NBA Christmas Day 2011: Relive The Best Of Opening Day

The new-look Los Angeles Clippers got off to a rocky start, struggling with the Golden State Warriors in the early goings and heading into the half trailing by two. But in the second half, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and company found their rhythm, opening up a double-digit lead in the third quarter.

The Warriors climbed back into it in the fourth, cutting the Clippers lead to one with just under seven minutes to go. Golden State was able to slow a bit of the Clippers’ momentum in the third, employing a Hack-a-DeAndre-Jordan strategy that put Los Angeles’ poor free throw shooting big man at the line. It work, at least momentarily, and the Warriors were able to weather the storm as they chipped away at the lead.

Blake Griffin may have struggled through the first half, scoring seven points and failing to make a field goal in the second quarter, but you wouldn’t know it from his performance coming out of the break. Griffin powered the Clippers to a 10-point lead, dominating inside along the way. He finished with nine points in the quarter, pushing his total to 16 for the game, as the Clippers took a 75-68 lead into the final frame.

And then there was Mark Jackson. With just over three minutes left in the third quarter, and facing a 10-point deficit, the Warriors head coach had his team foul DeAndre Jordan -- on-ball or off -- every single time down the court. Every. Single. Time. Jordan’s poor foul shooting -- a 41-percent lifetime shooter -- made him an easy target, and Jackson eventually called off the dogs after Jordan airballed a free throw, some five intentional fouls later.

Players are taught to throw the ball at the rim after taking contact, in hopes of drawing a shooting foul. And typically that’s how it works out: A player is bumped, throws up a shot with nary a chance of going in, and said player heads to the line for two free throws. But sometimes, these moments of “screw it” produce beautiful circus shots.

Caron Butler just kind of tossed the ball up towards the hoop on Sunday night, floating it way up in the air as he fell out of bounds after a foul. It was from an awkward angle and came right after the foul, but Butler’s shot hit nothing but net. Not a typical and-one, but certainly one of the better one’s you’ll see from the NBA’s opening day.

The regular season debut of Lob City -- the Los Angeles Clippers -- hasn’t gone quite according to plan thus far as the Golden State Warriors lead at the half, 43-41. But in an interesting twist, Golden State fans began chanting “Beat L.A.” a mantra usually reserved for the other Los Angeles team, the Lakers, midway through the half. Less than one game in, the Clippers already have a target on their back.

Monta Ellis and David Lee scored 12 and 11 points, respectively, in the half to pace the Warriors. Stephen Curry, playing on a sprained ankle after a run-in with Jimmer Fredette in the preseason, was largely ineffective, scoring just two points in the half. Lee also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds for the Warriors.

For more on these two teams, visit Clips Nation and Golden State of Mind.

For more on these two teams, visit Thunder blog Welcome To Loud City and Magic blog Orlando Pinstriped Post.

There’s a couple things going on in the following photo, the first of which is immediately noticeable. Yes, that is a large man holding a megaphone, wearing a Santa hat. Yes, that’s also Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer painted on his chest. I have no idea what’s going on with his face, but I hope it’s not painted up like that.

↵But shift your attention away from the large man with the vibrating Rudolph on his chest. Look to the left. Notice the man in the matching turtleneck sweater and hat. Look at his face. That, friends, is a look of utter disgust.

With an 18-point lead at home, it would be shocking to see the Thunder squander this lead, and it looks as if they will be starting their season 1-0, with 65 games to play.

For more on these two teams, visit Thunder blog Welcome To Loud City and Magic blog Orlando Pinstriped Post.

For more on Curry’s status and the Warriors, visit Golden State Of Mind.

Though it’s early, this game looks like, in terms of the scoring margin, it will shape up to be every bit as competitive as the earlier season-opening games on Christmas,

For more on these two teams, visit Thunder blog Welcome To Loud City and Magic blog Orlando Pinstriped Post.

For more on these two teams, visit Bulls blog Blog a Bull and Lakers blog Silver Screen and Roll.

The Lakers had a chance to ice the game and complete a comeback from a seven-point halftime deficit with 20.1 second remaining. But they struggled to get the ball inbounds and Bryant was forced into a turnover after being double-teamed. He had another chance to deliver the victory following Rose’s go-ahead shot, but after getting around Deng, he was greeted by a trio of defenders. Deng was able to recover and swatted the ball away from behind.

Prior to that roughly 20-second spurt, Bryant appeared poised to carry the Lakers over the Bulls and reigning MVP Rose. He had scored 28 points, 14 of which had come in the second half, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out six assists.

At the time, nobody knew that the Bulls would make a stunning comeback, capped by a game-winner from Derrick Rose and a game-sealing block by Luol Deng. For now, let’s just appreciate Bryant’s incredible shot for what it is and leave it at that.

The Bulls’ problem was that they didn’t get much else from anybody else. The Bulls got only four points from the rest of the team and generally looked like an entirely different team in the third quarter. They didn’t score in the quarter’s final 2:29 and only scored two points over the quarter’s final 4:00.

Santa Claus apparently wasn’t into the giving spirit this year. Via @jose3030.

As for Odom’s wife, Khloe Kardashian? She’s confused, too.

At this point, you’re probably tired of that Budweiser NBA commercial featuring LMFAO, Luke Wilson and a bunch of other random NBA people. If you haven’t seen the commercial, don’t. Instead, just watch our two favorite clips from it, in animated form.

This is begging for “Who, me?” overlaid as a caption in Impact like few other things I have ever seen on the Internet.

For more on the Christmas Day NBA season-opening slate, visit this StoryStream.We’ll have live updating scores and more on the Heat vs. Mavericks event page. For more on the Heat, visit Peninsula is Mightier and SB Nation Tampa Bay. For more on the Mavericks, visit Mavs Moneyball and SB Nation Dallas.

For more on the Christmas Day NBA season-opening slate, visit this StoryStream.We’ll have live updating scores and more on the Heat vs. Mavericks event page. For more on the Heat, visit Peninsula is Mightier and SB Nation Tampa Bay. For more on the Mavericks, visit Mavs Moneyball and SB Nation Dallas.