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.
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LaMarcus Aldridge | Aldridge had an answer for Dirk's go-ahead 3, hitting a step-back trey to knot things up. And then he had the final say with a pretty ridiculous turnaround jumper that landed pure and put the Blazers in the win column. | |
Brandon Jennings | He went for 30 against the Pistons in an easy, most non-descript Bucks win, but Jennings' third quarter was something. He scored 20 in the third frame, going on a 16-0 run by himself. | |
Klay Thompson | Picking up the slack for Stephen Curry who was a late scratch, Thompson filled it up, going for a career-high 32 on 13-24 shooting, including 6-8 from 3. Like Walter White, Thompson was cooking. | |
Lakers offense | The Lakers assisted on an astounding 34 of their 39 baskets against the Hornets. (Kobe Bryant had 11 of those, if you're wondering.) But they also chucked 33 3-pointers and missed 12 free throws. | |
Rebounding in the Pistons-Bucks game | The Pistons had 21 offensive rebounds. The Bucks had 21. I suppose you could look at that two ways: 1) What horrible defensive rebounding, or 2) what outstanding offensive rebounding. Props to Andre Drummond, though, who went for 18-18, which including nine offensive rebounds. | |
Austin Rivers | I watch the young rookie play, and I'm just shaking my head the whole time. You can see he can play; he just has no idea how to. He doesn't have any feel, which is shocking seeing what his background is and all. His heart says he's a gunner, a guy who's going to just fire away, but his skill set says he needs to be a slasher. Until he figures out what to be, he's going to continue to struggle. | |
Lakers closing | They won, though, their third straight, but only after seeing an 18-point fourth-quarter lead trimmed to one. Part of it was hot shooting from the Hornets, but more of it was terrible focus and execution on behalf of the Lakers. Again, they won, which is what's important. But they escaped by the skin of their teeth, getting a big basket from Earl Clark with 90 seconds left only after he had camped in the lane for literally six seconds and Kobe traveled three different times. |