JBOMB Basketball Blog

The 5 NBA games on Christmas day, featuring Hornets vs. Magic, Spurs vs. Suns, Celtics vs. Lakers, Wizards vs. Cavs, and Mavs vs. Blazers, showcase some important highlights.

The first game highlight: Hornets vs. Magic, ending 68-88 for the Orlando Magic, also ends Chris Paul’s steal record that runs for 108 consecutive games. Hedo does his trey well, too.

The second game highlight: San Antonio’s 91-90 win is due to one man – No, not Duncan, not Parker, but Roger Mason. No, not a 2-pointer or free-throws, but a 3-pointer on the buzzer. And, oh, another “Hack-a-Shaq” strategy by coach Greg Popovich… this one is as bad as the same strategy implementations I’ve seen before. Ugly, but it has a 90% success rate (10% fails due to Shaq’s over-the-60% free-throw percentage anomalies.)

The third game highlight: This game highlight Eastern Conference’s best team vs. Western Conference’s best team, interestingly won by the Lakers, thanks to Pau’s and Kobe’s great game. Los Angeles ends Boston’s 19 games winning streak, and drop Boston to a ‘measly’ 27-3 record. The Lakers themselves improve to 24-5 record. If they are consistent, I highly suspect the will meet again in the NBA Finals, as no other team is as consistent as the Lakers and the Celtics (The Spurs, maybe?) And, oh, Phil Jackson earned his 1000th career win, the fastest of all to do so.

The forth game highlight: Nothing is really special in this Washington Wizards vs. Cleveland Cavaliers game, won by the Cavs with 93-89, except the fact that the Cavs win 15 straight home games winning streak. Antawn Jamison and Mike James got 28 points and 26 points respectively, but useless against Mo Williams’ solid 24 points.

The fifth game highlight: The Mavericks drove past the Trailblazers by 102-94, not powered by Norwitzki’s 30 points, but by Jason Kidd’s rather unique double-double – 12 rebounds and 10 assists (he only got 6 points, by the way.) Brandon Roy established himself as Blazers’ go to man this season heading the new year, and all I can see is more Roy than the instable Greg Oden, at least to the end of the 2008-2009 season.

My favourite highlight of all? The Lakers vs. Celtics saga.

That’s it the Christmas day hoops recap – Merry Christmas and happy holiday, peep!

Image by NBA.com.