Highlights
Highlights

Breakfast Special: Achtung Panzer!

- by Fox Doucette

The New York Knicks just played the most important game of their season, a showdown in Phoenix with the future of the franchise at stake. And the Knicks gloriously lost the game 107-96, getting out on the dance floor to do the Prokhorovka Shuffle and pull a game and a half ahead of the Suns for last place in the NBA; the Knicks are 13-52 against the Suns’ 15-51. Great work, New York. Devin Booker, a guy who exists in a weird vacuum where he puts up All-Star scoring numbers and does absolutely nothing beyond that to help his team …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: A Weird, Wonderful Rockets-Raptors Game

- by Fox Doucette

In the words of Bill Nye the Science Guy, “consider the following.” The Houston Rockets defeated the Toronto Raptors 107-95, James Harden had 35 points, and Clint Capela grabbed 15 rebounds while Chris Paul had 10 assists, all despite the starting lineup shooting the ball poorly from the field. The bench shot the ball much better, put up big plus/minus numbers, and helped the Rockets to the win. All fairly ordinary stuff, right? Well, that doesn’t adequately tell the tale of a game that at points featured each of the following scores: 25-21 Houston (11:24, 2nd quarter), 49-27 Houston (5:00, …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: Upset With the World

- by Fox Doucette

Upset mania was in full swing in the NBA Monday night, as the Phoenix Suns beat the Milwaukee Bucks, the New Orleans Pelicans went on the road and smacked the Utah Jazz, and the San Antonio Spurs showed the Denver Nuggets that there will be no easy outs in the playoffs (which seems to always be the case in the West, doesn’t it?) And we’ll get to all of those games. But regular readers of Pace and Space know that I can’t resist an opportunity to crack open a bottle of Haterade, and you know what that means… #LOLakers The …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: The Rockets Round Into Form

- by Fox Doucette

James Harden had 42 points, Eric Gordon had 32, and the Houston Rockets absolutely mauled the Boston Celtics 115-104 in Boston Sunday. For the Celtics, it’s a continuing demonstration of just how far they’ve dropped off despite in theory being a deeper team than last season with their superstars back from injury. The paradox has the Celtics careening toward a fifth-place finish, and they only have five in the loss column on sixth-place Detroit. And while the Pistons are extremely unlikely to catch the Celtics in just 18 games, it’s not out of the question if they catch fire. Boston’s …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: James Harden Plays 2K Out There

- by Fox Doucette

Rationality fails in the face of James Harden‘s stat lines. Even though he’s got Chris Paul back and in theory doesn’t have to be the entire Houston Rockets’ offense by himself, in practice Harden needed 58 points, 10 assists, seven rebounds, four steals, eight made three-pointers (on 18 tries, and 16-of-32 overall), and a whole lot of fans of the Miami Heat left scratching their heads like “how did this game get away?” The Rockets, down 12 after three quarters, outscored Miami 35-20 in the fourth to win 121-118. Houston was so depleted in this game that they used a …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: A Random Bucks-Kings Game Was the Best Thing

- by Fox Doucette

The Milwaukee Bucks and Sacramento Kings got together, played a barn burner of an NBA game that ended 141-140 in overtime in favor of the league’s best team, featured a Sacramento comeback from 14 down with 6:14 to go in regulation, involved the Kings actually grabbing a 126-124 lead, and then a combination of an Eric Bledsoe layup at the end of regulation (and Bledsoe stealing the ball from De’Aaron Fox to ensure the Kings didn’t get off a final shot) and then Malcolm Brogdon icing the game with two critical free throws to put the Bucks up 4, ensuring …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: Brad Stevens on the Hot Seat

- by Fox Doucette

It’s full on Panic Time in Boston, as the Celtics got destroyed on the road by the Toronto Raptors 118-95. The chemistry is breaking down between the Celtics players, Kyrie Irving looks miserable in a Boston uniform, the fans are starting to call for the head of coach Brad Stevens (yes, this is because fans in general tend to be idiots, but Brad Freaking Stevens? If you don’t want him, Pacers fans would ditch Nate McMillan for him in a heartbeat)…and oh by the way, the actual basketball team just got destroyed by a potential second-round playoff opponent. Zach Lowe …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: James Harden “Only” Scores 28

- by Fox Doucette

James Harden‘s streak of consecutive 30-point games came to an end in the Rockets’ 119-111 win over the Atlanta Hawks in Houston, and it did so in the most James Harden way possible, as the Beard shot 7-of-21 from the field, 0-of-10 from three, and 14-of-16 from the line. He also turned the ball over six times, just the most Harden game you can possibly dream up. Harden did, however, get some support from his teammates for a change, as Chris Paul poured in 20 points on 5-of-10 from the field and 7-of-7 from the line, Eric Gordon had 16 …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: Better Than the Oscars

- by Fox Doucette

If the Academy Awards taught us anything last night, it’s that there’s nothing Hollywood loves more than performative wokeness in the service of its own racism. But this is a basketball column, so I’m not going to rant about “Green Book” winning Best Picture, instead choosing to rant about the NBA sticking us with three games that were anything but Oscar bait. But on the other hand… The Knicks Are an Ed Wood Jr. Movie New York beat San Antonio because they can’t even tank right (or San Antonio is a disaster on the road, take your pick.) Earlier this …

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Highlights

Breakfast Special: Rocket Strangulation

- by Fox Doucette

James Harden got yet another 30-point game as the NBA came back from the All-Star break, but LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers stole the show, beating the Houston Rockets 111-105, erasing a 19-point Houston lead, and just generally showing off the same Rockets weakness that Golden State exploited in last year’s Western Conference Finals. Namely, when Houston is downright determined to miss three-pointers, no man or god can stop them. The Rockets shot 29.1 percent from long range (12-of-41), LeBron posted 29 points and 11 rebounds, Brandon Ingram added 27 (on an efficient 8-of-16 from the field and …

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