Saturday, April 23, 2011

4/23: Rondo, Hawks/Magic, etc.

Greetings all... Short and sweet today...
  • Rajon Rondo 1, New York Knicks 0.... even if Boston won by 17 in NY is the bigger story, Rondo's crazy triple-double is 1-A... 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 20 (!) assists for Rondo in just the 2nd ever playoff triple-double that included 20 dimes (the first was Magic), and he had more assists than the entire Knicks team... this was the nail in the coffin for NY obviously, going down 3-0, and they couldn't overcome the absence of Billups and the ineffectiveness of Amare (7 points) and Melo (4 of 16, 15 points)... Done...
  • Atlanta 88, Orlando 84... Even if what is remembered about this game was that ludicrous bank-shot triple from Jamal Crawford to seal it, a win is a win... for the 3rd straight game, Larry Drew got man-handled by Stan Van Gundy, but fortunately for Atlanta, the Hawks have the much better personnel in this series when Orlando is scuffling this badly... Hedo and Jameer Nelson combined to shoot 8 of 28, and Dwight couldn't get the support he needed to... Still a pretty rough output from Joe Johnson (9 of 23) and Jamal (7 of 19), but the Hawks held their own on the glass, and put up significantly more resistance to Dwight than in the first 2 games... the result of the Zaza/Richardson scuffle will probably lead to a J-Rich suspension, and could leave Zaza or even Dwight on the sideline... definitely something to watch for, especially for Atlanta since the absence of Zaza would be magnified by a slight injury to Collins...
  • LA throttles New Orleans... Kobe finishes with 30 points on 10-20 shooting, Pau responded with 17 and 10 and Bynum added another double-double, but the real story was how the Lakers locked up the NO offense... Paul was great again with 22 points on 13 shots, but New Orleans shot just 2 of 13 from 3 and couldn't seem to knock down open jumpers... and it certainly didn't help that NO was awful off the bench led by Willie Green and Jarrett Jack combining to shoot 1-10....
  • Anibal Sanchez took a no-no into the 9th and finished with a complete game 1-hitter for the Fish against Colorado... pretty impressive against a scorching hot lineup too...
  • Could the Kings stay in Sacramento? Multiple reports presenting that as a scenario as of early Saturday morning... the "Here We Stay" campaign may have worked to some degree, but I wouldn't be counting chickens here...
What to watch for on Saturday...
  • Bulls @ Pacers - Game 4 - TNT 2:30 - This one is pretty meaningless, but Indy can lengthen things with a win...
  • Mavs @ Blazers - Game 4 - TNT 5:00 - Another virtual must-win for Portland coming off a big win in Game 3...
  • Spurs @ Grizz - Game 3 - ESPN 7:30 - Interested to see how SA responds on the road now that Manu is back and going... I think they at least steal 1 if not win both in Memphis...
  • Thunder @ Nuggets - Game 3 - ESPN 10:00 - Probably be a pretty sick atmosphere in Denver for this one, but all the pressure is on the Nuggets here... OKC has looked pretty good so far
  • Braves @ Giants - Hudson vs. Lincecum - FOX 4:00 - Best pitching matchup in the whole of the MLB on Saturday, and it just happens to include the Braves...
Enjoy...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

let's hear more on the mavs. btw did you really post this at 6 in the morning?