Lakers Defeat Mavs; Week In Review

Portland's Hero

NBA Recap

Bryant

Just after Dwight Howard admitted that his poor conditioning lost the Lakers games he and the team were on the court to face the Dallas Mavericks. Kobe Bryant's free throw with 4 seconds left put the game out of reach at 103-99 and that is how it finished. Kobe scored 38 points on the night and also had 7 assists. For the Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki dropped 30 and grabbed 13 rebounds.

Luke Ridnour's shot with one second left did not hit the mark leaving the Minnesota Timberwolves one point shy of overtime. Jarrett Jack was the most crucial part of the Warriors victory scoring 23 points and dishing out 8 assists. Derrick Williams played strong in the 100-99 loss with 23 points and 12 rebounds.

The Cavaliers put themselves in a position to beat the Heat last night with a 36-17 3rd quarter to give themselves a 1 point lead going into the fourth. The Heat pulled out the comeback to win their 11th game in a row by a score of 109-105. Lebron James had 28 points and 8 assists agianst his former team. Dion Waiters led the Cavs with 26 points.

The Hornets swept the Kings under the rug 110-95 thanks to Anthony Davis's 20 points. Greivis Vazques had a double-double for the Hornets with 12 points and 13 assists.

The Grizzlies and Nets decided to not partake in offense as the Griz pulled out a 76-72 win. Zach Randolph was crucial in the victory with 16 points and 14 boards. Deron Williams had 24 points in the loss.

Despite Jrue Holiday's 30 points the Sixers came up 6 points shy of the Knicks in a 99-93 loss. Carmelo Anthony scored 29 points as the Knicks broke their four game losing streak.

The Spurs used a dominating 2nd quarter effort to bury the Suns 97-87. Patty Mills and Kawhi Leonard both led the Spurs with 16 points while Leonard had an additional 8 rebounds. Marcin Gortat was the Suns' best performer with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

The Trail Blazers defeated the Celtics 92-86 in Portland thanks to Wesley Matthews 7 points in the last 2:13. On top of his heroics in the closing minutes, Matthews finished with 24 points including a 5-8 performance from 3 pt land. Paul Pierce played well for the Celtics scoring 23 points, dishing out 8 asssists, and grabbing 7 rebounds.

The last game of the night was a blowout as the Thunder surprisingly destroyed the Bulls 102-72. The Bulls only shot 29% for the game with their leading scorers being Luol Deng and Nate Robinson who only had 13 a piece.  The Thunder were led by Russell Westbrook's 23 points and and Kevin Durant's 19/16/6 performance.

NBA Week In Review

NBA League Leaders - Feb 18, 2013 to Feb 24, 2013
Points		P	Assists		A
	1. James Harden	31.7		1. Goran Dragic	12.2
	2. Kobe Bryant	31.3		2. Greivis Vasquez	10.5
	3. Kemba Walker	24.8		3. Jeff Teague	9.7
	4. Lebron James	23.5		4. Lebron James	9.2
	5. Dwayne Wade	23.5		5. Ricky Rubio	8.7
Rebounds		R	Turnovers		TO
	1. Zach Randolph	56		1. Goran Dragic	16
	2. David Lee	55		2. Russell Westbrook	15
	3. Joakim Noah	42		3. John Wall	15
	4. Nikola Vucevic	42		4. Stephen Curry	14
	5. Reggie Evans	41		5. Deron Williams	14
Steals		S	Blocks		B
	1. Ricky Rubio	4.7		1. Larry Sanders	12
	2. Goran Dragic	3		2. Serge Ibaka	11
	3. Mike Conley	2.5		3. Tyson Chandler	9
	4. Al- Farouq Aminu	2.5		4. Joakim Noah	9
	5. Trevor Ariza	2.3		5. Al- Farouq Aminu	9
Field Goal % (minimum 35 attempts)		FG%	Free Throw % (minimum 10)		FT%
	1. J.J. Hickson	67.6		1. J.J. Redick	100
	2. Al Horford	66.7		2. Kyrie Irving	100
	3. Marcin Gortat	60		3. Anthony Davis	100
	4. Lebron James	59		4. Kevin Durant	95.7
	5. Mario Chalmers	57.6		5. Russell Westbrook	95.2

2-18 to 2-24 All NBA
Eastern Conference		Western Conference
Pos	Starters	Pos	Starters
PG	CLE- Kyrie Irving	PG	SA- Tony Parker
SG	MIA- Dwayne Wade	SG	HOU- James Harden
SF	MIA- Lebron James	SF	OKC- Kevin Durant
PF	ATL- Al Horford	PF	DAL- Dirk Nowitzki
C	MIL- Larry Sanders	C	POR- J.J. Hickson

Perry's overtime winner

NHL Recap

Rask

Tuukka Rask made 34 saves on 35 shots to improve to 8-0-1 on the year in the Bruins 4-1 win over the Panthers. 

