Wednesday Feb 27/ 08

Winners: Losers:
Atlanta (23-32) 123 Sacramento (26-31) 117
Chicago (23-34) 113 Indiana (22-36) 107
Philadelphia (26-32) 101 Orlando (37-23) 89
Toronto (32-24) 107 Minnesota (12-44) 85
Boston (44-12) 92 Cleveland (32-26) 87
New York (18-39) 113 Charlotte (19-38) 89
New Orleans (38-18) 120 Phoenix (39-19) 103
Utah (37-21) 103 Detriot (42-16) 95
Denver (34-23) 138 Seattle (15-42) 96
Portland (30-28) 82 LA Clippers (19-36) 80

The Expected: Chris Paul. Always be excited whenever he faces an elite PG in this league. Facing off against Steve Nash he had 25 points, 15 dimes, 6 boards and 3 steals. I can't wait until he gets into the playoffs and faces Kidd, Nash, Williams, Parker or Davis.
The Surprising: Childress comes off the bench and doubles his ppg average of 12.4, dropping 25 points in 30 min.
The Disappointing: With Cassell out of the line up Brevin Knight fills in for 0 points in 22 min. The Clippers only score 80 on this night.

odds and ends:
Two teams finished with 3 players getting 22+ points. The Hawks (Johnson 26, Childress 25, Bibby 24) and The Hornets (West 27, Paul 25, Pargo 22)

The Nuggets had an impressive line of 5 players scoring 15+, and 7 having 12+
(Iverson 31, Martin 23, Anthony 16, Kleiza 15, Smith 15, Carter 12, Camby 12)
And I always love Camby's lines. 12 points, 14 boards 5 blocks, 4 assists, 2 steals. Love it.

Too bad for the Sonics, nobody ever lets up, shown by Kobe getting kicked out in a game the Lakers were up by 30. Then the Nuggets just kept going in this game scoring 31 in the 1st, 33 in the 2nd, 36 in the 3rd and 38 in the 4th. In the west, it is kill or be killed. By the looks of in the Soncis are on the menu every night

The Suns lose by 17 to the Hornets. I think the Suns will sputter until the playoffs. It will take a lot of adjusting to see how Shaw fits in the line-up. But come playoffs, watch out. I think that Nash could score 25 every night if he wanted. He only went for 8 in this loss. But at least handed out 13 dimes

Highs of the night:
Points: Maggette - 32. 8-21 FG, 1-5 3point, 15-18 Ft
Assists: Paul - 15
Rebounds: Howard - 16. 6 offsensive boards, 10 on the defensive.

Monday Feb 25/ 08

odds and ends:
Raptors (31-24) W
Bosh has a rock solid game at 24 points, 10 boards, 4 assists and 2 blocks
Delfino had 23 and 5 boards
Ford went for 16 points, 7 dimes and 5 boards in 26 min
Calderon had his worst game in a long time, finishing with 4 points and zero assists.

Pacers (22-35) L
Granger and Daniels went for 20 points
While Dunleavy and Murphy hit for 17
Granger added 10 boards to grab the double double

Wizards (27-29) W
Stevenson had a career high 33 points, including a clutch 3 point buzzer beater to win the game
Haywood and Mason scored 12
Jamison and Daniels scored 10, Jamison also grabbed 10 boards

Hornets (37-18) L
Paul has a ho-hum game of 22 points, 8 dimes and 5 boards
Surprisingly Peterson came in secong in scoring with 18 points
Hornets finish with 92 points and don't get any major production from anyone else on this night

Bulls (22-34) L
Gordon, 6th man extrodanaire, scores 25 points
Top 3 scoring leaders came off the bench, with Gooden dropping 17 and Hughes adding 14

Mavs (38-19) W
Kidd looks good tonight, just missing the triple double with 11 points, 8 dimes and 9 boards
Nowitzki leads team with 29 points, 10 boards and 4 assists
Dampier had an impressive line defensively grabbing 16 boards and blocking 7 shots. He only scored 6
Stackhouse came off the pine for 23 points

Hawks (22-32) L
This was a very low scoring affair. Hawks finish with 74
Johnson had team high 17. Added 5 boards and 5 assists
Horford had a nice double double in 12 points and 13 boards

Spurs (38-17) W
Duncan had the best line of the game with 23 points, 10 boards and 3 swats
Parker had 15 points and 9 boards
Ginobili had 13

Pistons (42-15) W
The Pistons rise above the stigma of playing in the lousy east, and beat the 2nd western team in a row
Billups, Hamilton and Prince all finish with 20 points
McDyess had a very nice 16 points and 13 boards

Nuggets (33-23) L
Iverson's line reads 28 points, 7 assists and 4 boards
Anthony had 23 points, 11 boards and 5 assists
Smith came off the bench for 13 points

Celtics (43-12) W
The C's stop their losing skid of a whopping 2. I as beginning to worry
Numbers are spread all around their box score
Pierce and Posey share team high 17
Allen had 15 points, 7 assists and 4 boards
Garnett added 11
Every player that hit the floor dropped at least 1 bucket

Clippers (19-35) L
Team high came from Thomas with 15 points
Maggette, Thornton and Knight finished with 11, 11 and 10


The Expected: Kidd, finally getting his numbers back to the triple double range. Looks to be fitting in not to bad in Dallas. He had 11 points, 9 boards and 8 dimes
The Surprising: Stevenson going off. He had a career high 33. Biggest of all was the 3 point buzzer beater winner.
The Disappointing: Calderon, goes for only 4 points and has 0 assists. Good thing TJ Ford has his back, otherwise that is big time trouble for the Raps.

Sunday Feb 24/ 08

odds and ends:
Pistons (41-15) W
Team effort again, but there is some decent numbers in this batch
Billups picks up the double double in 14 points and 11 assists
McDyess gets a double double as well with 12 points and 13 boards
Wallace leads team with 22 points
6 players finish in double digits in points, Hayes came off the bench for 18

Suns (38-18) L
the Suns came into the 4th quarter down by 32 points. It was not a good night for them, yes you are playing against the east, but it doesn't mean you can completely put it on cruise control
Stoudemire leads with 31 points
Only Barbosa (18) and Nash (11) joined Stoudemire in the double digits for points.

