… and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Hey, gotta try to one-up the Sixers’ fans, right?
In the city where they once booed Santa Claus, the patrons were not quite so delighted last night. And they let the home team know about it.
The Philadelphia 76ers were booed off their home floor in their final home game of the regular season Tuesday night, a 102-97 loss to the Indiana Pacers that cut their lead over ninth-place Milwaukee to 1 1/2 games with eight days remaining in the regular season. One of those days includes a Sixers-Bucks matchup in Milwaukee a week from tonight that could decide the East’s final playoff spot.
Philadelphia will play its final five games on the road, including a game tonight in Cleveland that will mark the third step of a back-to-back-to-back.
The Sixers will carry a three-game losing streak into the matchup. They are 3-18 in games decided by seven or less points, 2-23 when tied or trailing after three quarters.
We don’t want these guys in the playoffs any more than Sixers fans do, do we?
From Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News: “The Sixers didn’t find a new way to lose in front of 18,696 at the Wells Fargo Center; instead, they just reverted to the same story from the night before. Monday, the Orlando Magic lit it up from behind the three-point line, making 11 of 18. Indiana (40-22) followed suit, draining 13 of 24 from beyond the arc, outscoring the Sixers by 24 points in that area. “Man, teams are hot from behind that three-point line against us,” coach Doug Collins said. “I don’t know if I’ve gone through a stretch where I’ve seen teams shoot like this. New Jersey hit some critical ones (April 13) when they beat us; Orlando [Monday], [Tuesday] 13 of 24 from three. I think our guys did a lot of good things. That Indiana team is good. They’ve got size, they’ve got shooting they’ve got depth. Just a mistake here, a mistake there . . . Eventually, you have to win some of those games. There are two things we haven’t done this year: win close games and get to the free throw line. To me those are two areas that stand out. To me, both those are physical and mental toughness. Closing out games is mental toughness; getting to the free throw line [is] physical toughness; and we have not done a good job all season long in those two areas. And it’s not like as a coach I don’t talk about it all the time.”Talking, like much of everything else, isn’t working for the team right now, and the Sixers are fighting for their playoff lives. They are now stuck in the eighth playoff spot, just 1 1/2 games up on Milwaukee, where they’ll play next Wednesday. But first come road games Wednesday at Cleveland, Saturday at Indiana, Monday at New Jersey. After Milwaukee, they play the next night in Detroit to finish the regular season. Certainly not an easy chore, especially when wins are harder to come by now than clean Penguins-Flyers games. It is why Collins had former Sixers great Julius Erving address the team in the locker room following the loss. Erving spoke of opportunities being grabbed, not squandered. Whether that fell on deaf ears will soon be played out.”
It was a light night in the NBA with only five games on the schedule, but it was a lights-out night at Madison Square Garden as the New York Knicks made 19 3-pointers — 14 in the first half — to defeat the Boston Celtics 118-110. Carmelo Anthony had 35 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists for his second career triple-double, Steve Novak hit eight 3s in the highest-scoring game of his career (25 points), and J.R. Smith made all seven of his 3s in the first half, equaling a team record.
It helped the Knicks overcome a season-high 43-point performance from Paul Pierce, whose team was trying to clinch its fifth straight Atlantic Division title.
From Marc Berman of the New York Post: “Smith and Novak each had 25 points off the bench and the trio led the Knicks to a wild, season-high 72-point first half. Center Tyson Chandler also contributed 20 points, dominating inside with nine of 10 buckets. ”I had nine and nine before,’’ Anthony said. “I’ve been missing it throughout my whole career. But tonight, coming into a game like this, it wasn’t me. It was Novak and J.R. making those shots. They wouldn’t have made the shots, I wouldn’t have had the triple-double.’’ Novak finished 8-of-10 from 3-point land, including back-to-back triples that knocked the Celtics out for good in the final three minutes. Smith was 7 of 10 from beyond the arc and scored 21 first-half points. The Knicks bagged 19 triples on the night — one off their franchise record — in a dizzying display reminiscent of the Mike D’Antoni era. “He is the best 3-point shooter in our league,’’ Smith said of Novak. “It is not even close. People are starting to catch on to it, but not fast enough. To be honest, when I get the ball, he’s the first person I’m trying to find.’’
From Ian O’Connor of ESPNNewYork.com: “The 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks beat the Heat, and the star system, with (Dirk) Nowitzki and a willing supporting cast anchored in the middle by Tyson Chandler, a pro’s pro and winner’s winner who makes a mockery of David Stern’s refusal to let high school grads into the draft. If Nowitzki could do it with Chandler and Co., why can’t Anthony? “He’s really put this team on his shoulders,” said Chandler, who hit the Celtics for 20 points and seven rebounds, “and yes, it does remind me of what Dirk did for us [last year]. I talked to [Anthony] a couple of times after games and said, ‘If you continue to play like that it will just lift the other guys’ play and we can make a heck of a run.'” Chandler was walking out of his locker room, heading for the Garden exits, when asked if Anthony could do for the Knicks what Nowitzki did for the Mavs. “For sure, for sure,” the center said. “They’re two different players, but I put them both right at the top and I definitely think we can duplicate what we did [in Dallas].” Beyond Nowitzki and Chandler, the Mavericks who averaged double figures in minutes during last year’s playoffs included Jason Terry, Shawn Marion, Jason Kidd, Jose Barea, Peja Stojakovic,DeShawn Stevenson, and Brendan Haywood. Beyond Anthony and Chandler, the Knicks already have a rotation (when healthy) in the same ballpark. An aging Baron Davis is no aging Kidd, but Marion is no Stoudemire, either, even with Amare in a diminished physical state. The Terrys and Bareas and Pejas more or less line up with the Smiths and Lins and Novaks, and Iman Shumpert is a better stopper, and prospect, than Stevenson is or was.”
