The AP reports: Dwyane Wade was on a mission—and it was impossible for the Phoenix Suns to stop him. Wade scored a season-high 43 points, and the Miami Heat beat the Suns 107-92 Friday night in the first matchup between the teams since the Shaquille O’Neal for Shawn Marion blockbuster trade last February. Neither O’Neal nor Marion was much of a factor in the game dominated by the unstoppable Wade. O’Neal scored 12 points and Marion had 10… Udonis Haslem had 16 points and 11 rebounds, Daequan Cook scored 15 and rookie Mario Chalmers added 13 points for the Heat. Leandro Barbosa, playing on his 26th birthday, led the Suns with 20 points. Raja Bell had 16 and Amare Stoudemire 14… The Suns played without All-Star guard Steve Nash.
Month: November 2008
Nov 28: Celtics 102, Sixers 78
The AP reports: Ray Allen had a stretch of 11 straight points in the third quarter Friday. Rajon Rondo had a hand in all of them. Allen scored 23 points and Kevin Garnett added 16 to lead the Boston Celtics to their seventh straight victory, 102-78 over the Philadelphia 76ers. Allen was 10-for-15 from the field, including 3-for-5 on 3-pointers… Rondo had 12 assists, including one on the last basket of the third quarter, a perfectly executed alley-oop to Garnett for a dunk. Tony Allen and Leon Powe each scored 10 points for the Celtics. Paul Pierce was limited to six points on 1-for-6 shooting… Brand scored 18 points and Williams added 15 points. Andre Miller and Marreese Speights each had 12 points. Speights was ejected with 43 seconds remaining after committing a flagrant foul on Brian Scalabrine.
Nov 28: Cavs 112, Warriors 97
The AP reports: LeBron James scored 23 points, Zydrunas Ilgauskas added a season-high 21, and the Cavaliers matched their best home start in franchise history with a 112-97 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Friday night. Cleveland (13-3) has won 12 of 13 and is a league-best 9-0 at home, equaling its top home start, first set in 1976-77 and repeated in 1991-92… He was 9-of-13 from the floor, had seven rebounds and eight assists… Mo Williams and Daniel Gibson each scored 16 points for Cleveland. C.J. Watson led Golden State with 17 points. Jamal Crawford added 15… Forwards Ben Wallace and Wally Szczerbiak both had nine rebounds for Cleveland.
Nov 28: Raptors 93, Hawks 88
The AP reports: Chris Bosh had 30 points and 10 rebounds, Jason Kapono scored a season-high 16 points and the Toronto Raptors beat the Atlanta Hawks 93-88. Joey Graham added 11 points and Jamario Moon had 10 for Toronto, with guard Jose Calderon picking up 11 assists. Mike Bibby scored 24 points for Atlanta, Joe Johnson had 18 and reserve Maurice Evans added 17. Al Horford and Marvin Williams each had 10 points for the Hawks, who got 17 rebounds from Zaza Pachulia.
Be honest about ages, says China
The AP reports: China is ordering its basketball players to stop faking their birth dates, local media reported Friday, turning the spotlight back on allegations of systematic altering of athlete’s ages. Sports authorities have sometimes been accused of altering players’ ages to show them as being younger, mainly to qualify them for youth tournaments. Those false ages stay with athletes and can result in embarrassment and regulatory sanctions when athletes move on to greater success. While that practice, known as ‘age shaving,’ is considered widespread in sports such as basketball and football, the opposite was suspected in the controversy surrounding the women’s gymnastics competition at the Beijing Olympics.
Anthony Morrow benched
Golden State Warriors guard Anthony Morrow came out of nowhere and put himself on the map with some big performances recently. Coach Don Nelson, who sometimes appear to flip a coin to decide if he likes a certain player or not anymore, praised him pretty loudly. So what’s up now? The San Francisco Examiner (Matt Steinmetz) reports:
I don’t want to start calling Nelson the “SI Jinx,” but he’s been all over the board with his player assessments during his second stint with the Warriors. And at the very least, words of praise from Nelson don’t seem to carry much weight. Or go very far. In the four games since his sparkling debut against the Clippers, a 15-for-20 shooting night, and impressive follow-up performance against Portland, Morrow has scored 20 total points on 6-for-22 shooting. Morrow’s playing time also has dwindled during that time, going from 34 minutes to 24 minutes to 15 minutes to a DNP-CD vs. the Celtics on Wednesday.
Will Morrow play 37 minutes next game? Or two? Even Don Nelson may not know.
An Andris Biedrins weakness
The Contra Costa Times reports: It has become apparent of late that Andris Biedrins has a weakness in his game other than free throws and post-ups. He struggles against athletic big men. When he is not longer, faster and playing with more energy, he is hardly as effective. It takes a lot of energy out of him to keep up with those types, and he isn’t the type of big man who goes down on the other end and make them pay on offense. Samuel Dalembert, JaVale McGee and Kevin Garnett exposed Biedrins. You don’t realize how much Biedrins got off people overlooking him and not paying attention to him. Wednesday, when a shot went up, Garnett went for Biedrins to block him out. Both Garnett and Dalembert defended Biedrins as if they’d studied his moves, even blocking his little flip shots.
Nov 27: Hornets 105, Nuggets 101
The AP reports: Chris Paul led the Hornets with 22 points and 10 assists but came up six rebounds short of his third straight triple-double. Still, he took the game over late, scoring seven straight points for his team, including a 3-pointer from well behind the arc, with the shot clock running down, to tie it at 92 with 2:07 left… J.R. Smith led the Nuggets with a season-high 32 points. Denver tied it at 98 on Carmelo Anthony’s dunk with 37 seconds left, but the Hornets worked the ball to Posey, who made the 3 from the top right corner to give them the lead for good… Carmelo Anthony had 24 points on 8-for-13 shooting for Denver, showing more signs of coming out of a slump that had him making only 39 percent of his shots so far this season… Rasual Butler made his first seven shots for New Orleans and finished with 19 points. Peja Stojakovic had 17 and David West had 15, including a stick back of Paul’s near air ball that gave the Hornets a 98-94 lead with 52 seconds left.
Nov 27: Magic 105, Wizards 90
The AP reports: The Washington Wizards were helpless against Dwight Howard. The NBA’s leading rebounder, Howard had 26 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks to help the Orlando Magic beat the Wizards 105-90 on Thursday night. Orlando has won eight of its last nine games and six in a row on the road. Howard toyed with four Washington defenders—scoring 14 points and grabbing nine rebounds in the first 8:45 as the Magic took a 25-11 lead… Caron Butler scored 19 of his 25 points in the first half for Washington, and Antawn Jamison had 17 points and 12 rebounds… Hedo Turkoglu added 20 points and had a season-high 10 rebounds… Rashard Lewis, who gave Orlando a victory Wednesday night in Philadelphia with a late 3-pointer, added 17 points, and Mickael Peitrus also had 17. Anthony Johnson had a season-high 12 assists.
Knicks suspend Stephon Marbury
New York Knickerbockers President of Basketball Operations Donnie Walsh announced today that guard Stephon Marbury has been suspended one game without pay and his salary will be reduced an additional 1/110th for refusing to play when called upon on Wednesday, Nov. 26 at Detroit. Marbury will serve his suspension tomorrow when the Knicks host the Golden State Warriors at Madison Square Garden.
“A player’s central obligation is to provide his professional services when called upon,” Walsh said. “Because he refused the Coach’s request to play in the team’s last game, we had no choice but to impose disciplinary action.”