Kevin Durant > Vince Carter
I talked about this last night in my rapid reaction, but what a great game that was between OKC and Dallas last night. Kevin Durant goes off for 30 while Dirk goes for 29. The defending champs fall to 0-3 and look to be in real trouble here. OKC on the other hand, looks as legit as people had predicted all season. KD continues to be the front-runner for MVP and despite losing the turnover battle in dramatic fashion in this game (26-12), OKC continues to be the front-runner for the west.
There ain't no D in NYC
New York had every chance to win this game. I won't mention the refs much in this blog, but NY had 41 FT attempts to LA's 22. That is a massive difference and anyone watching the game knows it wasn't because NY was more physical in the low-post. The Lakers shot 82% in the 2nd qtr, 72% in the 1st half and 52% in the game while the Knicks - consistently - shot 32% throughout the game. New York looked frenetic on offense and Amar'e had 23% of his shots blocked. That is a staggering stat. If the Knicks settle down on offense and control the game on that side of the ball, the defense will improve (not into a top 10 defense, but improve enough), and they'll have a chance to make a run. Nice stat I saw on twitter from this game: Knicks haven't beaten the Lakers since Feb of '07.
Undefeated No More
Denver is knocked off the list of undefeated teams, leaving just 6 undefeated teams remaining (would have been 5 if not for KD's ridiculous trey from long-distance). Don't let the final score fool you, though. This game was tied at 98 with just under 6 minutes remaining. Portland closed them out with a nice run by Crawford, Wes Matthews, and Ray Felton. One aspect where Portland outdid Denver consistently was rebounding (out rebounding them 50-30 in the game) I cannot imagine how good the Blazers would be with a healthy Roy and Oden. Batum still has room to grow (lot of Portland writers feel he isn't nearly as good as he could be) and the signing of Kurt Thomas gives Camby a much needed rest at crucial spots in the game without sacrificing too much skill. Jamal Crawford, however, is going to be one of the best additions to any team this off-season. He can flat out change a game when coming off the bench (either extending a lead or closing a deficit with both 2nd units in). Portland looks like it could be merging into a real contender/threat to OKC.
Notes:
- Houston gets their 1st win of the year against division foe San Antonio behind a great effort from their backcourt
- 13 players got minutes for Houston; a trend I'm noticing for a lot of teams; coaches still don't know the rotation they want to go with and are experimenting a ton.
- Dwight Howard scored 16 pts and had 24 rebounds against NJ who continued to score again, shooting 37% for the game and scoring a mere 78 points
- Derrick Rose, who wasn't having all that great a game, was Derrick Rose down the stretch and put away Sacramento on the road.
- Rip Hamilton had his best game in a Chicago uniform, scoring 16 points on 7-15 shooting.
- Noah has had a slow start to the year (only 7 ppg and 7 rpg)
- CJ Wilson had 9 assists in 18 minutes
- Dirk was perfect on his FT's and has now missed only 1 all season (v. Miami in the opening game of the year)
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