You always hear that the NBA game is all about match-ups. They start talking about this a lot more especially when the playoffs start. Sometimes it makes sense, but sometimes it just sounds like something the over-paid, dim-witted TV analysts have to say to justify their jobs on 24 hour all-sports TV networks. This was one of those days where the whole match-up angle made a lot of sense. The Warriors crushed the Mavs to stop their 17-game winning streak, but it was not even that surprising to me. Believe it or not the Warriors have won 4 straight against the Mavs and 5 of 6 the last 2 years. They match-up very well against the Mavs and with Nelly coaching the Warriors now, the Mavs have problems against this team. The Warriors blitzed them right from the start and though the teams were tied at 33 after one, the Warriors felt good coming out of that quarter and just kept on going. Nowitzki had just 13 in this one and the Warriors had an impressive win finally.
The Suns beat the Rockets for their 9-th win in 10 games since the all-star break. It looks like the Brazilian Blur has been carrying the Suns lately. He had 32 points on 12-18 shooting with 5-6 from beyond the arc. Yao shot 1-9 and T-Mac shot 8-28 and thats not going to get it done for the Rockets. Thats some pathetic numbers against a soft defense like the Suns. Orlando's free fall continued today with a 119-108 loss at Charlotte despite 26-11 from Dwight Howard. Carter had 30-10 to guide the Nets over Memphis. The Nets might have some juice now with Richard Jefferson back from injury. The Magic are probably done.
The other big news of the day was from the Big Apple. Knicks chairman James Dolan announced an extension for Coach and President Isiah Thomas in a surprising move. He had said at the beginning of the season that Isiah had just a year to show some improvement and he now says he has seen it. I kinda agree with Dolan. Isiah has been one of the worst GMs probably in the history of the game. But he was not fired earlier and this is definitely not the time to fire now given the Knicks have looked much better under him than they ever did under the hall-of-famer Larry Brown. He has gotten a lot out of Eddie Curry, which has also improved his image as a GM because that was one of his big moves last year. He has also convinced Starbury to play in a system and defer to Curry and Jamal Crawford. He also has Stevie Franchise play second or third fiddle to all these other guys and he has the Knicks in the playoff race. I think he has earned an extension. My point is simply this. If Dolan didn't fire Isiah for all that he did between 2003 and 2006, there is no reason to fire him now that he has actually improved the franchise in the last 6 months or so.
Dallas @ Golden State - 100-117
Houston @ Phoenix - 82-103
Interesting games on the board for Mar 13-th (Tuesday)
Sacramento @ Cleveland - The Kings are in The King's way.
Utah @ Miami - Miami has been rolling without Wade, but here's a good test coming from the real conference.
LA Clippers @ San Antonio - The paper-Clips meet the streaking Spurs.
No comments:
Post a Comment