YES, THERE WAS AN NBA GAME ON MONDAY
: The NBA normally takes the night off when the NCAA championship game is happening, but not this year. Portland and Brooklyn's late-January matchup at Barclays Center was postponed because of severe weather conditions, so the Blazers flew across the country just for this.
Well, some of the Blazers. LaMarcus Aldridge, Nicolas Batum and Chris Kaman did not make the trip. Portland's starting lineup was Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, Arron Afflalo, Meyers Leonard and Robin Lopez. Joel Freeland was the only big off the bench, so Alonzo Gee and Allen Crabbe both played some minutes at power forward.
Lillard was awesome -- he had 36 points on 14-for-26 shooting -- and both McCollum and Leonard were effective offensively, but Portland just didn't have any firepower left on its bench. The loss means it is two games back of Memphis for the third spot in the West.
Brook won the battle of the Lopezes, finishing with 32 points (15-25 FG), nine rebounds, one assist, one steal, one block and no turnovers in 32 minutes. In fact, no Nets starter turned the ball over. The back-to-back Eastern Conference player of the week pulled off a nice spin move on his brother, too:
Robin did have a block on him earlier, though. So that's something. Especially after he called Brook a "crappy center."
Deron Williams continues to look rejuvenated. He had 24 points, 10 assists and six rebounds. He got into the lane at will and also made four of his five 3-point attempts. Brooklyn has won seven of its last eight games and is seventh in the East, two games back of the sixth-place Bucks.
DUNK OF THE NIGHT
: Thaddeus Young threw one down on Leonard late in the fourth quarter. It was something of a dagger.
DUNK OF THE NIGHT RUNNER-UP: Apparently the Trail Blazers want us to call Leonard "Legend." I won't do that, but I will watch this dunk a few more times.
WHEEEEEE: Williams did a little Steve Nash impression in the first quarter. The Nets are still pretty boring, but he's fun to watch again, which is nice.
KAREEM, HE IS NOT
: Steve Blake tried a skyhook. Guess what happened.
THERE WERE 18 SECONDS LEFT ON THE SHOT CLOCK: Damian Lillard is just ridiculous. I love that he even attempted this shot.
