NBA – Houston Rockets outplay the Sacramento Kings

Chase Budinger scored 20 points and Kyle Lowry had 19 points, eight assists and seven rebounds as the Houston Rockets took a 123-101 win Monday night against the Sacramento Kings.

That was enough for Rick Adelman, the head coach of the Houston Rockets, to win his 935th game in the NBA, tying him with Dick Motta for 10th on the NBA’s career victories. To get this into the right perspective you might have to consider that among the top 10 in that list, only Phil Jackson (with great runs with the Chicago Bulls and the LA Lakers) and Red Auerbach, (who made his best run with the Celtics in the 50’s and 60’s) hold better winning percentages then him.

Now, besides being a significant win for Adelman, it was an important confident booster for the Houston Rockets. With a 33-32 regular season, the Rocket’s haven’t been at their finest, and yet, they sure enough are trying to turn the season around. Houston has won two straight games, seven of the last eight, and moved over the .500 mark for the first time all season in this valid and desperate run for a playoff berth.

The Sacramento Kings are on the other side of the spectrum. At 15-46 for the regular season and 8-24 on home games, the Kings are in a serious need of a lift off. There is really nothing this crew can do this season to get into the playoffs, but things could certainly get brighter next year.

For starters, DeMarcus Cousins had 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Kings. For instance, there are many who believe that Cousins could really turn out to be one heck of the player. He has the all the talent you could wish for, but there are still many issues concerning his maturity and his concentration that could keep him from exploiting all his potential.

DeMarcus Cousins has had a brilliant start in March, completing his third double-double in as many games. Still, that was not enough to keep the Sacramento Kings from losing their third straight and fifth in six games.

It was certainly not a bomb-proof second half for Cousins. This doesn’t mean he had a bad game, au contraire; he dominated the paint offensively in the opening half when he scored 20 points. But then it all went south. The rookie center missed all five second-half shots, had zero points, and left the game in the fourth quarter after taking a hard hit. He didn’t come back but in the press conference team officials said that the injury was minor. Marcus Thornton had 16 points, Beno Udrih added 15, and Francisco Garcia scored 11 for the Kings.

For the Rockets, Courtney Lee scored 19 points and Martin had 15 for the Rockets, who shot 53 percent. Lowry scored 11 points and Luis Scola had 10 for the Rockets, who used a 36-28 second quarter to go into the half with a 65-58 lead.

The Houston Rockets will now have to face the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday before hosting quite an important and difficult game against the best team in the league, the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday. On the other hand, the Sacramento Kings will play the Orlando Magic on Wednesday and then also face the Spurs on Friday on a very difficult on-the-road game.

NBA – Orlando Magic outplay New York Knicks at home

by Stephen Lars on Mar.03, 2011, under Basketball, Sports News

Orlando was on fire. Despite the foul-filled performance and their high number of turnovers, the great defense played in the third quarter by the Magic was enough of for them to outplay the New York Knicks 116-110 last night at the Amway Center, in Orlando Florida.

This was a thrilling come-from-behind win for the Orlando Magic against a team that had just previously defeated the Miami Heat on the road. Because let’s face it, there was plenty of hype around the New York Knicks recently. The Knicks have just undergone a mayor revamp after a 15-player trade off that landed Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups from the Denver Nuggets. And even though the squad suffered a hiccup against the Cleveland Cavaliers, their impressive win over LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade in South Beach was enough to offer the Magic-Knicks game an aura of excitement.

And it deserved this aura as this was one heck of a game. The Knicks led 84-79 entering the fourth quarter before an 8-2 Magic run that really changed the outcome of the game. The run was finished beautifully with a basket by Quentin Richardson, who came from the bench and contributed with 10 points, which brought the Magic to 88-87 with 9:27 to play.

Orlando took a 90-88 lead on its next possession after Ryan Anderson, who scored 16 points in the game, completed a 3-pointer.

Chauncey Billups was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 7:31 left. He was smooth from the line and hit all three free throws to, for a moment there, put the New York Knicks back up 93-92. But it was not going to be enough. The Orlando Magic quickly responded with five points, including a 3-pointer by Jason Richardson, to regain a 97-93 edge with 6:48 remaining.

It was a good game for the Knicks but it was just not enough. It seemed as if at the end Orlando was just stronger and more athletic. New York had just eight turnovers, but shot just 37 percent for the game and 23 percent (7 for 23) from three-point range. And that was just not going to make the cut against a very strong Dwight Howard, who had 30 points, recorded 16 rebounds 2 assists and 5 blocks for the Orlando Magic. The Knicks were also outrebounded 45-38.

Billups had a great game for the Knicks. He had 30 points and 6 boards with 6 assists for the night. And you have to consider that he had to cut the game short as he left the game with 2:13 remaining with a left thigh bruise after a violent collision with Dwight Howard. We are still waiting on more details on whether he suffered any significant damage that might affect his performance on the following weeks.

On the personal note, Dwight Howard became the youngest player in NBA history to amass 7,000 rebounds during his career. He passed Wilt Chamberlain, who was 26 years and 128 days old. By the time Howard hit his 9th rebound in the third quarter he was 25 years and 83 days old.

With this defeat the New York Knicks now hold a 2-2 record since their blockbuster trade off with the Denver Nuggets. It’s still a bit early to make more bold statements in regards to the Knicks full potential. We just hope they can step up and work their way into the Playoffs and have some success at it.