WOW, what a night! Huge lines dropping in pretty much every game… and I missed all of it doing homework. I would love to get poetic about this, but there are a ton of games to get to (I will try not to let my fury over benching Mike Miller in favor of Beno Udrih reflect in this write up)
The Pistons didn’t miss a beat in what many thought would be Allen Iverson’s debut. Tayshaun Prince put down a line that could easily win line of the night on any other night… and the fact that 27-9-3-1-2 with 2 threes, no TO’s and GOLDEN %’s (10/13 FG, 5/6 FT) isn’t even in the top 3 tonight should give you a hint at what happened in the later games. Rip put in some nice FT% power, and Stuckey was decent again… but not good enough to make me comfortable owning him once AI suits up. Chris Bosh had a nice double double (26-13), and JaMario Moon failed to rebound at a rate anywhere near that of last season once again… but the story with
Things to watch: After a miserable game, Andrea Bargnani turned in a line that is beautiful in its subtlety. Sure, it would be great to own guys who really jump out of a box score, but they are so brash! So egocentric, making you apologize for not building your entire team around them! Enter Bargnani, 12-4-1-0-1 with 2 threes, no TO’s and 5/6 from the field. What a great support line! Of course, he wouldn’t be Andrea Bargnani if this didn’t raise the probability of his next game being 1/8 from the field with 4 TO’s and 2 rebounds, but it is little lines like tonight’s that make me say “wow, he’s still young… just imagine if he polished things up and became semi-consistent! Lets continue to draft him in every league I am in!”
MEGATON LINE OF THE NIGHT #1: Amare 49-11-6-5-2, 17/22 FG, 15/15 FT, no threes, 4 TO’s. Wow… what really surprises me with this line is that none of the Suns had more than 6 assists. Really… outside of Boris Diaw (who kicked it old school with 14-5-5-0-3), none of the Suns put up good numbers. The Pacers on the other hand, had a slew of players put up nice lines, but none of them reached a level of brilliance even in the same realm as Amare. Marquis Daniels, TJ Ford, Danny Granger and Troy Murphy all had nice nights. Jeff Foster played 30 minutes with Rasho out with a sprained ankle (roto world says Rasho should be out for at least a week. Foster will be a nice pick up if you need boards), but didn’t really contribute anything other than sending Amare to the line a few times.
Don’t worry about: Matt Barnes. He missed the game with a family emergency. I want to make a joke about tattoo parlors and faux hawks… but that wouldn’t be in good taste.
Mario Chalmers flirted with the record books tonight! 101 points? 56 points? 31 assists? No silly! 12 steals (or 11 by a rookie)! Chalmers had a respectable 6 assists but went into total beast mode on the other end, recording 9 steals, one shy of Derek Harper’s rookie record. Not to be out done by a rookie, Dwyane Wade wrangled 6 assists and 5 steals of his own while surrounding it with a luscious 29-7, going 9/15 from the field and 11/13 from the line. AND AGAIN, THIS ISN’T ONE OF TONIGHT’S TOP 3 PERFORMANCES!!!! As a team though,
All of
Trendspotting: While the bulk of NY’s team struggled (according to the box score), they did shoot 49.4% as a team (including 46.2% from three), which is in line with the prediction that they would be able to run and get better shots against teams who lack a legitimate low post scoring threat.
The Thunder were actually leading this game by 8 after 12 minutes… after that I guess the vibe of ANOTHER sellout crowd (ok, for the Celtics I get it a little more than I did for the Wolves) wore off, and they returned to their base state of stinkiness. Jeff Green continued to pursue his goal of not only hitting, but never exceeding, the league average in every category, Kevin Durant’s line was nothing special (but not altogether horrible either), Russell Westbrook dropped in a respectable line from the bench, and Earl Watson made himself useful in the most sneaky of ways (7-7-5, with a three and 4/4 from the line). Boston played their starters a lot considering that the game was in the bag by the end of the third quarter (although judging by the fourth quarter score of 26-28, maybe OKC made a run against the bench?), due in large part to this all of the starters posted nice stats. Some that would even warrant special shout outs on any other night… but tonight you either have to drop lines that will win a week or have a picture that looks as funny as Jared Dudley’s to get special mention!
Just a guess: Russell Westbrook will be OKC’s starter by Christmas. I know, I know, PJ Carlesimo is kind of a schlub when it comes to giving rookies serious burn, but Westbrook has looked very good in the games I have watched him play (I have already watched 2 more Thunder games than I had planned to… as little as two weeks ago), and has collected nice stats in those that I haven’t. Meanwhile, Earl Watson is Earl Watson, and their team is terrible.
On a mission to prove that the Hawk’s choice of him over CP3 was not a mistake, Marvin Williams prepared for this game with an unusual fervor, and it was this cosmic charge that allowed him to single handedly sink the Hornets with his CP3 owning line of 11-7-0-1-0, a previously unknown level of mental fortitude that pushed him to not only take, but DRILL all 3 of his three pointers in a (most likely) hostile visiting arena. The Hawks will never again rue the day they chose Starvin Marvin over his ACC competitor Christopher Emmanuel Paul!!! Actually… Joe Johnson carried the Hawks with
MEGATON LINE OF THE NIGHT #3: LeBron 41-9-6-4-0, 13/23 FG, 15/16 FT, no threes, 5 TO’s. Delonte had a nice night picking up LBJ’s scraps, Z added a double double and Ben Wallace flashed back to the olde days and put up 0-14-0-2-1. Ben Gordon tried to keep pace with LBJ, pouring in 31 points of his own (11/19 FG, 5 3ptm), and Derrick Rose had a very fine game, but shooting 39% as a team will not lead to many victories. A fact that it seems like
Things to watch: Luol Deng had a nice game… but also played a lot of garbage time, possibly being guarded by Wally Szczerbiak. If he keeps this up for another week or so, I suggest moving him FAST.
