Every morning, we’ll give you five things from the night before in the NBA to start your day.
1: Let’s get to today’s sermon titled “What Blake Did…”
Here. Look.
Pure sickness. And better than the Mozgov dunk because unlike Timofey, Kendrick Perkins tried to challenge it.
I think this fan’s reaction sums things up nicely.
2: But is it the best ever?
In our race to judge things immediately and toss historical perspective out the window, people are calling this the best dunk ever. It’s a great dunk. One of the best you’ll ever see. But there are some out there that can top it. My personal favorite: Shawn Kemp on Alton Lister
He cradles the ball, rocks it into a windmill, knocks Lister over, and then gives him the double point for good measure. That’d be a tech today, but it was a nice little accent to the whole thing. Also nasty… Vince Carter’s Olympic dunk.
What? Are you going to punish Vince because he used to jump over 7 footers? And I’ll just submit to you that at least half of these Dominique Wilkins dunks are better.
People forget… or maybe they haven’t seen… what Dominique Wilkins used to do on virtually a nightly basis. Blake might be the second coming of Dominique, but ‘Nique did it first, and he did it with AUTHORITY.
3: What? There was an actual game last night?
The Clippers actually didn’t beat the Oklahoma City Thunder last night because Blake’s dunk make them all quit and go home. They were actually on the verge of a dog fight with OKC, who had cut the Clippers lead down to six with 1:35 to go in the half. But the Clippers used a 3-point barrage in the final 1:15 to go up 18 by half time. The Clippers hit four 3-pointers in 50 seconds.
From there on out, there wasn’t much the Thunder could do. Russell Westbrook’s line looks nice: 31 points on 13-26 shooting, 5 steals, 4 assists… but he was instrumental in feeding the Clippers runs with his 6 turnovers. And his misses were bad misses. He played a little out of control for a little too long last night.
4: Line of the Night: Michael Beasley – 34 points (10-14 fg, 12-12 ft)
What? Not Blake?
Nope. This is highlighted for two reasons:
1: Minnesota won, beating Houston 120-08.
2: Beas isn’t exactly known as the most efficient scorer. But in this, his third game back, he could barely miss. It would be nice for Minnesota to count on Beas as a weapon… but only if he plays as a cog within the offense. If the ball starts to stick in his hands again and the offense stagnates, then we’ll have a problem.
I guess we’ll see if Ricky Rubio can control the flow of the offense with Beasley in there. Rubio had 18 points and 11 assists last night… so it worked for a game. Now let’s see if it continues.
5: You can quote me on that
“Well, it happens. At the end of the day, if you’re a shot blocker, you’re gonna get dunked on. It was a great play. I mean, obviously I wish I wasn’t in it, but it was a great play.”
– Kendrick Perkins on the Blake Griffin dunk
