Lay Up Line: The D Finally Gets a Win, Break Up the Bobcats and Clippers Best In West?

Music to listen to:  The Enemy Within by Rush

The D finally has a win:  Its rare that we start the Lay Up Line with the Detroit Pistons, but when you get your first win of the season, respect is deserved.  Behind 19 points and 18 rebounds from Greg Monroe, the Pistons finally got off of the deck and earned a 94-76 road win over Philadelphia, who truly miss Andrew Bynum.  When your leading scorer is Lavoy Allen (14 points), that’s a problem.

Clippers best in West?:  With the trade of James Harden from Oklahoma City to Houston, the Lakers coaching and injury issues and general regular season respect to the San Antonio Spurs, the Clippers have flown relatively under the radar within the West.  However, after getting a team-high 22 points from Jamal Crawford off the bench along with 20-14 from Blake Griffin, LA coasted to another impressive home win, this one a 107-100 win over Miami.  The victory truly came from the bench where Crawford, along with Eric Bledsoe took advantage of the lack of Miami’s depth.

Break up the Bobcats:  Charlotte is now 4-3 on the year after an 89-87 win at Minnesota last night.  Kemba Walker (22 points) hit the game-winner with 0.7 seconds left on a step back jumper that looked very similar to one he had at the Big East Tournament during his senior year.  The Bobcats now have a three-game winning streak for the first time in nearly two years.  This is the same squad that lost 23 straight games to end last season and never won two games in a row as well.

Other news and notes:  Rajon Rondo had his 32^nd consecutive game with 10 or more assists in Boston’s 98-93 win over Utah but had to leave the game early due to injury…Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis each had 16 points in Milwaukee’s 99-85 dismantling of Indiana, who sorely miss Danny Granger…James Harden had 30 points to lead Houston to a 100-96 over New Orleans…In a battle of Baltimore’s finest, Rudy Gay had a season-high 28 points in Memphis’ impressive 107-97 win at Oklahoma City to win its sixth straight contest.  Fellow Charm City native Kevin Durant had 34 points in the loss.  As typical with most Memphis games, things got chippy towards the end with Gay and the Thunder’s Kendrick Perkins each getting ejected for getting into a scuffle.