Five-Star Review: Spurs are still better than any LeBron James team

LEBRON JAMES DRIBBLED THE SPURS TO VICTORY:  We were all set up for a cool dramatic moment in the game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland. LeBron James brought the ball up the court, Manu Ginobili pressured the ball, and then LeBron did the equivalent of sitting on a whoopee cushion to end the game.

It capped off a very subpar night for LeBron as he finished with 15 points on 6-of-17 shooting, nine assists, and five turnovers. He wasn't bad necessarily but he wasn't good enough to exorcise some demons of the Spurs from this past June. The Cavs fell to 5-5 on the season and are just 2-3 at home.

You can't kill the Cavs for losing to the Spurs at home but this one is certainly on LeBron at the end and he acknowledged as much.

THE SPURS' FRONTCOURT WAS JUST TOO GOOD FOR THIS CAVS TEAM:  A big part of the reason the Spurs were able to pull off this road victory was the play of their frontcourt. Tim Duncan was a bit of a bully inside with his effectiveness, post play, and rebounding. Boris Diaw did a great job of picking apart the Cavs in the halfcourt setting. Kawhi Leonard did a great job defensively on LeBron once again and rebounded the ball really well.

This is pretty much where you have to hurt the Cavs if you're going to beat them. They have talent in the frontcourt but they can't exactly play together just quite yet. They're still working on forming a chemistry and trust with each other. You don't really have that luxury of patience against the Spurs' frontcourt.

Duncan finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and two steals. Diaw had 19 points, seven asssits, and six rebounds. Leonard finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, and four steals. That's just absurdly good play from them. 

WELCOME BACK, JASON KIDD: This is how you welcome back a franchise legend... who just happened to try to pull off a power play to gain personnel control, only to flee to Milwaukee as their coach when it didn't work.

THE VINCE CARTER TRIBUTE IN CANADA WAS COOL: The Air Cananda Centre brought Vince Carter to tears when the Memphis Grizzlies came to town. While he still got booed during play when he touched the ball, the majority of fans embraced the moment in pregame introductions when the Raptors played a video tribute on the big board.

Carter became a little verklempt and we had a cool moment.

Then things weren't so nice for Carter and the Grizzlies as the Raptors clamped down on them in the fourth quarter and pulled out the 96-92 home victory. Toronto is 7-1 at home and enjoying this homestand quite a bit.

THIS SUMMARIZES THE SIXERS' SEASON SO FAR: There is a reason I'm not going to kill Michael Carter-Williams here for this 23-foot jumper that only went about 19 feet:

It's not the sad Charlie Brown walk that is giving them the second star here and it's certainly not the fact that I'm taking it easy on the 0-11 Philadelphia 76ers. 

I respect the optimism in the face of omni-defeat!

KEVIN LOVE STILL DOES COOL OUTLETS THOUGH SO THAT'S SOMETHING: Sure, the Cavs lost and Kevin Love has looked confused and misused in the early part of the Cavs' season but these outlet passes still happen.

BRANDON WRIGHT WENT UP TO THE 7TH FLOOR AND DROPPED KEVIN SERAPHIN OFF AT THE 5TH:  In case you had no idea, Brandan Wright is super tall, has a really long wingspan, and he can jump. Just ask Kevin Seraphin.

JJ BAREA ALSO HAD A HUGE FOURTH QUARTER FOR THE MAVS IN THEIR WIN:  That dunk is not all that happened in this 105-102 win by the Dallas Mavericks over the Washington Wizards. JJ Barea was a killer in the fourth quarter by scoring 10 points and dishing out four assists just in that period. It was like he was preparing for a #ThrowbackThursday post on the Mavs' Twitter account.

Monta Ellis was also spectacular for the Mavs, leading them with 34 points. 

The Mavs ruined Bradley Beal's return. Beal came back for the first time all season and scored 21 points on 9-of-17 off the bench. They needed him to put a stop to Monta Ellis though. Ellis scored 18 of his 34 in the first quarter. 

