Inside the Paint: Great Day For Basketball

Last night was one giant commercial for NBA League Pass. Five games ended so much in dramatic fashion, that a non-NBA fan would find it hard to not like the NBA. Once again home teams to the right.

Phoenix 104 Miami 96: Steve Nash isn't a bad player for a white guy. Nash scored 25 points in the second half alone as he lead the Suns to a come-from-behind victory. Amazing part of this game though was Phoenix going with a college zone defense and shutting down Miami. Quieten Richardson complained about the defense at the end of the game, “I thought the zone was for college, personally,” Richardson said. “I thought that was the difference between the NBA and college.” Sorry grapes by Quieten.

Utah 85 Dallas 96: I have no idea what got into Dirk Nowitzki last night, but it would be nice for the big German to play like this more often. Nowitzki scored 29 points out of 40 points in the 4th quarter to lead the Mavericks to a come-from-behind win. The Mavericks were behind 67-52 at the start of the fourth quarter when Dirk took over. This is the second loss in as many nights that Utah blew a big lead.



Los Angeles Lakers 101 Oklahoma City 98 in OT: Kevin Durant had a chance to beat the Lakers in regulation and had a chance to tie the game in overtime, and bricked both times. Durant finished the night with 28 points but that was on 10-for-24 shooting. Kobe Bryant scored 31 points and hit the game-winner in overtime. Also more good news for the Lakers, Pau Gasol is set to return from injury.

Milwaukee 81 Chicago 83: The state of Wisconsin just can't catch a break. Two days after letting Brett Favre punk the Packers, the Chicago Bulls punked the Bucks. The Bulls were down by 18 points in this game before coming back and beating Milwaukee by 2 points. Luol Deng was a Black Hole scoring 24 points, grabbing 20 rebounds, with no assists. But the Bulls needed Deng on the night Tyrus Thomas went down with a mysterious aliment.

Boston 105 Philadelphia 74: I can't even describe how bad the Sixers were last night and only 11,000 people care. On a night when Kevin Garnett only scored three points and Ray Allen only scored five points, the Sixers still lost by 31 points. They were that bad. Of course the Celtics couldn't miss from the 3-point line. The Celtics were 70% from behind the arc for the night.

Caption of the Night: Rock on dude