Game Notes: 11/17

*Houston – 100 at Oklahoma City – 89

Kevin Durant had a hot shooting night, taking the same awful shots he has been taking all year but making a lot of them, finishing with a nice 29-7-4-4-0, with a three, four TO’s, 13/23 FG and 2/3 FT. Jeff Green started the game well, but missed a lot of easy lay ups in the second half to ruin his FG%. He was more impressive than I was expecting him to be though, handling the ball and dishing in transition and overall having a game that was more like a biggie sized guard than an undersized power forward (I would totally buy his jersey if the OKC logo/colors/etc. wasn’t so UGLY, they need a super slick 3^rd jersey to spice things up, right now they are just super generic with their New York Liberty rip off logo etc.). Robert Swift started again and put up a decent line for an FA center in 25 minutes. Russell Westbrook goes back and forth between absolutely amazing, and just too athletic for his own good, he needs a coach to help him focus his athleticism, or just more time to mature, until then he will struggle with TO’s and FG%. Luis Scola played more minutes than Landry and Hayes combined, and delivered a very nice line of 23-9-2 on strong %’s. Ron Artest and Yao Ming each had strong lines held back slightly by injury (which I will cover in a moment). T-Mac finally turned in a clunker performance because of an injury, instead of just evaporating to the bench at some point in the game. Rafer Alston returned from suspension, and neither he nor Aaron Brooks did much of anything.

Rockets Injuries: Artest seems to be in the best shape of the Rockets injured stars; although the status of his ankle is unknown, he said it wasn’t bad… and while he looked pretty gimpy leaving the floor, I have seen Dirk and Josh Howard return from much gloomier ankle injuries in short time, and Ronny is a tough dude. Just speculation, but I would be surprised if he missed more than 2 games. Yao injured the same foot he broke last season, but returned to the game after the injury, hopefully this means he will be well enough to play in the next game. T-Mac injured the same knee he had off season surgery on. He is having an MRI tomorrow, but has proclaimed “until further notice, I am going to have to shut it down.”. On the other side of the coin, Shane Battier is expected to return to practice on Tuesday, and although it is not know when he will return to game action (I would assume that it would be this week?), he would be a nice pick up option. Carl Landry and Luther Head are also guys to look into. Skip rarely shares the floor with Aaron Brooks, and I don’t see that changing now since the size of an Alston/Brooks backcourt would get crushed by just about everyone (size and defensive matchup problems), however in T-Mac outages of the past Head has filled in reasonably well.

Phoenix – 97 at Utah – 109

Amare had a nice line, and Nash turned in solid numbers that were probably a little short of what his owners expected on draft day. Matt Barnes returned from suspension to give a solid line, and Shaq finally stopped living in the past and put up a line indicative of the out of an out of shape cry baby who no one really likes. Boozer had a strong line but missed a few FT’s, Paul Millsap nearly had a double double but his %’s were awful, CJ Miles had a hot shooting night but didn’t fill out his line with anything beyond pts and FG%, and Brevin Knight continued his string of 6 assist games that have occurred while Deron has been out. AK47 returned to post a sick line, punctuating it by blocking 2 of fatty Shaq’s shots. Jarron Collins started and played 12 minutes, but when interviewed after the game, both players and commentators could not recall even whether or not he actually dressed tonight.

The Collins Line: From now on I am going to start recording the longest someone is on the floor without producing a point, rebound, assist, steal, block, or turnover. Jarron Collins set the bar high tonight… But his brother plays on Wednesday, so competition is on the horizon.

*San Antonio – 86 at LA Clippers – 83

I tried to watch this game, it was on NBATV for some reason… but JESUS, the Clippers announcers are AWFUL. I immediately remembered that NBATV carried a Mavs/Clippers game last season where they used the Clippers guys instead of the Mavs guys once I heard the bell end color commentator screaming about how the Spurs committed 3 fouls in a 2 second span. Maybe this is just the attitude long term Clipper fans are forced to take, that they are constantly being victimized by everyone, but WOW it is annoying. Tim Duncan had a devastating line with 20-15-4-0-6, on 2 TO’s and nearly perfect %’s. Roger Mason had another sharp shooting game striking for 3 threes and a nice FG% but little else. George Hill had an impressive 5 boards and 8 assists in 8 minutes, but failed to score. Cuttino essentially cloned Mason’s line, Kaman finally had a night where both %’s and his TO’s were in order, Baron had 8 assists but struggled shooting, Al Thornton’s scoring woes continued but he collected 5 assists, and Camby started and put up 7-9 with 6 blocks.

Matt Bonner update: played 17 minutes, posted 7-4-1-0-1 with a three and 2 TO’s on 3/7FG and 0/0FT. I was glad to see him get enough time to do something against such a big team. I am not advocating picking him up… I am just saying that as the second center on my Fanball/Cuda A-League team, I was not disappointed.