Looking back on...stuff, where holyfuck were there a lot of points last night.

Phx 119-115 PHI, UTA 95-93 NYK, SAS 131-124 TOR, GSW 146-105 MIN, NOH 112-84 LAC.

I mean...goddamn. 6 of 10 teams ended up on at least 110 points last night.

Anyway, moving onto actually talking about the games, I didn't catch all of any of them, but did manage to catch a decent part of a couple. So, onto those.

Raptors-Spurs

So, 255 points in a game involving the Spurs. I'm pretty sure that's a sign of the apocalypse. But if we have to go out...well, that's a cool thing to have happened, right?

It was a crazy game. The Raptors shot nearly 60% from the field, went 11 of 17 from three, only committed 11 turnovers, and held the Spurs to under 50%. So, how'd they lose by 7?

They got outrebounded. By sort of a lot...against a Spurs team that mostly played without anyone over 6'9 on the floor. That's...a problem. Now, granted, one of those sub-6'9ers was DeJuan Blair, who was sent from the heavens as god's gift to rebounding. But still. Bargnani could only grab four? And he's your starting center. That's a pretty big motherfucking problem.

Now, it didn't all come down to rebounding. The Spurs did hit some shots...a lot of them, actually. They were ridiculously efficient, and a lot of that was thanks to Manu's superstar level performance. 36 points on 8 of 15 from the field (6 of 8 from three!), 4 boards, 4 blocks (!), and 8 assists. Ridiculous.

But he wasn't alone. The suddenly somewhat awesome Richard Jefferson managed 24, 8, and 7, which is like a Stephen Jackson on steroids performance (or a tired LeBron, I guess). George Hill was quite impressive at the quasi-point, getting 22 and 5 on only 2 assists. And Matt fucking Bonner got 18. I mean, if these guys can come anywhere close to this with Duncan and Parker around, it will be motherfucking scary.

On Toronto's side, Hedo and Bosh were both quite nice, and Calderon got his usual ridiculous assist count. But, you know...defense. And rebounding. That's what seperates the Raps from the top squads, and it ain't just going to show up. Playing Rasho more than 2 minutes would theoretically help, but obviously you're sacrificing offense to do that...and the question is whether it's worth it. My answer? How the fuck should I know, that's up to you, Jay Triano. Goddamn.

GSW-Minny

There's the Warriors we know and love.

Jackson with a career high 15 assists, big games from Buike, great performances from Gette and Randolph, another ridiculous shooting night from Morrow...this is how it's supposed to be.

Alright, sort of. I mean, the Wolves sort of suck, especially without Kevin Love. But if they play with this sort of energy, and focus, and...willingness to give a damn, on a regular basis...the Warriors are motherfucking scary. But will it last? Probably not.

But motherfuck, we can hope. Right? Right.

ELSEWHERE

Nash murdered Philly, Paul destroyed the Clippers, and the Knicks were involved in the night's lowest scoring game. There we go.

A few nice games tonight, and also OKC-Sac, which should be wonderfully awful/entertaining.

Kurt Rambis to Minnesota

There are two basic things which will ultimately determine how good of a hire Rambis was for Wolves.

A) Is he cool with playing two point guards and two power forwards? This would be the start of referring to basketball lineups in similar terms to football formations. "The Wolves will be playing their innovative 2-1-0-2-0 tonight..." and shit like that. Hopefully it works out for them.

B) Will he wear the glasses on the sideline?


Other than that, Rambis is coming into a situation where he won't be expected to win much right away, very different from when he interimed as the Lakers' coach in 1999. Basically, he has to avoid colossal losing streaks and making Al Jefferson angry. He won't be expected to make the playoffs for a few seasons, but he will have to make progress with a young, talented team.