BRANDON KNIGHT SHOULD GET NEGATIVE STARS FOR THIS: The end of this game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets has been insane. The Bucks had a chance to win the game in the final seconds of the first overtime, only to watch Brandon Knight's incredible steal turn into a hilarious lowlight for him.

Knight missed a wide-open transition layup that would have won the game for the Bucks.

Knight ended up redeeming himself with a big 3-pointer to help send them to triple overtime and the Bucks eventually pulled out the victory, but Knight had a really bad moment there. Good to see him leave a better impression on the game when it was all said and done.

SOLOMON HILL IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME:  Watch Indiana Pacers' forward Solomon Hill do his best Ron Artest/Metta World Peace impersonation by catching the air ball and getting the winning put-back shot for the victory.

SERIOUSLY, JACQUE VAUGHN? WILLIE GREEN? Evan Fournier missed the game for the Orlando Magic against the Los Angeles Clippers. Instead of starting and playing rookie Elfrid Payton with second year guard Victor Oladipo together, he decided to give Willie Green the start and 31 minutes to Payton's 16. 

The Clippers destroyed the Magic and it probably doesn't matter who Vaughn starts, but why not get your backcourt of the future some time together? 

THESE YOUNG WOLVES CAN REALLY JUMP:  The Minnesota Timberwolves had a lot of veterans hurt, out on family business, and feeling sick heading into tonight's game against the New York Knicks. They got a chance to show off their young, athletic players, starting with Shabazz Muhammad. Check out how high he jumps for this offensive rebound:

Also, Anthony Bennett showed off his dunking ability with a great pick-and-roll that nobody on the Knicks wanted to challenge. 

We also had a Muhammad fast break alley-oop from Corey Brewer that showed off the lost weight from this offseason and the new explosiveness in his legs. 

Jump, Wolves. Jump.

A TALE OF TWO POINT GUARDS: Reggie Jackson of the Oklahoma City Thunder had to really force some shots during this game. Juxtapose that with Ty Lawson's great job of carving up the Thunder defense and finding his Denver Nuggets' teammates, and you have the difference in this game. The Nuggets had a 16-point lead that the Thunder did their best to claw back from. They got back into the game and even cut the lead down to three with a couple minutes left.

That's when we had the big swing that showed the juxtaposition above perfectly. Jackson took a desperation 3-point shot in a poor attempt to tie the game. Had he hit the shot, he could have been a hero. There wasn't much offense to the play and he really just chucked it with a hope and a prayer. It clanked off the iron and the Nuggets came down and hit back-to-back 3-pointers. Lawson found Wilson Chandler for the first 3-pointer and Arron Afflalo for the second by using dribble penetration and fantastic playmaking skills.

Lawson had a solid scoring night with 15 points on 13 shots, but his 15 assists were the difference-maker. Those 15 assists turned into 36 points for Denver. Jackson, on the other hand, scored 16 points on just 5-of-20 shooting. He did manage nine assists, and you can't ignore the Thunder injuries and Lawson having much more help tonight. But the Nuggets' point guard played smarter while Jackson chucked without much of a plan.

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT: The Phoenix Suns were able to outlast the Detroit Pistons in Detroit with an 88-86 victory. After Eric Bledsoe hit the go-ahead layup with 28 seconds left, the Pistons had multiple chances to take the lead. Markieff Morris blocked a Brandon Jennings layup attempt, but the Pistons still had a chance to win it with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope getting the ball and attempting the winning 3-point shot with about two seconds left.

Let's have Markieff describe what transpired on that shot:

KCP did in fact miss the shot, the Suns shot free throws, and ended up with the two-point road victory. I didn't know you could hit the opponent with more daggers after the final buzzer but here we are.

RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU'RE UNDEFEATED IN THE NBA THIS SEASON: Nick Young is the only person whose hand should be up right now. 

Nick Young has played two games for the Los Angeles Lakers and they've won both of them. 2-0 on this Swaggy season so far.