Feeling a sense of personal responsibility for Michael Redd’s absence (a notorious pansy, Redd sees another starter in street clothes and feels an inexplicable urge to join him), Luke Ridnour made a heroic return to the Buck’s starting lineup and dropped in his best line of the season (I say this meaning the whole season, not just his first three games), 20-7-11-2-0. Surprising though, was Ramon Sessions being the primary choice to step in for Michael Redd and… doing quite well in that role, putting up 22-3-8-1-1, most of which was done playing alongside Ridnour. Richard Jefferson and Andrew Bogut turned in nice lines as well. Outside of Caron and Antawn the Wizards didn’t put up a lot of fantasy friendly lines. Nick Young contributed a Rodney Stuckey-esque line, but even a starting Andray Blatche couldn’t do well by his fantasy owners (both of them?) tonight, which is surprising, considering this game went to OT.
30 minutes before game time Matt Bonner gathered his fellow starters, drawing them close and whispering (with a dignified force though, not the creepy wispy zest Bruce Bowen uses in these situations) “I have let you guys down for too long, tonight is my time. Rotate the ball to me and you will not regret it!”. Unfortunately, Tim Duncan interpreted this as some kind of practical joke (as he does so many things) and instructed his team mate’s to do the exact opposite, and OH BABY, on a night where Matt Bonner shot 0/0 in a little over 6 minutes Tony Parker dropped in the MEGATON LINE OF THE NIGHT #2: 55-7-10-0-0, 22/36 FG, 9/10 FT, 2 threes, 4 TO’s. Timmy and Roger Mason didn’t slack off though, each posting very nice numbers (Mason with a season high scoring number). Minnesota enjoyed a night where Rashad McCants only saw 13 minute, and scattered useful stats throughout their roster (this could have a lot more to do with Sebastian Telfair’s return?), highlighted by my main man whom I should never have doubted, Mike Miller and his line of 25-7-6 with 5 threes. Al Jefferson, Corey Brewer, K-Love, Telfair, even Foye, lots of nice lines on the Timberwolves side.
Continuing the trend of mid round dudes returning from the dead, Mehmet Okur got hot and dropped in
Kevin Martin and OJ Mayo had a battle to see who could score more without doing anything else. Mayo had the best scoring night of his career (I mean the whole thing, not just the first 5 games… NO, I KID! My dogg who takes 20 shots in his first game will have a night where he tops 28 eventually), but Martin won the battle, which equated to a Kings win. No, it really did. This was the only difference. Martin outscored Mayo by 5, Kings won by 5, who can argue with this!? With the Kings in a competitive game for the first time this season, John Salmons took advantage and put together a nice line, and Mikki Moore collected 3x as many rebounds as he had in all games combined. Kyle Lowry had a nice line for
Farewell to a friend: Aware of Brad Miller’s imminent return, spectators left saying that the Jason Thompson farewell tour lacked the avante garde, selfless sense of abandon which characterized his early material, back when he was playing dive bars, before he signed to a major in sold out, each of them having their own personal anecdotes where they were one of seven people at a show featuring a guy who couldn’t even move his initial pressing of 500 LP’s… but these spectators also said that they would totally see any reunion shows that happen when Brad Miller is out with injury or Mikki Moore is benched for getting 4 rebounds in as many games.
Carmelo failed to hit his goal of 44 points, but not for a lack of trying, as he attempted more shots (30) than anyone else, not only in this game, but on tonight’s entire schedule (aside from Tony Parker, but you don’t nag a guy who drops 55 on a silly thing like “well it took you 36 FGA’s to do it, my grandma could score 55 on 36 FGA’s!”). Nene dropped a nice big man line of 19-15-1-1-3, and Anthony Carter waved goodbye with 11 assists. Andris Biedrins was in foul trouble periodically throughout the game, but still put up 12-11 with 5 blocks. Al Harrington was stone cold benched, and will most likely be traded soon. This resulted in Brandan Wright having a career night (18-13-0-0-3, pick him up NOW). Kelenna Azuibuke had a nice night filling in for injured Corey Maggette, and Captain Jack filled up the volume cats with the expected disgusting FG% and TO’s.
Thing to watch: Linas Kleiza seems to have fallen out of favor in
LA Clippers – 88 at LA Lakers – 106
Under duress the entire game due to the unfair circumstance of sharing the same home floor as the Clippers (the Clipper fans just buy up all the available tickets, making “home” feel like anything but), the Lakers miraculously pulled together and came out with a win. It looked like they wouldn’t be so lucky early on, but when Billy Crystal led a rare early exodus of the Clipper’s celebrity fans (both of them) mid way through the fourth everyone knew it was over. Even more embarrassing than putting the Clippers to shame in this “home” game, was the fashion that the Lakers did it in; seeming to be just fine with openly mocking the Clippers “style of play”, shooting 38.8% on the night… but unlike the Clippers having the GALL to turn such a pandemic shooting performance into a victory.
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