Ballin: Ricky Rubio's 13 points and 14 assists Keep the Wizards' Winless
By Jason McIntyre
Minnesota 93, Washington 72: The Wizards, who nearly beat the Knicks Friday night, were pummeled at home, shooting an embarrassing 34 percent and moving the Flip Saunders death watch to code DEFCON II. Smart days for the 0-8 Wiz to fire him: Monday or Tuesday, when people are talking Tebow and Alabama/LSU. Nobody outside of NBA geeks will notice for a couple days. Ricky Rubio: 13 points, 14 assists. Three double-doubles in eight games for the rookie.
Phoenix 109, Milwaukee 93: Guess the Bucks’ really miss Andrew Bogut, as they were non-competitive (again) and lost their fifth game in a row to fall to 2-6. They’ve lost 24 straight games in Phoenix. Seven Suns’ were in double figures; Steve Nash had 17 assists.
Orlando 104, Sacramento 97: Dwight Howard was irrelevant (5 points, 4 rebounds) in 19 foul-plagued minutes, but the Magic improved to 6-3 anyway thanks to 20 from Big Baby off the bench. Jimmer only had 2 points in 13 minutes, and he’s not going to be getting Rubio minutes unless Thornton or Tyreke Evans suffers an injury.
Oklahoma 108, San Antonio 96: The 8-2 Thunder nearly got a triple-double from Kevin Durant (21 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists) in 28 minutes. OKC became the first team this year to win three games in three nights.
Portland 98, Cleveland 78: The defensive-minded Blazers forced 24 turnovers to bounce-back from a bad loss in Phoenix. Marcus Camby, 37, was able to play 24 minutes without attempting a shot. All he does is play defense, block shots (1), and rebound (9). Everybody needs a Marcus Camby. He’s attempted three or fewer shots in six games this season. Impressive. Portland is 6-2.
LA Lakers 90, Memphis 82: The battle of Gasol brothers was anything but – Marc of Memphis shot 0-for-9 in 43 minutes, but did fill the stat sheet – 2 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals, 3 blocks. Pau of LA scored 13 points and took 15 rebounds. Pau and Bynum collected 30 rebounds; the Grizzlies combined for 34. How about patient Kobe? He scored 26 points on only 22 shots and had nine assists. Marreese Speights, in his 2nd game with the Grizzlies, scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 28 minutes.