Knicks (17-39) L
Crawford (26 points, 6 assists) and Robinson (20 points, 8 boards) were the only players who had any type of consequence in the stat department

Raptors (30-24) W
Hot and cold Bargnani had an on night, going for 25 points, hitting 5 fromd downtown. He also adds 7 boards and 5 assists
Bosh, Parker and Ford go for 17, 16 and 15
Ford added 5 dimes and 4 boards in 19 short min of work

Kings (26-29) L
Martin has a nice line of 21 points, 10 boards and 5 assists
Artest leads team with 23 points, he grabs 6 boards too
Starters Udrih and Moore combine for 2-11 shooting and 4 points

Magic (36-22) W
Typical, Howard goes for 26 points and 10 boards. Yawn.
Lewis had 16 points, 7 boards and 3 blocks
Turkoglu has 13 points, 5 boards 4 assists
Dooling and Cook both come off the bench for 14 points


Grizzlies (14-42) L
The Grizzlies Suck
Warrick had 21 points

Cavs (32-24) W
Although the Cavs were only playing the Grizzlies, their new additions looked good
Wallace had 12 points and 10 boards, playing out of the PF slot
West had a mere 5 points, but a solid 6 assists. He didn't look as good, shooting 2-12 from the field. I guess he was just picking up where Hughes left off.
Szcarbiak and Joe Smith came off the bench for 10 and 14
Lebron goes and gets 25 points, 11 dimes and 7 boards
The Cavs are going to be downright scary by the time they hit the playoffs

Celtics (42-12) W
Pierce puts up a very impressive line with 30 points, 7 boards and 5 dimes
Allen adds 19 points
Rondo still is playing far better than anyone expected of him with 15 points and 8 assists
Garnett had 10 and 7
Posey and House came off the bench for 15 and 11

Blazers (29-27) L
Yep, the Blazers have been playing tough teams in the last little bit. But they continue to lose. They are showing their youth with their inability to get out of this funk
5 players hit double digits in points
Outlaw has a team high 24 points
Roy struggles with only 9 points. He needs to get to the 25 point mark for his team to have a shot

Mavs (37-19) W
Kidd has 12 points and an eye popping 17 assists
Nowitzki leads team with 29 points
Terry and Howard got 20 and 14

Timberwolves (11-43) L
T-Wolves stay in the race for the top draft pick. I hope we won't see intentional bombing near the end of this season like it has happened in other years. the draft isn't that strong, so please NBA, please play till the end.
Jefferson has team high 22 points

Bulls (22-33) L
7 players finish in double digits
Thomas has most with 18 points
New additions Gooden and Hughes go for 12 and 13

Rockets (36-20) W
Rockets push their impressive streak to 12 wins, and are 21-3 in the last 24
McGrady leads team with 24
Yao has a modest 12 and 6
Battier picks up a double double with 11 points and 10 boards
7 players finish with double digits

Lakers (39-17) W
Kobe gets to 21 points and 10 assists. Then realizes he doesn't want to risk further injury in this easy game against the Sonics, so he gets tossed with 4:00 remaining in the 3rd
Odom also gets double double with 19 points and 10 boards
Gasol getsteam high 22 points
Walton has a decent line of 11 points, 7 boards and 6 assists
7 players finish in double digits

Sonics (15-40) L
Frace native Genabale comes off bench to lead team with 21 points
Watson has a good night of 12 points, 8 assists and 5 boards
Rookies Durant and Green both net 15 points

The Expected: Lebron, playing with energy and drive welcoming his new teammates in style with 25 points, 11 assists and 7 boards
The Dissapointing: The Suns. Down by 32 going into the fourth! Just a poor effort all around in this one. For shame.
The Surprising: Genabale, his season average is 3.4 points per. He goes off for 21 points and leads team. The Sonics still lose, but no one (even the Sonics) expected them to beat the Lakers.

Saturday Feb 23/ 08

Ok so this one is coming out pretty late. I am not going to do the traditional style of it, just a quick rap up.
Wizards (26-29) W 110 - Bobcats (19-37) L 95
Nets (25-31) W 102 - Pacers (22-34) L 91
76ers (25-32) W 101 - Heat (9-44) L 96
Hornets (37-17) L 89 - Spurs (37-17) W 98
Lakers (38-17) W 113 - Clippers (19-34) L 95
Bucks (21-35)W 115 - Nuggets (33-22) L 109
Jazz (36-20) W 100 - Hawks (22-31) L 94

The Expected: Gasol, fitting in nicely, had 23 points, 5 boards, 6 assists and 3 blocks. Doing it all in this win.
The Disappointing: Bonzi Wells, doesn't look like he feels to comfortable with his new team yet, he came off the bench and shot 1-7 in 20 min of work. Finishing with 2 points.
The Surprising: Jazz bench. Have 3 players (Harpring, Korver and Price) in limited min (21, 19 and 15) still getting good production scoring 10, 13 and 10. That's efficiency.

Friday Feb 22/ 08

odds and ends:

Kings (26-28) W

the Kings are a team that if they were in the eastern conference there could be a lot of buzz around them. Same way there is about the Hawks. But a decent team in the west gets you nothings.

In their OT victory Garcia lead the way off the bench with 23 points.

5 players had 15+ points

Miller had an nice line of 22 points and 14 boards

While Udrih had 17 points, 8 boards and 6 assists

Bobcats (19-36) L

Richardson got the team high on this night with 29 points

Felton got dangerously close to a triple double with 17 points, 10 assists and 7 boards

Okafor had 12 points, but had more of his shots blocked (4) than made (3)

Anderson came off the bench for 15 points

76ers (24-32) L

4 players had decent games. Miller had 25 and 6 dimes. Iguodala had 25 points, Green had 21, and Williams came off the bench for 18.

6 other players saw action in this game and they combined for 10 points and 1 assist.

Magic (35-22) W

Turkoglu had a nice night of 31 points and 7 assists

Howard was solid as usual, contributing 24 points, 18 boards and 3 blocked shots

Lewis and Nelson both went for 17

Nets (24-31) L

The Nets continue to suck. Losing to a not so great Pacers squad. It is a shame that they will still probably make the playoffs with a losing record. 11 teams in the western conference have a better record than the Nets, but if the playoffs started today the Nets would be a 7th seed in the east. Please NBA, make the playoffs just the best 16 teams, get the seeded reguardless of conference, that way the Celtics won't win the title by virtue of player attendance. By the time the western conference winner makes it through to the finals they will have significant war wounds. The best games in the playoffs will happen in the first two rounds in the western conference. After that the sports networks will barely have enough footage to slap together highlights. The Nets should be battling for first pick in the draft, not a 7th seed. Shame on you NBA. Shame.

If anyone cares, Jefferson had 34 points.

Pacers (22-33) W

7 players finish with 10+ points

Leading the way is Dunleavy with 34

Diener came out of the arena with 19 points, 6 assists and 8 boards.

Foster nabbed 14 boards to go along with his 10 points

Raptors (29-24) L

The Raps lose the Knicks. This team is going no where in the playoffs, I will be very surprised if they make it out of the second round, let alone the first. Contenders win game that they are supposed to win. Raptors make it interesting in every game.

Bosh leads the way with 23 points

Parker has 18. Delfino has 18. Moon has 16. Calderson has 15.

Just remember the keys to a Raptor W. Bosh gets 25+ (didn't happen). Calderon gets 10+ assists (didn't happen). Delfino and Kapono combine for 25 points (didn't happen).

Knicks (17-38) W

Crawford shoots the lights out for 43 points

Randolph has a very impressive game with 26 points, 15 boards and 4 assists

Lee had only 8 points, but grabbed 13 boards

Wizards (25-29) L

5 players get 10+ points

Songaila leads the way off the bench with 19

Cavs (31-24) W

The very depleated Cavs team still comes away with the W. With the team still in limbo from the massive trade only 6 players registered points in this game

But James brought his A game (as usual) for 33 points, 15 boards and 8 assists.

