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Brooklyn 124, San Antonio 113 (overtime)
The Nets, silly Butterfingers in Saturday’s defeat, turned the ball over five times all Monday, 53 minutes, five slipups, five-three, five.
This is a brand new team that’s never trained at a camp together and yet it kept its eye on the thing, in San Antonio. The Spurs finished regulation on 10-0 run, admittedly far from ideal, but Brooklyn pounced so hard in overtime that Coach Popovich moved to empty his bench before the mini-period concluded.
The Spurs also took care of the ball and worked with alacrity — if a shot was there, take the damn shot. This insistence helped when things grew hairiest:
The problem for Brooklyn on this play — James Harden — was everyone else’s problem for the rest of the evening. He orchestrated, expertly.
Harden finished with 30 points, 14 rebounds, and 15 assists. He pulled two steals and didn’t turn it over in 44 minutes. Nobody’s put a line like that up since they started counting individual turnovers, which they started in 1977, knowing Shawn Kemp was going to show up in ten years.
The Spurs wouldn’t be moved off their spot, so Nicolas Claxton (late of Brooklyn’s rotation) had to come off the bench and screen and finish, 17 points and three blocks in 17 minutes. Screen for Harden, let James Harden go.
In overtime? Bruce Brown continued his excellent, excellent reads. A floater and a kiss to Irving in the corner (two of Kyrie’s 27). Brown finished with 23 points on 10-13 shooting, and guarded every last one of those 6-foot 5-ish Spurs guys (there are 53 of them).
The Nets were delinquent in letting a double-digit lead slip into an overtime obligation. And that was about it.
Nets, 23-13
Spurs, 17-13
Dallas 130, Orlando 124
Mavs looking a little sneakier now that they’ve got nothing but good point guards. The team wins the non-Luka minutes because of Jalen Brunson and you remember James Brunson. He’s like Rick Brunson but good.
Dallas pick-and-rolled Orlando to death and good, they had to, something had to overcome Dallas’ defense. Bad communication and iffy activity from the Mavs in this one: Magicmen Michael Carter-Williams and Evan Fournier are tall and broad but they shouldn’t be that tall and broad, certainly not that often.
Fournier popped five threes and MCW (18 points, eight boards, six assists) dragged his hips inside repeatedly. Nik Vucevic did All-Star stuff (29 points, 15 rebounds, eight assists) in Dorian Finney-Smith’s face because Kristaps wasn’t going to guard that. Also, Magic coach Steve Clifford decided that no, no, he wouldn’t be playing Mo Bamba on Monday.
Clifford went for it, and good for us. We got another fun game with a totally squared and sustainable Luka Doncic three-pointer to cinch it.
Jalen Brunson enjoyed 24 points on 13 shots, the Magic gave good chase and kept lottery odds.
Mavericks, 17-16
Magic, 13-22
Philadelphia 130, Indiana 114
The Pacers need a break. They made a game of this early in the third but this, this wasn’t a game.
Let’s fill this space, instead, with old Pacers reminiscing over how happy they were upon Larry Bird’s arrival as coach in 1997, because these here Pacers didn’t much enjoy working with Larry Brown:
Travis Best, guard: I was elated. The Larry Brown situation was not one of the best for me my first two years.
His expectations of me were the total opposite of what kind of player I was. Had he been there for another couple of years, I probably would not have re-signed with the Pacers after my contract was up.
The last year had left a bad taste in everybody's mouth. At that point everybody had tuned him out. Guys were ready to start fresh.
Rik Smits, center: Anything after Larry Brown was easy. I liked Larry as a person but he was a bear to deal with on the basketball court. Nothing was ever good enough. It was obvious we were ready for a change and Bird was the complete opposite. He knew what it was like for the players. He realized the situation we were in. He said, “I’m going to get you in the best possible shape. You know what you're doing on the court.” He didn’t try to teach us like Larry Brown used to do. It was a good fit at that time. Everybody was excited about it.
Antonio Davis, forward: Larry Brown was a stickler for doing things the “right way,” but you always felt it was a moving target. You were thinking, “What is the right way? Every time you come in here you explain the right way differently.”
At times you wanted to throw your hands up and say, ‘Man, I don’t want to hear that today.”
Best: I didn’t even know what [the Right Way] meant. I had been hearing that for two years.
All from Mark Montieth’s must-read oral history on the 1997-98 Pacers.
New Orleans 129, Utah 124
Absolute recipe for disaster for your Pelicans on Monday but the group rose to its test, downing the top team in the league, leading by 17 deep into the third quarter. The Jazz hit 17 three-pointers, Utah’s usual, but I promise New Orleans chased around shooters. Promise.
The Jazz outscored NOLA by 30 from behind the three-point arc, reversing a four-game trend that saw opponents only total a 15-point advantage over the Pelicans. New Orleans was supposed to be getting better at this! Recipe for a room full of poison.
New Orleans’ answer was law, 76 points in the paint for the Pels plus more than a few midrange flicks. Spot you 30, spit on the blacktop.
The backcourt tandem of Lonzo Ball (23, seven boards, eight assists) and Eric Bledsoe (11-5-5) didn’t turn it over a single time and hounded Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell into a 11-33 campaign from the field. New Orleans’ bench shot 15-20, and made a scoreless statue out of Joe Ingles.
