Baseline to Baseline recaps: Nuggets knock of Thunder in OT

Welcome to PBT’s roundup of yesterday’s NBA games. Or, what you missed while taking out your frustrations in the “rage room”…

Nuggets 121, Thunder 118 (OT): This was the kind of game that fans find entertaining and makes a coach cringe. Entertaining because it was close most of the way, was played at a fast pace with a lot of scoring, and saw a dramatic late run by the Thunder that helped send the game to overtime. But these two teams combined for 48 turnovers and 61 personal fouls. The game was played fast but sloppy.

Thunder fans looking to why their team lost were blaming the referees. With 10 seconds left in overtime and down one, Denver’s Kenneth Faried — who played a great game and frustrated the Thunder bigs all night — missed two free throws. The Thunder called timeout and set up a play, but on it Nick Collison got called for a moving screen (the third moving screen call on the Thunder of the overtime). Thing is, you can’t blame the refs when you had Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook get to the line 38 times by themselves in the game. The Thunder stars were aggressive and the whistles were tight, but that eventually goes both ways.

If Thunder fans want to blame something, it’s that Denver got the offensive rebound on 41.7 percent of their missed shots (20 offensive rebounds). Denver is not a team of great shooters (although Corey Brewer was for a night on his way to 26 points) but they will make you pay of you keep giving them chances. OKC did and Denver gets a big win.

Raptors 108, Lakers 103: Lakers fans, tell me if you’ve seen this movie before: The team plays disinterested and dispassionate basketball for 40 minutes, taking their opponent (who is better than they think) for granted, then down in a deep hole they make a late run, get close but fall ultimately short.

Sums up the Lakers loss to Raptors Sunday. Sums up the Lakers season.

What was different in this case was Dwight Howard getting ejected in the second quarter, something Brett Prollakoff wrote about that earlier at PBT. With just five points and two rebounds. Pau Gasol looked much the better big with 25 points on 15 shots.

But the rest of the story was familiar — the Lakers defense was bad and the Raptors offense was balanced and smart in shot selection — they shot 54.8 percent. Jose Calderon had 22 points, both Ed Davis (who has played well since Andrea Bargnani left) and Landry Fields had 18. The Raptors got 55 of their points in the paint.

Pistons 103, Celtics 88: Nobody in Boston was paying attention — the game was on opposite the Patriots in the AFC championship game — which was probably best. Boston opened 1-of-8 shooting and fell behind 13-2 to open the game. They battled back with runs of their own to tie it and Detroit led by four at halftime. But the second half brought more of the same as the first quarter and this time Boston couldn’t make it up (thanks to Will Bynum, who had 9 of his 15 in the fourth).

Doc Rivers was talking trades after the game he was so frustrated. Who with? Rajon Rondo was 4-of-16 shooting and had 15 assists but 9 turnovers in an erratic game. Brandon Bass was nonexistent no points and 2 rebounds in 10 minutes. Jason Terry wasn’t a spark plug off the bench with four points (Courtney Lee with 16 and Jeff Green with 14 were).

Don’t sell Detroit short here, their front line was fantastic. Greg Monroe had 15 points and 11 rebounds, rookie Andre Drummond dame in off the bench with 16 points on just six shots. But yes, keep starting Jason Maxiell over Drummond.

Mavericks 111, Magic 105: The first quarter of this game was wild. Orlando opened the game hitting everything and raced out to an 18-4 lead half way through the first. Then Dallas responded with a 19-2 run of its own to take the lead. Orlando hung around in this one because Glen Davis got 24 points in the paint and Dallas did a poor job defending J.J. Redick half the night and he can shoot (he finished with 18). Seriously, with the game tight late how does Redick get left WIDE open for a three. Dallas got great stuff from the old guard of Shawn Marion (20 points, 10 rebounds) and Vince Carter (15 points, six assists).