NBA Games Recap 3/28/09
There were 8 games played last night and every one of them went to plan:
First up in the day game the Bulls, thanks to John Salmons, managed to avoid completely blowing a 10 point 4th quarter lead at home to the Pacers to win late, 112-106. Salmons had 22 points and sunk 2 late 3-pointers to give Chicago victory and keep their play-off train firmly on the tracks. A loss last night would have seen them drop back to 8th place after Detroit also won, Ben Gordon top scored with 25 points while Brad Miller came off the bench for 17. Danny Granger led Indiana with 32 but was powerless to stop Chicago prevailing.
Next the aforementioned Detroit Pistons went to Washington knowing a loss could give a big opportunity to Charlotte to close the gap between the two sides to a half game. They got things done at the Verizon Center though and were up 12 going into the 4th quarter before being outscored and only winning by a whisker, 98-96. Rip Hamilton led with 31 with Tayshaun Prince dropping 19. One notable performance from the Wizards was Caron Butler’s double double (11-10rebounds) and the return of Gilbert Arenas for his first game in over a year, who scored 15 points and nearly won the game late on, unfortunately his 3-point attempt was blocked.
Charlotte earned their 33rd victory of the season with a home win over the New York Knicks, 96-85. Gerald Wallace flirted with a triple double before eventually ending the game with 23 points (a team high), 9 rebounds and 8 assists with 3 blocks and 2 steals to boot. After a good first quarter which saw them end it 7 points up the Knicks imploded as we’ve all seen a number of times this season. The ‘Cats were leading by 2 with no time to go in the 2nd quarter before the Knicks gave up a foul in half court as Charlotte were in the process of shooting a very long 3 to end the half. Gerald Wallace then had 3 foul shots to take with another being added on for a technical foul (presumably too much talking to the officials by NY), all 4 were converted to see Charlotte up by 6 at the break. The team from Madison then kept in range by tying the 3rd quarter before being outscored by 5 in the 4th, in a game in which the Knicks only managed to shoot 37 percent from the field.
The Heat bounced back from their recent shaky form with a rout of the Milwaukee Bucks, a team that are sorely wishing for a re-run of the second half of the season. This win saw them stay in 5th place in the Eastern Conference and the return of game winning performances by Dwayne Wade, who dropped 27 while Udonis Haslem got himself 16 and 12 rebounds. Miami won this one 102-85.
Houston managed a comfortable win over the hapless L.A Clippers, 110-93, to stay tied for 3rd place in the Western Conference with Denver. The Rockets were never in danger in this game, ahead from the start. By the end of the first half the home team was amassed a lead of 21 and the game was never in doubt. Yao Ming and Aaron Brooks each had 21 points with the former also jumping high for 15 rebounds for a double double while Shane Battier scored 15 shooting 100 percent of his shots.
Denver came home to see the Golden State Warriors at the Pepsi Center and had no trouble in dispatching them to stay as high as possible in the West. Golden State had raced into a 10 point lead early in the 1st before the Nuggets went up a few gears and started to click and eventually prevailed easily, 129-116. Carmelo Anthony top scored for the Nuggets with 31 including 3 for 5 from behind the arc.
Utah came back in overtime to beat Phoenix, after letting a 21 point lead slip in the second half. A titanic effort by Phoenix to come back and (this was emphasised by the fact that bookmakers stopped taking bets on Utah to win at the start of the second half!) eventually lead by 7 late on in the 4th before an untimely turn over gave the ball back to the Jazz who scored and took it into OT to eventually win 104-99.
Finally no surprises in the Northwest where Portland beat Memphis at home without breaking into a sweat, 86-66. This win kept the ’Blazers in 5th place in the West just behind Houston. Brandon Roy top scored with 21 with LaMarcus Aldridge also chipping in with 18 apart from them not much to speak of.
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