Jones caught fire and got 27 points on 7-11 from 3 point land

Bucks (20-35) L

Villanueva and Redd share the team high at 18 points

Team shot well at 50% from the field, and 40% from 3 point. But got away 15 less shots than the Pistons in total. So 100 points was not even close to good enough on this night

Pistons (40-15) W

Pistons got into a very uncharacteristic shootout, winning 127-100.

But as usual, numbers are evenly distributed

Billups led the way with 21 points and 12 dimes

6 players finished with doulbe digits in scoring.

Nuggets (33-21) L

Iverson went for 29 and 9 dimes

Anthony hit for 22 points

But the story of the day is JR Smith coming off the bench for 43 points. Well done son.

I always love Camby's lines, he had 19 points, 11 boards and 6 blocked shots. I love it.

Bulls (22-32) W

The Bulls are like a worse version of the Pistons. Stats are usually even and numbers all over the place, instead of one or two players taking them all. But unfourtunately for the Bulls it doesn't result in wins.

7 players finish with 10+ points

Hinrich had 16 points and 14 dimes

Thomas gets 18 and 11 boards

Noah gets the start and also a double double with 14 points and 10 boards

Gordon leads the way with a nice day of 37 points.

Mavericks (36-19) W

Nowizki has game high with 27 points

Terry had 22.  While Howard had 20

J Kidd only scored 2 points but had 15 assists

Grizzlies (14-41) L

5 players have 10+ points

Gay had the team high with 18

Nobody really did anything else

Rockets (35-20) W

Rockets get a big win over the now mighty Hornets

McGrady finally had a big game with 34 points

Yao had an impressive 28 points and 14 boards

Hornets (37-16) L

Paul leads his team with 14 points and 11 assists

West has 20 points and 1o boards

No ones else scores over 10 points and the team only scores 80 points

Celtics (41-12) L

Big big game, good possibility that they could meet up in the finals.  But the C's couldn't get it rolling, and they have lost every game in this western conference swing

Garnett had 19 points, 5 boards and 4 assists.

Team only shot 38% from the field and score 77 points

Suns (38-17) W

Suns win in a non-suns like game, only scoring 85 points

Stoudemire leads the way with 28 points

Nash comes in next with 18 points, 7 boards and 5 assists

Shaq does well in his role as a defensive player, scoring only 4 but grabbing 14 boards and swatting 2 shots

Jazz (35-20) L

Williams has a typical 26 and 10 dimes

Boozer had 22 points and 10 boards

Clippers (19-33) W

The Clips grab a big upset win over the Jazz

Thornton keeps on having big nights, getting 27 points even though he came off the bench

Maggette matches him with 27 points

Hawks (22-30) W

Johnson grabs a nice line of 27 points, 8 assists and 8 boards

6 players get 10+ points in this W

Williams drops 10 points and a tasty 14 rebounds

Warriors (33-22) L

Big nights from Davis and Ellis going for 35 and 26, but it doesn't result in a W

Azubuike gets 14 from off the pine

Blazers (29-26) L

They drop yet another game.  Looks like they need to go on another 13 game win streak

Outlaw comes off the bench for 26 points

Aldridge had 23 points

Roy chips in for 19

Supersonics (15-39) W

6 players finish with 10+ points.  No numbers really stand out but it was an all around team win

Durant has the team high, in 17 points

Watson doesn't have the greatest game with 11 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds.  As he gets older, he will see those numbers consistently grow.

Off the bench Wilkins, Genabale and Ridnour go for 13, 12 and 11 points

The Expected: Lebron James, as usual goes for another huge game and carries his team to a win.  He line is 33 points, 15 boards and 8 assists

The Surprising: JR Smith has a huge 43 points and hits for 8 3 pointers.  Very nice.

The Disappointing: the Hornets only scored 80 points against the Rockets.  So to pick one player, Stojakovic only had 8 points on 30% shooting.  He had 1 board and 1 assist in 31 min

Thursday Feb 21/ 08

An small thursday for the NBA.  Only 3 games on tap

odds and ends:

Heat (9-43) L

Wade posts up some typical numbers in 33 points, 11 dimes and 4 boards

Marion also boards the double double train with 18 points and 1o rebounders.

Blount scores 11.  Davis gets 12 from off the bench.

Rockets (34-20) W

Alston and McGrady, the Rockets back court, both get double doubles.  Alston has 16 points and 11 dimes.  McGrady hits for 23 and dishes out 10 helpers.

Not to be left out, Scola drops 11 points and grabs 10 boards.

Yao had 21 and 9

Landry came off the bench for 19

Spurs (36-17) W

Spurs barely make it out alive with a 1 point victory over the lowly Timberwolves

Ginobili went off for 44 points

Duncan had a very nice line of 24 points, 14 boards, 7 assists and 4 blocks.

Starters not named Duncan or Giniobili did not fare that well.  Combining for 7 points.

Finley had 13 points off the bench

Timberwolves (11-42) L

Timberwoves shock the world and actually kept it close with the powerhouse Spurs.  I did not expect that.

Jefferson is becoming a big time player in this league, hitting for 28 points against a tough squad

The starting back court of Telfair and Foye went for 15 and 13

McCants had 15 from the bench.

Supersonics (14-39) L

A battle of the top two drafting teams in last summers draft.  Sonics continue to show that maybe they deserved that top pick.

Durant gets a team high 20

Watson gets very close to triple double numbers with 15 points, 9 assists and 8 boards

Collison came off the bench for 13 points and a monster 14 boards

Ridnour added 10

Blazers (29-25) W

The Blazers pick up a much needed win, as the had lost the last 5.  Hopefully this gets the ball rolling for these guys, I would like to see them in the post season

Outlaw and Roy share the team lead with 19 points a piece

Roy however added 14 boards to his total, and 5 dimes as well.

Aldridge had 18 points, 12 boards and 5 blocked shots

Pryzbilla had a low 5 points, but had 11 rebounds and 4 swatted balls.

Jack had 15 points and 6 assists.

The Expected: Watson (Seattle)  Over the last little bit his numbers are getting consistently better.  He got near triple double digits to night.  And he was gotten to, or near double double nights for a while.  It might be fluke, but I think this boy might be legit.  His line reads 15 points, 9 assists, 8 boards

The Surprising: The Rockets, starters from the 1, 2 and 3 spots all went for double doubles

Alston 16 and 11 dimes.  McGrady 23 and 10 dimes.  Scola 11 and 10 boards

The Disappointing: The Spurs starters not named Duncan or Ginobili, combining for only 7 points.  Lucky they came out of the game with a win.  But shame on them.

Wednesday Feb 20/ 08

odds and ends:

Magic (34-22) L

Superman Howard has a big game of 37 points and 15 boards.  10 of those being offensive boards.  Good job

6 players finish with 10+

Lewis and Turkoglu both finish with 16 points.  Turkoglu also added 9 assists to his total

Raptors (29-23) W

Keys to a Raptors victory are this, Bosh has a big game, Calderon gets in the 10+ assists range, and Delfino/Kapono have to combine for 25+ points from the bench

In this game, Bosh got the big game (40 points)

Calderon finishes with 13 assists

And Delfino scored 23 from off the bench, going 5-8 from 3 point range.

