7 Takeaways for Saturday Night's NBA Action

The evening of Saturday, Feb. 8, was full of surprises in the NBA.

In Salt Lake City, the 16-33 Utah Jazz beat the world champion Miami Heat. In Atlanta, the Memphis Grizzlies shot an NBA record-low one free throw for the entire game...and still managed to come out on top.

In Phoenix, the Suns continued their surprising march toward the playoffs with a win over the Golden State Warriors, though with the way Phoenix has been playing this season, another win is no longer surprising at all.

The Memphis Grizzlies made an odd bit of history in Saturday's 79-76 win over the Atlanta Hawks. Per ESPN Stats, the Grizzlies set an NBA record by taking only one free throw for the entire game.

That's right: one. From Courtney Lee. The hometown Hawks would have done well to take advantage of their 15 shots from the charity stripe. They shot 8-of-15 from the free-throw line and lost by three.

Zach Randolph led the Grizzlies with 20 points. Obviously, none of those 20 came from the free-throw line.

More importantly for the Grizzlies, the win snapped a two-game losing streak. They'll take a win over some free throws any day of the week.

The Charlotte Bobcats are an up-and-coming young team. The San Antonio Spurs are a team missing several of its best players.

But San Antonio still managed to fend off the Bobcats, 104-100. The Spurs simply cannot lose to the these guys.

Per ESPN Stats, the Spurs are now 16-2 all time versus the Bobcats; the .889 winning percentage is the best against any single opponent.

Reserve guard Patty Mills led the Spurs in scoring with game-high 32 points off the bench.

One day, the Bobcats will be able to beat the Spurs...maybe even beat them consistently. But that day isn't here yet.

It's one thing to lose two straight on the road; it's another thing entirely to get thrashed by a pair of mediocre teams.

That's exactly what happened to the Denver Nuggets over the last two days. They looked terrible in losing, 117-90, to the New York Knicks on Friday and looked even worse in losing to the Detroit Pistons, 126-109 on Saturday.

Detroit's Brandon Jennings and Josh Smith torched the Nuggets defense for 35 and 30 points, respectively.

The two losses dropped Denver to 24-25 on the season. That isn't great, but it's certainly better than the Pistons (21-29) and the Knicks (20-30). The Nuggets are the better team, but they didn't belong on the same court as either Eastern Conference club this weekend.
Throughout the 2013-14 season, the Minnesota Timberwolves have been a talented team plagued by shaky play in the clutch.

Saturday's Timberwolves team didn't have nearly as much talent, with Kevin Love, Nikola Pekovic and Kevin Martin all sidelined with injuries. But they lost to the Portland Trail Blazers in true Wolves fashion, letting the game get away from them in the fourth quarter.

Portland scored 34 points in the final frame to walk away with a 117-110 victory.

This time, however, the Wolves shouldn't feel bad about themselves. They played a good team right down to the wire, despite missing their three best players.

Portland point guard Damian Lillard paid a compliment to the Wolves' skeleton crew after the game, per NBA.com's Jim Beilby:

We knew they would make this an energy game. We knew they were short-handed with Kevin Love and Kevin Martin out, we had to make sure that we stayed focused and made sure we don't tell ourselves 'Well, Kevin Love and Kevin Martin aren't playing, so this is going to be easy.' It is an NBA team and they got guys out there that are capable of putting some things together and that is what they did tonight.

Hopefully Minnesota can put together some actual wins, once they get healthy.

The Houston Rockets tied a season high with their fifth win in a row, taking out the Milwaukee Bucks Saturday night, 101-95.

The woeful Bucks managed to make this one surprising close, but Houston held off a few Milwaukee runs and put the game away for good.

Rockets center Dwight Howard filled up the stat sheet with 27 points, 13 rebounds, five assists, one steal and two blocks.

The winning streak has put Houston in a position to wrestle away the all-important fourth seed (and home-court advantage) from the Los Angeles Clippers. Houston sits in a virtual tie with Los Angeles.

The Clippers are still missing Chris Paul, and Houston is taking advantage.

