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Spencer Dinwiddie delivers again in the clutch. The Knicks take a hangover L in LA. And Kyrie’s 40 can’t help the Celtics overcome Orlando. It’s the Hoops Roundup for Monday, January 22nd. Let’s get it…
Scores from Sunday, January 21st:
Orlando 103 – Boston 95
New York 107 – LA Lakers 127
Brooklyn 101 – Detroit 100
Indiana 94 – San Antonio 86
Orlando 103 – Boston 95
Orlando (14-32) 14th in East
Boston (34-13) 1st in East
Kyrie returned from a one game absence due to shoulder issues and went OFF. 40 points on 14-23 shooting, 5-7 from three, to go along with 7 boards and 5 assists.
But the Celtics couldn’t recover from an anemic third quarter in which they were outscored 32-12 while shooting just 4-17 in the quarter.
Orlando shot 60% in that third quarter and held off Kyrie and Celtics fourth quarter comeback attempt to win for just the third time in their last twenty games.
Elfrid Payton (22p/6r/2a on 9-16 shooting) and Evan Fournier (19p/3r/3a on 8-19 shooting) led the way. And the Orlando bench shot 50% to outscore Boston’s bench 38 to 8.
New York 107 – LA Lakers 127
New York (21-26) 10th in East
LA Lakers (17-29) 11th in West
Luka Doncic did all he could for Real Madrid against Unicaja Malaga on Friday in a loss. He went for 16p/5r/3a/1s on 6-9 shooting, including 3-3 from three, in just 22 minutes.
The Knicks have now lost 12 of their last 16. They’ve got the Warriors on Tuesday so we can go ahead and make that 13 of 17 while we’re at it.
I don’t want to pile on the Knicks too hard here. They pulled out a really nice win in Utah on Friday, and turning around to play a noon game on Sunday is already tough.
Then you consider that the Knicks went from single digit temperature New York on Tuesday, to 22 degree Memphis on Wednesday, to absolutely nothing to do Salt Lake City on Friday… then to 60+ degree Los Angeles on Saturday…
You don’t have to be JR Smith at 1OAK until 4am to have LA be a distraction. That Saturday has circled in red on the calendar of every Knicks player, their agents, their managers, their PR teams, etc. etc. That’s a full ass day doing media, meetings, appearances, lunches, dinners… and yeah, probably still going to the club because it’s a Saturday night and we’ve been in cold, boring cities all week and this is one of two LA trips all year so I’m gonna go out and have a full, fun LA night.
The fact that the Knicks shot as well as they did (54.3% from the field, 48.0% from three) is a minor miracle for a noon Sunday game in LA. Expecting them to both hit shots and out-hustle the Lakers yesterday was as wishful as wishful thinking gets in this league.
Hey speaking of wishful thinking… maybe we let Frank (7p/3a on 3-4 shooting) play more than 18 minutes? At least that’s up from the FIVE (5) he played Friday in Utah I guess. Someone please kill me.
A Lonzo-less LA team did come out and win it’s 5th straight game at Staples. Julius Randle (27p/10r/5a) and Jordan Clarkson (29p/6r/10a/3s) put up big time trade bait numbers in the win. The Lakers combined to shoot 56% and killed the Knicks in transition by winning the turnover battle 17 to 6.
You also had to know it was the Lakers day after this.
Brooklyn 101 – Detroit 100
Brooklyn (18-29) 13th in East
Detroit (22-23) 9th in East
Spencer Dinwittie continues to have one of the most up and down seasons I can remember. You see a guy averaging 14 points a night, 15 in January – and yet he’s never at his average. Every Spencer Dinwittie night is either 20+ on 60+% shooting or single digits shooting under 25%. He’s either 26/5/5 or 8/2/3. His game logs are fascinating. And when you see someone like him who clearly has talent and can clearly control a game, it really does give you an appreciation for the insane consistency of the top guys in the league.
Luckily for Brooklyn, last night was a great Spencer night. 22p/4r/5a with 4 threes on 9-13 shooting. Big shots down the stretch, concluding with a TOUGH game winner in the paint with 0.9 left.
And look… even if he never develops the consistency to be a quality lead guard on a nightly basis, the dude is not afraid of the moment.
At worst, he’s gonna turn into a really nice sixth man for a midlevel playoff contender who can hit some big shots for you. That’s not the worst NBA destiny by any means.
Indiana 94 – San Antonio 86
Indiana (25-22) 6th in East
San Antonio (30-18) 4th in West
Eight Pacers scored nine or more points. Oladipo (19p/4r/3s) and Thad Young (14p/7r/4a/3s) led the way. And Indiana stopped the Spurs home winning streak at 14 games.
Pop finally moved Tony Parker to the bench full time last night – a move that’s more symbolic than anything for a guy in Parker who has basically been playing bench minutes (21.6 per game) anyway in his 17th NBA season. He played well (12p/3r/5a on 5-10 shooting) in 20 minutes last night, so maybe the move itself and the chance to play against more second units does energize him down what looks to be the stretch un of his career.
Schedule for Monday, January 22nd:
7:00 Sacramento @ Charlotte
7:30 Utah @ Atlanta
8:00 Miami @ Houston NBATV
8:00 Philadelphia @ Memphis
8:00 Phoenix @ Milwaukee
8:00 Chicago @ New Orleans
8:30 Washington @ Dallas
9:00 Portland @ Denver
10:30 Minnesota @ LA Clippers NBATV
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