Last Night In The NBA: Surprises Everywhere
Welcome friends to another edition of Last Night In The NBA where we catch you up on everything that happened the night before in the Association. Friday night was a full slate of games, 11 in all, and boy were there some surprising results. If you went out and missed the fun, well allow me to help with your hangover and fill you in on what happened.
Pacers (8-8) 107 vs Pistons (10-5) 100
We’ll start with one of the first surprises of the night, and that’s this win from the Pacers. After already losing to DET a few games earlier, and being 2-5 heading into this contest, I don’t know if many expected this result. Even more surprising was they came back from a 22 point deficit to pull it out
Oladipo and Sabonis continued their strong seasons, Olapido with 21/15/4 and Sabonis with 12/10 in 24 minutes. Outside of Myles Turner going for 3-13, the rest of IND’s starters sure as hell showed up, with Collison/Bogdanovic/Young all going for at least 50% from the field and at least 15 points.
For DET, they’re starting to regress back to normal a little bit. Their perimeter defense took a step back, as they didn’t really prevent IND from hurting them from deep where they made 14 threes and shot 53%.
I will say this though, Pistons fans are getting the best version of Andre Drummond maybe ever.
He’s also making his FTs now, which is a gigantic step in the right direction. Remember he’s only like 24 or something like that.
Heat (7-8) 91 vs Wizards (9-6) 88
Just as I’m sure Wizards fans were starting to feel good about their squad, they came out with one of the worst shooting performances of their season. 17 points in the 1st quarter and 12 points in the second. Not great! Hassan Whiteside was a problem the Wizards had no answer for, he went for 22/16 on 10-12 shooting
and when it came to the second unit, James Johnson rose to the challenge as well with 20 points on 7-14 shooting
Oh and I see you Justise Winslow
This isn’t to say they didn’t almost blow this game, the lead got down to 1, which would have been a brutal game to lose considering they lost in their last game which was also against WSH. Division games are important kids, remember that.
For WSH, John Wall might be kinda hurt, but he still went 3-12 and played 35 minutes so I don’t really want to hear that. For someone as talented as Wall, he sure can be inconsistent. Bradley Beal was really the only Wizards player who showed a pulse, he had 26/10 including 5 made threes
So far the Wizards are 4th in the East, slightly ahead of PHI, and what’s shocking to this point of the season is they are struggling at home. 5-4 certainly isn’t what I expected from them considering how tough it was to win in that building last year and their team is virtually the same.
Nets (6-9) 118 vs Jazz (6-10) 107
I know both these teams stink, but the Nets scoring 118 points with no Lin and no Russell was surprising. It was also surprising to see the Nets have 51/45% splits against a team that’s known for it’s defense. Well, the Jazz had no answer for Spencer Dinwiddie who had 25/8 on 9-14 and 6 made threes while also making a little bit of Nets history
Also, how do Nets fans feel about Allen Crabbe? The guy that was supposed to answer a lot of their shooting problems currently has 39/37% splits and this is Year 2 of his big deal. With news that D’Angelo Russell will probably miss a large amount of time if not the rest of the season, Crabbe probably has to step it up a little bit.
For UTA, 107 points is actually pretty impressive for a team that really, really, can’t score. Donovan Mitchell has flourished in his time filling in for Rubio in the starting lineup, he had 15/7/8, and Rodney Hood looked good as well with 17 points on 7-14. Did you know Mitchell leads all rookies in scoring in November with 19.9 per game? I certainly didn’t, that was a surprise.
Cavaliers (9-7) 118 vs Clippers (5-9) 113
The Cavs are starting to wake up folks. Lebron took this game over after an early deficit and finished with 39/14/6 on 17-26 shooting. He played 46 minutes. This is Year 15. Insane
Wade turned back the clock and had probably his best game as a Cav with 23/11 in 37 minutes
and then Love did his thing with 25/8 in 42 minutes. No other Cavs player had more than 9 points, and even though the Cabs defense still ranks 30th in the league, you can see with that sort of talent it doesn’t even really matter.
I will say this though, the Cavs are being SUPER lame with this whole Arthur thing. Trying waaaaaayyyyy too hard
For LAC, they are sliiiiiiiiiiiding. This was a game they should have ran away with, instead, it was their 7th straight loss. All that positivity from how they started is absolutely out the window, and they need to figure things out and quickly because it’s not as if they play in the East or something.
DeAndre Jordan was pretty beastly, going for 20/22
and Blake did have 23/12/5, but his 8-25 sure wasn’t great. Remember when a lot of Clippers fans were talking about how much more fun this team was without CP3? Yeah, I don’t think they’re saying those kind of things anymore.
Raptors (10-5) 107 vs Knicks (8-7) 84
Typical Raptors win if you ask me. Follow the lead of DeRozan/Lowry, and play solid defense. Well, Lowry had a near triple dub with 22/8/10 on 8-12 shooting, and DeRozan 22/6/7 on 10-16. Safe to say the Knicks had no answer for them
CJ Miles also has been on a nice little streak for the second unit, he had 14, and as a team TOR shot 56% and turned it over just 12 times. They are going to be tough to beat if you let them walk all over you like that.
