Nate Robinson is out of the dog house. For now.
And in his first game since December 1st, Nate took off his leash and went off. I didn’t catch the beginning of this game, but I did witness the fourth quarter and the overtime period, and that’s when Nate put on a show.
As the Hawks collapsed defensively, Robinson took over the fourth period. In the final minute of the game, Robinson took point and drove right by Josh Smith and Joe Johnson on consecutive possessions to tie the game up for the Knicks both times.
In the overtime, Nate was even more impressive. After assisting on the first bucket of the period, Nate would score the rest of the Knicks points by himself. Again, the moves he put on to get these scores were spectacular and nothing short of amazing because of his size. He went right at Joe Johnson, blowing by him again and even drawing an impressive AND 1 on a floater. My favorite one of his sick shots? Holding the ball at the top of the circle and then pulling up for three like it’s nobody’s business. Of course, that went in as well.
Robinson finished with 41 points off the bench, 24 of which came in the fourth quarter and overtime. Clearly Robinson wanted to send a message to his coach Mike D’Antoni about his stint on the pine. Nate got those 41 points on 18-of-24 shooting and he even added eight assists and six rebounds.
With this performance coming against a very good Hawks team that just can’t seem to catch a break right now, the Knicks are showing some improvements as a team. Of course, the efforts of Nate Robinson were the only reason the Hawks won this game. My question is: what do the Knicks do with Nate? After this game, his value will never be higher. Then again, we all know Nate can score like this if he is focused, so does New York keep him and just let him play?
At this point I think they will end up keeping him unless he does something else to get on D’Antoni’s bad side, but his offensive firepower is too much to keep on the bench.
Wilson Chandler also had a pretty good game for the Knicks, scoring 24 points and collected 17 rebounds, but other than that the Knicks that normally perform well were silent (David Lee had just 11 points and seven rebounds and Al Harrington missed 11 of his 16 shot attempts.
Josh Smith had 24 points (14 shots), 10 rebounds and two blocks, Al Horford added a double-double with 22 points on 11-of-14 shooting and 19 rebounds (eight offensive), and Joe Johnson scored 28 (but missed 11 three’s) to lead the Hawks, who have know lost three in-a-row.
This game was a lot closer than the final score indicates.
The T’Wolves played their second straight pretty good game and, though both resulted in losses, they came against two good, playoff teams in Utah and now Orlando.
Jonny Flynn had a game high 23 points with four steals and five triples to lead Minnesota. Kevin Love put together one of those underrated awesome games, grabbing eight offensive rebounds against the likes of Dwight Howard. Al Jefferson showed Dwight Howard what a complete game for a center looked like even if he missed a lot of shots that he normally makes. If Howard can get the range Jefferson has, he’ll be dominant.
Rashard Lewis lead the Magic with 21 points and five triples. Matt Barnes got more points and offensive rebounds than Superman, getting 17 points and 11 boards (five offensive).
Kobe will get his own post.
