simmytbone
11-02-2013, 02:37 AM
Hey guys,
The Brooklyn Nets hands Miami Heat their 2nd lost since January while Tony Parker and the San Antonio overcome the Lakers w/o their leader Tim Duncan
Here are the stories:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nets-hand-heat-first-2-031809179--nba.html
Nets hand Heat first 2-game skid since January
By BRIAN MAHONEY (AP Basketball Writer)
NEW YORK (AP) -- Before they can think about beating Miami in the playoffs, the Brooklyn Nets had to show they could do it in a game.
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By the time they ended 4 1/2 years of futility, the only losing streak belonged to Miami - for the first time in 10 months.
Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson scored 19 points each, and the Nets ended a 13-game skid against the Heat and sent the NBA champions to consecutive losses for the first time since January with a 101-100 victory Friday night.
''It was good that we got a taste of this type of atmosphere this early in the season to try to see where we're at,'' Pierce said. ''Miami, whenever they come into town, they're a measuring stick for everybody, so it was good for us to come out and get the win.''
Pierce and Johnson both hit two free throws in the final seconds as the Heat were trying to pull off a comeback. Instead, they fell to 1-2 and have dropped two in a row for the first time since Jan. 8 and 10.
The Heat got Dwyane Wade back after he missed Wednesday's loss in Philadelphia, and he scored 21 points. LeBron James led Miami with 26 points as the Heat again fell far behind and couldn't catch up.
''What you've done in the past doesn't mean you can make it happen in the present, so we've just got to have a little more sense of urgency,'' James said. ''It's not doomsday right now. We're good, but we understand what we need to fix and correct.''
The Nets ended a 13-game skid against the Heat with their first victory since March 20, 2009, before Miami's Big Three got together and when the Nets were still playing in East Rutherford, N.J. - two homes ago.
Deron Williams, who came to the Nets two years later, said he wasn't aware of the skid until seeing it on TV earlier Friday.
''You don't want to have those types of losing streaks to any franchise,'' he said, ''so it was definitely on our mind.''
Brooklyn, bigger and deeper, opened an 11-point lead after three quarters and kept the lead right around there until the final 2 minutes. Then Miami ran off 10 straight, cutting it to 96-94 with 18 seconds left after consecutive 3-pointers by Wade and Mario Chalmers.
James later nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to cut it to 99-98 with 4.7 seconds remaining before Johnson hit two free throws. Chris Bosh was fouled and after making the first appeared to try and miss the second, but it went in and the Heat couldn't commit another foul in time.
The Nets bounced back from a season-opening loss in Cleveland by winning in their second and final game without first-year coach Jason Kidd, suspended two games by the NBA after pleading guilty in a drunken driving case.
James heated up late for his 21st straight 20-point game against the Nets. Only Michael Jordan had a longer streak, with 39 in a row from 1984-95.
Miami had bounced back with a win after every loss since following a Jan. 8 defeat to Indiana with another loss two nights later in Portland. But the Nets seized control in the third quarter behind 11 points from Pierce, holding the Heat without a basket for nearly 6 minutes and building just enough of a lead.
''This ain't nothing new. We've dealt with this before. This story line continues,'' Wade said. ''At the end of the day, we want to play better. We would love to play better, obviously the start, the first and the third, but we had a chance to win the game. We have to find a way to pull it out.''
The Heat swept three games against the Nets last season by an average of 21 points, the series appearing more lopsided than ever.
Getting Kevin Garnett and Pierce from Boston should change that, as well as whatever pleasantries might have existed between the teams. Garnett said James should worry about the Heat and stay out of Celtics business last month after James made some critical comments about their departure from Boston, and James refused to answer any questions about the Nets before the game Friday, saying Garnett told him not to talk about other teams.
Brooklyn got eight points in 12 minutes from Andrei Kirilenko after he missed the opener with back spasms. Fellow newcomer Alan Anderson also had eight points, while Andray Blatche led the reserves with nine.
NOTES: Miami's longest winning streak against an opponent is 12 in a row over Charlotte. ... The crowd included Magic Johnson, David Beckham, Allen Iverson and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Meanwhile....
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/parker-spurs-hold-off-lakers-051829180--nba.html
Parker, Spurs hold off Lakers 91-85 without Duncan
By GREG BEACHAM (AP Sports Writer)
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Although the Spurs and the Lakers hadn't played a game without Tim Duncan or Kobe Bryant on the court in 17 years, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili haven't gone anywhere.
