Every day in the NBA there is a lot to unpack, so every weekday morning throughout the season we will give you the three things you need to know from the last 24 hours in the NBA.
1) Derrick Rose is (almost) back, drains game-winner to beat New Orleans. The saga of Derrick Rose is one of the biggest NBA stories of the past decade — we thought he might be the Player of the Decade when it started. Young Rose was an unstoppable force, throwing his body around and absorbing contact while making plays for the Bulls. Rose was the 2011 NBA MVP and his future seemed limitless.
Then in 2012 he tore his ACL. It was the first of a string of knee injuries that changed his career. Instead of owning the decade, Rose spent much of it in recovery from multiple surgeries that robbed him of his explosiveness, and he struggled without it. Rose had to put in the work to find and grow the craft in his game.
In 2019, Derrick Rose is back.
Almost. We’re never going to see 23-year-old Rose again, but the 31-year-old version is a different kind of force for the Pistons, a crafty player averaging 16.1 points and 5.8 assists a game who is one of the early contenders for Sixth Man of the Year. He is an integral part of what is happening in Detroit.
How integral? With the game tied 103-103 in New Orleans last night and time for one last shot, Detroit coach Dwane Casey drew up an isolation play for Rose. Blake Griffin wasn’t going to touch the ball, it was all Rose — with a good defender in Jrue Holiday in front of him. Rose got the bucket anyway.
GAME. WINNER. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹#PistonsNow powered by @RocketFiber pic.twitter.com/BlEFjUu11K
— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) December 10, 2019
In the locker room later, a reporter asked Holiday if Rose pushed off, and the veteran wouldn’t take the bait and instead praised the former MVP.
“He has everything,” Holiday said, via the Associated Press. “I think it was a good play on his part. I’m not going to take anything from him. He’s a great player and the shot that he made was a tough shot. There was nothing I could do about it.”
Rose was 7-of-8 for 17 points in the fourth quarter, including hitting a spinning layup with 38.7 seconds left to tie the game at 103-103.
Thanks to Rose, the Pistons got the win (their fourth in five games). It was Rose’s second strong fourth quarter in a row.
Rose is back. At least enough to become a player you want to stop and watch again.
And that story arc makes him one of the best stories of the last decade.
2) Nemanja Bjelica drains game-winner in Houston to give Kings impressive back-to-back wins in Texas. Maybe, after an ugly start to the season, Luke Walton’s Kings are finding their way. Maybe it was too early to write them off as a playoff team (it was, nobody in the West ran away with the 7/8 eight seed, leaving the door open).
Sunday night the Kings took down Luka Doncic and the Mavericks. On Monday night, it was the Rockets turn.
It was the best finish to a game all night (with apologies to Derrick Rose). Sacramento’s Buddy Hield had tied the game at 116-116 with a leaning three-pointer with eight seconds left.
Houston called a timeout, then Mike D’Antoni made a smart decision having the Rockets bring the ball up the length of the court rather than advance it — it allowed Russell Westbrook to pick up a head of steam. Sacramento sold out to keep the ball out of James’ Harden’s hands, and that left a lane for Westbrook to blow by Heild and get all the way to the rim for a far too easy lay-up. Houston was up 118-116 with one second left on the clock, and Westbrook was yelling “game over.”
Nemanja Bjelica then had his say.
Kings Twitter smacked the Rockets with the best trash talk of the night
Sacramento just swept a very difficult Texas two-step on a back-to-back. The wins improve the Kings to 10-13 on the season, just a game back of slumping Phoenix for the final playoff slot in the West. And this week the Kings will get Marvin Bagley III back (De’Aaron Fox is still a couple of weeks away).
Luke Walton seems to have the Kings headed in the right direction.
3) Gordon Hayward returns, Celtics ease him back in against Cavaliers’ “defense.” Gordon Hayward looked like he never left.
After a month on the sidelines recovering from surgery to his fractured hand, Hayward beat the timeline by two weeks and was back on the court Monday. The Celtics eased him back by bringing him in against the Cavaliers, a team that wasn’t going to make him work too hard to score.
Hayward had 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting and generally looked comfortable in his return.
It’s good to see Hayward back, a guy having his own bounce-back year from a major surgery a couple of years ago. He has started to look like his vintage self. Boston could use that Hayward and shot creation in their next three games, which will be a little tougher: At Indiana, hosting Philadelphia, at Dallas.