Martin Brodeur left ice during the warmups due to soreness and Johan Hedberg had to take his place. The Jets took full advantage of that to walk away from New Jersey with a 4-2 victory. Evander Kane scored his 7th goal of the year while in the third period teammate Andrew Ladd netted his 10th.

The Canucks got off to a hot start scoring 3 goals in the first, two from Daniel Sedin, to get a 3-2 lead going into the second. That is where things turned south for the Canucks as the Red Wings went on a scoring rampage with three of their own in the second. Things were not done there as Damien Brunner scored his 10th goal of the year and second of the game halfway through the third. To make the game 8-3 Joakim Andersson netted two goals a minute apart from each other at the end of the final frame. Damien Brunner had two assists in addition to his 2 goals and Jonathan Ericsson had two assists as well.

Evgeni Nabokov got the night off as the Islanders went with Kevin Poulin in net. Things looked good for the Islanders as they were off to a 2-0 start thanks to goals by Matt Moulson and John Tavares. The Islanders kept on to their lead until 47 seconds left in the second when Jordan Staal scored a minute after his older brother Eric to tie the game up. Alexander Semin assisted on both of the goals. The game continued to tied until halfway through the third when Bobby Sanguinetti scored his first NHL goal with assists from Patrick Dwyer and Jordan Staal. Alexander Semin then capped his 3 pt night off with an empty netter late in the game to polish off a 4-2 Hurricanes' win.

The Blackhawks have still not lost in regulation time in their first 18 games thanks to a shutout performance by Corey Crawford, his 7th win of the year. It was not exactly a powerful victory however as they only scored one goal, Andrew Shaw's at the end of the second period in the 1-0 win over the Blue Jackets.

Sidney Crosby scored two of the Penguins three first period goals and also assisted on another as the Penguins defeated the Lightning 5-3. The Lightning got within one during the third period with goals by Eric Brewer and Steven Stamkos but it was not enough.

Torres had two on the night

The Flames and Coyotes played a very good, high scoring game last night in Calgary. The Flames started off the scoring 2 minutes into the game with a goal from Tim Jackman but the second period was split 2-2 between the teams which set up for a great third period. Raffi Torres scored in the first couple minutes to tie it up and then his teammate slipped the puck past Joey McDonald to make it 4-3. The Coyotes seemed to be in control of the game until 1:23 left when Jarome Iginla netted a goal with help from Alex Tanguay and Matt Stajan. Both teams were probably expecting to go to overtime but Curtis Glencross scored his 7th goal of the year with a minute left to win 5-4.

The Ducks outshot the Avalanche 39-23 but the score was much closer. Cody McLeod and P.A. Parenteau scored for the Avs in the first as they entered the second with a 2-0 lead. The Ducks then answered with two of their own but then John Mitchell scored 30 seconds after Teemu Selanne to get the Avs their lead back. The Avs had their lead for about 20 minutes until Ryan Getzlaf scored on the powerplay to even things up. Once in overtime, Corey Perry scored on the man advantage as the Ducks win 4-3.

NHL Week In Review 

Very nice to see 3 Flyers in the points list and Ilya in the leaderboard for the Goalies.

