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Sign Up Around SBN: 16 Thoughts On The First Weekend Of March Madness
Tuesday, Mar 20, 2012 SB Nation NBA Follow @sbnation
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The Magic just bricked another three, probably. On the West Coast, the Warriors' tank job was met with disapproval from fans, with Chris Mullin's legacy caught in the crossfire.
Major Story Updates Mavericks Vs. Nuggets: Dirk Nowitzki Scores 33 To Shoot Dallas Past?Denver Celtics Vs. Hawks: Boston Wins Ugly, Survives Rapid Atlanta?Comeback Timberwolves Vs. Warriors: Kevin Love Leads Minnesota To Win In Night Remembered For Other?Reasons Do you want major updates to this story in your Facebook News Feed?
StoryStream? updates have been posted since you started reading. Reload to view. Original Story Bulls Vs. Magic: Chicago Holds Orlando To Record Low?59 
StoryStream? updates have been posted since you started reading. Reload to view. Original Story Bulls Vs. Magic: Chicago Holds Orlando To Record Low?59 The distinguishing characteristic of the Orlando Magic, beyond the fact that they have Dwight Howard, is that they take and make a lot of three-pointers. Going into Monday, the Magic had taken 131 more threes than any other team in the NBA -- they had made 89 more. The distinguishing characteristic of the Chicago Bulls, particularly with Derrick Rose injured and out of the lineup, is that they play defense. The Bulls have been in the top two in defensive efficiency for two straight seasons under coach Tom Thibodeau.
When the Bulls traveled to Orlando to play the Magic on Monday, a key to the game would be Chicago's ability to defend Orlando at the three-point line. When Orlando beat the Bulls 11 days ago (one of only two Chicago losses in their last 14 games), the Magic made 11 of 26 threes.
On Monday, they made four, tying a season-low. With the three-pointers not falling, the Magic were more or less reduced to Howard, who did his part with 18 points and 12 rebounds. But with only one other Orlando player scoring as many as 10, Chicago held them to 59 points for the game, setting an all-time low for a Bulls opponent. Chicago easily won the game 85-59. The win was Thibodeau's 100th as head coach of the Bulls.
Carlos Boozer led all scorers with 24 points on 12-18 shooting and grabbed 13 rebounds. Meanwhile, John Lucas came off the Bulls bench to score 20 points in just 21 minutes, shooting 8-13 and making four three-pointers by himself. As a rule of thumb, if a guy on the opposition who is averaging 6 points per game makes as many three-pointers as the entire Magic team, it is not going to end well for Orlando.
The game wasn't particularly competitive or particularly interesting for that matter, but the subplots are pretty intriguing. The Bulls are now 10-4 without Derrick Rose this season. They're even better with him -- 34-6, to be precise -- but 10-4 is awfully darn good too. The .714 winning percentage of 10-4 would represent the fourth best record in the entire NBA this season -- and that's WITHOUT the reigning MVP. So how good is Chicago?
Meanwhile, with Dwight Howard waiving his ETO last week and committing to stay in Orlando another season, every game will be put under the microscope. Howard stuck around to take a crack at winning a championship with the Magic, who have the third best record in the NBA after all. Getting thrashed by the Bulls is probably not what Howard had in mind when he signed that waiver last Thursday.
The Bulls improve their league-best record to 38-10. They also own the league's best road record at 19-6. The Magic drop to 29-18, 16-8 at home.
For more on the Bulls, visit Blog-a-Bull. To read up on the Magic, head over to Orlando Pinstriped Post.
Mar 20 8:08a by Steve Perrin - 0 comments Article Mavericks Vs. Nuggets: Dirk Nowitzki Scores 33 To Shoot Dallas Past?DenverDirk Nowitzki dominated, scoring 33 points on 12-19 shooting, grabbing 11 rebounds and delivering six assists as the Mavericks won every quarter of the game and delivered a loss to the Denver Nuggets in a 112-95 verdict Monday night.
The Mavericks got a balanced effort scoring-wise, with six players in double figures in scoring and 33 assists. Jason Kidd led the way in distribution, accounting for 10 of those assists and Kidd pitched in four steals as well.
The Mavericks came out smoking in the second half, going on a 9-0 run to take control of the game and then put the game away after Denver pulled to 78-72 by scoring 27of the game's next 39 points, led by Nowitzki's final eight points of the night before retiring with over six minutes left in the game.
Overall, the Mavericks were able to succeed offensively without much resistance from Denver, shooting over 50 percent in every quarter but the fourth, where they cleared the bench toward the end and still shot 9-19 in that quarter.
