NBA Roundup: Cold-Blooded Anthony Davis Steals Russell Westbrook's Thunder
Anthony Davis couldn’t have picked a much better time to notch his first trey of the 2014-15 NBA season.
With 1.2 seconds left in regulation and the score tied at 113, Davis scurried above the break to grab the inbounds pass from Tyreke Evans, turned toward the hoop and double-clutched on a deep three-pointer that fell through the net as time expired to give the New Orleans Pelicans a 116-113 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
If not for Davis’ heroics, Friday night would've belonged to Russell Westbrook. Two nights after tying his career high with 45 points in a win over the Pelicans in New Orleans, Westbrook topped himself, to the tune of 48 points (a new personal best), 11 assists, nine rebounds and four steals.
The All-Star guard was particularly potent in the fourth quarter. He scored 15 points in the final frame—including a trio of free throws on a boneheaded foul by Quincy Pondexter to tie the game prior to Davis’ prayer—and set up Kevin Durant, who scored 27 points in his return from a toe injury, for a pair of crucial threes in crunch time.
But for every OKC push, Davis had an answer. Unfortunately for the Thunder, they had no answer for him. He was a terror all over the floor, hitting jumpers and catching lobs while notching 16 of his 41 points in the fourth quarter.
More impressively, Davis served as a calming force for New Orleans. While all the other Pelicans were busy succumbing to a comedy of errors—from poor passes by Tyreke Evans (22 points, 10 rebounds, 16 assists, six turnovers), to missed free throws by Evans and Ryan Anderson (17 points) to Pondexter’s foul on Westbrook’s three-point attempt in the waning moments—Davis was just doing his job, as he always seems to do.
Once Durant’s attempts to burn the Pelicans for their mistakes in a key possession both went wanting, Davis secured the rebound, accepted the foul and calmly drained a pair of freebies to give New Orleans a three-point cushion.
The timing of Davis’ latest MVP-worthy performance couldn’t have been much better. For one, the win allowed New Orleans to keep pace with the Phoenix Suns, who fended off the feisty Utah Jazz on Friday to stay in the lead for eighth place in the West. New Orleans' win also put an extra game of cushion between the ninth-placed Pelicans and the 10th-placed Thunder in the standings.
And, perhaps most importantly, New Orleans now owns the tiebreaker with OKC, courtesy of a 3-1 edge against the Thunder this season. That could prove crucial in the battle for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
So long as Durant is healthy and Westbrook is going bonkers, the Thunder will be a serious threat to barge their way into the postseason for the sixth year running.
But with The Brow on their side, the Pelicans will be, too.
Hawks Soar in Battle of Heavyweights
It's not every day that two teams with fewer than 10 losses clash in February. But that was the scene in Philips Arena when the Golden State Warriors came to challenge the Atlanta Hawks.
This game was hyped up quite a bit, but it certainly wasn't oversold. It was highly entertaining from the opening tip to the final buzzer, which sounded for a 124-116 Hawks victory.
As they've done to so many teams this year—bottom-feeding squads and Western Conference contenders alike—the Hawks used their three-point shooting to stay alive at the beginning and ultimately pull out of reach down the stretch.
Atlanta went 15-of-27 from beyond the arc, highlighted by 3-of-3 performances from Kent Bazemore and Mike Scott, a 2-of-4 outing from Jeff Teague and five bombs from the unflappable Kyle Korver. Even Golden State's vaunted defense had trouble clipping the wings of these birds, though it's not as if Atlanta had much defensive success either.
Doubt the Hawks' legitimacy at your own peril. They continue to pass every test, and this latest one had a distinct postseason vibe, as Korver mentioned, per Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal Constitution:
Contributed by Adam Fromal
Hill, Miles Keep Cavs from Climbing Mountain
The Cleveland Cavaliers seemed set to tie their franchise record for consecutive victories. They’d handled the Los Angeles Clippers the night before for their 12th straight win and needed only to top the inconsistent Indiana Pacers to extend their streak to 13.
