Big Baby Davis has been more accurate before. (Getty Images) |
Each night, Eye on Basketball brings you what you need to know about the games of the NBA. From great performances to terrible clock management the report card evaluates and eviscerates the good, the bad, and the ugly from the night that was.
No ad available
Joakim Noah | Joakim Noah was a big reason why Big Baby had as much funk in his game as he did tonight. That wasn't a Bootsy Collins compliment either. Noah's final line on the night reads 20 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and five blocks. Four of his blocks came against Davis, and he helped Chicago limit Orlando to just 30 points in the paint. Noah even holstered his finger guns after knocking down a midrange tornado shot. | |
Kevin Durant's dunk | What happens when a rookie is slow to rotate from the weak side and he's staring down a 7'4" wingspan? You get a rook being welcomed to the NBA in spectacular fashion. Jonas Valanciunas is going to get dunked on a lot in his career because he's a fearless shot-blocker. He's also going to turn away his fair share of attempts at the rim. For now, he'll have to enjoy being on a poster. Maybe KD will autograph it for him. | |
Arron Afflalo | Arron Afflalo had a nearly flawless game that was pretty much ruined by Big Baby's shooting performance. Afflalo dropped 28 points, five rebounds, five assists and had zero turnovers in Orlando's loss to the Bulls. After two spirited wins to open the season for the Dwight-less Magic, Orlando was stymied in by the suffocating Bulls defense. Afflalo tried his best with 10-of-17 shooting but he just couldn't do enough Tuesday night. | |
Denver Nuggets | The Denver Nuggets are in the win column! One of the preseason darlings amongst pundits struggled through their first two games and lost a thriller to the Miami Heat to start the season 0-3. They finally got to play the Detroit Pistons and used them to right their ship, much like the Lakers did the other night. Denver was +17 on the boards and used six players in double figures to come through with their first win. Now they can focus on dominating the regular season, like they were projected to do. | |
Glen "Big Baby" Davis | Glen Davis may want to give himself a timeout. His shot chart was all over the place. There was this sweeping sense of red taking over the chart, much like in the movie Outbreak when the military is projecting the spread of the virus. Unfortunately, Orlando didn't have Dustin Hoffman and Cuba Gooding, Jr to save the day. Davis finished with 16 points on 7-of-22 shooting. He did get 10 rebounds, but his biggest contribution was eventually fouling out. |