Nobody could stay in front of Zion, who (32 rebounds in three games) apparently is not terrible at rebounding anymore?
February’s best offense kept Utah on a tilt-a-whirl all evening, the Pelicans barely worked enough magic on the defensive perimeter to hang tight.
Josh Hart, Bledsoe and Ball were particularly helpful, Zion and Brandon Ingram (26 points) more engaged on that end (with dozens of exceptions), and most assuredly every New Orleans Pelicans opponent will not be the Utah Jazz from here on out. Imagine what the Pelicans should start doing to normal teams.
Bulls and Heat up next.
Pelicans, 15-19
Jazz, 27-8
HALFTIME
This is marvelous, some weird and bad jokes, everyone drinking Snapple, Wilt Chamberlain deciding it was OK to say “motherfucker,” Shaq wearing his finest (free from the shoe company) basketball jersey to a suit-and-tie photoshoot with Bill Russell, Bill Walton, Wilt, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Anyway here’s a quote of Wilt’s from 1972 that I think about a lot:
“I read that McDonald’s has sold eight billion hamburgers. That means every person in the country would have to eat 25. And I’ve never had one, so some guy would have to eat 50.”
I also noted this, from Wilt:
“By 1980 I’ll be a forgotten religion. I’ll just be remembered vaguely as the guy who was lousy at the free throw line.”
Make Wilt the logo. We’re standing on his shoulders.
Denver 118, Chicago 112
The Nuggets are bad in the clutch but, listen, the Nuggets were and are not as bad in the clutch as our beloved, Zach LaVine. He’s an All-Star, a good dude who’s worked his tail off, but sometimes he’s a bowl full of jelly down the stretch of close contests, of which the Bulls are now 9-12 in.
A fine mark, these outcomes are mostly coin flips, but LaVine’s repeated burps are more than a little frustrating. They’re not representative!
Denver won this game because Nikola Jokic was allowed space and vision on his way toward nine assists and 39 damn points.
Chicago ran past Denver’s lacking transition defense and rode Coby White (20 points, 10 rebounds) in the third period — a term that saw coach Billy Donovan wave for a timeout 32 seconds in.
The Bulls shaped up, taking advantage of your usual Thadeisms (12 points on 6-9 shooting, five steals, four assists, five rebounds) and two fuckin’ threes from Luke Kornet. It’s like I’m explaining the game to the cab driver.
Denver slowed the damn thing down in the fourth period, Wendell Carter Jr. was out of his depths while up into Jokic’s armpits, Thaddeus and Kornet were no better.
Monte Morris became a Nugget starter four games ago and he’s turned it over four times since then, in 128 minutes. In 178 minutes (and seven games) prior to his starting promotion, Monte turned it over two, whole, times. This is obscene.
Nuggets have won eight in a row over Chicago. If memory serves, each of those games came on the night before Thanksgiving.
Nuggets, 19-15
Bulls, 15-18
Cleveland 101, Houston 90
He’s right. Best shot-blocking guard I’ve ever seen.
John Wall tried so hard, the poor guy. Second night of a back to back, dropped 17 in the first quarter just to give his team a chance and all it got him was a five-point deficit after 12 minutes, at home, to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
February’s worst offense was no match for Cleveland’s utter rebounding dominance plus the combined skill of Cavalier backcourt partners Darius Garland and Collin Sexton — GARTON.
GARTON landed Houston on its heels all evening, while rookie helper Isaac Okoro helped keep the Rocket perimeter in check.
Victor Oladipo, for instance, finished with 20 points but he also took 21 shots, committed six turnovers, and was seen laughing inappropriately a few times.
Actually maybe it was appropriate.
Cavaliers, 14-21
Rockets, 11-22
Portland 123, Charlotte 111
Let’s get LaMelo out of the way first, there was this pass …
… plus this inexplicably left-handed layup, plus the way he kept Charlotte in the game, 30 points, plus the make-good convo with Carmelo “Melo” Anthony.
Don’t let them tell you Charlotte’s legs gave out, Portland was out ahead of this before the Hornets started to crumble, before the triumph of taking Sacramento on a Sunday tugged for its toll.
Give Portland its credit, the Blazers were in their own building after over a week away, after working 12 of 16 on the road. PDX enjoyed a practice weekend and it showed, Derrick Jones Jr. was all hustle, all night, Charlotte counterpart P.J. Washington (three points) missed seven of eight shots a night after dropping 42 on the Kings.
Robert Covington wasn’t after shots, but the ball found the Blazer, 21 points on 11 attempts, five three-pointers, 10 rebounds, two assists, two steals, two blocks, two facemasks. Nassir Little gave good in the second half, Rodney Hood in the first. Probably should have switched those names.
Gary Trent made a point to seek out trips to the rim, 17 points on 7-11 shooting and he even earned a free throw in the win. Carmelo was magnificent, again, a team-high 29.
And, really, you’d let your offense bother your defense if you were Terry Rozier, too.
Trail Blazers, 19-14
Hornets, 16-18
JUST FOR A MOMENT
March is here, you made it through winter. It’s all beaches from here on out.
Thank you for reading, listening!
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BTB: Nets on the air