Moon had a good line with 17 points, 12 boards and 4 dimes

Knicks (16-38) L

Nothing too impressive here in the 40 point loss to the 76ers

11 players logged at least 10 min on the court

Crawford had the team high with 14 points

Curry had 12

76ers (24-31) W

Green had the team high with 21 points, in only 20 min

Miller recorded a double double with 12 points and 10 assists

Young had 20 points from off the bench, adding 8 boards

Iguodala finished with 19

Cavs (30-24) W

Lebron gets his second triple double in as many days.  Only difference today is that it resulted in a win. He finishes with 31 points, 14 boards and 12 assists. He is officially a monster.

Hughes comes in second with 19 points

Ilgauskas has a nice game with 14 points and 17 boards

Gibson had 15 points from off the bench

Pacers (21-33) L

Granger and Murphy combine for 50, over half of the teams 97.  (Granger 30, Murphy 20)

Foster gets 15 boards to go along with his 9 points

Rush contributes for 12 from off the bench

Bulls (21-32) L

8 players finish with 10+ points

Team high goes to Smith with 17 points

Hinrich 11. Sefolosha 10. Nocioni 11. Gordon 14. Duhon 10. Thomas 10. Deng 13.

Nets (24-30) W

Out like they have something to prove since losing Kidd

Replacement PG Williams finishes with 25 points

Carter gets the team high with 33 points, grabbing 9 boards and adding 7 assists

Jefferson gets 24

Boone grabbed 15 boards and swatted 3 shots

Pistons (39-15) L

Pistons actually have some players step up and get some stats.  Too bad they lose.

Billups drops 34 points, getting to the line 14 times and hitting them all.

Wallace shot 21, including 5 3's.  Not bad for the Center.

McDyess went out for 14 rebounds

Bucks (20-34) W

The big game, in this upset win, came from Redd who had 27 points

5 players finish with 10+

Bogut had a nice big day with 14 points and an equal 14 boards

Mavs (35-19) L

The debut of J Kidd didn't go as expected for the Mavs.  He has low numbers of 8 points, 6 boards and 5 assists.  He also added 6 TO's to his stat line.

Nowitzki gets the team high with 31

Terry had second most from off the bench with 14

Hornets (37-15) W

Paul consistently comes up huge against top point guards.  Beating Kidd beyond recognition in this one with 31 points, 11 dimes, 5 boards, and a whopping 9 steals.

West and Stojakovic both get 18

Jackson comes in from off the bench with 17

Lakers (37-17) W

Lakers get the best of this big game against the Suns, in a possible (fingers crossed) playoff battle. 

Kobe continues to play unaffected by his injured hand with 41 points on this night.

Odom gets another double double with 22 points and 11 rebounds

Gasol finishes with 29 points

Vujacic comes off the bench with 15 points.

Suns (37-17) L

The debut of Shaq looks not too bad on paper.  He had 15 points, 9 boards, 3 assists and 2 blocked shots.  I even saw him dive for a loose ball, well done sport.

Stoudemire has the big game for the Suns, playing out of a more natural PF spot he gets 37 points, 15 boards and 3 blocked shots

Nash nets 26 points, he only had 8 assists on this night

Hill gets a double double with 17 points and 10 boards

5 players finish with 15+ in this game

Hawk (21-30) L

Bibby looks better in his second game as a Hawk, and in his return to Sacramento.  He drops 17 points

Team high comes from off the bench in Childress with 18 points

Horford records a double double in 12 points and 12 boards, he added 3 swats.

6 players finish with 10+ points

Kings (25-28) W

Good production from Artest (29 points) and Martin (26)

Udrih gets to the double double with 18 points and 10 assists.

Miller also gets on board for a double double, 12 points and 13 boards

Garcia had 14 from of the bench.  He shot 4-6 from the 3 point line.

Grizzlies (14-40) L

Surprise surprise, the Grizzlies lose again.  I wouldn't be surprised if the win less than 5 of their remaining 30.

Gay and Warrick go for 21 and 20

Conley and Navarro go for 16 and 14

That's about all the went good for the Griz on this night

Clippers (18-33) W

Maggette has a nice big night with 30 points and 10 rebounds

Thomas comes in next with 17 points from off the bench

5 players finish with 10+ points.

Celtics (41-11) L

The C's lose again.  They had gone 16-0 against western conference teams this season, but now have dropped 2 straight.  

Allen finishes with a team high 32.

Garnett looked good in his second game back from injury with 17 points and 15 boards

Pierce gets 23 points

Allen contributes for 18 from the bench

Warriors (33-21) W

With every game crucial in the hyper competitive western conference, the Warriors get a huge win over the C's (119-117)

4 players finish with 20+ points.  Davis 29, Ellis 26, Harrington 22, Biedrins 21.

Biedrins and Harrington also record double double's with 13 and 12 off the glass.

The Expected: Chris Paul, coming up huge against a top caliber PG.  his line read 31 points, 11 assists, 9 steals, 5 boards.

The Surprising: The Bulls finishing with 8 players with 10+ points.  A record on this blog.

The Disappointing: Reja Bell.  Didn't do a great job guarding Kobe (who went for 41 points).  He didn't score any points in 36 min on the floor.

Tuesday Feb 19/ 08

odds and ends:  (doing things different today, look at the bottom for The Expected, The Surprising and The Disappointing) 

Knicks (16-37) W

A pretty good night for a few players

5 players finish with 19+ points.  The highest being Randolph who had 24 and added 10 boards to his total

Robinson had a nice game of 19 points, 8 boards and 5 assists

Wizards (25-28) L

Best game from the Wiz was Jamison with 20 points and 13 boards

Daniels had a decent line of 12 points, 5 dimes and 4 boards

Mason and Young came off the bench for 15 and 12

Rockets (33-20) W

Alston grabs the team high with 22 points.  He went 6-10 on 3 point shooting.  Then added 6 dimes and 5 boards

Yao put together a nice game with 16 points and 14 boards

McGrady and Scola scored 17 and 15

Cavs (29-24) L

Lebron pulls the dead weight that is his team again, getting them close to a win but not close enough.  A nets the triple double with 26 points, 13 boards and 11 assists

Hughes and Ilgauskas both scored 16.  Then no one else scored over 10

Besides Lebron, only 5 assists were given out

Magic (34-21) W

The Magic prove they belong in the tops of the league by beating the Pistons

Howard has a quiet game with only  8 points and 8 boards, he did manage 4 blocks though

6 players finished with 10+ points

Lewis had team high with 20

Bogans added 19 from the pine

Pistons (39-14) L

All around team effort (again)

Stuckey had team high, coming from off the bench, with 16

McDyess had 14 boards

Team shot 14% from 3 point land with 2-14 shooting

76ers (23-31) L

Nothing too impressive here.  Team only finished with 88 points.

