NBA Games Recap 3/21/09
7 games were played in the NBA last night and with it a shed load of missed opportunities:
The Cavs managed to beat the Atlanta Hawks and in doing so won their 8th straight game. This game was over quite quickly, early in the second quarter Cleveland had a 24 point lead and the Cavs don’t give up those kind of leads at home. LeBron James wasn’t his team’s highest scorer for the first time in ages, only scoring 22 while Mo Williams scored 24 and had 7 assists. Not much in terms of play-off excitement here, both teams know they’ve made the post-season.
The same goes for Orlando’s win over the New York Knicks. The Knicks have tried to cling onto a hope that they could make a push for the last spot in the Eastern Conference but even they must know that that hope evaporated when they lost at home to the Sacramento Kings. Rasheed Lewis had 27 points and 4 rebounds to help the Magic to a comfortable 110-103 home win.
Boston easily beat Memphis in Memphis 105-87, the biggest story of the game being the return of Kevin Garnett who’s been sorely missed by the Celtics in the past couple of weeks. He played 17 minutes and sat out of the entire 4 quarter and managed 10 points and 4 boards. Filling his place throughout the night was Glen Davis, who had 24 points and 5 rebounds to keep the team in green rolling.
Surprisingly Phoenix managed to keep a team in double figures, although it was only the Wizards and they were at home. This was an easy win to keep the pressure on the Dallas Mavericks, who didn’t play last night, who are 3 and a half games ahead of them. Shaquille O’Neal had a double double and Jason Richardson had 35 points and 7 rebounds to see Washington off by a margin of 32 points, 128-96.
Now we get onto the missed opportunities, Portland came out of Milwaukee with a win, no real surprise there the Bucks aren’t that good. Brandon Roy did the business again helping his team with 30 points and 7 assists to get them to a 96-84 road win. This has no doubt hurt the Bucks who needed this win to keep them in the hunt for the final spot in the East, especially needed if Chicago or Charlotte won their home games…
Firstly the easiest of the two home games, Indiana went into Charlotte with a road record of 9-28 against the ‘Cats home record of 20-16. No contest you would think but the Pacers, who themselves hope to make a run for the play-offs only being 3 and a half games off 8th, with Danny Granger back shocked the Bobcats, only giving up 9 points to Diaw and co. in the 3rd quarter to win 108-83 with Jarrett Jack helping himself to 31 points and 13 of 14 field goals. Milwaukee were thankful.
And then thankful again as the L.A Lakers went into Chicago and beat them by 8. Pau Gasol gave the Lakers a double double and Kobe Bryant chipped in with 28 points to help the Western Conference leaders come back from 24-34 down at the end of the 1st quarter. So who were the real winners from those 3 losses, well Detroit were.
If Chicago had won they would have been a game behind the stuttering Pistons while the Bobcats would have been only 2 games behind. I doubt even the Pistons head coach Mike Curry knows which Pistons team will turn up each night so to still have a cushion on the teams directly below them after going 5-5 in the last 10 games will be a relief.
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