Wild Thing: After blessing us with a great Wednesday night of NBA games, the Basketball Gods decided to punish us with a game between the Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers on National TV. The results weren’t exactly the insult to basketball, that we expected. We actually got a pretty good one man show from Joakim Noah. The bunhead led the Bulls with his third career triple-double on a game-high 23 points (8 of 12), 21 rebounds and 11 blocks to send the Philadelphia 76ers home with a 7 game losing streak. Noah becomes the first player since 1998 to record at least 20 points, 20 boards and 10 blocks in a game and is the first ever to do it while shooting at least 65 percent from the field. Carlos Boozer added 21 points (5 of 13) and 12 rebounds. On the other side, Jrue Holiday scored 22 points on 19 shots. Spencer Hawes chipped in for 20 points on 18 shots and 15 boards for the Sixers.
Joakim Noah will have none of yourself silly shot attempts.
Point Gawd: The Indiana Pacers minus Roy Hibbert took on the Los Angeles Clippers last night and got dominated inside without their big man in the middle. David West had a team-high 22 points (5 of 14) and 6 rebounds. Paul George got 20 points on 18 shots and 5 assists. The Clippers made a huge push in the third, where Blake Griffin scored 10 of his 18 points to take the lead, which they would eventually hold on to before the buzzer sounds. Griffin finished with 7 of 10 shooting from the field and grabbed 14 rebounds. Indiana made a late 11-0 run in the final minutes, but Point Gawd, Chris Paul descended on to the court to score 3 clutch baskets to extend the lead after every deficit cut. The Clippers point guard registered 29 points on 11 of 18 shooting, 6 rebounds and 8 assists to hand the Pacers’ their first home loss since December 7th.
What is the point of fouling Blake Griffin? Do yourself a favor and just get out of the way.
The Chase: Only 2 wins away from .500, the Los Angeles Lakers entered the Staples Center last night to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves to get one step closer to their mission. And it got a lot easier when Wolves’ center, Nikola Pekovic left the game with a left abdominal strain in 9 minutes of play. Ricky Rubio did everything he could with 13 points (5 of 11), 8 rebounds and 13 assists (9 of which were accomplished in 14 minutes of the first half) in a game where Minnesota never led. J.J. Barea came off the bench for 20 points (8 of 14), and 5 assists. A determined Kobe went off for 22 points n the first half, finishing the game with a total 33 points (13 of 22), 5 rebounds and 5 assists. With his two steals on the night, Kobe stole his career 18,000th basketball, becoming the 15th player in NBA history to do so. The Lakers connected on half of their three pointers, knocking down 16 of their 32 attempts to defeat Minnesota for the 21st straight time.
Classic Ricky.
Kobe is a product of German Engineering. Thank you, science.
Follow me on twitter @Leslie_Kam. You can also find me on The Basketball Machine for more NBA fun.
