Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, Duke Blue Devils All Go Down on Night of Upsets
January 11th, 2011 was supposed to be one of the most optimistic days of all time. The big theme of the day was just how many "ones" were in the date and how extraordinary the "make-a-wish" at 11:11 on 1-11-11 would be. Well, at 11:11 Pacific time every person in the Cleveland Cavalier organization from Dan "I-Swear-I'm-over-LeBron-but-really-wouldn't-mind-to-have-him-back" Gilbert down to Byron "This-job-seemed-much-more-appealing-before-The-Decision" Scott had the same exact wish and that was to get out of Los Angeles as fast as humanly possible.
The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 112-57. Let me repeat, 112 to 57, a 55 point differential. The Cavaliers starting lineup combined for 23 points. To put this into perspective, last year LeBron James averaged 29.7. LeBron by himself would have beaten the Cleveland Cavaliers last night. Rookie Manny Harris who started the game at shooting guard for the Cavaliers had a -57 as his +/- differential. He will be working that stat off his record for the next ten years of his career.
This was a nightmare of a game, and afterwards LeBron shared his insights on Twitter:
"Crazy. Karma is a b****.. Gets you every time. Its not good to wish bad on anybody. God sees everything!"
Everything, of course, includes LeBron James' tweets and God's personal favorite Twitter account, Buffalo Bills wide receiver Steve Johnson. I think my favorite part about the night was Mike Brown on ESPN being asked if he thought LeBron's tweet was in reference to Dan Gilbert. His answer was about as convincing as him wanting to be in Byron Scott's position out at the Staples Center.
Sports fans of the little guy went to bed that night feeling somewhat helpless. Cleveland had fallen to 8-30 while LeBron James and his new Miami friends sat comfortably atop the Eastern Conference at almost the exact opposite record of 30-9. On top of the Cavs loss, sports fans had just seen unranked Michigan falling short of the #3 Kansas Jayhawks in overtime, TCU being unable to play Auburn for a plus-1 national title, and AT&T losing their exclusive rights to the IPhone to the evil empire Verizon. All hope was lost and there was no light to be found at the end of the tunnel.
That is until January 12, The Night of The Upsets. Here's the top 5 upsets from a great night in basketball.
Honorable Mention
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The Dallas Mavericks lost to the Indiana Pacers in Indiana by a score of 102-89.
Even though Dallas entered the game at 26-10 whereas Indiana was 15-20, I do not consider this game to be an upset. If the score had stayed the same and this game was played in Dallas with a healthy Dirk on the court then yes, I would place this in the top 5, but a Dirk-less Mavs team playing in Indiana, I am not too surprised by the result.
The Mavericks current 3 game losing streak is a direct testament to just how important Dirk is to this team. He needs to get back soon because coming up are games @San Antonio, @Memphis, @Detroit, vs. Los Angeles Lakers, and @Chicago. Besides the Detroit game, all of those could be losses even with Dirk. Without Dirk, going 0-5 in that stretch could be entirely possible.
#5 Kansas State Falls to Colorado in Manhattan
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Big XII fans understand playing at Colorado is difficult. Even though it seems somewhat fishy of an argument to say the altitude can be that much of a factor when you're playing inside a closed off gymnasium up in Boulder, Colorado, the truth is road games at Colorado are hard for that very reason. Even if you are 10 wins better than Colorado, a road loss to them makes sense.
But to lose at home to Colorado?
This is a weird upset, because I still see Kansas State as an elite team rather than the soon to be out of the top 25 club they are so far this season. The Colorado Buffaloes on the other hand are 13-4, and 2-0 in conference with wins over Missouri and Kansas State so maybe at the end of the season this won't seem like an upset at all.
The blame can not be placed on Pullen who managed to put up 22 points, 4 steals, 6 assists, and 5 rebounds, but instead on his supporting cast who doesn't seem to realize the importance of these seemingly winnable conference games. The Wildcats are 0-2 in the Big XII and still have to play Kansas twice, Missouri twice, at Texas, at Texas A&M, and at Colorado, altitude and all. Throw in the away game at the difficult Hilton Coliseum (Iowa State) and suddenly you're looking at 8 more challenging games that you will probably need to go at least 3-5 through to guarantee a tournament bid.
#4 Chicago Bulls Fall to Charlotte Bobcats
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The Chicago Bulls were moving in the right direction. They had just beaten the Boston Celtics and beat up on the Detroit Pistons in Detroit. I looked at the Bulls schedule and saw a possibility of them beating the Bobcats then rolling past the Pacers and thus riding a four game win streak into Chicago to take on the Miami Heat. I assumed the Heat would drop one to either the Clippers or the Nuggets on their Western road trip and the Bulls could be separated by only 2 losses from the Heat. A win against the Heat, in Chicago, could close the gap to one and give reason to believe the Bulls might be ready to make a deep run in the playoffs.
I did not see this loss to Charlotte coming. Even without Noah, which is nothing new to the Bulls for this entire last month, the Bulls should have been the better team on the floor. Their inability to close out this game was something we've seen Miami do on the road and something we know Boston does in the playoffs.
This is an upset and I think games like these will cost the Bulls positioning in the seeding, but I no longer see the seeding out East as too big of a deal.