Iguodala had team high with 17 points

Close behind is Miller with 15 points

Timberwolves (11-41) W

Jefferson led the way for his team, with 19 points and 14 boards

McCants got the team high from off the bench with 20

7 players finish with 10+ points

Bobcats (19-35) L

No on expected them to beat the mighty Spurs, but they only managed 65 points.  They scored 18 or less in each quarter

Only 3 players finished with above 7 points.  Felton had the team with with 19

Bobcats shot 28% on FG's

Spurs (35-17) W

Ginobili grabs the tops for his team with 18 points

Duncan only netted 7 points, but had 15 boards, 5 assists and 5 blocks

Finley and Udoka came off the bench for 14 and 12

Spurs needed only 85 points for the win

Celtics (41-10) L

118 points was not enough against the Nuggets on this night

Pierce led the way with 24 points, 7 assists and 6 boards

Rondo came up close behind with 22 points.  Trouble is he only played 30 min, due to fouling out.

Garnett played limited minuets in his return to the line-up.  Scoring only 4 points, he grabbed 8 boards and had 2 steals in 20 min

Allen had 20 points, hitting 4 from downtown

Powe had a double double from off the bench with 13 and 11

Posey also dropped 13 from off the bench

Nuggets (33-20) W

The Nuggets get they numbers they need to beat the C's

Anthony and Iverson go for 29 and 28.  

Camby almost records a triple double with 11 points, 13 boards and 9 blocks

Carter has a big game with 14 points and 8 assists

Martin had 19 points and 6 boards, a solid game for him

Kleiza came from the bench for 11 points.

Like I said, numbers they need.  For the Nuggets to win a big game like this they need 25+ from both Anthony and Iverson.  They need a big defensive game from Camby (9 blocks will do).  Kleiza needs to come off the bench for some solid contribution.

Warriors (32-21) L

Harrington leads the way for the team with 21 points

Ellis and Davis go for 18 and 17

Webber finally has a somewhat decent game with 9 points and 3 assists in 16 min.

Azubuike had 14 points in 20 min from off the bench

Jazz (35-19) W

Williams has a typical game for him with 29 points and 12 assists, he even added 2 blocks from the PG spot.

Kirilenko, Boozer and Okur went for 18, 16 and 16

Boozer and Okur also picked up double double's with 12 boards and 10 boards

Korver and Harpring both dropped 12 from off the bench

Kings (24-28) W

Artest ups his trade value with 24 points, 5 assists and 5 boards

Garcia had 23 points from off the bench in only 21 min

Martin was close behind with 21 points

Kings shot 10-19 from the 3 point line

Blazers (28-25) L

The Blazers are seeing their playoff spot slip away, losing 5 in a row and 7 of their last 10.

No starters finished above 12 points

Highest point totals game from off the bench with Outlaw getting 23 and Webster finishing with 18

Grizzlies (14-39) L

The Griz continue their quest for the top pick in the draft

Gay and Warrick have similar nights.  Gay finished with 23, 7 boards and 3 assists.  Warrick had one less in each category with 22, 6 and 2

Sonics (14-38) W

Sonics win the battle of the bottom feeders

Watson comes up large with 26 points and 9 assists

Szczerbiak had 24 points in 26 min

Collison and Green went for 12 and 11

Hawks (21-29) L

The Hawks biggest production came from off the bench with Law and Childress both getting 16

Pachuila got 12 from off the bench as well.

Johnson had team with with 18

Bibby's first game was uneventful with 5 points, 3 assists, 0 boards in 16 min

The Hawks were down at the half by a score of 73-37.  Dang.

Lakers (36-17) W

Bryant is playing through the pain of his pinky finger on his death hand (shooting hand), still manages to grab a share of the team high with 23 points.  Gasol also finished with those digits

Odom had another big game on the glass with 15 boards, he netted 17 points to his totals.

All starters finish with 10+

Farmar had 12 points in 16 min

Doing things backwards today

The Expected: Lebron, getting his triple double, just to remind you he had 26 points, 13 boards and 11 assists

The Surprising: Garcia getting 23 points in 21 min from off the bench for the Kings

The Disappointing: Bibby, although it is his first game for his new squad, he didn't offer up too much hope for the Hawks with them being down by 36 at the half.  He had 5 points in 16 min.

Welcome to the second half of the NBA season. 

Thursday Feb 14/ 08

Very small night on hand. Only two games played

The Expected: Nash, has typical numbers of 24 points and 13 assists. He even got a blocked shot to his credit.
The Disappointing: Duhon scores only 3, on 1-5 shooting in 32 min.
The Surprising: Hinrich comes off the bench and nets 24 points in 33 min of work

Heat (9-42) L
D Wade has a nice big game with 30 points, 7 boards and 7 assists
Marion follows suit with 23 points, 7 boards, 3 assists and 4 steals
No other Heat player gets above 10 points
Team only shot 60% from the free throw line
They got out rebounded by 18

Bulls (21-31) W
Three Bulls player record double doubles
Joe Smith leads the way with 19 points and 11 boards
Sefolosha gets 17 and 12. While Thomas scores 10 and grabs 12
Hinrich led the team in scoring with 24 from off the bench

Mavs (35-18) L
Nowitzki has a huge game with 36 points, 12 boards and 4 assists
Terry dropped in 29 points for his team
No other player scores above 10. So the team finishes with 97 and that is never enough to beat the Suns. But none of the Mavs were in a giving mood tonight as the team only gave out 8 assists

Suns (37-16) W
Nash has typical Nash-like numbers 24, 13.
Stoudemire and Barbosa share the team lead with 26 points
Diaw registers a solid night with 19 points, 8 boards, 5 assists and 3 blocked shots
Stoudemire only grabs 3 rebounds, which means that everyone who saw action, besides Strawberry, out rebounded him. Odd to see from your center.

That's it. Short night, short entry

Wednesday Feb 13/ 08

A very big night for this Wednesday night, with 14 games on hand.

The Expected: A lot of stars had typical nights, Kobe had 29, 5 and 5. Duncan had 23 and 13. Lebron shot for 39, which is a large sum, but for Lebron it isn't shocking. Chris Paul also had 21 and 10.

The Surprising: Manu Ginobili going off for 46 points, more than double his 19 ppg average. He also added 8 assists.

The Disappointing: Devean George. His excersises his courtesy no-trade clause (given to every player past a certain amount of years in the league who only sign one year contracts) The Mavs then decide to start him and he goes for 0 points on 0-11 shooting in 33 min. Won't be surprised if he gets boo'ed at home from now on.



the odds and ends

Nets (23-30) L
The Nets sit all players involved in a potential trade that never happens. Meaning, J Kidd sits.
Carter and Jefferson tie for team high with 15 points
6 players finish with 10+ points, including 3 from off the bench. Armstrong 12. Nachbar 10. Swift 12.



Raptors (28-23) W
Calderson consistantly is putting up big numbers. Going for the double double tonight with 22 points and 12 dimes
Bosh had a team leading 27, and added 9 boards
Moon and Bargnani finish with 15 and 14
Swingman Delfino finishes with 7 points, 9 boards and a very good 6 assists. These are numbers that win games, to have role players simply fill roles. Very nice.



