Hawks 109, Lakers 92

Suddenly, after this 2-3 road trip, the Lakers look beatable, don’t they?  The Hawks smacked them around all night and got contributions of double-digit scoring from 7 players including 3 off the bench (Crawford, Pachulia and Evans) while Joe Johnson poured in 25 points to go along with 8 assists.  The Lakers defense just wasn’t present tonight as they allowed the Hawks to shoot 54% from the field.  Atlanta outrebounded, outassisted and out-less-turned-over the ball than the Lakers (they only had 5 compared to the Lakers 11).  Naturally Kobe Bryant was on point with 28 points on 12-21 shooting but you can tell he is frustrated that no one on his team (or in the NBA) can play on his level and he really needs his guys to step up.

Thunder 109, Celtics 104

When you shoot nearly 60% on 74 shots is TOUGH to lose a game but not when you are the ’09-’10 Celtics baby!  They shot 59% and LOST AT HOME!  That’s embarassing.  For that I hope they lose out and slip to the 6 seed so they play the Hawks and get swept in the opening round of the players.

Kevin Durant was BEASTIN’ it all night and finished the game with 37 points.  The game was tied heading into the 4th but KD was too much.  He was 10-20 shooting and 15-15 from the charity stripe.  Westbrook had another double-digit assist game with 10 while the Thunder are rolling to claim that 6 seed out West!

Blazers 118, Knicks 90

I had to highlight this game for the Ref.  I saw on his twitter yesterday that he was excited for this game and was hoping the Knicks would win.  Moments later another tweet about how disappointed he was with the Knicks, naturally.  This game wasn’t even a game.  I’d rather have watch the opening round of the women’s NCAA tournement this year than this game (not really).

The night after Gallinari blamed himself for the last Knicks loss he comes out and shoots 3-9.  Ouch.  If a superstar like Melo blamed himself for a loss he probably would have dropped 38 the next night which is why the Knicks are the Knicks and Melo is, well Melo.  David Lee notched another double-double for the Knicks while Aldridge had 21 points and Batum scored 20.  The Blazers seemed to have locked themselves into a playoff spot but now they are fighting for position.

-The Basher