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And even without Duncan, San Antonio is still doing the same boring stuff with the same stellar results.
Parker had 24 points and six assists, Kawhi Leonard added 15 points and 11 rebounds, and the Spurs survived without Duncan for a 91-85 victory over Los Angeles on Friday night.
Duncan sat out after bruising his chest in Wednesday's season-opening victory over Memphis, but Spurs coach Gregg Popovich promised his defending Western Conference champions would do the ''same boring stuff'' even without their franchise cornerstone since 1997.
That's exactly what the Spurs did, recovering from an early 15-point deficit and executing well in the final minutes while the new-look Lakers faltered against the club that swept them out of the first round of last spring's playoffs.
''We had a rough start, but in the second half we played a lot better,'' said Parker, who went 12 for 18 and made just one turnover in nearly 36 minutes of play. ''Every road win is sweet, so we'll take it.''
Parker hit the tiebreaking jumper with 2:13 to play, and Ginobili capped his 20-point performance off the bench with a key defensive play and a dunk in the final seconds of the Spurs' road opener. Boris Diaw hit a key 3-pointer with 1:40 to play and scored 14 points while starting in Duncan's place.
''We only know how to play one way, and that's what we do,'' Popovich said. ''We didn't do anything different. We just ran what we always run, whether (Duncan) is there or not. If Tony was out or Manu was out, we run our same stuff.''
Pau Gasol had 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Lakers, who finished their season-opening string of three games in four days with two losses after their season-opening win over the Clippers.
After San Antonio erased their early deficit, the teams traded 14 lead changes in a tense fourth quarter. Parker put the Spurs ahead to stay, and Tiago Splitter made an impressive tip-in with 1:10 left to cap a 9-1 Spurs run.
''There was a lot better execution on their part,'' Gasol said. ''They made a couple of big shots, and we didn't counter. Diaw played very well down the stretch.''
Kobe Bryant sat out for the Lakers, and is still weeks away from a return after tearing his Achilles tendon in April. The Lakers and Spurs played the first game between the perennial Western Conference powers without either Duncan or Bryant on the court since November 1996, when Bryant was a rookie and Duncan was at Wake Forest.
Jodie Meeks scored 14 points and Wes Johnson added 12 for the Lakers. Steve Nash had five points on 1-for-8 shooting and five assists in his return after sitting out Wednesday's game at Golden State in a bid to rest the 39-year-old point guard during back-to-backs.
''It's frustrating, because this was a winnable game,'' Nash said.
Los Angeles trimmed the Spurs' lead to 87-83 in the final minute, and Diaw missed two free throws. But Ginobili stripped the ball from Meeks on the way to the basket and then dunked on the other end with 11 seconds left to seal it.
''We let this one get away from us,'' Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said. ''I thought this was one we could have got, especially without Duncan. It was set up for us. We didn't do it. You need to start defending your turf, then learn how to win on the road.''
The Spurs started slowly without Duncan, missing 10 of their first 12 shots and falling behind 33-18 early in the second quarter. Parker got San Antonio rolling with a 15-2 run, erasing most of that lead in 3 1/2 minutes.
Ginobili's 3-pointer put the Spurs ahead with the first basket of the second half, but the Lakers kept it close before the back-and-forth final quarter, which featured 10 lead changes in the first 6 minutes alone.
''I think we know each other, but we definitely need a little more time,'' said Jordan Farmar, who had seven points. ''We're out there competing, trying to get it done. We didn't do much in the fourth quarter this time around, and it's tough. It's a work in progress. It's a long season, and there's going to be growing pains until we find our groove.''
NOTES: The Spurs aren't sure when Duncan will be back. San Antonio has two more games on its trip, including Saturday night in Portland. ... Xavier Henry had three points for Los Angeles on 0-for-6 shooting. He also got a 2-inch cut on his forehead in the second quarter when Johnson accidentally kicked him. Henry hit two free throws before heading to the locker room for nine stitches. He returned for the second half. ... Olivia Wilde, Jason Sudeikis, Andy Garcia, Jamaal Wilkes and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer attended the game.
credit: sports.yahoo.com
The Brooklyn Nets hands Miami Heat their 2nd lost since January while Tony Parker and the San Antonio overcome the Lakers w/o their leader Tim Duncan
Here are the stories:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nets-hand-heat-first-2-031809179--nba.html
Nets hand Heat first 2-game skid since January
By BRIAN MAHONEY (AP Basketball Writer)
NEW YORK (AP) -- Before they can think about beating Miami in the playoffs, the Brooklyn Nets had to show they could do it in a game.
