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Up here, Kevin Garnett's called for his second technical of the first-round series against the Toronto Raptors, after an equally questionable one in Game 1.
I'm not one to blame referees for too many mistakes -- it's a quick sport with snap decisions made by imperfect that are scrutinized on slow-motion replay. But that's not at play here: this is a decision made after a play, with Garnett casually walking down court. He doesn't do anything drastic. It doesn't appear that he said enough bad words to warrant a technical (though with Garnett, that's always possible). But Garnett's still slapped with one.
I guess you could argue that he pawed down at Vasquez on the floor, but that's silly to call a technical on. Maybe it was just preventative on the official's part. Your thoughts?
There was an odd moment -- and extended ending -- to Saturday afternoon's 94-87 Nets victory over the Toronto Raptors. Midway through the third quarter, the shot clocks suddenly shut off, causing a ten-minute delay in game action as the arena crew tried to get them working again. During the delay, Kidd asked one of the referees something weird: if his team could "warm up" while they waited for the shot clocks to turn on, causing a funny back-and-forth between him and the referee:
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After his fourth consecutive shot in crunch time fell, putting the Nets up seven with 51.5 seconds left, Nets forward Paul Pierce walked back towards the bench, pounding his chest.
"That's why they got me here!" Pierce said to his teammates. "That's why I'm here!"
In his 137th career playoff game, more than any other player in this Nets-Raptors series, Pierce didn't score once between the beginning of the second quarter and three minutes left in the game, shooting 2-9 from the field at that point.
But a quick three-pointer, a left-handed layup after a few extra steps, and two big jumpers brought the Nets from up three to up seven, sealing the first game of the Nets-Raptors series for Brooklyn with a 94-87 victory.
"He's been doing it for years," Dwane Casey said after the game about Pierce. "He's a Hall of Famer for a reason."
Pierce finished with 15 points, shooting 6 of 13 from the field in the Nets victory.
A total of 15 fouls were called in the second quarter of Nets-Raptors alone, and that doesn't even count two Nets technicals. Here was the second: after Kyle Lowry & Andray Blatche got tangled up under the rim, Blatche shoves Lowry into the ground as he's getting up.
This is already an exciting, physical series. I'd do seven games of this.
This Nets-Knicks game was pretty slow up until right about here. Prior to this first video, Amar'e Stoudemire rose for an emphatic flush over Mason Plumlee on an offensive rebound, but Plumlee fired back with a dunk of his own off a beautiful, precise Andrei Kirilenko no-look, behind-the-back pass.
Plumlee wasn't done, either: he followed up that slam with an equally emphatic alley-oop on the very next possession.
The Magic rank sixth in the league in defensive rebounding percentage, meaning that only five teams grab more defensive rebounds in the amount of chances they have. But they've got an even better percentage of defensive rebounds converted into immediate baskets: they're 1-1 on the season when they shoot on their own basket. A truly impressive number.
PA announcer David Diamante credited the two points to Nets center Mason Plumlee. When Plumlee inevitably breaks Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time scoring record by one point, remember this day.
I don't think Paul Pierce realized he was being picked up by a microphone at the scorer's table, because he may not have been so candid. But jokingly, he made sure Marquis Teague and Jeff Teague knew his thoughts on their brotherly looks:
"Y'all the ugliest brothers in the league, BY FAR. BY FAR. BY FAR."
