Ballin': Blake Griffin's Facial on Kris Humphries Trumped Blake Griffin's Block of Kris Humphries
By Jason McIntyre
LA Clippers 101, New Jersey 91: Los Angeles was not kind to Kris Humphries. This Blake Griffin (23 points, 14 rebounds) block and dunk are all you really need to see. Chris Paul didn’t play (hamstring).
LA Lakers 73, Dallas 70: Despite a 7-point third quarter and only 14 points from Kobe Bryant, the Lakers survived when Derek Fisher nailed the game-winning three-pointer with :03 left. Kobe had the assist! Marv Albert screamed YES!!!! The Lakers are 10-5 and the defending champs fell to 8-6. Lamar Odom’s return to LA: 4-for-12, 10 points in 24 trigger-happy minutes.
Boston 88, Oklahoma City 97: The Celtics, losers of five straight, have dropped to 4-8. Fear not – the rest of the month’s schedule is easy. Durant had 28, Westbrook added 26 and the Thunder have the NBA’s best record (12-2).
Minnesota 99, Sacramento 86: The much-anticipated Jimmer-Rubio rookie showdown never materialized. Jimmer only played 15 minutes – his second lowest figure of the season – and shot 3-of-7, and missed all three of his bombs. Rubio played a season-high 38 minutes and shot poorly (3-of-10) but did fill up the stat sheet with eight rebounds and eight assists. Kevin Love: 33 points, 11 rebounds.
Memphis 102, Chicago 86: You’re just not going to win a lot of games with the starting backcourt of John Lucas and Ronnie Brewer. Marreese Speights had his best game with the Grizz – 16 points, 12 rebounds.
Cleveland 102, Charlotte 94: The season is barely four weeks old and I can’t stop gushing about rookie Kyrie Irving. In helping the Cavs improve to 6-6, the No. 1 pick had 25 points and seven assists. He’s shooting 48 percent from the field (great for a rookie, much less a rookie point guard) and hitting 41 percent of his 3-pointers. How good will he be when he gets capable teammates? DJ Augustin scored 24 points for the Bobcats, 19 in the first half against Irving, but only five in the second half against Daniel Gibson.
Orlando 102, New York 93: The Magic shot 17-of-35 from deep (leading the way: Anderson 7, Hedo 4, Redick 3) and the Magic won their 4th in a row (9-3). The Knicks let Carmelo shoot 27 times with a gimpy wrist (he only made nine) and now have lost three straight to fall to 6-7. The Melo-Amare duo is struggling. Here are all of Ryan Anderson’s career-high 30 points. Impressive performance.