The Golden State Warriors probably came into the 2013-14 season hoping to beat out the Clippers for the Pacific Division title. If they failed in that endeavor, then surely they could count on second place. After all, who else was there to challenge them?

The Phoenix Suns, that's who.

Phoenix continued its Cinderella season on Saturday, pushing the Warriors back into third place in the Pacific with a 122-109 win.

Point guard Goran Dragic led all scorers with 34 points on 10-of-13 shooting (including 6-of-7 from three-point range), while teammate Gerald Green chipped in 25.

The Suns are a young team...maybe too young to realize they aren't supposed to keep playing this well. If the Warriors don't get their act together, they may be staring up at the Suns for the rest of the season.

Is there a formula for defeating the two-time defending champion Miami Heat? If there is, opponents might want to start looking for it in Salt Lake City.

The Utah Jazz beat the Heat on Saturday, 94-89, in a shocking upset that, in retrospect, doesn't seem that shocking at all. Per NBA.com's Matt Payne, this win marks the fifth straight year the Jazz have beaten the Heat at least once. And remember, the Jazz get to play Miami only twice a year.

Forward Marvin Williams was red hot for the Jazz, scoring 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting. The great LeBron James was held to a season-low 13 points in the loss.

The Jazz are not a good team, but for whatever reason, they seem to be Miami's kryptonite.

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10 Takeaways from Friday's NBA Action

The evening of Friday, Feb. 7, was one of those rare occasions when the NBA's marquee match up not only lived up to the hype, but turned into the game of the night.
The Portland Trail Blazers and Indiana Pacers needed more than the regulation 48 minutes to settle things on Friday, thanks to a clutch shot from Indiana point guard George Hill. The Pacers eventually held off the Trail Blazers in overtime.
In New Orleans, 20-year-old  Anthony Davis led his team to victory. In Philadelphia, 40-year-old birthday boy Steve Nash did the same for his Los Angeles Lakers.

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7 Takeaways from Wednesday's NBA Action

The NBA action on the evening of Wednesday, Feb. 5, was a wild ride from start to finish.

In Washington D.C., the San Antonio Spurs needed two overtimes to finally put down a pesky Washington Wizards squad looking to break a long losing streak to their Spurs opponents.

In Cleveland, the Los Angeles Lakers triage unit didn't have five eligible players to finish their game against the Cleveland Cavaliers...and still won.

Out West, the high-flying Miami Heat met the equally high-flying Los Angeles Clippers, putting on an aerial show for the ages.

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Nebraska Football: 5 Takeaways from Cornhuskers 2014 Class

Nebraska football fans are anxiously awaiting how the Cornhuskers’ class of 2014 will take shape. Currently, Nebraska’s class is No. 35 nationally and No. 6 in the Big Ten, according to 247Sports. With 26 recruits currently in the class, we now have enough data to draw some conclusions on what we have learned about Nebraska now and in the future given what we have seen from this year’s cycle.
Unless otherwise noted, all measurables, composite and star rankings, and class rankings from 247Sports.

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Takeaways from Kentucky Wildcats' 80-64 Win over Ole Miss Rebels

The No. 18 Kentucky Wildcats hosted the Ole Miss Rebels Tuesday in a battle between two teams with 6-2 records in the SEC.
Looking to keep pace with the Florida Gators, who now sit atop the conference with a 9-0 record, UK needed to defend its home court against the hot-shooting Rebels, who are led by senior guard Marshall Henderson.
Having won five of its past six games, Ole Miss came into Rupp Arena with the confidence that it could get a signature win at the expense of the 'Cats.
UK ensured that wouldn't happen, as it ran the Rebels out of the building en route to an 80-64 victory.
Here are three takeaways from the game and how they affect UK going forward.

Streaky Young
Freshman forward James Young can carry the 'Cats one game, only to badly damage their chances of winning in the next one.

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Super Bowl 2014: Key Takeaways from Seahawks' Blowout of Broncos

With Super Bowl XLVIII in the books, football fanatics will have to search for some sense of meaning in their lives until September, but for now we can feast on the shocking annihilation the Seattle Seahawks put upon the Denver Broncos in the 43-8 romp.

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