Bucks 129, Warriors 125 

Maybe it’s time I stop BASHING Brandon Jennings.  I won’t lie to you, I thought it was stupid he was going to play in Europe and I honestly thought he was over-hyped and that the Bucks made a big mistake.  It’s seven games into the season, and boy was I wrong thus far.  On Saturday, Jennings poured in 55 on 21-34 shooting, including 7-8 from downtown and 6-8 from the stripe.  Even with 55 points from Jennings the Bucks only won by 4 points against the Warriors.  The amazing thing here is the Jennings was held scoreless in the 1st quarter and went off for 29 in the 3rd when he outscored the Warriors 29-26.  Jennings broke Lew Alcindor’s (Kareem) record of 51 points by a Bucks rookie and was 3 points shy of tying Wilt Chamberlain for the most all-time points by a rookie.  The Bucks have now won 4 straight games and look like they may contend for that 7 or 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Clown of the game: Don Nelson.  I don’t understand this guy’s theory on coaching.  He starts Stephen Curry for the first few games, then he rides the bench and now he plays 25 minutes and scores 14 points.  Same thing with Anthony Randolph.  How is anyone on this team going to get in a rhythm if they don’t know what their role will be each night on a consistent basis?

Thunder 101, Spurs 98

The Thunder are over .500 and I’m not talking 1 game into the season.  No, I’m talking 9 games in as they sit 5-4, which is the best start to the Thunder’s franchise.  They battled all night and were down by 7 at halftime but came out droppin’ buckets to outscore the Spurs by 11.  Durant shot a crappy 6-18 and had 4 turnovers but he was 13-15 from the line and scored 25 points to lead all scorers.  Russell Westbrook came back with a nice effort after an abismal game last game shooting 1-11.  Westbrook had 19 points on 7-13 shooting in addition to 11 assists and no turnovers.  Jeff Green also posted a double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds.  The Thunder are really struggling with the 3-ball right now and went 2-12 on the night.

This Spurs team looks pretty bad right now.  A lot of NBAtoday.net analysts pegged in the Spurs to win it all (basically just me) but it doesn’t appear this team is on the same page.  Richard Jefferson still hasn’t molded properly with this system which I thought was going to happen from day one.  I’m not sure if he isn’t used to be a top 2 or 3 option or what, but he only took 4 shots on the night which is un-Jefferson-like.  DeJaun Blair is about 6’7″ on a good day and he is starting at center now.  This Spurs team really needs to figure out how to mesh or they won’t be in the championship like they do every 2-3 years (they are due, that’s why I picked them).

Clown of the game: Manu Ginobili.  Manu went 0-8 on the night and 0-4 from downtown.  That’s not going to fly if the Spurs expect to win games.  I understand Ginobili is a great shooter but now he has a supporting cast of RJ so if you are off, pass the ball.  RJ should be taking more than 4 shots a game.

Grizzles 97, Timberwolves 87

Gasol beasting 3 Wolves.

SOMEONE had to win this game, right?  Well that someone was the Grizzles who snapped a 7 game losing streak to bring their record to 2-8.  OJ Mayo led all scorers with 19 points and Marc Gasol added 17 points and 16 boards (to go along with 6 turnovers and fouling out of the game).  This game was pretty evenly matched as far as final numbers go.

                                   FG%     3-pt FG     Assists     Turnovers
Grizzlies                  48.8        2-14           20               21
Timberwolves       48.2        1-15           19               20

So as you can see here both teams shot well but the 3-point shooting was terrible and there was way too many turnovers this game.  Here is what really killed the Timberwolves.

                                    FT            Rebounds
Grizzlies                17-20                46
Timberwolves       6-9                   36

Clearly the difference by looking at this numbers is the Grizz were much more aggressive in getting to the line - more than double that of the Wolves.  In addition to being out rebounded by 10, the Wolves were only able to manage 6 offensive boards compared to 12 for the Grizzles.

Clown of the game: Jonny Flynn and Ryan Gomes both combined for 1-6 from 3-pt land and had 13 turnovers amongst them.  Both of these guys need to take care of the ball but especially Flynn since the ball will be in his hand most of the time.

-The Basher