Celtics + Around The NBA

Celtics 89, @ Hornets 77
The Celts fucked around with NO for the first 3 quarters until they finally blew them away in the 4th. Pierce was his usual monster, scoring 30, while the C's got key contributions from KG (another ho-hum 14 and 10), Eddie (8 of his 12 pts in the 4th), Powe (went for 11 and 6, great to see him playing with more confidence) and of course Rondo (11 ast and 8 rebs). Rondo also got the Tommy Award so good call on that one DP. On a darker side, Ray Ray left the game with a hyperextended thumb; X-rays were negative but only an MRI will truly tell what the damage is. Don't expect him to play tomorrow, but I don't mind as long as he rests it over the break. Overall, an uncharacteristically sloppy game by the Celts, with some curious officiating to boot, but they stuck it out and got the W.

@Jazz 113, Lakers 109
Really fun game to watch, made even sweeter with a Lakers' loss. Hackfest '09. Lots of fouls called, but thats Utah's style of basketball. Jazz trailed by 2 at halftime but rode a strong 3rd quarter to gain a lead that stretched to as far as 8 or 9. LA fought back like they always do and actually took the lead 105-104 with 1:30ish left in the 4th following a Kobe 3-pointer. However Kobe's next course of action gave his team the metaphorical "kiss of death." After hitting the shot, a timeout was called and he bounced back to the Laker bench doing his stolen-from-Sam-Cassel "big balls dance." (I know you will appreciate that DP) Needless to say, the Lakers lost, despite Utah nearly handing it to them by missing 9 of 18 free throws in the 4th alone (yikes!). I think I've seen Kobe do his not-so-patented dance at least 3 times, all of which proved premature as the opposing team wound up winning the game. What an ass. He scored 37 but D-Will poured in 31 and 11 assists for the Jazz. They are one team that, once they get healthy (which will be post-allstar game), are a dark horse in a wide open Western Conference.

@Raptors 91, Spurs 89
Just another reason for me to question the Spurs' legitimate chances of challenging the Lakers (or anyone for that matter) in the West. Ginobili drops 32, Parker gives you 22 and Duncan scores 20, and you lose to the fucking Raptors? Where was Matt Bonner you might say? -- 0 pts. Roger Mason? -- 9 pts. Oh and the Raptors were playing without Chris Bosh and Jose Calderon. Again, this is just an embarrassing loss, yet you can't even pin it on their Big 3 because they all played real well. The rest of their team is just straight scrubs.

Nuggets 82, @Magic 73
This game was really not even as close as that final score. I can't for the life of me figure out the Nuggets. One minute they are beating down the likes of the Celtics and now Orlando, the next they are losing to cellar-dwellers. When they are on their game, especially now that they have added Billups, they are more than legit -- they are downright scary. Extremely explosive offensively, and can actually play some physical defense...when they want to. Yet I'm still not sold on them to be able to challenge in the West, even after this win. Maybe it's because I think ORL is regressing before our eyes. Losing J Nelson was just the snowball that will result in the avalanche of them falling from the NBA's elite. Lucky for them there is a significant gap between themselves and the 4th place team in the East. They have no point guard production whatsoever, and that screws up their whole penetrate-and-dish philosophy -- which also nullifies the effectiveness of Howard, as he has little to no space to operate. Melo scored 29 pts with 8 rebs, he's fuckin nasty.