Last Night In The NBA: Melo To The Rescue And The Jazz May Be For Real
Hello everybody, happy Monday! Welcome back to another edition of Last Night In The NBA where we catch you up on everything that went down from the night before in the Association. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, it sure was one hell of a sports weekend, but now that we are back at hte 9-5 grind you need something to make you hate life just a little less. That’s where this blog comes in, because we had four games last night on the schedule and the stars were out folks. So put off answering whatever emails you have piled up in your inbox and let me tell you about everything that you may have missed.
Atlanta Hawks (1-2) 94 vs Oklahoma City Thunder (2-1) 113
It always helps when you struggle to shoot the basketball that you are playing the Hawks. I’m pretty sure that’s in the 10 commandments or something. That’s where OKC was last night because they couldn’t buy a damn basket. They finished with just 40.9/27.3% splits with 21 TOs, and outside of Paul George and Dennis Schroder who combined for 42 points, there wasn’t much else
A huge 35-16 third quarter for the Thunder was basically the difference, especially after they sort of blew things open in the second with a 32-22 advantage. It’s not often that you only drop 20 points in the final frame and still win by nearly 20 points. The only real concern I would have as an OKC fan is how serioius Terrance Ferguson’s concussion is, because already without Andre Roberson for a few months he’s a rather important piece.
For ATL, I’ll give them credit, their starters showed up outside of Kent Bazemore and his 2-7. Alex Len seems to have found a new home and he looked good with 18 points on 6-10 shooting, Trae Young had a solid 16 in his 27 minutes, and really it was the bench that let them down and ultimately had them at 38/30% with 26 TOs. That is so many turnovers I can’t imagine they thought they would pull it out, and sadly I feel like that’s going to be a theme of their season
Houston Rockets (2-1) 108 vs San Antonio Spurs (2-1) 93
I don’t care when it happens, I love a good HOU/SA battle. Unfortunately, the Spurs saw what can happen when the Rockets have a typical Rockets performance. I’m talking about 17 3PM and low turnovers. Things were balanced with 7 players in double figures, and they were comfortable due to a nice fourth quarter close out where they were finally able to pull away. That’s a big sign considering Harden/CP3 combined to go 9-27, and dare I say Melo had a major role in securing this victory?
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Maybe things WILL work out!
For SA, DeMar DeRozan led the way with 22 points on a decent 7-16, and Rudy Gay was an efficient 6-7, but other than that, things were pretty ugly.
Hard to beat a team like HOU with just 38/19% splits, and not to pile on but they didn’t really rest anyone either. Now Dejounte Murray is out a handful of weeks with a knee injury which is obviously a big deal for this team, so it’ll be interesting to see if Derrick White can step up and fill in that production.
Please do not be a torn ACL. Please.
Milwaukee Bucks (2-0) 125 vs Minnesota Timberwolves (1-3) 107
Now this looked a whole lot more like the Bucks team we should expect come the regular season. They shot welk, (45.7/36.1%) they got to the line (36 FTA), and they took care of then basketball (10 TOs). Offensively they exploded, with no quarter under 27 points, they had six guys in double figures, and it obviously all starts with Giannis and his 21/10 on 8-15 shooting
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I will say, if i were a Bucks fan I would be pretty pumped because it looks like this new system is fitting well. They dropped 116 in their opener and then 125 last night, so maybe this is going to be the year MIL doesn’t underachieve.
For MIN, like it’s going to be all year, the story was about KAT. He was a beast with 33/12 on 11-19 shooting in his 28 minutes. Sadly, I think the internet thinks this game didn’t happen because there are no highlights anywhere. You’ll just have to trust me, he was a beast.
Utah Jazz (4-0) 123 vs Portland Trail Blazers (1-2) 112
OK, so the Jazz may be for real. Like really for real
A ridiculous 47/50% shooting performance with 18 3PM (!!!!) this was an offensive explosion up in Portland. Donovan Mitchell led the way with 21 on 7-19, but even the bench played well with five more players notching at least 7 points. Things were fairly normal until the second half where they just went crazy scoring 73 points in 24 minutes, and that was firepower not even POR could match.
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For the Blazers, it’s not like they didn’t play well, they did! Nurkic/Lillard/McCollum combined for 64 points
and hell, as a team they shot 51% themselves. The problem was simply their defense and those pesky 26 TOs. When a team is feeling it like UTA was, giving them all those extra possessions probably isn’t the best idea. Now we know why. It wouldn’t shock me if we saw these two flip when it came time to figure out playoff seeding, with the Jazz snagging that 3rd spot. If preseason is any indication, Jazz fans have a ton to be excited about.
And that’s it! You are now all caught up on everything that went down last night in the NBA. We’re back with 8 more games today, I actually think the Sixers are playing right now, fucking China. As always just make sure to come back tomorrow morning and I’ll bring you up to speed on everything that happened.