Grizzlies (14-38) L
Warrick and Gay both finish with 23 to lead the team on this night
Don't know what happened with Conley to only play 8 min. He finished with 0 points and 1 assist. Milicic also finished with 0 points. No wonder the Grizzlies lose (again) when two starters don't score anything.
Lowry had a nice line off the bench with 15 points, 6 boards and 6 dimes


76ers (23-30) W
The team high goes to Igoudala who hits for 29. He also added 8 of both boards and assists.
Miller grabs a double double with 14 points and 11 assists.
Dalembert also got in on the action of taking home double double's. He left the building with 16 points and 12 boards. He added 4 blocks to that total as well.


Hawks (21-28) L
5 players finish with double digits in points. Joe Johnson had the most with 23. He shot 3-3 from 3 point range.
Horford had a double double line with 12 points and 14 boards. He added 3 swats to that total.
Lue had 19. Williams 14. Law 12.

Bobcats (19-34) W
Okafor had a monster game with 20 points, 21 rebounds and 5 blocks.
Felton grabbed the team high with 22 points. He added 7 dimes and 4 boards.
Richardson had 19 points and 8 boards
Dudley scored 12 from off the bench

Nuggets (32-20) L
Anthony's line reads 32 points and 6 boards
Iverson had 21 points with 7 assists
Martin went for 17 and 9 off the glass
Smith came off the bench for 16 points. Most of which came from downtown, on 4-9 from 3 point range.

Magic (33-21) W
Howard flexes his muscles and picks up 23 points and 24 rebounds. Adding 3 assists and 2 swats
Lewis went for 25 points and 7 boards
Turkoglu had 18 points
Nelson had a decent line with 13 points, 5 assists and 4 boards
Cook came in off the bench for 18 points. Shooting 4-5 from 3 point range

Spurs (34-17) W
Spurs got the best of the Cavs in the finals rematch
Ginobili, as mentioned, let loose for 46
Duncan was typical with 23 and 13
Udoka and Bowen scored 12 and 10

Cavs (29-23) L
Lebron had a good line of 39 points, 9 assists and 6 boards
Hughes had another good scoring night with 26. 6 boards and 3 assists were also added to his totals.
No other player finished with 10+. 3 players only got to 9 (Brown, Jones, Marshall)

Knicks (15-37) L
Crawford has team high's in points and assists, with 26 and 7
Randolph picks up the double double on 20 points and 13 boards
Lee came off the bench for 18 points and 8 rebounds
Robinson and Jones went for 11 and 10

Celtics (41-9) W
Pierce finishes with solid line of 24 points, 7 dimes and 5 off the glass
Allen was close behind with 21 points, 5 dimes and 8 rebounds
Rondo has another quality game, 18 points, 5 assists, 3 boards
Powe finished with 18 points and 8 boards
Scalabrine got the start, lasted 2:37, recorded 0 points and 1 board. How is he starting?

Pacers (21-32) L
An ugly night for the Pacers, only finishing with 80 points
3 players finished with 10+, none higher than 15. Diogu led the team with 14 points in 13 min.
Dunleavy and Owens had 11 and 10
The Pacers only hit 25 fg's. Averaging roughly one every 2 min.

Pistons (39-13) W
Once again, you guessed it, and all around team effort win by the Pistons
3 players tied for team lead, Billups, Hamilton and Prince all scored 14.
Stuckey and Maxiell came in next with 12 and 11
Maxiell was the only one to grab a double double, adding 11 boards

Hornets (36-15) W
Paul has typical game with 21 points and 10 dimes
West scores 22 points and adds 8 boards
Stojakovic had 19 points, 3-3 from downtown and pitched in 4 rebounds
Chandler had 15 points and 16 rebounds
Jackson had 11 from off the bench

Bucks (19-34) L
Redd scored 30, had 6 boards and 5 assists
Williams went for 14 points and had 9 assists
Mason, Yi and Simmons finished with 14, 13 and 12

Lakers (35-17) W
Kobe went for a cool 29. Adding 5 of boards and assists
Odom does the dirty work again, finishing a triple double. 10 points, 10 assists, 16 rebounds
Gasol fills it all in with 19 points, 9 boards and 3 blocks
All starters finish with 10+, Vujacic also added 15 from off the bench

Kings (23-28) L
Artest gets the game high 30
Bibby, Miller, Martin go for 14, 13, 12
Williams had a mere 4 points off the bench, but grabbed 12 rebounds

Rockets (32-20)
Rockets pull of the low scoring with over the Kings, 89-87.
Yao had a solid game of 25 points, 14 boards and 3 blocks
Alston was next with 23 points, adding in 7 dimes too
Battier had 15. McGrady had 10

Blazers (28-24) L
Not too much goes right for the Blazers tonight
Roy gets to 25 points, as he should. He had 6 boards and 6 dimes. But the rest of the team didn't pull their weight. Only 2 other players finished above 10
Blake and Outlaw both had 13

Mavs (35-17) W
Admist all the trade rumours, the Mavs stay focused and pull of the W (No thanks to George)
Nowitzki led the way with authority, 37 points and 12 rebounds
Terry had 24 points
Dampier got to the double double with 10 points and 11 boards
Barea had 11 from off the bench

Suns (36-16) L
Playing the Warriors, as usual both teams were scoring like it was going out of style
Suns finish with 118. 4 players finish with 20+
Nash has 20 points and 12 assists
Stoudemire gets 29 and 13 rebounds
Impressively, not far behind is Hill with 26 points and 15 rebounds
Barbosa hits for 24 from off the bench

Warriors (32-20) W
Ellis goes crazy. 37 points, 9 boards and 5 dimes
Davis ups Nash in the battle with 26 points and 13 assists
Starters Jackson, Barnes and Harrington finish with 19, 13 and 12

Jazz (34-19) W
Boozer finishes with the coveted triple double. 22 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists
Williams has a run of the mill game with 17 points and 10 dimes
Okur was the third Jazz to get at least a double double with 20 points and 10 boards
Brewer chipped in for 16 points

Sonics (13-38) L
Durant nets the team high with 19
Thomas grabs a double double in 10 points and 13 boards
Watson only scores 7, but adds 14 assists

Wizards (25-27) W
Jamison plays the shepard and leads the way for 29 points and 9 boards
Haywood had 15
Stevenson and Blatche both get to 13
A surprising stat is seeing McGuire grab 12 boards, 7 of those offensive boards, and still getting 0 points.

Clippers (17-33) L
Young Thornton leads the way again for the Clips with 24 points and 9 boards
Maggette had 20 points
Kaman picks up the double double with 11 points and 11 boards to match
The Clippers got out rebounded by 22 on this night. ouch.

That's it for a well busy night. It all dies down from here until the All-star break, only 3 more games left until Sunday.