Dallas shot 54 percent from the floor, including a 40 percent clip from three-point range, far outdistancing the Nuggets' 43 and 29 percent in those respective categories. Dallas' defense was stout despite the absence of two key defenders, Shawn Marion and Brendan Haywood. Brandan Wright helped pick up the slack up front with 15 points and six rebounds.
Arron Afflalo did what he could to help the Nuggets stay in the game, shooting 7-10 from the field and 8-8 from the free throw line, leading Denver with 24 points. Wilson Chandler played his first game of the season and pitched in 13 points.
Al Harrington came off the bench to provide some offense in the third quarter and was pivotal in a 14-4 run to bring the game back to within six points. Harrington scored five in the run and had 12 points in nine rebounds in 25 minutes, but ultimately couldn't help stop Dallas from pulling away.
LJ Rotter of Mavs Moneyball figures that winning is a lot better than losing:
It's always more fun to watch a game of basketball when your team is winning. It's even more fun when they're doing so in convincing fashion. It's nearly ecstasy when it's your team's second big win in a row (fourth straight overall), and their first road win in seven games. It's mind-blowing when they manage to win without two of their best defenders and their starting center.
On the losing end, Jeffrey Morton at Denver Stiffs wonders about how wisely Denver used their roster:
8:07a by Jason Walker - 0 comments Article Celtics Vs. Hawks: Boston Wins Ugly, Survives Rapid Atlanta?ComebackI'm not going to blame this loss on George Karl. The effort in the second half was awful, and the team seemed to lose heart after both Gallo and Dre went out of the game. However, if there's one consistent criticism I have of Karl, it is his lineups, and tonight's "effort" was bad. A true center was only on the court for the Nuggets for 25 minutes. That's it. Meanwhile the likes of Gallo (in the first half), Al Harrington and Kenneth Faried were left playing center against much bigger players.
Some games produce a box score worth sticking on the fridge, others are better fit for kindling. Monday night's scrap between the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks was very much the latter. Folks in Atlanta (a near-even mix of Hawks and Celtics fans, it seemed) were treated to a "defensive battle"-- grinding, physical play peppered with missed shots and turnovers that resulted in a 79-76 Celtics win by virtue of a big fourth quarter run and an Atlanta comeback survived.
Both teams slogged through three quarters of horrid shooting, neither cracking 20 points in any of those first three frames. While errant shots chipped away at both rims, the highlights came mainly from extra roughness between the two teams: Brandon Bass's flagrant foul on Zaza Pachulia, Greg Stiemsma's hit on Pachulia just moments later, and some words exchanged between Kevin Garnett and Josh Smith. The collision between Stiemsma's elbow and Pachulia necessitated stitches, and happened to coincide with an apparent turning point in the game. With the Hawks up 45-39 in the middle of third (yes, that was the score in the middle of the third), Jeff Teague skittered up court, tore diagonally into the lane and put one down on top of Ray Allen.
Teague, as you can see, also took the opportunity to roar in Allen's face, and may have spurred a Celtic run in the process. Peachtree Hoops noticed a sudden twist after that play:
The game changed after Teague dunked the ball, giving the Hawks their biggest lead, 47-39, and then he decided to scream at Ray Allen, garnering a technical foul. Concurrently, Zaza Pachulia discovered he was bleeding from his head, courtesy of a Brandon Bass flagrant foul on a previous possession, and he had to leave the way, opening the door to Collins to come in. The Hawks were stuck on that 47 for almost four game minutes and only four more points in the last 6:16 in the quarter. Definite buzzkill.
A buzzkill, indeed. The Hawks had Boston in foul trouble and on the ropes, but surrendered an 11-4 run to end the period and allowed the Celtics right back into the game.
Boston's momentum carried into the fourth, when Ray Allen caught fire to put Boston ahead by double digits. Amazingly, Atlanta stormed right back into contention in the final minutes of the game. They rode a sudden scoring outburst from Joe Johnson (who finished with 25) to 13 points in just over two minutes, pulling almost even. Allen nailed two free throws to put Boston up three, then Teague's pull-up jumper with four seconds left (perhaps a bit early) sailed far wide of the basket to spare everyone five more minutes.
Boston moved to 24-21 with the win while Atlanta dropped to 26-20 with the loss.
Check out Celtics Blog for more on Boston and visit Peachtree Hoops for more on the Hawks.
