Every morning, we’ll give you five things from the night before in the NBA to start your day.
1: Wade broke Kobe’s nose, gave him a concussion
The game was, you know, an All Star game until the 8:48 mark in the third quarter when Kobe Bryant got past Dwyane Wade on the baseline. Until then, everyone would have stood and watched Kobe flush a 2-hand dunk and then jog down on the other end so someone else could get a dunk.
Not this time. Wade turned, an tried to wrap Kobe up… and he wasn’t gentle about it. The result was a broken nose and a mild concussion. And seeing how Kyrie Irving missed three games with his concussion, don’t be shocked if doctors sit Kobe too. The good thing for the Lakers is they’re off until Wednesday, so that might be good enough.
I wonder if the NBA will retroactively assess a Flagrant 2 on Wade?
2: “Every NBA meme ever was crammed into that last play”
That quote comes for Celtics writer Paul Flannery, after a manic end to the game in which everyone lived up to their reputations… especially LeBron James. James was unreal up until the last couple of minutes. When the game mattered. LeBron went completely nuts. He hit three after three. Then he turned into me when I used to play Mortal Kombat back in the day. The voice yells “Finish Him!!!” and I’d frantically jam on the controller to whip off my fatality… and I just couldn’t do it. Then the guy would come out of his daze and we’d have to keep fighting.
The happiest man on the planet had to be Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who got to do one of his favorite things in the world: decimate LeBron James with his words.
Six seconds left, the ball swung back to James, and he threw a long crosscourt pass that the West’s Blake Griffin grabbed before it could ever reach Wade. The expressions on Bryant and Carmelo Anthony’s faces – one an opponent and an enemy, one a teammate and a close friend – were unmistakable: Are you kidding me, LeBron?
That’s what lingers over the NBA Finals for James. Every great player misses in great moments, every great player fails. But this sport wants to see James’ willingness to take the chance. James had been brilliant with 36 points and six 3-pointers. He’d brought the Eastern Conference back with a ferocious fourth quarter, and, well, everyone was still waiting on him to complete the comeback and blister Bryant, and James couldn’t get that ball out of his hands fast enough.
I know it’s just an All Star game, but when a juicy morsel presents itself like that, you gotta pounce.
3: HIGHLIGHTS!!!
Rajon Rondo tosses an alley to LeBron from beyond half court
Luol Deng wants no part of being on a Blake Griffin poster
Kobe Bryant passed Michael Jordan to become the All Star Game’s all-time leading scorer
4: Line of the Night: Kevin Durant – 36 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals
Like we care about anything besides points in the All Star Game? Congrats to KD on an MVP night.
5: You can quote me on that
“That record he got tonight, with KD in the league, I don’t know how long it’s going to last”
– Dwyane Wade, on Kobe Bryant passing Jordan
“I obviously didn’t try to draw no blood, but I took a foul,” Wade said following a 152-149 loss to the West. “Kobe fouled me two times in a row, so he’s still got one up on me.”
– Wade, on the Kobe foul