NHL League Leaders - Feb 18, 2013 Feb 24, 2013
Goals		G	Assists		A
	1. Steven Stamkos	4		1. Jakub Voracek	7
	2. Max Pacioretty	4		2. Pavel Daysyuk	5
	3. Jakub Voracek	4		3. Claude Giroux	5
	4. J, Carter, C. Giroux, B. Schenn	3		4. Small Army	4
	5. D. Brunner, E. Kane, and many others	3		5.
Points		P	D-Man Points		P
	1. Jakub Voracek	11		1. Niklas Kronwall	6
	2. Claude Giroux	8		2. Paul Martin	5
	3. Steven Stamkos	8		3. Francois Beauchemin	4
	4. Wayne Simmonds	7		4. K. Letang, S. Weber, O. Ekman-Larrson	4
	5. Half the NHL	6		5. about 10 players	3
Takeaways		TA	Blocks		B
	1. Adam Henrique	10		1. Greg Zanon	17
	2. Martin St. Louis	8		2. Dan Girardi	16
	3. Patrick Kane	7		3. Mark Streit	14
	4. J. Mitchell, J. Tavares, B. Pouliot	6		4. M. Giordano, J. Harrison	13
	5. 6 people	5		5. 5 players	11
Saves/ Shots Against		SV-SA	Wins		W-L-OTL
	1. Ondrej Pavelec	114/124		1. Ben Bishop	3-0-0
	2. Ben Scrivens	109/117		2. Ilya Bryzgalov	3-1-0
	3. Mike Smith	97/104		3. Ondrej Pavelec	3-1-0
	4. Ilya Bryzgalov	91/103		4. Ray Emery	2-0-0
	5. Semyonb Varlamov	88/97		5. Marc- Andre Fleury	2-0-0

2-18 to 2-24 All NHL
Pos	East Starters	Pos	West Starters
C	PHI- Claude Giroux	C	COL- Paul Stastny
C	CAR- Jordan Staal	C	DET- Pavel Datsyuk
LW	WPG- Evander Kane	C	ANA- Ryan Getzlaf
D	TOR- Dion Phaneuf	D	Oliver Ekman- Larsson
D	NYI- Mark Streit	D	DET- Niklas Kronwall
G	WPG- Ondrej Pavelec	G	SAN- Anti Niemi

Flyers Route Islanders: End Streak; Best Defenders for the First Half of NBA Season

If I wasn't lazy I would crop out Schenn, he shouldn't be allowed near the awesomeness that is Giroux, Read, and Voracek

The Flyers entered last night's game on Long Island on a two game losing streak including a game where they blew a 3-1 lead in which came to be a 5-3 loss to the Devils and then a 4-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. After giving starter Ilya Bryzgalov a break on Saturday against the Canadiens, he was back in net for the matchup with the New York Islanders. He only had to face 19 shots on the night as the Flyers played stellar defense. Well that really isn't the right term as Braydon Coburn had three turnovers on the night but did lose the crown as "best" giveaway man in the league to Ilya Kovalchuk. Kovalchuk had five turnovers in Montreal's 2-1 loss to the Senators. Coburn did finish with a +3 rating and fought Matt Martin to a draw at the end of the third period.
The Flyers got off to a hot start when Claude Giroux scored 26 seconds into the first frame with help from Matt Read and Jakub Voracek. The rest of the first period went very quietly with neither team scoring.

The Captain

Matt Read scored fifteen seconds into the second with assists by Giroux and Voracek. This is actually just the second of three goals on the night that all three were given a point. I believe that this is the first game that these guys have been on the same line and I like it. Nabokov may have had a bad night but the Flyers never let up. Wayne Simmonds and Matt Martin fought to a draw two mintues into the period in Martin's first fight of the night. Brayden Schenn then added a powerplay goal 8 minutes into the second thanks to another assist by Voracek who finished the game with four. Giroux scored with 5 minutes left and you can already guess who had the assists. The Third period featured two goals by Danny Briere and even a goal by Zac Rinaldo (who "only" had five hits in ten minutes of ice time).

Where will he fit in?

For me it is tough to decide who the player of the game was but I'd have to go with Claude Giroux. Voracek may have had four assists on the night but he really didn't do anything on the defensive side of things while Giroux had three hits, a block, and a takeaway. The play of the top line also raises the question of what will they do with Scott Hartnell. If the top three keep it off I feel that they will have to relegate Hartnell to the second line where he would be paired with Simmonds and either Giroux, Coururier, or little Schenn at center. That could be deadly to other teams as Simmonds is very versatile player and Schenn is having a fantastic career. [Edit: looking at the depth chart now he would be slid in to Knuble's spot which would have with Briere at center and Schenn on the opposite wing... not bad].

