Highlights

Breakfast Special: Steph Curry Eviscerates Cleveland

- by Fox Doucette

Stephen Curry‘s disemboweling of the Cleveland Cavaliers was a lot more fun when LeBron James was on the losing end, wasn’t it? Against the Canton Charge wearing Cavs uniforms, it’s just not the same.

Steph had 42 points on 11-of-20 shooting including 9-of-14 from three, pulled down nine rebounds, and dished seven assists as the Warriors thrashed Cleveland 129-105 at the Q.

Kevin Durant is better as the sidekick, and in that role he came an assist shy of a triple-double with 25, 10, and 9.

And Jonas Jerebko (!) led the team in plus/minus at +25 in his 22 mintues.

Golden State shot 52.9 percent on both two- and three-pointers, while Cleveland limped in at 43.8 and 34.4 percent on those two distances.

Not much to analyze here. Steph is just the MVP and everyone ought to know it by now just based on how good Golden State is with him and how utterly unimpressive they are without him.

Steph gonna Steph:

Kawhi You Gotta Do Me Like That

Kawhi Leonard, on national TV, puts up big games.

The Raptors beat Philadelphia 113-102 on national TV.

And Kawhi had 36 points, nine rebounds, and five steals.

By the gods.

While we’re on the subject of Toronto basketball, Jonas Valanciunas had 25 off the bench, Serge Ibaka added 18…and that was pretty much it for Raptors scoring; the rest of the team added just 34 points on 14-of-50 (28 percent) shooting.

Philly, meanwhile, lost the turnover battle 21-11, gave up 17 offensive rebounds, committed 23 fouls to Toronto’s 13 (leading to a case where Toronto outshot Philly at the line 19-of-22 against 11-of-14), and just generally gave this one away with poor fundamentals.

So despite 38 points from Jimmy Butler and 25 from JJ Redick, they still got smoked.

Feel the love from Kawhi:

The Most Entertaining Team in the League

The Pelicans beat Dallas at home 132-106, Anthony Davis and Julius Randle scored 27 points each, Randle added 18 rebounds, New Orleans shot 55.4 percent from the field and 58.9 percent (17-of-29) from downtown, the Pellies won the turnover battle 18-11, and the squad made a total of 51 shots.

Go ahead and tell me you don’t like basketball played at a pace like the tape’s on fast-forward. Then get back in your time machine and go coach the ’97 Cavs, Mike.

The editorial decision each game isn’t whether to put the Pellies in the features or the Lightning Round. New Orleans IS the lightning round.

So ride the lightning with Randle, who is your man of the match:

Lightning Round!

Denver squeaked out a 124-116 overtime win in Orlando, finding their reserve fuel tank in the extra frame and outlasting the Magic.

Nikola Jokic wasn’t great (12 points, 5-of-13 shooting) but he didn’t have to be; he nearly notched a triple-double with eight rebounds and 13 assists.

And Jamal Murray played the role of volume scorer with 31 points on 10-of-25, all in the service of a game where Nuggets not named Nikola or Jamal shot a combined 68.2 percent. Yes, really. 30-of-44. That’s how good the team was in support of their struggling stars.

But hey, counting stats get you breakfast:

Paul George exploded for the Thunder, scoring 47 points and putting the team on his back for a 114-112 road win in Brooklyn.

Russell Westbrook was awful from the field with his 21 points coming on 9-of-23 shooting, but he also had a monster triple-double with 15 rebounds and 17 assists.

Throw in 15 points for Steven Adams on 7-of-11 shooting and with five offensive rebounds, and it was a Thunder kind of night. This is, fundamentally, what Oklahoma City basketball is all about.

Did Brooklyn choke away a 20-point fourth-quarter lead? Or did Paul George just reach out, rip it from their hands, and yell “gimme that”? Well…PG13 did have 25 points in the fourth…

The Wizards continue to threaten the top eight in the East, winning at Atlanta 131-117.

Bradley Beal led the way with 36, Otto Porter had 20 points and 11 rebounds, and Trae Young, who is 70th out of 70 rookies in the NBA this year in VORP, shot 4-of-13 from the field, scored 14 points, and ended up with a -16 plus/minus.

Young has a high ceiling if he ever learns to shoot, but dear gods is he horrendous this year.

Give it up for the Real Deal Bradley Beal:

The Clippers played quite possibly the worst game you’ll see all season from a team that doesn’t suck.

They lost 96-86 to Memphis while shooting 33.8 percent from the field (and just 17-of-51 on two-pointers), getting a plug-awful 2-of-13 night from Tobias Harris…

…but HERO OF SERBIA Boban Marjanovic was 4-of-5 from the field, 11-of-12 (!) from the line, and plus-8 with those 19 points in just 13 minutes.

ALL HAIL BOBAN.

Meanwhile, Mike Conley‘s your man of the match, as Memphis wasn’t exactly great themselves (25 percent from three, 62.5 percent from the line, and just three players in double figures).

Conley had 22 on 9-of-16, but since nobody put up a highlight reel, I’m-a show HERO OF SERBIA instead:

The regression of the Hornets is underway, as Minnesota smoked them 121-104 ar home to take a bite out of that point differential.

Karl-Anthony Towns led the way with 35 points and 12 rebounds, Jeff Teague dished 18 assists and had a game-high plus-33, and Andrew Wiggins…didn’t stink out the joint (!), scoring 26 on 11-of-19 in 34 minutes.

Go get it, KAT:

Milwaukee is 16-7, and they continue to put up big wins to pad the spread between themselves and their opponents, smashing Detroit 115-92 at home.

Eric Bledsoe led the way with 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting, the Bucks ripped away 20 turnovers from the Pistons, and Detroit shot a cover-your-eyes 36.8 percent from the field and 23.7 percent (9-of-38) from three.

When shots don’t go in, teams don’t win. Simple, really.

The Bledshow gets the highlight reel:

And finally, the Spurs got 32 from DeMar DeRozan, 31 from Rudy Gay, 21 from LaMarcus Aldridge, and jack-all from anyone else, as the Lakers beat them 121-113.

LeBron James, being LeBron, continued his absolute tear through the league, playing 2K on Easy Mode and scoring 42 points on 15-of-24 shooting, powering the Los Angeles victory.

The Spurs shot 7-of-27 from three as a team. It ain’t 2002, guys. We are watching what happens when a once-great coach gets too old. I hate to say it about Gregg Popovich, but it’s true. Tim Duncan ain’t walkin’ through that door. Manu Ginobili ain’t walkin’ through that door. Your days are up.

Take us home, LeBron:

Is He Any Good runs Friday this week; reason’s simple, and it involves a deadline for another client. Writer gotta eat, so you guys can wait a day. That said, stay tuned and thanks for reading!

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