Sign up for Yahoo Fantasy Basketball in Partnership with NBA.com
By the time they ended 4 1/2 years of futility, the only losing streak belonged to Miami - for the first time in 10 months.
Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson scored 19 points each, and the Nets ended a 13-game skid against the Heat and sent the NBA champions to consecutive losses for the first time since January with a 101-100 victory Friday night.
''It was good that we got a taste of this type of atmosphere this early in the season to try to see where we're at,'' Pierce said. ''Miami, whenever they come into town, they're a measuring stick for everybody, so it was good for us to come out and get the win.''
Pierce and Johnson both hit two free throws in the final seconds as the Heat were trying to pull off a comeback. Instead, they fell to 1-2 and have dropped two in a row for the first time since Jan. 8 and 10.
The Heat got Dwyane Wade back after he missed Wednesday's loss in Philadelphia, and he scored 21 points. LeBron James led Miami with 26 points as the Heat again fell far behind and couldn't catch up.
''What you've done in the past doesn't mean you can make it happen in the present, so we've just got to have a little more sense of urgency,'' James said. ''It's not doomsday right now. We're good, but we understand what we need to fix and correct.''
The Nets ended a 13-game skid against the Heat with their first victory since March 20, 2009, before Miami's Big Three got together and when the Nets were still playing in East Rutherford, N.J. - two homes ago.
Deron Williams, who came to the Nets two years later, said he wasn't aware of the skid until seeing it on TV earlier Friday.
''You don't want to have those types of losing streaks to any franchise,'' he said, ''so it was definitely on our mind.''
Brooklyn, bigger and deeper, opened an 11-point lead after three quarters and kept the lead right around there until the final 2 minutes. Then Miami ran off 10 straight, cutting it to 96-94 with 18 seconds left after consecutive 3-pointers by Wade and Mario Chalmers.
James later nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to cut it to 99-98 with 4.7 seconds remaining before Johnson hit two free throws. Chris Bosh was fouled and after making the first appeared to try and miss the second, but it went in and the Heat couldn't commit another foul in time.
The Nets bounced back from a season-opening loss in Cleveland by winning in their second and final game without first-year coach Jason Kidd, suspended two games by the NBA after pleading guilty in a drunken driving case.
James heated up late for his 21st straight 20-point game against the Nets. Only Michael Jordan had a longer streak, with 39 in a row from 1984-95.
Miami had bounced back with a win after every loss since following a Jan. 8 defeat to Indiana with another loss two nights later in Portland. But the Nets seized control in the third quarter behind 11 points from Pierce, holding the Heat without a basket for nearly 6 minutes and building just enough of a lead.
''This ain't nothing new. We've dealt with this before. This story line continues,'' Wade said. ''At the end of the day, we want to play better. We would love to play better, obviously the start, the first and the third, but we had a chance to win the game. We have to find a way to pull it out.''
The Heat swept three games against the Nets last season by an average of 21 points, the series appearing more lopsided than ever.
Getting Kevin Garnett and Pierce from Boston should change that, as well as whatever pleasantries might have existed between the teams. Garnett said James should worry about the Heat and stay out of Celtics business last month after James made some critical comments about their departure from Boston, and James refused to answer any questions about the Nets before the game Friday, saying Garnett told him not to talk about other teams.
Brooklyn got eight points in 12 minutes from Andrei Kirilenko after he missed the opener with back spasms. Fellow newcomer Alan Anderson also had eight points, while Andray Blatche led the reserves with nine.
NOTES: Miami's longest winning streak against an opponent is 12 in a row over Charlotte. ... The crowd included Magic Johnson, David Beckham, Allen Iverson and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Meanwhile....
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/parker-spurs-hold-off-lakers-051829180--nba.html
Parker, Spurs hold off Lakers 91-85 without Duncan
By GREG BEACHAM (AP Sports Writer)
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Although the Spurs and the Lakers hadn't played a game without Tim Duncan or Kobe Bryant on the court in 17 years, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili haven't gone anywhere.
