Facing the Milwaukee Bucks on their home court, Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers saved a long lob pass by tipping it to himself and then jammed home a one-handed Dunk of the Night.
The Clippers beat the Bucks, 114-86. The Bucks have now lost 36 out of 44 games this season.
Showing posts with label action. Show all posts
Showing posts with label action. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
EPL Table Week 26: Biggest Developments from Saturday's Action
Chelsea also moved top of the table after their 3-0 win over Newcastle and Manchester City's 0-0 draw with Norwich City. The top three clubs are separated by a mere two points, and even the Reds may still harbor title ambitions, as they're six points off the Blues.
Here's a look at the EPL table after Saturday's results.
EPL Table Matchday 25
Pos. Club P W D L GD Pts.
1 Chelsea 25 17 5 3 27 56
2 Arsenal 25 17 4 4 22 55
3 Manchester City 25 17 3 5 41 54
4 Liverpool 25 15 5 5 33 50
5 Everton 24 12 9 3 12 45
6 Tottenham 24 13 5 6 -1 44
7 Manchester United 24 12 4 8 10 40
8 Newcastle 25 11 4 10 -2 37
9 Southampton 25 9 9 7 7 36
10 Swansea 25 7 6 12 -3 27
11 Hull City 25 7 6 12 -5 27
12 Aston Villa 25 7 6 12 -9 27
13 Stoke City 25 6 8 11 -14 26
14 Crystal Palace 25 8 2 15 -16 26
15 West Ham 25 6 7 12 -7 25
16 Norwich 25 6 7 12 -18 25
17 Sunderland 25 6 6 13 -13 24
18 West Brom 25 4 11 10 -8 23
19 Cardiff 25 5 6 14 -25 21
20 Fulham 24 6 1 17 -31 19
WhoScored.com
Among the day's eight matches, these were three of the biggest developments.
And Arsenal's annual midseason malaise begins
Any discussion of Saturday's results must begin and end with Liverpool's 5-1 demolition of Arsenal at Anfield. It was perhaps the most comprehensive defeat of a top side in the Premier League this year, more so than the Gunners' 6-3 loss to Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur's 5-0 home defeat to the Reds and 6-0 loss to City at the Etihad.
Liverpool could very easily have had six goals, had Kolo Toure not mucked a glorious opportunity in front of an open goal or if Luis Suarez's shot right before that had been a couple of inches to the right.
Apologies to any Reds supporters, but the praise of the winners ends now, as it's time to have a talk about how bad Arsenal truly were.
The Gunners came into the match with the best record away from home in the league.
Yet time and again, they were ripped apart on the counter, with Daniel Sturridge's goal standing out the most. Mesut Ozil lost the ball in midfield, Philippe Coutinho threaded a through ball up to Sturridge, and he scored. So simple, yet so effective.
Speaking of Ozil, he was shocking on Saturday, posting what was easily his worst performance since arriving at the Emirates. Bleacher Report UK posted an image one Redditor used to aptly sum up the German midfielder's performance:
Of course, Ozil isn't solely to blame. Even Arsene Wenger—somebody who's always quick to defend his players from public criticism—couldn't hold back after the match.
"Only our fans were good today," he said, per The Guardian's Daniel Taylor. "We played in slow motion."
The Gunners have what could be a tricky match against Manchester United on Wednesday, and after that it's Liverpool again in the FA Cup and Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
You don't want to overstate things too much, but that could be a season-defining stretch of games for the club.
Remember the 2010-11 season when Arsenal lost the League Cup final against Birmingham City, were bounced out of the Champions League by Barcelona and had successive Premier League draws against Sunderland, West Brom and Blackburn?
Yeah, it could be like that.
Chelsea roll while Manchester City struggle
The way in which Chelsea brushed aside Newcastle was scary. Sure the Magpies are struggling without Yohan Cabaye in the side, but that doesn't negate how good the Blues were.
Moussa Sissoko had a great chance to make it 1-1 in the 33rd minute. He missed, and then it was all Chelsea. That's how small the margin of error was for Newcastle.
Jose Mourinho's side may be the best counterattackers in Europe.
Chelsea's second goal was evidence of that fact. Eden Hazard sliced through the defence, passed it off to Samuel Eto'o, who back-heeled the ball perfectly back to Hazard, who slid it past Tim Krul. The beauty was in the simplicity.
Squawka had a nifty graphic of how the goal developed:
As ESPN FC said, though, Eto'o's assist was arguably better than the goal itself.
Compare all of this to Manchester City's 0-0 draw with Norwich City.
What is it about City that makes them such a different side away from home? Norwich are a tough side at Carrow Road, conceding 11 goals in 11 matches, but there's no excuse for a team competing for a title to come away from this match with one point.
While it's too early to hit the panic button, between the 1-0 home loss to Chelsea and draw with Norwich, City have dropped valuable points that could prove pivotal at the end of the season.
Doesn't anybody want that parachute payment?
For yet another week, the bottom half of the table remains a jumbled mess. The clubs 10th through 20th are separated by eight points, and only five points stands between 20th-placed Fulham and safety. The Cottagers could move into 19th on Sunday with a win after Cardiff City's 3-0 defeat to Swansea City.
It was a big win for the Swans, as it was their first match since Michael Laudrup's sacking. Garry Monk is taking over in the Dane's place, and he couldn't hide his pride after the victory, per BBC Sport.
"This is my proudest part," he said. "The players were magnificent."
Perhaps this win can reignite Swansea's season after that brutal run of league results.
In terms of the relegation battle, West Ham helped themselves a lot with their 2-0 win over Aston Villa. The Hammers moved into 15th place, as West Brom dropped into 18th.
It was what you'd consider a Sam Allardyce performance, as West Ham had 32 percent possession and two shots on target, according to WhoScored. That style isn't pleasing on the eyes, but it could help the club avoid the drop.
At the other end of the spectrum is Cardiff, as their loss to Swansea keeps them entrenched in 19th.
Sacking Malky Mackay in favor of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a manager with no previous first-team managerial experience in England, looked a risk at the time, and so far, it's not working out at all.
Managers like Allardyce and Tony Pulis have experience of keeping clubs out of the drop zone, and that looks like it could be the difference at the end of the season.
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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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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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Sunday, February 9, 2014
10 Takeaways from Friday's NBA Action
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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Saturday, February 8, 2014
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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Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend's action
A consequence passed Pardew's side off the park during the course of a 3-0 win. If Newcastle's manager has become increasingly pragmatic over the years, Sunderland's Gus Poyet is an ideologically driven purist big on a possession-based passing game. Implementing this philosophy has taken time and progress has been incremental but, like Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool, he is beginning to reap the benefits of having a defined vision. With a key disciple in Liam Bridcutt, newly arrived from Brighton, around to help him implement his ideas, Poyet's team looked poised to pull well clear of relegation waters. Pardew could do worse than remember his much more purist past at Reading and challenge his players to prove they really can still pass and move fluently - even without the departed Yohan Cabaye. Principles matter; moreover if Newcastle's manager sticks to them Hatem Ben Arfa will surely become re-invigorated in broadly the same manner that Adam Johnson has been re-born under Poyet's blueprint.
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