Game of the night: CAVALIERS 114 BULLS 108 (OT) : This didn’t disappoint. The only reason I’m not giving it five stars is that Derrick Rose had to leave the game in the third quarter because of a sprained ankle and didn’t return. At halftime, LeBron James had 19 points and Rose had 18, so we could have had a duel. Anyway, James finished with 36-8-7 and we got an intense overtime game between two title contenders. Can’t complain.
Tristan Thompson was an absolute workhorse and had a wacky line of 16 points, 12 offensive rebounds one one defensive rebound. He iced the game in OT:
Who predicted the Cavs would lose to the Knicks and beat the Bulls? I love this game!
Outlet shopping (again!) : It happened on Thursday, and we’re definitely not sick of it yet:
Circus shot of the night, Kyridiculous entry : The spin on this thing.
Circus shot of the night, LeBwhaaaaa??? entry I don’t understand.
Bigs passing : The collective basketball IQ of Cleveland’s frontcourt is sort of appalling. How dare they.
Bigs blocking : Hey, Love really tried.
Dougie McBlock-Its : He does this?
Kirkus Circus : Kirk Hinrich was crazy clutch. Not sure where this came from.
Quote of the night : Yeah, sure, everything’s going great over there:
LOL of the season : Couldn’t decide whether this gets one star or five stars. But yeah, here’s Larry Sanders almost, almost, almost attempting a shot at his own basket. I can’t stop watching/laughing.
Fear the deer/O.J. Mayonnassaince : O.J. Mayo is good again. Building off his strong preseason, Mayo has scored 42 points on 23 shots in his first two games of the season. I know it’s against the Sixers, but he finished with 25 points and five assists, shooting 5-for-7 from behind the 3-point line. Encouraging! Also in Bucks news: Jabari!
K.J. McDaniels putback dunk of the night (this is going to happen a lot) :
The Sixers' last 8:20 :
The Pacers had a good quarter! : OK, so the depleted Pacers lost 97-89 to a Grizzlies team that didn’t appear to be trying that hard. But in the second quarter, they really looked fun! Indiana was moving and shooting the ball better than I can recall when it had all of its talented players, and Frank Vogel had stretch-4 Damjan Rudez playing shooting guard, which, sure! Maybe the Pacers can watch the tape and build on this. Maybe.
Kobe can still do this : Hey, it's the old Kobe! I mean the young Kobe. You know what I mean.
Whoops : The Lakers had a little group chat and let Blake Griffin dunk. Good strategy, Lakers. Well done. Griffin finished with 39 points and made both of his 3-point attempts, by the way.
Linsufficient : What if I was to tell you that Jeremy Lin would score 17 points and dish nine assists, Bryant would have an efficient 21 and Jordan Hill would wind up with 23 points on 10-for-15 shooting? You'd assume the Lakers won, right? Yeah, no. Despite shooting 51.2 percent from the field, the Lakers found a way to lose to the Clippers by seven points. Lin did hit this crazy shot, though:
Lensanity: Phoenix center Alex Len had 10 points and 11 boards off the bench in a 94-89 upset win over the Spurs, who strangely started Austin Daye at center. Len stole Miles Plumlee's sunshine and playing time, earning 32 minutes and making a bunch of fun plays including a no-look pass in traffic.
Sacramento Globetrotters : When you think Kings, you think precision and pretty passing, right?
Line of the night (Rudy Gay) : In 36 minutes of Sacramento's 103-94 upset win over the Portland Trail Blazers, Gay dropped a cool 40 points, finishing one shy of his career high. He shot 13-for-19 from the field, 11-for-13 from the line, 3-for-4 from downtown and added eight rebounds, one assist, one steal and zero turnovers. Good gravy.