On the Same Page & Around the NBA

So last night's Cavs game vs. the Raptors was amazing to watch if you were rooting for Cleveland....not so much if your heart is in Toronto...

Cleveland won 113-101 at The Q (1 Center Court), and never really feared losing this game for two reasons:
1.) Chris Bosh went down early in the 1st quarter after an accidental elbow to the face from Antawn Jamison. According to Brian Windhorst, Bosh fractured both his nose and upper jaw and would likely be out a long while. Check out the video below to see what happened..



And then right before the end of the half, Antoine Wright tweaked his ankle and didn't return for the 2nd half. So in a season where Toronto's Hedo Turkoglu experiment clearly hasn't worked out, the Raptors barely hanging on to make the 8th seed in the playoffs, hoping to entice Bosh to re-sign in Toronto this summer (as he'll be a free agent at the end of the season), things couldn't get any worse for Raptor fans...

And reason 2.) The Cavs were passing the ball and making shots all night long. They played one of the best team-games I've seen them play in the whole LeBron James era. They racked up a season-high assist total of 38, one assist shy of the arena record of 39 I believe. Mo Williams and LeBron each had double-doubles with double digit assists last night, 14 pts/12 ast and 19 pts/13 ast respectively. Everyone was just on the same page, right in time for the playoffs to start!

One thing I thought was a little odd though was Mike Brown's decision to keep Daniel Gibson on the bench when the game had essentially been decided early in the 4th quarter. I guess Coach wanted to play a smaller, more "playoff-like" rotation last night, but in my opinion, Gibson is really getting the shaft and I feel bad because he is definitely talented, not to mention a fan favorite.

Around the NBA

So last night in Utah, the Thunder and Jazz played an amazing OT game with Kevin Durant scoring 45 pts and Deron Williams scoring 42 pts. But all good things must come to an end, and the Thunder definitely found out the hard way.
Oklahoma City lost by 1 point (140-139), but the way in which they lost was awful. Durant had 1.8 seconds left on the clock, down by 1 point, and caught the ball looking to take a 3 pointer for the win, but he was clobbered by CJ Miles instead, obviously missing the shot. So to the free throw line we go...wait? NO FOUL? WHATTTT??? See for yourself...



The NBA officially released this statement today regarding the foul(?): "On the final play of last night’s Oklahoma City-Utah game, the officials missed a foul committed by the Jazz’s C.J. Miles on the Thunder’s Kevin Durant during a three-point shot attempt.”
So a mistake was made by the officials that ended up deciding the game. Man I hate referees, except for when they favor LeBron ;)

And then just to give you a quick update on what the playoff standings in each conference currently look like right now with just a few games left in the regular season:

East
1. Cavaliers
2. Magic
3. Hawks
4. Celtics
5. Milwaukee
6. Miami
7. Charlotte
8. Toronto

West
1. Lakers
2. Jazz
3. Mavericks
4. Suns
5. Nuggets
6. Spurs
7. Thunder
8. Trail Blazers
Each team in the West, by the way, is roughly separated by just one game in the standings or are tied for their seeding, so look for this to change day-to-day.