Last Night In The NBA: Headband Harden, Upsets, Wild Finishes & Much More
Good morning everybody happy Tuesday and welcome back to another edition of Last Night In The NBA where we bring you up to speed on everything that went down from the night before in the Association. We had another near full slate with 7 games on the schedule, and you know it was a fun night when 5 of those were decided by 7 points or less and three of those 5 were decided by 4 or less. Last night gave us everything, from upsets, to blowouts, to thrilling endings, so yeah I would say if you chose to spend your night doing other things than watching basketball, you missed out. Thankfully, that’s the point of this blog so keep on reading because here’s what happened
Milwaukee Bucks (14-6) 107 vs Charlotte Hornets (10-10) 110
Look at the Hornets! Not only playing another East contender tough, but actually winning a three point game! You may think that’s no big deal, but any legit Hornets fan will tell you, three point games are their arch enemy. They almost always blow them as they are now 3-20 since the 2016-17 season in games decided by three points or less. So you can imagine, a nice home win over a quality opponent like MIL is a big deal for the team and their fans. How did they get it? Well it was definitely more of a team effort as Kemba was pretty human was *just* 21/6/5 on 3-12 shooting
which meant that other guys were going to have to help fill that scoring role. Not exactly something the Hornets are great at doing, but they got just enough from guys like Jeremy Lamb
and Tony Parker
that they were still able to overcome a 27-17 fourth quarter run by MIL to hang on at the end. This now makes CHA a legit 7-3 at home, with their last three wins coming from IND, BOS, and now MIL. Remember they were a Jimmy Butler three away from beating PHI as well. You can’t really sleep on the Hornets, especially when you are going to their building.
For MIL, they’ve now lost two of their last three with losses to these Hornets and the Suns. Not great! Their record still looks nice because they haven’t really lost to too many other bad teams, and as you expect Giannis was a monster with 20/13/9 on 7-15 shooting in his game high 40 minutes
They still struggle on the road, as 4 of their 6 losses have come away from home, and while every starter reached double figures, having guys like Middleton go 4-18 and Brogdon 4-16 doesn’t really help. Not often though you’ll see this team make 16 3PM and lose like they did last night, but giving up 65 first half points is going to tend to give you trouble by the end of the night.
Minnesota Timberwolves (10-11) 102 vs Cleveland Cavaliers (4-15) 95
Another game, another win for MIN. This now makes them 6-2 since they got rid of Jimmy Butler, and even if this latest win came against the tanking Cavs, who cares, the Timberwolves need all the wins they can get. This one was pretty much tight the whole way, and MIN fans had to be happy that this team showed signs of actually playing defense combined with the actual production they are getting from their new pieces
Covington was great in this game, especially shooting the ball which is what they need from him, and that allowed some of the pressure to be taken off guys like KAT and DRose, who also chipped in and were effective
Coming off that brutal 0-12 performance the other night, Wiggins went 4-11 last night which still isn’t great but at least it wasn’t another 0-fer. As a team they turned it over just 8 times, and this was big for MIN as it became their second road win of the year.
For CLE, I mean they have been playing teams tough as of late, even beating teams like the Sixers, but let’s not forget who they are and what their goal is this year. They need losses, and they need them all
No shame in making sure you stay on track for a Duke prospect, don’t let anybody tank shame you.
Boston Celtics (11-10) 124 vs New Orleans Pelicans (10-11) 107
We’ll be talking more about the Celtics in the normal Celts blog, so let’s spend some time focusing on the Pelicans here. Things are rough for them right now, losers of 4 straight and 5 of their last 8. While this was just their second loss at home, they gave up the highest point total of the season for a Celtics team that can’t really score, so that’s never good. And yes, AD was once again a monster with his 27/16/5, and Mirotic shot the lights out essentially all night
but outside of them there wasn’t much else for NO. Defense is still a problem for this team, their starting backcourt combined to net just 18 points, and Darius Miller, who played 30 minutes off the bench finished 4-11, and 3-10 from deep. Down 20 at multiple points in this game, I’m not so sure it would have even been this close if not for the fact that NO lived at the FT line, winning that battle 29-10. You could tell things are a little tense in that locker room, because if it wasn’t I’m not sure this happens
they finished with 22 turnovers which is a crazy high number, and they are now 0.5 games out of the 8th spot and 2 games out of the 7th seed in the West. Not really a great time to go on a 4 game skid, which is the longest active losing streak in the NBA at the moment.
