Kobe had 50 again as the Lakers beat the Sonics. This clinched a playoff spot for the Lakers and the only question left for them is whether they'll stay at 7 or end up at 8. Kobe had a tremendous shooting night after that stinker he threw up on Friday in Phoenix. Today he didn't miss much. He shot 18-25 and also led the Lakers on the boards with 8 rebounds. This was his 10-Th 50 point game of the season. Amazing season for the guy, but he will never get a lot of credit unless he goes deep in the playoffs. The Clippers on the other hand had a huge letdown today as they lost at home against the Kings. The Kings blitzed them early and were leading by 19 at the break. Clippers finally showed up to play in the second half, but it was too little too late. Brand had 29-14-7, but his 3 blocks couldn't compensate for the woeful defense the Clip-joint played in this one.
The Warriors handled the T-Wolves as expected and are now a game ahead of the Clip-joint. Without KG, Marko Jaric and Troy Hudson, the T-Wolves are barely a NBA team. Ricky helped himself to a 42 point night with a lot of garbage baskets in the 4-th. J-Rich had 32 as the W's blew another team out of the gym at home. They are on a roll right now and they actually look scary. There's some talk about how they would match-up well against Dallas. That is true and as a Suns fan, I would be a little scared to face this team in the playoffs. I still think the better team, be it the Mavs or the Suns, would come out winners in a 7 game series, but the W's can score. They are quickly becoming the Suns-North. They had 68 points in the first half, 106 after 3 and 121 in the game. These are becoming routine for them these days just like the Suns. They have beat the Mavs both times this year and 4 out of the last 5.
The Clippers loss put the Warirors destiny in their own hands. The Warriors play the Mavs at home and the Jail-Blazers on the road. The Clips play the Suns on the road and the Hornets at home. This is where I think the Spurs loss today to the Mavs is kind of a bad news for the W's. The Suns are locked in to the 2-nd spot and I think they'll start resting people now, definitely Nash. This means the Clips can potentially win at Phoenix, which was not expected otherwise. If the Clips lose there, the W's could have lost to Dallas and still had the chance to make the playoffs. But now they probably have to win both their games to get in. I guess this is what they mean when they say "Warriors control their own destiny". The Warriors are pretty confident about their game against the Mavs since it's at home and they have had the Mavs number lately.
The Warrior game is an interesting one for Dallas too. How does Avery play this? Does he go all out and show the W's the Mavs can of course beat them? And may be even help eliminate them from playoffs if he thinks they are a tough match-up. Or does he rest his players and accept the season sweep to the team that he could potentially play in the playoffs next week? Or even worse, what happens if he plays everybody and the W's win anyways? If I were Avery, I would rest Nowitzki and put some doubt in the Warriors minds even if they win. But knowing Avery, he might go all out to try and put the Warriors in their proper place. Just like he did today against the Spurs.
The Mavs have been resting people on and off the last week, but today he had them all locked and loaded for the Spurs. There's no way Avery was going to take this lightly. The Mavs won, but the story of this game was Tim Duncan. The guy got ejected for sitting on the bench and laughing. I guess the ref thought he was showing him up or something and threw him out. Apparently he even told Timmy that he'll fight him if thats what Timmy wanted. Weird! Wonder how this guy calls Spurs games in the future. The Spurs imploded once Timmy was gone and the Mavs won a close one. But then the victory is tainted because of Timmy's ejection.
New Jersey eliminated Indiana from the playoffs with a win today as I had expected and the Magic are now in. The only suspense now in the East is whether the Cavs or the Bulls will end up in the second spot since the other team will slip all the way to 5 and have to face the Heat in the first round. The Cavs are now 0.5 games behind the Bulls.
San Antonio @ Dallas - 86-91
New Jersey @ Indiana - 111-107
Seattle @ LA Lakers - 98-109
Interesting games on the board for Apr 16-Th (Monday)
Phoenix @ Houston - Suns are 3 games ahead of the Spurs with 2 games to go. So not sure what they have to play for here. We may not see much of Nash in this one.
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