Zydrunas Ilgauskas and John Wall got into a bit of a dust-up last night. Wall was pressuring Ilgauskas, who had the ball and Z swung his elbow through and popped Wall in the face. Wall, of course, took exception and punched Ilgauskas in his torso.
The best shot of Wall’s punch is at around the 1:15 mark, while the best view of Ilgauskas’ elbow is at around the 1:30 mark. No one likes to get hit in the face, but Wall needs to keep a cool head there. He really hurt his team by getting ejected.
A 14-win team doesn’t have much to play for this time of year, but give the Cavs credit, they showed up on Tuesday night to face LeBron, riding a thirsty crowd to a 102-90 victory.
The Cavs led by 23 points with 5:06 remaining in the third quarter, but the Heat went on a 22-4 run to close the quarter and cut Cleveland’s lead to five at the break.
Mike Bibby’s seventh three-pointer of the game tied the score at 83-83, but the Cavs went on a 12-0 run (sparked by Luke Harangody of all people) that included four points from Ryan Hollins and six points from Anthony Parker.
LeBron finished with a 27-10-12 triple-double, but the Cavs had the last laugh, breaking the Heat’s five-game winning streak and knocking Miami out of a tie with Boston for the #2 spot in the East.
As a side note, Chris Bosh had another clunker, shooting just 5-of-14 from the field for 10 points to go along with four rebounds and four assists. He was thoroughly outplayed by J.J. Hickson (21 points, 12 rebounds) and Hollins (13 points, three blocks). Bosh was coming off seven double-doubles in his last eight games, but his performance in tough environments on the road is something to keep an eye on.
Here are the highlights:
Check out the scoreboard in the background as the Hawks broadcast comes back from commercial. The arena cameraman put LeBron and Dwyane Wade on the Kiss Cam.
Good to see they took it with a smirk.
This is in the running for Dunk of the Year, but the Heat lost to the Thunder, so Perkins gets the last laugh.
I know, I know…when doesn’t Kobe think he was fouled? (ESPN)
“[Dwyane] Wade fouled the s— out of me,” Bryant said with his feet dipped in a bucket of ice water after the game. Bryant was referring to the 3-pointer he attempted with 1:06 left and the Lakers down 90-88.
“It was clearly evident,” Bryant said. “They missed it. … He fouled the hell out of me, they just missed it.”
“I couldn’t make that, he hit my whole arm,” said Bryant, who had made his previous two 3-point attempts at the time, including a long 28-footer to tie the score at 88. “That’s why I went so short. … I should have been shooting three free throws.”
Even with all of his other personality quirks, the thing that most drives me nuts about Kobe is his constant interaction with the officials. Nine times out of 10 if he loses the ball or misses a shot, he’ll have something to say or a nasty look for the ref. It’s almost as if he thinks he’s too good to fail on any particular possession without the defender doing something illegal to stop him.
The league has tried to cut down on all of the griping this season by implementing new “respect the game” rules for technicals, and for the most part I think it has worked. But Kobe is still Kobe and these comments prove that.
Maybe I’m being too nostalgic, but I don’t remember Michael Jordan or Larry Bird constantly complaining to (or about) the officials.
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