He took four of them last night, giving him 15 on the season – yes, your 7-2 All-Star center has taken 15 freebies through nine games.
We ran a piece on yesterday about five odd statistical anomalies that won’t last, and we should’ve mentioned Roy Hibbert‘s free throw shooting. The offense was so bad that their most productive offensive player was Tyler Hansbrough (17 points). The Pacers really miss him.” And last night, Indiana’s season from Hell continued with a blowout 99-85 loss against Milwaukee, a game they fell behind immediately, 20-6. Indiana doesn’t have Danny Granger, but who ever looked at him as a game-changer like that? It wasn’t until he actually went out and the Pacers offense turned into rotten milk that people actually started saying, “Um, that Danny Granger is pretty important. It was almost as embarrassing as Andrew Bynum‘s new hairdo (is that a perm or is that some plant Bynum stole from the Amazon to wear on his head?) … The Sixers have been a major disappointment so far this year, but at least their franchise player is out with knee problems. Meanwhile the Sixers were beyond bad offensively – they shot under 30 percent from the field. Blake Griffin went for 20 and 14, Chris Paul (16 points, 10 dimes) dominated a third quarter stretch that put the game away by scoring the last 13 Clipper points of the quarter, garnering “CP3!” chants from the crowd, and Jamal Crawford led the team with 22 points while adding four or five ankle tendons to his collection of victims at home … For Miami, LeBron did his best to pick the energy up in the second half, and finished with 30, but together, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade combined for only 17 … Thanks to Greg Monroe‘s 19 points, 18 rebounds and six dimes, Detroit finally won a game, hammering Philly in the City of Brotherly Love, 94-76. But it was obvious, especially in the second half, that Miami has real problems with L.A.’s size and athleticism.
The game was never that close – a late Miami run turned what was nearly a 20-point game into a more respectable score. But it happened in the Staples Center last night as the Clippers rolled over the Heat, 107-100. It’s not every day you see the defending champs get completely outclassed.