NBA Top Five Defenders

Paul George

We will be using a metric known as Defensive Wins Shares which is kept by Basketball-reference.com to give a feel for who are the top defenders in the league.
1. Paul George- Indiana 4.21 Only in his third year in the NBA, he is a main reason that the Pacers are tops in the Central Division. ON offense he is averaging 17.6 points per game but defense is where he really makes his mark. He is currently averaging 7.8 rebounds a game and limiting his opponents to 96 points per 100 possessions.
2. Joakim Noah- Chicago Bulls 3.72 The big man has helped keep the Bulls afloat without Derrick Rose. He is currently limiting opponents to 97 points per 100 possessions and is also blocking 2.0 shots a game and 11.4 rebounds.
3. David West- Indiana 3.4 George's teammate and 32 year old veteran he has only recently started to turn his defense up. He has a career average of 105 points per 100 possessions but this past season he has cut it down to 98. This could be due to switching from Hornets to Pacers and maybe even the change of NBA play, but there is no denying West's defensive impact of the game.
4. Roy Hibbert- Indiana 3.3 I know... another Indiana player on the list. Well that shouldn't be surprising considering they only let up 89 points a game, best in the league. Hibbert currently averages 2.7 blocks per game and 8.3 rebounds. The funny thing is that he actually has a negative offensive win share.
5. Marc Gasol- Memphis 3.3 The Younger Gasol is finally making a name for himself 5 years into his career and it seems that he might be better than Pau. He currenly limits the opposition to 99 points per 100 possessions while blocking 1.7 shots a game as well as a steal per.

6. Kevin Durant- OK City 3.24
7. Tim Duncan- San Antonio 3.18
8. Blake Griffin- LA Cliipers 3.1
9. Kevin Garnett- Boston 3.06
10. Josh Smith- Atlanta 3.03

NHL Recap
The Senators took the Devils to a shootout in New Jersey. Stephen Gionta scored early for the Devils which led until Daniel Alfredsson's third period goal tied it up. The game then went to shootout where Ottawa's Jakob Sifverberg scored the only shootout goal in the 2-1 win.
As mentioned earlier, the Flyers destroyed the Islanders 7-0. In fantasy I actually didn't play Nabakov in favor of Price and Anderson who both didn't play... it actually worked out in my advantage as Nabakov had -3.4 points.
There was a high scoring affair in Colorado where the Avalanche beat the Predators 6-5. Matt Duchene led the Avs with 1 goal and two assists.
The Canadiens pulled off their 4th straight win in an easy 3-0 defeat of the Carolina Hurricanes. Backup goalie Peter Budaj only faced 19 shots in the shutout win while Tomas Plekanec netted his 8th goal of the year.
Ben Scrivens played a great game saving 37 of 37 shots in his second straight shutout as the Leafs toppled the Panthers 3-0.
In another shutout Mike Smith made 30 saves for the Coyotes as they beat the Flames 4-0 in Phoenix. Boyd Gordon was player of the game with an assist and a 12-4 mark at the faceoff dot.
The Ducks won their 5th game in row with a 3-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Ducks now have a 7 point lead over the second place Coyotes in the Pacific Division.

All NHL
Forward- Matt Duchene- Colorado Scored a goal and had two assist in Colorado's offensive outburst. Also played good defense nailing six Predators (get it...) and recording two takeaways.
Forward- Claude Giroux- Philadelphia Finally the Flyers have a night to be proud of and Giroux was the main reason. He scored two goals and assisted on another in only 15 minutes of play.
Forward- Ryan Getzlaf- Anaheim His first period goal gave the Ducks a 2-1 lead and he also assisted on another. Played his part on defense blocking 4 shots but finished with an even +/-.
Forward- Daniel Alfredsson- Ottawa Scored the regular time goal for the Sens and boy was it good timing as he netted it with them down 1-0 with only 12 minutes left in the game.
Defense- Jan Heida- Colorado Assisted on one goal but played great defense. Finished with four hits and four blocked shots.
Defense- Shea Weber- Nashville I believe that this is his first time on the list and as usual he played stalwart minutes with 25. He scored a goal in the loss but also had an assist.
Defense- Oliver Ekman- Larsson Had two assists in the Coyotes' 4-0 shutout of the Flames. Finished the game with a +3 +/-.
Goalie- Ben Scrivens- Toronto He didn't screw it up with a turnover like he did two nights before as he earns goalie of the night recognition. Scrivens saved all 37 of the shots that came his way.
Goalie- Mike Smith- Ottawa Also recorded a shutout but faced 7 less shots than Scrivens.