The Pacers, of course, had other ideas en route to a 103-99 victory. All five of Indy’s starters scored in double figures, including C.J. Miles’ team-high 26.
But it was George Hill who stole the show. The Indianapolis native put the Pacers up for good with a miraculous, one-handed four-point play with 1:26 to go in the fourth.
Hill finished the night with 20 points and seven assists, two nights after going for 20 and six in a win over the Detroit Pistons. Not since Nov. 2012 had Hill been so productive in consecutive games.
DeRozan Becoming a Passing Maestro
DeMar DeRozan almost messed around and recorded a triple-double during the Toronto Raptors' 123-107 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on national television.
At times, he was far too prone to pulling up for mid-range jumpers, but he made up for the analytic flaw by finishing with 24 points, nine boards and eight assists. Constantly attacking the basket, DeRozan finished with 13 free-throw attempts, knocking down an even dozen of them. And despite his early shooting struggles, he finished the contest with those 24 points on only 16 shots from the field, thanks largely to that aggressive mentality.
But most impressive was the 2-guard's passing. Handling the ball more and proving himself capable of challenging Kyle Lowry in the assist column, he's adding new dimensions to this Toronto offense—one that was already deadly enough.
He had six assists against the Sacramento Kings on Jan. 28, when the Raptors scored 119 points. Two nights later, he picked apart an overmatched Brooklyn Nets defense to the tune of nine dimes in a 127-122 victory. The very next night, he flirted with a triple-double and recorded seven assists while his team dropped another 120 on the Washington Wizards.
On Friday night, DeRozan recorded at least 50 cents of dimes for only the 51st time in his NBA career, per Basketball-Reference.com. Five of those have come in the last fortnight for a team that's coming dangerously close to reasserting itself as the top offense in the Association.
Contributed by Adam Fromal
Jack Attack Spares Nets from Embarrassment
Jarrett Jack is starring for the Brooklyn Nets now. Steely Dan will be going on tour later this year.
Coincidence? Probably.
Either way, two nights after torching the Toronto Raptors for 24 points and six assists in a 109-93 Brooklyn win, Jack went back and did it again. This time, he saved his team from blowing a 17-point lead to the New York Knicks in the latest Battle of the Boroughs. The Georgia Tech product piled up 20 points and eight assists, including a clutch three to put the Nets up 90-86 and a pair of free throws to seal the 92-88 win for Brooklyn—the team’s third in a row.
And, in Kevin Garnett's opinion, it may be more than mere coincidence that Brooklyn has started to show signs of life since the team's training staff resuscitated assistant coach Jim Sann in the aftermath of a heart attack on Sunday, per Newsday's Rod Boone:
New Season, Same Result Between Spurs and Heat
The San Antonio Spurs handily dismissing the Miami Heat isn't earth-shattering stuff. Last spring, the Spurs set records for NBA Finals dominance up the yin-yang on the way to winning their fifth title and unwittingly dropping the curtain on the Heatles era in South Florida.
Naturally, San Antonio didn't have any trouble with this LeBron James-less edition of the Heat. Hassan Whiteside's absence on account of an ankle sprain only made the Spurs' 98-85 victory that much more inevitable.
San Antonio led by as many as 13 points in the first quarter, fought off a hard charge by the Heat with a 10-0 run in the second and put Miami out of its misery in the fourth, courtesy of a 20-point cushion.
The Spurs are starting to look like title material again. They've now won eight of 10 with Kawhi Leonard—who earned Finals MVP honors last year at Miami's expense and torched the Heat for 24 points on Friday—back in the lineup.
The Heat, on the other hand, would be lucky just to crack the top eight in the East. They've lost four of five since Dwyane Wade succumbed to his latest hamstring injury, and, by virtue of Brooklyn's win over the Knicks, are currently on the outside of the postseason picture looking in.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
