them in. They have to find a way to slow down Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili’s penetration. They lost speed and athleticism when they traded away Shawn Marion for Shaq, and it’s starting to show…Doug Collins was right when he said this is a defining series for the Suns organization. If they don’t go back to Phoenix and even it up, it’ll be clear that they shot themselves in the foot with the Shaq trade.