At the beginning of the year it made a difference to be the 1 seed rather than the 2, but now I think the gap has shrunk. Is being the 1 seed Miami Heat having to play a 4 seed Chicago Bulls in the second round really that much easier than being a 2 seed Celtics team playing this terrifying new look 3 seed Magic? Do you want to be the 4 seed playing a 5 seed Knicks team led by Amare` or a 2 or 3 seed playing this potential New Jersey Nets monster equipped with four NBA All-stars? I think the Eastern conference playoffs are going to be brutal no matter where you are seeded, but still the Bulls can not lose these types of games.
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#3 Orlando Magic Fall To New Orleans Hornets
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The Orlando Magic were winners of their last 9 games when they traveled to New Orleans to play the Hornets. I know the Miami Heat were winners of 21 out of 22, but I personally thought the Magic looked like the best team in all of basketball. They took a team that was only a season removed from the NBA Finals, a team that after a slow start nearly took the Celtics to a seventh game, and decided to improve every single piece around Dwight Howard. If you look at my Orlando Magic article from a few weeks ago you'll see I had my doubts about this trade, but honestly they improved at shooting guard with Richardson, they improved over the unproductive Rashard Lewis with the resurrected Hedo, and have what could be the most dangerous sixth man in the league in Gilbert Arenas. This team is absolutely loaded and can now be considered legitimate title contenders.
But not on January 12th.
Chris Paul went for 12 pts, 13 assists and the Okafor/West combo put together 31 points and 24 rebounds which barely outnumbered Dwight Howard's 29 pts, 20 rebound performance.
The game was an exciting overtime thriller and made me wish more NBA games would find their way to regular, everyman cable.
Interesting thing to note, the Magic will head out to play @Oklahoma City, @Minnesota, and @Boston. How will they handle Durant? Will Kevin Love out rebound Dwight Howard? Can a KG-less Celtics team avenge their Christmas Day defeat?
#2 Miami Heat Lose to Los Angeles Clippers
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Who would have thought the Los Angeles team to beat the Heat would be the Clippers.
This was by far the biggest NBA upset of the night. The Heat were looking unbeatable ever since their trip to Cleveland, and especially on the road. On the other side, the Clippers were 12-24. If I were told that the Big 3, or the "Heatles" (a nickname that ESPN is hoping disappears soon but doesn't have the heart to tell LeBron they don't like it) would combine for 84 points and still lose to the Clippers I would never believe it. I thought going into this game it would be intriguing to watch Blake Griffin go up against these guys, but I had no idea he would come away the star of the game.
Blake Griffin is absolutely for real. He had a 24 and 14 night, which for him is just another day at the office. What amazes me about Griffin is he may already be the best power forward in the entire NBA. The way he commands space on the low block or the way he threw down a two hand slam late in the game then glared at Mario Chalmers all the way back to the bench makes you fear for guarding him even as you sit comfortably on your couch.
The Clippers looked strangely good tonight. A little too good. It was amazing how complete their roster seemed. Baron Davis put together a solid 20 and 9 night, Eric Gordon went for 26 and for those of you who haven't seen this guy play, there's a reason he's only 2 ppg behind LeBron and Dwyane Wade. I look at this roster and imagine Chris Kaman coming back to fill in the center position and suddenly they start about 80 points between their point, shooting guard, power forward and center. This team desperately needs production at the small forward, but all in all the Clippers now at 13-24 are much better than their record shows. They've won 7 of their last 10 and are only 4 games behind the Phoenix Suns for 2nd place in the Pacific Division. I think on February 2nd against the Chicago Bulls they will finally surpass the Suns for 2nd place in the Pacific and find themselves closer to the playoffs than expected after their horrendous start.
Not so bright side for the Clippers? In February they have a stretch of 11 straight road games playing teams like Miami, Orlando, Los Angeles Lakers, New York, Oklahoma City, and New Orleans. When they return home on February 26 they have the nice present of the Boston Celtics waiting for them. The Clippers need to win right now, because February could get nasty.
#1 Duke Blue Devils Lose at Florida State
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Duke seemed to be on their way to creating their own UConn womens-esque winning streak. If Irving was still healthy, I don't know if this team loses all year. Even without him though, they still seemed unbeatable.
Duke had won 25 straight games heading into January 12. Florida State had lost 2 in a row and 3 of their last 4. This game was not on the radar of potential losses, but yet the Seminoles prevailed. And surprisingly this was the third time since 2002 that Duke has come to Florida State and left with a loss.
Bright side for Duke fans, I really don't see them losing more than one out of their next 15 games, and would not be surprised to see them go undefeated the rest of the way. It's weird to look at their upcoming ACC schedule and see no ranked teams ahead of them. There highest ranked opponent ahead is a game against (19) Temple in Durham. Duke will still be a #1 seed in March and most likely will end up as the #1 seed overall.
However, Florida State proved that Duke could lose a basketball game, something I had begun to lose hope would ever happen.
But on January 12, The Night of Upsets, teams like the Duke Blue Devils, the Miami Heat, and the Orlando Magic all went down to lesser opponents. This is what is fascinating about sports, one night you're watching LeBron's old team being destroyed by the champion Los Angeles Lakers and the next night you're watching LeBron's new dominant team being defeated by the not so champion Los Angeles Clippers.
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