Houston Rockets (9-10) 131 vs Washington Wizards (8-12) 135 F/OT
By far, this had to be the game of the night. Just an incredible display of zero defense and awesome clutch shot making. We’ll start with HOU, who was led by a headband James Harden who had another 50 point triple double, only this time part of that was 11 TOs
Whether you love Harden or hate him, the facts are he is one of the most unstoppable scorers in the league, and while some may want to discredit his performance because his team lost, I won’t. He’s still doing stuff pretty rare in NBA history
You add that with the offensive explosion from Eric Gordon, something I think Rockets fans have been waiting for all season, and yeah I would say the two were fairly unstoppable. They combined for 90 points!!
Unfortunately, they ran out of gas in the overtime period, and dropped back down to under .500. What a weird season the Rockets are having, just when you think maybe they are turning the corner, something like this happens.
For WSH, boy did they need a win like this. Just like the HOU backcourt, the Wizards were carried by their start guards who combined for 68 points on 25-41 shooting
With all the Dwight drama, and then that fake report that Bradley Beal is demanding he wants out, they needed a win like this, at home, to hopefully give them something positive to talk about. It was a very non-Wizards type win too, with strong fourth quarter play (31 points) efficient shooting from their star players, and then actual bench production with 35 points coming from Morris/Green.
6 of their 8 wins have now come at home, and they now face a struggling NO team so who knows maybe they keep this going.
San Antonio Spurs (10-10) 108 vs Chicago Bulls (5-16) 107
Boy that was close! What a disaster of a loss this would have been by SA, but it’s not all that surprising since it came on the road and the STINK on the road for whatever reason. Thankfully they got two efficient nights from DeRozan and LMA who combined for 41 points on 17-30 shooting
and LMA especially came up huge in the fourth with 11 of his points in that final frame. Having dropped three of their last four they needed this win over a tanking CHI team, and they survived a pretty stressful ending in order to hang on for these elusive road wins.
Credit to the Spurs bench as well who had 44 points which is a legit number, especially when CHI’s second unit only had 14. That’s a big win.
For CHI, whatever who needs wins amirite? They still got an awesome performance from Zach LaVine who continues his offensive tear this year
Ryan Arcidiacono probably had his best game as a pro
and then Jabari Parker had 18/10., so things definitely could have been worse. Also look on the bright side, Baby Dirk is apparently back to practicing, so Bulls fans even have something to look forward to.
Indiana Pacers (12-8) 121 vs Utah Jazz (9-12) 88
See this is what I was talking about yesterday. I simply cannot figure out the Jazz. Two nights ago they drop like 133, last night they can’t even crack 90. They now have the 27th ranked offense in the NBA which certainly isn’t going to cut it in the West, and that’s especially true if they are just not going to defend, which is supposed to be their calling card.
No player on the roster had more than 13 points, as a team they finished with 17 TOs, and frankly this was just a straight up ass whooping.
For IND, they did all this without Oladipo who continues to miss time, and as a team they finished with 58/50% splits. They had 7 players in double figures, led by Dougie McBuckets who had 21 off the bench
This thing was pretty much over after the first quarter, and then they really clamped down in the second half holding the Jazz to just 41 points. Anytime you can play this well on both sides of the ball without your best player in the lineup, you take it.
Orlando Magic (10-11) 110 vs Golden State Warriors (15-7) 116
Man it felt like the Magic were going to pull that one out didn’t it? They had a huge lead at the half, everything was working, Vucevic, Ross, Bamba and Isaac all were playing great
But sadly, the Magic learned what we all knew was coming, and that was the third quarter Warriors bukkake. They won that frame 32-19, regained control, and then that was that. Either way, the Magic are playing everyone tough, so I don’t think we can consider them a layup anymore. You have to really try against them and that’s for sure a step in the right direction.
For GS, it sure does help to have someone like Kevin Durant on your team. Think what you want about him off the floor, but on the court, the guy is a stone cold killer
What a dagger three. So nice let’s watch it again
Word on the street is they’re about to get Steph back, and then Boogie in about a month, so things are looking up for the champs. Also let’s not forget Klay, who had a solid 29 points on 11-23 shooting as well
No other Warrior reached double figures in this game, but when those two are going that crazy, you can get by.
And that’s it! You’re now all caught up on everything that happened last night in the NBA. We’re back tonight with 5 more games including some good matchups like TOR/MEM and LAL/DEN, so if you can’t stay up that late that’s fine, just make sure to check back in the morning and I’ll fill you in.