For NYK, it’s going to be virtually impossible for them to win games if Porzingis is going to go 3-13, and as a team they go 33/39%. Lot of stinkers for them, from Courtney Lee going 1-9 to Dougie McBuckets not getting any buckets going 2-10, and even Frankie Ntilikina going 2-7. 36 points in a half was probably less than ideal.
Bulls (3-10) 123 vs Hornets (5-9) 120
I told you guys, this was a night of surprises, and yes, the Bulls scoring 123 points including 40 in the fourth quarter is a gigantic surprise. This was a team that couldn’t even break 80 a few games ago. They finished with 51/50% splits and outsidfe of Robin Lopez, nobody could miss
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Not to mention Baby Dirk also threw in 16/7 on 5-11.
For CHA, this may have been a bad loss for them, but man was Kemba Walker impressive
Spurs (10-6) 104 vs Thunder (7-8) 101
Spurs gonna Spur man. Down 20 points early at home, I’m sure many OKC fans probably thought they were in line for a nice easy road win. Nope, because the Spurs are a goddamn machine. LMA is having his best season in years, his 26/9 on 8-14 was not only a major reason they won this game, but his play has also been a major reason why the Spurs have been able to stay in the thick of things despite not having Kawhi.
He had some help, primarily from Danny Green who had 17/6/4 including 5 made threes
Also, we got a prime showing of Angry Pop, and if I were those refs I would be pretty terrified
For OKC, safe to say they’ve been fairly disappointing right? I mean 7-8 with that type of talent? Hard to beat SA on the road when Westbrook and PG13 go 10-38, and they don’t get much from their second unit to make up for it. After a 32 point first quarter, OKC didn’t break 23 points in any quarter for the rest of the night.
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This loss snapped a 3 game winning streak, but those games were against CHI/DAL/LAC. All teams that kinda stink. Before that they lost 4 in a row. As of now they are 3 games behind MIN in their division, which may be the hardest division in the entire NBA.
Timberwolves (10-5) 111 vs Mavericks (2-14) 87
Speaking of MIN, they got a great performance from Jimmy Buckets, and really their entire starting five played well.
You can’t really put too much stock into this though, because the Mavs are barely an NBA team.
For DAL, they may never win again. It’s honestly kind of shocking how poor they are playing, considering there are some talented played on this roster. Being 1-8 at home though, woof. Dennis Smith Jr and Wes Matthew’s combined for a 6-23 performance which isn’t ideal, and really just Dirk and Harrison Barnes did anything worth mentioning.
Kings (4-11) 86 vs Trail Blazers (8-7) 82
This was a real NBA game where both teams had all their guys going for the most part, so yeah I’d say it was a surprise that the Blazers couldn’t beat SAC, or that they couldn’t break 90 points. For SAC, WCS didn’t start, but was by far the best player for the Kings, finishing with 22/10 in 31 minutes
His replacement in the starting lineup was a complete non factor, so I would imagine WCS assumes his starting role moving forward.
For POR, stop me if you’ve heard this before, but it was all CJ/Dame and nobody else.
They play SAC again today, so at least they’ll have an opportunity to show that they can actually beat one of the worst offenses in the league. It’ll take more than 2 players finishing in double figures though that’s for sure.
Nuggets (9-6) 146 vs Pelicans (8-8) 114
Was this the Nuggets or the Rockets? 146 points on 63/51% is just insane. They made 18 threes and never had a quarter under 27 points, including back to back 40+ point quarters in the second half. THIS is the type of offense I think many expected DEN to have. Well, maybe not 146 points good, but you get the idea
Jamal Murray led the way with 31 on 13-18 shooting
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but the Nuggets set the tone early, starting off with a 22-4 run. Garry Harris certainly did his thing as well with 22 points on 9-11, and Jokic almost had a triple dub with 13/11/6. Even Paul Millsap got into the fun with 20/6/7 on 8-14.
As a cherry on top Mudiay had 19/6 off the bench, and is shooting 47% from deep for the year! This Southwest division man, it’s going to be fun to watch all year.
For NO, it has to be frustrating to shoot 52%, score 114 points, and lose by 30+. That’s why defense is important folks.
AD/Boogie were relatively quiet, but I did enjoy this play from Rondo to AD
Suns (6-11) 122 vs Lakers (6-10) 113
Devin Booker shook his dick all over the Lakers and it was beautiful to watch
but to be fair, the Lakers really couldn’t stop any of the Suns players, which I found hilarious
For LAL, their prized rookie continued his strong season. No, not Lonzo Ball, he again stunk, I mean Kyle Kuzma who had 30/10
Speaking of Lonzo, remember when every Lakers fan cummed themselves when he had like 29 against the Suns earlier this year? Well, how does 6/6/6 on 3-7 shooting taste? It’s really sad that the hype around him + his dad + Magic being stubborn is preventing the Lakers from doing the right thing. Lonzo should take a stink in the G-League to figure things out. Jordan Clarkson should probably start. But that won’t happen and everybody knows it.
Also, not the best look here
This made me laugh too
But remember, it’s still early Lakers fans!
And that’s it. You’re now all caught up with everything that went down last night in the NBA. We have 7 games on the schedule today, including some good mathcups like PHI/GS, HOU/MEM, and the Celts are going for their 15th in a row down in ATL. As always, if you happen to miss anything just check back here tomorrow. I got you.