Meanwhile on the Left Coast, it was payback time for the San Antonio Spurs.
No one had made them look worse than the Los Angeles Lakers did six days ago when they came into the Alamo City and took a 26-point lead on Gregg Popovich’s team, and vengeance was the motivating factor in the rematch last night at Staples Center.
Vengeance was had.
Tony Parker had 29 points and 13 assists, Tim Duncan added 19 points and eight rebounds and the Spurs used an 18-0 second-quarter run to hand the Lakers their worst loss of the season, 112-91. The Spurs snapped Los Angeles’ four-game winning streak, although Kobe Bryant sat out his sixth straight game to rest his bruised shin.
“It went just as well for us as it went for them in San Antonio,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “The Lakers had the kind of night we had back home when they destroyed us. So we had a good night, and we still caught a break: I looked hard, but I didn’t see Kobe anywhere. I think that helped us a little bit.”
From J.A. Adande of ESPN.com: “The Spurs should no longer be bound by our old perceptions of them. The only reason the Spurs don’t get more billing as title contenders is because of our own biases, our tendency to think of them as the same aging team that hasn’t won a title since 2007, back when we envisioned a bright future for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. These 2012 Spurs are younger, faster and deeper. Which means they’ll be up against the conventional playoff wisdom that speed and depth aren’t the ways to win in the playoffs. It’s still hard to adjust to the Spurs as a different team. But their young, fast guys play almost as many minutes as the slow dudes. And how do we classify Tony Parker? Because he’s been in the league 11 years we think of him as older, but he’s still only 29. We should be thinking of him as a serious MVP candidate. Parker is the heart of the Spurs the way Rajon Rondo is the most vital organ of the Celtics. It’s not that Parker is scoring more (his 18.4 points per game don’t even crack his top four seasons), but he’s doing a better job than ever of running a team the way a point guard is supposed to. We can definitely put Parker in the fast category. Ask Steve Blake, whom Parker statued on his way to a layup. (I know statued isn’t a word, but there’s no other way to describe the way Parker made Blake look like Lady Liberty with a full-speed change of direction.)Collectively the Spurs put 112 points on the Lakers. Thirty-six of their points came in the second quarter, when the pace picked up and the reserves got extended playing time. Both are decided advantages for the Spurs against the Lakers.
San Antonio (44-16) now sits a half-game ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder (44-17) in the Western Conference race and holds the tiebreaker. The Lakers are only a half-game up on the Clippers in the Pacific Division, but they, too, hold the tiebreaker.
From Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News: “Officially, the decision was reached at 30,000 feet in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, somewhere over the midsection of California. Not long after rolling to a blowout win at Golden State on Monday night, the Spurs boarded their charter flight bound for Los Angeles, for the middle game of a back-to-back-to-back, with much of the basketball-playing wondering how many league-approved sport coats had been packed in the cargo hold. Would Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili suit up for the rematch against the Lakers? Or would coach Gregg Popovich again choose scoring rest for his veterans over a scoring points a national popularity contest? “For us, it was not even a question,” Parker said after the Spurs unloaded both barrels on the Lakers in a 112-91 victory at the Staples Center. The Spurs did not necessarily need Tuesday’s game. But after what had happened six days earlier, when the Lakers marched into the AT&T Center with Kobe Bryant in street clothes and punked them 98-84, they certainly wanted it.By the time the Spurs landed in LA., it was official. Everyone was in. “There was never any doubt,” Ginobili said.
In the two other games played Tuesday night:
- Rudy Gay had 28 points and nine rebounds to help the Grizzlies withstand a weak start to the fourth quarter and hand the Timberwolves their 11th straight loss, 91-84, and their 27th consecutive loss in the month of April. The Grizzlies were 1 for 15 from the field in the final quarter until Gay’s short jumper gave them the lead back at 82-81. That was 13 seconds after a questionable charging foul was called on Anthony Tolliver that wiped out a layup and a potential three-point play. “That one play changed everything, and you guys know what play I’m talking about,” said J.J. Barea, who scored a season-high 28 points on 5-for-9 shooting from 3-point range to go with eight assists and five rebounds. Marc Gasol played after suffering a bone bruise in his left knee the last game but had only four points on 2-for-8 shooting for the Grizzlies, who have won 11 of their last 15 games.
- Brandon Knight had 28 points as the Pistons routed Cleveland 116-77. The Pistons led 61-38 at halftime and scored the first 16 points of the third quarter. Knight’s dunk made it 100-50 after three. The Cavaliers were without rookie point guard Kyrie Irving, who was out with a right shoulder problem and hasn’t played since April 3. Irving could return tonight against Philadelphia.