Blazers 114, Mavs 112 (OT)

This has been a pretty amazing season for the NBA so far. Tons of exciting games and intriguing questions from week to week, and we haven’t even reached the All-Star break yet! But we have a winner for the most amazing thing to happen in the NBA this season:

ANDRE MILLER SCORED 52 POINTS!

Seriously, I would sooner guess that Andre Miller would have 52 assists in a game instead of 52 points. My goodness! The elderly point guard shot 22-31 from the field, and scored 25 of the points in the fourth quarter and overtime. Apparently he was also only two points short of the team record set by Damon Stoudamire (who knew??!!). All I can say is, I can only assume Miller read The Basher’s top underachieving post and responded – big time.

This was a great game, but I am completely caught up on Miller’s huge point total, so that’s all I’m mentioning on this game…

Hornets 109, Grizzlies 102 (OT)

Come on Grizz! You’re blowin’ my spot here!

The Grizzlies lost in Memphis for the first time in 12 games to a Hornets team that was missing big time PG Chris Paul. I was following this game from a score standpoint from the second quarter on, and I just watched the Grizz’s lead drop from double digits (21 points specifically) to force OT. And that overtime period was absolutely owned by the Stingers.

Want to know how the Hornets won without Chris Paul? It’s pretty simple actually; Darren Collison had 17 points and 18 assists! Jeez, that’s the kind of production that the two of them would normally have together.

Magic 104, Hawks 86

Are the Orlando Magic back to their Eastern Conference dominance?

Well, I don’t know about dominance, but they are back to winning at home against good teams. A day after the Hawks completed a series sweep of the Celtics, the Magic took care of the Hawks at home. Dwight Howard posted 31 points and 19 boards in a game that he completely dominated. The Atlanta big men had a combined six points, 11 rebounds, zero blocks, and 13 fouls on the Magic’s biggest asset.

I guess everyone is going to jump off the Hawks bandwagon and jump back on the Magic bandwagon that was traveling last year. But you know what, since there’s been a ton of questions around most of the ‘elite’ teams in the East, I’ve come to realize that the only dominant team in the East is the Cleveland LeBrons. So there you go, a trip to the NBA Finals will go though Cleveland (and LeBron). Go underdogs.

Bucks 95, Heat 84

This game was a total snoozer. I was hoping that the matchup of Dwyane Wade and Brandon Jennings would live up to its billing, but Wade was in foul trouble. Obviously, that killed the Heat.

Andrew Bogut had another great game for the Bucks though, as he totaled 17 points and 15 rebounds. I’m DEF not saying he is an All-Star, but I wonder if he got any attention as a center in the East. If he keeps playing like he has for most of this season, I could see him being an All-Star as early as next year. The key will be getting the Bucks in the playoffs so that his name gets back out there.

Wizards 106, Knicks 96

Holy smokes! Mike Miller scored 25 points with seven 3-pointers made! WOW!

I know he was able to do this in the earlier stages of his career, but I didn’t know he still had it in him. Not only did he go back to his hot shooting ways, but he even had eight assists and nine rebounds to boot.

The best thing of all, and this is by far the best thing…he did it against the KNICKS! Let’s gooo!!

Bobcats 103, Kings 96

I know it probably doesn’t mean much, so I’m not going to get overly excited about this…but the Charlotte Bobcats are now winning on the road! And not only are they winning on the road now, but they are also winning on the west coast!! Honestly, I never thought that they would ever win three games within a west coast roady.

Gerald Wallace led the ‘Cats with a strong defensive third quarter in which they outscored the Kings 34-13. He also scored a season-high 38 points with 11 rebounds. He is truly an All-Star and he finally got his due this season.

This really wasn’t even a close game, but the Kings caught up in the fourth by outscoring Charlotte by 16 in the final quarter.

I end this post with something G mentioned to me today. The Kings should trade Kevin Martin for Carlos Boozer. We’ll cover this either on a podcast or if/when it happens, but that could solve issues for both teams.

-Shooter