Amare had a monster game today reminding us of his STAT-days from the 2005 playoffs. He had a 43-17 game with Marion going for 21-7 and Nash scoring 14 points to go with 13 assists. It's time to officially declare "Amare is back"! I think he is close to 95% of where he was before the injury. We don't see as many ferocious dunks as we saw before, but thats partially because he is a mature player now who knows how to score without picking up 3 offensive fouls a quarter. There's more finesse and jump shots in his game today and thats not all because of the injury. In any case, the West better watch out for this guy.
Vinsanity had a 40 point night to help the Nets beat the Knicks. He also had 9 boards and 8 assists. Not bad for someone who was going to be traded 3 days back. Vince's cousin T-Mac went in to his old stomping grounds and scored 34 points (not quite the 45 I had predicted) to beat the Magic in front of his mom. Orlando is struggling lately and not sure if they'll even make the playoffs. Right now they are behind the Nets for the 8-th spot. The other guy who had a huge scoring night today was Kevin Martin of Sacramento. He had 35 points as the Kings beat Pacers with Ron Artest missing the game for personal reasons. Not sure what thats all about. Hope he didn't take some time off to feed his (allegedly) starving dogs :-) The Kings are actually putting together a playoff run and might overtake the Warriors and the Clippers to get in.
Chicago lost at Detroit after leading by 16 points in the third. Detroit is back to doing what they do best. D-up, play some team-ball, execute in the clutch and win. Ben Wallace was back in Detroit and the PA announcer gave him a nice intro, calling him the "cornerstone of Detroit's resurgence"! I have never seen the official PA guy treating a returning player that nice. The C-Webb experiment is still doing real well. He won the game on a tip-in off a Billups miss. He had a 21-9 night. Cleveland had another disappointing loss at Miami even without Wade. King had 29-3-7, but Daddy had a 19-11 night to lead a bunch of Heat role players to the promised land. Lets see how far the Diesel can take them now.
Garnett had a 26-17 game to beat the Wizards. Agent-0 had a 4-22 shooting night and thats not what wins games for the Wizards. He shot 1-11 from downtown. You would think you will stop shooting the 3 after 5 or 6 misses, but then again he shot only 3-11 from inside the arc. So I guess he figured it didn't matter where he was shooting it from today.
I was watching the Lakers - Golden State game today and saw a really bad performance by Nelly's Warriors. They are embarking on a 6 game roadie and that might end their playoff dreams. Kobe had 26 points and Mo Evans had a matching 26 on 10 less shot attempts than Kobe! It's amazing how the game gets really easy for the role players when they play with a super-star like Kobe. Evans was wide-open all night, and mostly right under the basket. By the way, what's up with the Warriors defense? Looked like every time Kobe got double or triple teamed, the open guy was right under the basket and not at the 3-point line like defensive rotations often dictate. I was also surprised by the number of Laker and Kobe fans you see in every venue around the league. Kobe is hugely popular and his image-rehab seems to be totally complete. Amazing, considering he had to deal with the double whammy of the rape case and the Shaq trade.
Chicago @ Detroit- 93-95
Houston @ Orlando - 97-93
Cleveland @ Miami - 81-86
Phoenix @ Atlanta - 115-106
Interesting games on the board for Feb 26-th (Monday)
LA Lakers @ Utah - Kobe goes in to Utah to face a tough opponent.
Toronto @ San Antonio - If Toronto thinks they are real contenders, this is their place to prove it.
Miami @ New York - Pat Riley takes his team into New York to face the much-improved Knicks, but is without Wade.
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