It was the Russell Westbrook show in L.A., especially in the third quarter, when he scored 17 of his 36 points. Kevin Durant missed eight of his first nine before heating up; he finished with 21 PTS and 11 REB, plus 5 AST and 2 BLK. The Lakers — except for Andrew Bynum (25 PTS, 13 REB, 4 BLK) — did not shoot well. Kobe Bryant had 23 points on 25 FG attempts. Elsewhere WAS @ IND: Hardly a classic, but a
NOTES: Two of the league’s best offenses are in action tonight on TNT. The first game, a rematch of last year’s Finals, features the Dallas Mavericks visiting the Miami Heat (8 p.m. ET). Miami’s vaunted defense deservingly has gotten a lot of pub. The Heat, however, also ranks fourth in scoring, averaging 100.9 ppg, allowing for a robust +7.3 point-differential (second to Chicago’s . The second contest features the Los Angeles Lakers hosting the Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder (10:30 p.m.
The (mostly) young Oklahoma City Thunder have been the most consistent team in the Western Conference this season. The Lakers — a team full of veterans (with the exception of the one they’ll have a reunion with tonight) — are trying to get back to a level of consistency they once held over the Thunder. In a meeting between two of the top scorers in the league, Kobe Bryant and the L.A. Lakers take on the visiting Kevin Durant and the Western
// I had a phone conversation with Rick Adelman earlier this season in which he stressed the importance of the Minnesota Timberwolves making it out of the month of March with some semblance of a shot at making a late push for the playoffs. Well, April is almost here, the Timberwolves are still within striking distance of .500, and if they could somehow string together a four-game winning streak (they haven’t had one all season, although they have had four three-game
NEW ORLEANS — Here in The Big Easy for the NCAA Final Four, there are a slew of future NBA lottery picks set to take the floor Saturday night at the SuperDome. Four of the projected top six picks on DraftExpress.com’s Mock Draft and five of the top 12 play for Kentucky, Kansas and Ohio State. (Louisville is the lone Final Four representative without a projected lottery pick.) Numerous other players no longer in the NCAA Tournament have also helped their stock
Checking back in on that Battle for L.A. we were telling you about…. As in, “What battle?” The Lakers are still the Lakers, more or less, even if we still don’t know what they’ll wind up as, more or less. The Clips are no longer the Clippers, even if Clippers have always gone back to being the Clippers with mass desertions, heads rolling, lawsuits, etc. For the moment, the air has gone out of the Clips’ euphoric breakout—remember Lob City?–even with the team on
Blake Griffin was a human highlight film with 27 points, 14 REB, 5 AST and a trio of emphatic dunks in the fourth to seal the deal as the Clippers have now won three straight by double-digit margins. Chris Paul (15 & 15) played Robin to Griffin’s Batman while the Suns were short of superheroes. Marcin Gortat had 23, but elder statesman Steve Nash missed all four of his shots and the venerable Grant Hill (knee) didn’t play. Other Stuff MIN @ CHA: Kevin
Every time it looks like the Minnesota Timberwolves are no longer part of the Western Conference playoff race, Kevin Love takes over a game, leads them to a win and keeps them in the hunt. The Wolves have no right chasing a postseason berth. They were 100 games under .500 over the last two seasons. Their prized rookie point lived up to the hype, then went down with a torn ACL. Their center, a double-double revelation in his own right, also