Tuesday Feb 12/ 08

The Expected: Pierce - Goes big again in the absence of KG. His line is 28 points, 12 boards and 5 dimes
The Disappointing: The Kings Bench - Only get a total of 9 points from their non-starters. Also only 2 Kings shot free-throws in this game.
The Surprising: JR Smith leads the Nuggets in scoring off the bench. Going for 28 points, hitting 8 from 3 point land

Pistons (38-13) W
As per usual, a total team win. No numbers stand out too much
Billups has 16 points. Hamilton - 12. Stuckey - 12. Wallace leads team with 21.
7 players had at least 3 boards.
Wallace had the most min with 38

Hawks (21-27) L
Josh Smith led the team in points, his line reads 30 points, 6 boards, 2 assists, 3 blocks
Horford had a monster 16 boards and added 12 points to his total
Joe Johnson had 11 points, 9 boards, 4 assists

Celtics (40-9) W
Pierce led the team with 28
Allen added in 23
Rondo had a very good line of 12 points, 7 boards and 7 dimes
Powe hit the starting line up and put of 16 points and 9 boards

Pacers (21-31) L
Granger had the best game for the Pacers with 18 points, 10 boards, 3 assists and 5 blocks
Dunleavy, Murphy and Rush all scored 13 points
3 bench players finish with 10+. Rush, Daniels (10), and Williams (14)

Timberwolves (10-40) L
Telfair up'ed his season average of 9.6 points per, and went off for 24. He added 7 dimes as well
Jefferson picked up the double double with 16 and 11
Walker went for 12 and 5 boards off the bench

Nets (23-29) W
Kidd fell just shy of the triple-double with 9 points, 9 assists and 10 boards
Carter's line reads 17 points, 10 assists and 6 boards
Jefferson grabs a double double with 13 points and 12 boards
Nachbar had 14 points in 14 min off the bench

Nuggets (32-19) W
3 players finish with 20+. Smith 28, Martin 24, Anthony 22
Anthony also grabbed 11 boards for the double double
Iverson has an all around night of 16 points, 7 assists and 6 boards
Camby almost goes for the triple double with 12 points, 16 boards and 7 blocks
Smith is the only player to hit a 3 pointer for the Nuggets

Heat (9-41) L
Lose by just one point to the Nuggets. At least they are competing now though.
Wade leads the way with 29 points and 10 dimes
Marion goes for 23 points and 18 boards
Wright went for 19 points
Blount had the double double with 18 points and 13 boards
Davis scored 10 off the bench

Kings (23-27) L
Martin gets the team high with 33 points, adding 7 boards
Bibby and Artest both go for 18 points
Miller has a nice line of 10 points, 13 boards and 6 assists
Everyone else didn't do much else

Grizzlies (14-37) W
6 players finish with 10+ points
Warrick leads the way with 24 points and 13 boards
Gay has 21 points. Miller 17. Navarro 19. Milicic 14. Conley 11.
Miller added 10 boards for the double double
Only other player to record a point was Collins with 1.

Hornets (35-15) W
Paul leads the way with an impressive 25 points and 14 assists
West and Stojakovic tie for a team high 27 points
Only those 3 players score 10+, but the team still hit 100 points
Chandler scores only 4 points, but grabs a huge 16 boards

Bulls (20-31) L
Nocioni has the team high with 28
Hinrich comes off the bench and goes for 15
Sefolosha has 12 points 6 boards and 4 dimes
Like the Hornets, those 3 are the only to register 10+ points. Unlike the Hornets, it was not enough for a win.
Wallace had 9 points and matches Chandler with 16 boards

And that's it for a Tuesday night

Monday Feb 11/ 08

The Expected: Kobe - 31 points, 5 assists. The best player in the game.
The Disappointing: The Mavs (again) scoring only 76 points, and only 23 in the second half. The have lost bad, to bad teams on back to back nights.
The Surprising: Hughes - He scores 40 points including 4 from downtown, grabbed 6 boards and added 3 assists. That is 4x above his season average.

Spurs (33-17) W
Duncan goes for his usual, 22 and 13
Ginobili is the one who leads the way on this night with 34 points, 15 boards and 6 assists. Well done
Finley scored 12 off the bench. After that no other player recorded 10+ in any other category (except min)

Raptors (27-23) L
Raptors beat the Spurs that last time around and put up a good fight this time as well.
Calderon had the big game with 27 points and 6 rebounds
Bosh had 11 and 8
Bargnani and Delfino went for 12 and 11

Mavs (34-17) L
The mighty Mavs fall to the not-so-hot 76ers
Nowitzki had the best game with 15 points, 9 boards and 7 assists
Howard had the high score with 17
Team only shot 35% from the field. Interesting to see that they had assists on 21 of teh 27 FG's made.

76ers (22-30) W
Unless you are the Pistons, be thankful anytime you only score 84, but still get the win.
Miller had a very nice night of 21 points, 8 boards and 7 assists
Iguodala goes for 14, while Green shoots 12

New Look Lakers (34-17) W
I guess the NBA should make this new name official, as it is the only way the media has refered to this team since the arrival of Gasol. How long till that tag wears off, a week? a month? till the playoffs? Is David Stern going to hand Phil Jackson the NBA title and say 'congratulations to the New Look Lakers the 2008 NBA champions'
Anyways, Kobe is Kobe again. Nothing can stop him at this point, I will be surprised anytime he gets below 30 from this point out.
Gasol fills in where needed, scoring a very solid 26 on this night, and in the assists and rebounds category he adds 6 to each
Odom does the dirty work, scoring a mere 8 points, but adding 10 boards and 5 assists
Farmar and Turiaf both score 10 off the bench

Bobcats (18-34) L
Felton has a very respectible game of 29 and 8 assists
Mohammed scores 21 and added 11 boards to his total (6 offensive boards)
McInnis and Richardson both add 10
While Dudley brought in 11 from off the bench

Cavs (29-22) W
Hughes has that ridiculous game of 40
Lebron put up his usual numbers of 29 points, 10 assists and 7 boards
Gooden and Newble both score 10, and Brown scores 11 off the bench
Soak it in, this is a rare occasion that Lebron will not lead the Cavs in scoring.

Magic (32-21) L
Turkoglu gets the team high with 25 points, with 4-7 from 3 point range
Nelson nets a tasty 22
Surprisingly Howard did not get a double double, only going for 16 and 9
Lewis added 15

Clippers (17-32) W
Thornton has another big game, finishing with 25 points
Cassell gets 21 and 8 assists in only 23 min of work (tossed out again)
Meggette joins the Clippers 20 point club on the night, finishing with just that (20)
Kaman only scored 7 points, but grabbed 15 boards

Buck (19-33) L
Williams gets his 3rd 30 point game in Feb, going for 31
Four players finish with between 10-14
Bogut - 10. Redd - 11. Yi - 13. Mason - 14.
Redd added 11 dimes, while Bogut added 11 rebounds

Blazers (28-23) L
Blazers lose again, seems they can't win unless Roy scores at least 25.
He gets only 15 this night and they lose to the Rockets by 13
Aldridge has 22
Webster finishes with 11

Rockets (31-20) W
All 5 starters finish with 10+ points
Alston - 17. McGrady - 12. Scola - 11. Battier - 11. Yao - 25.
No double digits anywhere else

Wizards (24-27) L
This game I probably should have seen. Wizards score 37 and 35 in the first 2 quarters. Finishing with 72 at the half. And still lose!
Mason went off for 32 points, getting the team high
Jamison scored 25 and Haywood added 20. They both grabbed 10 boards
Young added 11 points in 23 min

Warriors (31-22) W
The Warriors score 36 in the 4th, to the Wizards 22.
Jackson had the big game of the night with 41 points
Ellis scored 22 and Harrington was one point behind with 21
Davis just missed the 20 point mark with 19. He added 7 boards and 7 assists
Both teams hit 10 3 pointers in this game

Big nights from some unsuspecting. Mason, Harrington and Hughes. On a night where Kobe, Lebron, Duncan, Nowitzki and D Howard play, it is those 3 who end up with the spot light. Well done.

