A day after the Spurs held the Suns to an uncharacteristically low score, Dallas and Denver played an ugly one. This was even more surprising considering neither of these teams play defense like the Spurs. There was no offensive flow to this game and Denver seemed to get a lot of good shots, but rimmed out most of them. It was like everybody on the team had a bad night and an awful shooting touch all at once. Dallas controlled the game most of the night, but Denver came through strong in the fourth. Both AI and Melo got it going in the money quarter and things got interesting for Dallas. Melo scores a lot and gets criticized in some quarters for not doing much else, but you got to give him credit for one thing. The guy is truly clutch. I remember him last year leading the league in some of the "clutch" categories maintained in the website 82games.com, an interesting site that maintains all kinds of NBA stats. I am not sure where he stands this year, but the guy is never afraid to take and make big shots. He had a good fourth in this one and even had a steal at the end to seal the game. He is hard to defend too. He is pretty strong and talented in the low block. Good win for the rich-and-creamy and the Mavs can't win 70 games anymore.
Phoenix won at New Orleans who are dealing with a host of injuries. 4 of their 5 opening day starters are hurt and they had no real shot in this one. Barbosa had 26. He is in a close race for the 6-Th man of the year award with Ginobli, who has suddenly become a contender since he is coming off the bench these days. In Sacramento, Utah blew a big double digit lead to lose to the Kings. Kevin Martin and John Salmons were the heroes today.
Kobe had 46 points as the Lakers had difficulty dispatching the Sonics. The Lakers can't defend anybody these days as Chris Wilcox had 32 in the paint. Houston lost to Portland with both Yao and T-Mac missing the game with back issues. Brandon R-O-Y had 24. In Memphis, Baron Davis had a dominant game with 31-8-9 as the Warriors won to keep pace in the Western playoff race. LeBron James had 25-6-5 as the Cavs beat Antawn Jamison and the Wizards. Tawn had 27 in the loss. It's his team now with both Agent-0 and C-Butler hurt. Big E, Earl Boykins had 36 points and 9 dimes in the game nobody watched at Atlanta, but still impressive for a guy who is 5'5", that's on a good day.
Dallas @ Denver - 71-75
Phoenix @ NO/OK Hornets - 103-95
Interesting games on the board for Apr 7-Th (Saturday)
Denver @ LA Clippers - Two hot teams from the bottom of the West duke it out.
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