Not a lot of games tonight (only three), and no line really stepped up as very impressive. Sure, the lines were solid, but nothing over the edge. Luol Deng had the best line of the night, with 24 points on 8-16 shooting, 1-1 treys, 7-7 free throws, 13 boards and 5 assists, as he helped the Bulls beat the Knicks in a comeback victory. John Salmons (20 points on 7-14 shooting [7 points in the crucial final minute], a trey, 5-5 free throws, 7 boards, 4 assists, and a steal) and Derrick Rose helped, too (18, 4 and 6). (It's a rarity that those contribute these days.) The Knicks were on fire in the first quarter, leading at one point by 17. They shot 29 three-pointers in the first half- an NBA record. And then, after their shots stopped falling, they still kept shooting. They attempted 47 treys for the game- 2 attempts shy of the NBA record for the most treys attempted in a game- held by the Mavs in '96.Dwyane Wade (25 on 10-17 shooting, 3 and 7, with a trey and 3 blocks) and Michael Beasley (22 on 8-15 shooting, 8 and 2) continued their strong play as they beat the Magic at home. Outside of Dwight Howard (17 and 14), no other Magic really showed up as Miami romped Orlando 104-86.
Sophomore Jerryd Bayless (a career-high 29 points on 9-15 shooting, 2-3 treys, 3 boards and 4 assists) was the star of the day, as he surprisingly led Portland to a narrow victory over Steve Nash (16 points on 7-11 shooting, 2 treys, 5 boards, 13 assists, and 2 steals), Amare Stoudemire (27 points on 9-19 shooting, 9-11 from the line, 11 boards, an assist, and a block) and the Suns, 105-102. Brandon Roy (27, 8 and 4, with 3 steals) helped a bit, too.
The rarely-used Bayless got 29 minutes off the bench as opposed to starter Andre Miller's (4 points on 1-3 shooting) 18 minutes. Bayless took advantage of his minutes, scoring a point per minute for a grand total of 29 points. I always thought that Bayless was a good player. He's young, energetic, can shoot, can handle the ball, finish near the rim, and he does what is asked of him. It's just that- with Brandon Roy, Andre Miller, and Steve Blake (12 points in 38 minutes) the primary ball-handlers on the team, Bayless hardly gets any run time, and unless somebody gets injured or traded- or, he himself gets traded- then it doesn't look like he'll get much run in the near future, unfortunately.
It's ironic that the Knicks would lose a game they should've won due to their excess of three-point shot attempts the day after I posted an entry explaining the pitfalls of the three-point shot.
Life lesson of the day: If it's broke, then get it fixed- instead of just launching more treys. Oh, and other teams, take notice: learn from the mistakes of the Knicks if you want to save the reputation of your franchise.
No comments:
Post a Comment