8:04a by Seth Rosenthal - 0 comments Read More: Orlando Magic, Golden State Warriors Article Timberwolves Vs. Warriors: Kevin Love Leads Minnesota To Win In Night Remembered For Other?ReasonsThe draft-minded Golden State Warriors hosted the reeling Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night, but the biggest story line of the night involved the halftime events. Chris Mullin played 13 seasons for the Golden State Warriors and then served as GM for spell, but he finally (and rightfully) became the sixth player in team history to have his jersey number retired. The ceremony took place during halftime, and Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Don Nelson were among those in attendance to rekindle the magic of the Run TMC era. David Lee posted 25 points, nine rebounds and four assists in a strong performance, but Kevin Love stole the show and the game with 36 points on 13-23 shooting and 17 rebounds as Minnesota won 97-93.
The ceremony was the most interesting event of the night, despite a pretty solid game. Things got uncomfortable and a bit ugly when majority owner Joe Lacob grabbed the mic, as Warriors fans rained down boos and forced Mullin to save the day by interjecting himself again. Warriors faithful are presumably still disgruntled about Lacob's role in the decision to trade away beloved shooting guard Monta Ellis to acquire Andrew Bogut, but it was the wrong time to voice displeasure. As Rick Barry tried to defend Lacob while the jeers swelled in Oracle Arena, Barry challenged the crowd, saying: "This is crazy. Seriously. You are doing yourself a disservice." Indeed they did. To steal the moment from Mullin with classless behavior was inexcusable for the fans, but to Lacob's credit, he returned to his court side seat for the second half. Watch the debacle unfold:
After the game, Lacob had this to say (via Mark Spears of Yahoo! Sports):
"The fans are upset I guess that we traded one of our favorites. That's all I can attribute that to. What I feel bad about is they kind of ruined a night that was very special. The organization really tried to do the right thing with Chris."
As for the actual game, the Warriors held starting point guard Stephen Curry out of the lineup for the fifth-straight game with a sprained ankle, so that meant yet another spot start for Nate Robinson. Recall that the Warriors owe their first round pick in the 2012 NBA Draft to the Utah Jazz, but it is top-seven protected, and then re-assess the Nate Robinson spot start. It might help.
Robinson got off to a very slow start and never really made a positive impact. His first half featured a 1-5 shooting performance, just one assist and bad defense -- counterpart Luke Ridnour pumped in nine points on 4-5 shooting and dished out six assists during that same span. Klay Thompson suffered through a terrible start too, as he missed his first six shots and allowed Wesley Johnson to rattle off eight points on 3-4 shooting. David Lee and Kevin Love led the offense for their respective teams, but the two stretch bigs basically played to a draw. The Wolves grabbed a 14-point lead heading into intermission because no other GSW player could hit a shot (they shot 33.3 percent as a team).
The offense came around for Golden State in the third quarter to the tune of 54.5 percent shooting, 10 assists and zero turnovers. David Lee hit five of his six looks for 11 points and Klay Thompson turned things around by finally getting on the board with 12 points on 5-9 accuracy. Minnesota's lead eroded because everyone in a blue jersey not named Kevin Love shot 3-11. When the final period started, Anthony Tolliver stepped up and helped Love out.
Tolliver came out of nowhere to hit a few threes, throw down a few dunks and cause a bit of chaos on the glass. He scored all 10 of his points in the fourth quarter and grabbed four of his five rebounds to give Love a bit of relief. Every possession down the stretch ran directly though Love, and he responded with 12 more points and five more rebounds in the fourth quarter to close out the game and push his totals to eye-popping levels with 36 points and 17 rebounds. Love proved too much for David Lee to handle in a barrage of late-game post isolations, but as mentioned above, the Warriors can't be too upset about the outcome.
As a final point, the Warriors TV crew on CSN-Bay Area shared a terrific anecdote about Wolves rookie Derrick Williams during the second quarter. Apparently the Wolves' coaching staff introduced the No. 2 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft to them as "Errick Williams" because he failed to play any "D" on Sunday in Minnesota's loss to the Kings. Tough love. Williams did grab a career-high 11 rebounds in the win, but good thing he didn't have an "O" in his name, because that would be long gone too after a 2-9 showing with a team-high four turnovers.
Then again, nobody came away from Minnesota's previous game with a good feeling. Frustration boiled over in an argument between Kevin Love and J.J. Barea on the bench that almost came to blows during a timeout in that frustrating 16-point loss to the Sacramento Kings on Sunday (video of the scuffle is here). Things smoothed out in this road win against the Warriors, as Barea dished out a season-high 10 assists and Love dominated to earn his 39th double-double this season.
To bring the focus back to Chris Mullin, here is a wonderful illustration commemorating the retirement of his jersey number from Tony.psd of SB Nation's Warriors blog, Golden State of Mind:
For more on the Minnesota Timberwolves, check out Canis Hoopus. For more on the Golden State Warriors, head over to Golden State of Mind.
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