NBA, The Morning After 1/27/2008

The PSG had a good day yesterday, going 3/4 with a +177. No records were set, but that's a good day.

A few comments on the games:

Indiana Pacers @ Miami Heat +87

Miami had to win eventually, and catching an injured Indiana team playing it's 5th game on the road was a great opportunity. What was surprising, was how much trouble they had with the victory. Indiana did everything they could to lose it, and still almost won.

• Miami shot almost 50% from the floor, but nothing was easy. Wade had a very effecient 35 points, but a lot of the shots didn't look like they had a chance.


• Mark Freaking Blount had another monster game - 19 points on 8/14 shooting.

LA Clippers @ Memphis Grizzlies +95
Verrryy good game. Memphis won WITHOUT Pau Gasol and Stromile Swift. Rudy Gay had a monster game, the man is really coming into his own in this league. It wasn't just the 34 points on 13-25 shooting, but TWELVE rebounds! Even though LA was doing everything it could to keep the game close, I was honestly never worried. Corey Magette made 16 free throws, but Sam-I-Am took 19 shots which is not good for a Clipper team.

New Orleans @ San Antonion +95
This game went about the way I expected it to. New Orleans is playing better than any other team in the NBA right now. I'm telling you, this game was absolutely as close as the score, and San Antonio was playing like it was a playoff game. If these teams played a 7-game series, new Orleans wins in 5 or 6.

It was funny watching Pop try and find someone to guard Chris Paul. Tony Parker started, but that didn't last long...then he tried Bruce Bowen, and for some reason Parker gets the calls Wade gets on Bruce Bowen -- maybe the refs are finally on to him grabbing and swiping at everything? At one point, I saw Chris Paul spend 4 streight possessions riding the refs about what Bowen was doing, and they just had to call it. He was still playing at a high level, but he was not going to let the ref's ignore it, and in the end they couldn't. Steve Nash will try and move on and forget about it, but Chris Paul wouldn't. And, Jacque Vaughn didn't have any better luck. Update: The official box score shows Bruce Bowen with ZERO fouls...um, must be a mistake in the box score....either that or the refs were giving the fouls to someone else. Wierd. How does someone who plays defense like Bruce Bowen go an entire game without committing a foul??