NBA Scores and More: Portland Trail Blazers Salvage A Forgettable Night Of Action
The Denver Nuggets and Portland Trail Blazers salvage an otherwise pathetic night of NBA Basketball.
I would like to thank Portland and Denver for allowing me to enjoy one game Thursday night after the Suns and Clippers performances contributed to wasting three and half hours of my life. More on Suns-Magic and Clippers-Pacers in a little bit.
The Portland-Denver game came down to the 4th quarter and the Nuggets entered the last 12 minutes with a slim 71-69 lead. The contest was decided by a weird 19 second sequence to close out the game, which was filled with excitement and futility.
- Part 1: The Blazers had the ball up 86-83 with 19 seconds left. Andre Miller received the inbounds pass from Rudy Fernandez and instead of letting Denver foul him he decided it was a good idea to dribble towards the baseline, get surrounded by three Nuggets and almost turn the ball over (there should have been a foul called on Afflalo for a shove). Luckily for Miller, the ball somehow ended up in LaMarcus Aldridge's hands.
- Part 2: Aldridge missed a gimme lefty lay up to put Portland up five and essentially end the game. I watched the play over and over again. Nene comes into the picture, but I don't think he was able to get a piece of the shot. It looked like LaMarcus rushed it leading to the miss.
- Part 3: Aaron Afflalo comes down with the rebound after Nene deflects in his vicinity. The Nuggets have no timeouts left so Afflalo pushes the ball up court to Billups. With 10 seconds left on the clock "Mr. Big Shot" pulls up from parallel to the L and A in the Trail Blazers writing on the court. It had to be almost 30-33 feet away from the basket. He had Gary Forbes wide open without a Blazer defender within 15 feet on the left. On the right Lawson was open, but Batum and Fernandez would have closed on him fast.
- Part 4: Afflalo gets the offensive board over a flat footed Aldridge who made minimal effort to get a rebound that clinches a victory. Afflalo tries to dribble out, but gets trapped by Rudy Fernandez and Wesley Matthews forcing him into the corner. From there Afflalo chucks up a contested shot and was fouled on the release by Matthews, but there was no call. It was debatable whether Afflalo's shot was a three or two point attempt.
Besides the whirlwind 19 seconds, this Northwest Division battle came down to the Nuggets inability to put the ball in the basket in the fourth quarter. After Al Harrington hit a three to put Denver up 74-70 with 10:52 left in the fourth they did not make a basket for eight minutes and 47 seconds. The only three points during the span was two free throws by Nene Hilario and one free throw by Carmelo Anthony. It was a stretch filled with good Portland defense, bad Denver turnovers, and the Nuggets missing open shots.
Carmelo fouled out of the game with an offensive foul drawn by Batum at the 3:08 mark. While the Nuggets were without their star for the end of the game, the Blazers played sans Brandon Roy for the second straight game due to left knee soreness.
Wesley Matthews once again did a tremendous job filling in, following up his 30 point effort against Memphis with a 20 point, 10 rebound encore. When it looked like Denver had a chance to pull away in the 2nd quarter Matthews hit back to back to back three pointers for his own personal 9-0 run and cut the lead to 28-27.
With the question marks surrounding Roy’s knee and the long term health concerns, maybe it is not be a bad idea to have Roy come off the bench. The Blazers bench only scored seven points tonight. Matthews and Miller compliment each other better than Miller and Roy who both want to have the ball in their hands. Roy could be the primary ball handler and help create open threes playing more minutes with Rudy Fernandez. Just an idea to try and limit Roy’s minutes and create better on court chemistry for Portland’s offense.
George Karl chose not to play JR Smith for a third straight night. He did play one minute against the Knicks, but that does not really count.
Play of the Game: You get full highlights for this one.
From the Blogs: Denver Stiffs discussed the Nuggets disastrous 4th quarter, while Blazers Edge saw Portland able to pull out a game filled with runs.
Orlando Magic 105 Phoenix Suns 89
Steve Nash sat out Thursday night's game against the Orlando Magic and the Suns offense was hurt tremendously. The Suns shot 3-18 from the three-point line, did not have crisp ball movement and Hakim Warrick and Jason Richardson both struggled to get going offensively. Richardson scored less than 10 points for the first time this season.
This game was over the second Orlando decided to stop ignoring Dwight Howard facing the size deficient Suns, who were also with starting center Robin Lopez.
On the Magic’s first eight possessions, Dwight Howard did not get one touch. After the Magic’s brain fart at the beginning of the game, Dwight got the ball in the post consistently, doing a tremendous job passing out of Phoenix’s attacking, quick double teams and finishing around the hoop.
Without Lopez and Nash, the Suns bench, which is normally a strength, was a weakness. Dwight Howard left the game late in the 1st quarter with two fouls and the Magic were leading 31-15. When Howard came back in during the 2nd quarter, Orlando had extended the lead to 46-24. The Magic were plus six with him on the bench.
Play of the Game: A couple Dwight Howard highlights for your viewing pleasure.
From the Blogs: Orlando Pinstriped Post is concerned with the Magic bench despite the blowout victory, while Bright Side of the Sun wasn’t surprised considering it was the Suns fourth game in five nights.
I did not see much of this game, but I did see the Los Angeles Clippers dropped to 1-12 on the season. The Pacers were able to pull out a victory despite being without starting point guard Darren Collison and starting shooting guard Mike Dunleavy.
Play of the Game: A ridiculous dunk by Eric Gordon.
From the Blogs: Indy Cornrows writes Hibbert and Granger led the Pacers to victory, while Clips Nation isn’t surprised it is getting worse.