Sign up for Yahoo Fantasy Basketball in Partnership with NBA.com
And even without Duncan, San Antonio is still doing the same boring stuff with the same stellar results.
Parker had 24 points and six assists, Kawhi Leonard added 15 points and 11 rebounds, and the Spurs survived without Duncan for a 91-85 victory over Los Angeles on Friday night.
Duncan sat out after bruising his chest in Wednesday's season-opening victory over Memphis, but Spurs coach Gregg Popovich promised his defending Western Conference champions would do the ''same boring stuff'' even without their franchise cornerstone since 1997.
That's exactly what the Spurs did, recovering from an early 15-point deficit and executing well in the final minutes while the new-look Lakers faltered against the club that swept them out of the first round of last spring's playoffs.
''We had a rough start, but in the second half we played a lot better,'' said Parker, who went 12 for 18 and made just one turnover in nearly 36 minutes of play. ''Every road win is sweet, so we'll take it.''
Parker hit the tiebreaking jumper with 2:13 to play, and Ginobili capped his 20-point performance off the bench with a key defensive play and a dunk in the final seconds of the Spurs' road opener. Boris Diaw hit a key 3-pointer with 1:40 to play and scored 14 points while starting in Duncan's place.
''We only know how to play one way, and that's what we do,'' Popovich said. ''We didn't do anything different. We just ran what we always run, whether (Duncan) is there or not. If Tony was out or Manu was out, we run our same stuff.''
Pau Gasol had 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Lakers, who finished their season-opening string of three games in four days with two losses after their season-opening win over the Clippers.
After San Antonio erased their early deficit, the teams traded 14 lead changes in a tense fourth quarter. Parker put the Spurs ahead to stay, and Tiago Splitter made an impressive tip-in with 1:10 left to cap a 9-1 Spurs run.
''There was a lot better execution on their part,'' Gasol said. ''They made a couple of big shots, and we didn't counter. Diaw played very well down the stretch.''
Kobe Bryant sat out for the Lakers, and is still weeks away from a return after tearing his Achilles tendon in April. The Lakers and Spurs played the first game between the perennial Western Conference powers without either Duncan or Bryant on the court since November 1996, when Bryant was a rookie and Duncan was at Wake Forest.
Jodie Meeks scored 14 points and Wes Johnson added 12 for the Lakers. Steve Nash had five points on 1-for-8 shooting and five assists in his return after sitting out Wednesday's game at Golden State in a bid to rest the 39-year-old point guard during back-to-backs.
''It's frustrating, because this was a winnable game,'' Nash said.
Los Angeles trimmed the Spurs' lead to 87-83 in the final minute, and Diaw missed two free throws. But Ginobili stripped the ball from Meeks on the way to the basket and then dunked on the other end with 11 seconds left to seal it.
''We let this one get away from us,'' Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said. ''I thought this was one we could have got, especially without Duncan. It was set up for us. We didn't do it. You need to start defending your turf, then learn how to win on the road.''
The Spurs started slowly without Duncan, missing 10 of their first 12 shots and falling behind 33-18 early in the second quarter. Parker got San Antonio rolling with a 15-2 run, erasing most of that lead in 3 1/2 minutes.
Ginobili's 3-pointer put the Spurs ahead with the first basket of the second half, but the Lakers kept it close before the back-and-forth final quarter, which featured 10 lead changes in the first 6 minutes alone.
''I think we know each other, but we definitely need a little more time,'' said Jordan Farmar, who had seven points. ''We're out there competing, trying to get it done. We didn't do much in the fourth quarter this time around, and it's tough. It's a work in progress. It's a long season, and there's going to be growing pains until we find our groove.''
NOTES: The Spurs aren't sure when Duncan will be back. San Antonio has two more games on its trip, including Saturday night in Portland. ... Xavier Henry had three points for Los Angeles on 0-for-6 shooting. He also got a 2-inch cut on his forehead in the second quarter when Johnson accidentally kicked him. Henry hit two free throws before heading to the locker room for nine stitches. He returned for the second half. ... Olivia Wilde, Jason Sudeikis, Andy Garcia, Jamaal Wilkes and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer attended the game.
credit: sports.yahoo.com