Photo by: Noah Graham, NBA.com, October 22, 2018.
Oakland, Ca. — October 23, 2018 — What a Monday night for basketball am I right?!
Warriors dominated the Phoenix Suns at home, 123-103. (Expected) They did lose in Denver on Sunday night, 98-100, but that didn’t stop them from getting a W in Roaracle.
Lakers
My dad and I were simultaneously watching the Lakers & Spurs game & man did the 4th quarter get interesting.
Los Angeles, Ca. — Lakers were down by eight points with 64 seconds left in the 4th, until Lebron James (32 points, 14 assists, eight-rebounds) hit a 28-foot three-pointer to tie the game.“I just got to my shot and trusted it,” James said. “I got a good rhythm coming up the floor and just trusted my shot. I work on it every day. I was able to get a good bounce into it and get a good look at it” (Joey Ramirez, NBA.com/Los Angeles Lakers).
Not sure if the refs ignored this on purpose or what, but if they were to have noticed, James would have received a technical foul & Spurs would have taken a free throw along with the ball... 🤔 (via Bruno Manrique, clutchpoints.com)
The entire Laker lineup was hustling alongside James in attempt to stay ahead of the Spurs. Kyle Kuzma was also on FIRE Monday night, racking up 37 points and eight rebounds throughout the game. Kuzma replaced Brandon Ingram in the starting lineup, who is suspended for four games. Josh Hart (20 points and 10 rebounds) was also a key asset to the Laker comeback.
(Not sure if you are behind on the times, but, Ingram, Rajon Rondo & Chris Paul are all suspended due to a little tiff they had on Saturday).
Johnathan Williams was released 10 days ago, but returned on Saturday and signed a two-way contract.
FYI – Two-way Contract: In 2017 the NBA added two-way contracts between the NBA and their G league players. Only two per team, two-way contract players can spend up to 45 days on an NBA team and continue the season in the G League.
Williams made a huge impact after JaVale McGee fouled out in the 4th quarter. He came through with three huge blocks, a couple buckets and some screens to help up the tempo during OT (Joey Ramirez, NBA.com/Los Angeles Lakers). Unfortunately, James missed two key free-throw shots; Bryn Forbes drove in for a layup and Rudy Gay sealed the deal with a killer three-pointer, the Lakers lost 143-142.
Spurs Stats
DeMar DeRozan (32 points, 14 assists, eight rebounds)
LaMarcus Aldrige (37 points, five assists, 10 rebounds)
Blazers
As I was flipping through the channels I noticed the Blazers were going into OT against the Washington Wizards IN PORTLAND.
Portland, Ore. — Somehow Damien Lillard (29 points, 8 assists, 8 rebounds) was blocked on two game-winning layups. “Offensive rebounds, giving up open threes, turning the ball over – even our opportunities, we had two chances to win it at the buzzer,” said Lillard. “For me obviously, I looked right back at those two plays. I think the kind of effort that we had, we put ourselves in position to win the game, just didn’t execute on the defensive end or the offensive end as good as we needed to to win it. That’s frustrating” (Casey Holdahl via NBA.com)
In the final two minutes of the 4th quarter Blazers were up by one, Bradley Beal (25 points, seven assists, eight rebounds) came through with a clutch three-point shot to tie the game at 111.
As the teams went into OT Markieff Morris (28 points, one assist, nine rebounds) continued to rally with nine more points. The score was 125-121 after John Wall’s (16 points, nine assists) pull-up bank shot. Lillard answered with a layup followed by C.J. McCollum’s one and only three point shot. The Blazers eventually fouled Wall who missed both shots (sound familiar?) But the Wizards were lucky, as the clock timed out Otto Porter Jr. blocked a last-second layup attempt by Lillard.
Intense game by both teams. Wizard’s play the Warriors on Wednesday night and I predicting the Wizards will come out on a winning high. But let’s not forget the difficulties of playing the Warriors at home.
thesportsnote 