Sunday Feb 10/ 08

The Expected: Kobe - 33 points, 5 assists, 3 boards

The Disappointing: Mavs Guards - The starting guards, Barea and Jones, finish for a combined 2 points, 1 assist, and 1-10 shooting.

The Surprising: JR Smith - Nuggets - scores 18 and grabs 5 boards in 20 min

the odds and ends:

Spurs (32-17) L

Duncan leads the team, as usual, with 22 points, 14 boards, 6 assists and 2 blocked shots

Ginobili scores 21 and Finley scores 19

No one else records over 10 points

Celtics (39-9) W

Pierce goes off the handle, dropping 35 in a huge with over the champs

Allen has a solid night of 19, 5 boards and 3 assists

Rondo keeps on getting better and better.  He only scored 5 on this night, but added 11 rebounds and 12 assists.

Lakers (33-17) W

Kobe is typical Kobe, scoring 33 and adding 5 assists.

Odom has a huge night with 15 points, 18 boards and 6 assists

Gasol also has a good day with 12 points and 7 boards

This is a perfect game for the new look Lakers, Kobe scores the points, Odom does the dirt and Gasol fills in the blanks.

Heat (9-40) L

Marion looks good in his first game in this uni.  His line reads, 15 points, 14 boards, 4 assists and 3 blocked shots

Wade has a sub par game for him, scoring under 20 points again, finishing with 19.  He added 9 assists to his totals, but also added 9 turnovers

Blount scores a team high 22

Mavs (34-16) L

Nowitzki is one of very few bright spots for the Mavs today, going for 21 points, 8 boards and 4 assists

Second in scoring is Howard with 16

Nets (22-29) W

Kidd was either auditioning for a new jersey, or else he was just being Jason Kidd.  He scores 13 points, adds 14 rebounds and 6 boards

Carter gets a game high 29 and adds 9 boards

Jefferson scores 19 and Williams gets 15 off the bench

Bobcats (18-33) L

Like most teams, they didn't fare well against the Piston's D.

Richardson has the team high with 27 points

Felton has 14 points. Mohammed gets 10

Not too much else going on in this loss

Pistons (37-13) W

Pistons have yet another all around team effort to get this W

Prince scores 21.  Hamilton adds 18

McDyess has 12 boards

Stuckey and Hayes come off the bench and go for 13 and 10

Raptors (27-22) W

Calderon has a solid game of 15 points and 10 assists

Bargnani has 16 points and 6 boards

Bosh adds 14 points and 9 grabs

Ford comes off the bench, scores 7 and adds 13 assists in 22 min

Timberwolves (10-39) L

Jefferson leads the way again with 18 and 9

Jaric is the only other player over 10 (11), though 4 players off the bench scored 8

Nuggets (31-19) W

Anthony and Iverson get 27 and 25.  Iverson also adds 13 assists.

Camby grabbed 17 boards.  But yet again can't hit the double double, finishing with 8 points

Kleiza and Smith come off the bench to score 12 and 18

Cavs (29-22) L

Lebron has 30 points, 5 boards and 3 assists

Hughes is the only other player with double digits with 14

This is the third game of the night where a team scores eithe 82 or 83 and the other scores over 100.  Common factor is little to no help for role/bench players

Wizards (24-26) L

The Wiz have 6 players in double digits.  The highest being Jamison with 28

Guards Mason and Stevenson finish with 18 points

While all forwards finish with double doubles (Jamison 28 and 10, Blatche 10 and 11, Haywood 21 and 10)

Suns (36-15) W

The Suns counter, also having 6 players in double digits.  Most important was getting to 108, while the Wizards finished one shy with 107

Nash has 10 points, 12 dimes

Bell has 21 while adding 3 blocks

Diaw and Hill both finish with 13

And Stoudemire has team highs with 31 points and 13 rebounds.  Add 4 blocks to his totals as well.

That's it for a Sunday with one close game, and a couple of blow-outs.

I'd love to hear your questions or comments.

Feb 9/ 08

The Expected: Yao - 28 points, 9 boards, 3 assists, 2 blocked shots.  Right around his season averages in all categories, except an added 4 points to his 22 season average in points.

The Disappointing: The Hawks - No players from the starting line up register double digits in any catergory.  Starting line-up shots 18-50, and no players hit a 3 pointer in the game

The Surprising: Ellis scoring 34 points, 16 in the 4th, doubling his season average.  He added 9 boards and 5 assists.

Blazers (28-22) L

The Blazers get another loss while Roy is out of the line-up.  Who has been out of the line-up for two games due to a death in the family.

Aldridge has a good game with 21 points and 11 rebounds

Jack records 15 points and 10 dimes

Outlaw and Frye come off the bench for 15 and 14

Pacers (21-30) W

Granger goes big tonight for 29

Diener gets way above his season averages of 5 and 2, going for 15 points and 9 assists

Rush played his way to his first double double with 10 points and 11 boards

Clippers (16-32) L

Maggette has been averaging 29 points in the last 5 games, scoring just shy of that tonight with 26

Thornton gets a double double with 18 and 10 boards

The Clippers only scored 80 points, shooting 30-74, getting out rebounded by 11 and shown up in dimes by 9

76ers (21-30) W

Even night all around for the 76ers, no player scores over 20 points.  While only one player (Igoudala) logs over 35 min

Miller has a good line of 17 points and 9 assists

Williams scores 18 coming off the bench, shooting 5-6 and sinking all 6 free throws

Grizzlies (13-37) L

The Griz lose again, this sight is going to come quite often after the loss of Gasol.  But they will make a serious play for the top pick in the draft.

Miller has the biggest night with 26 points

Rookie Conley has a good line with 16 points, 4 assists, and 4 boards

Hornets (34-15) W

Paul only scores 2 points, and the Hornets still score 2 points.  It might help that he gave out 16 assists

West shows why he is an all-star with 33 and 10 rebounds

Stojakovic scores 26 points, sinking 6 from downtown

Knicks (15-36) W

New York pulls out a squeaker, 1 point victory.

Crawford scores 30, dishes out 5 and grabs 4 assists

Randolph records a double double with 12 points and 10 boards

Lee comes in strong off the bench with 17 and 9 boards

Bucks (19-32) L

Redd and Vilanueva both score 21, CV adds 13 off the glass to his credit

Bell scored 17 off the bench on 7-9 shooting

Hawks (21-26) L

The Hawks have an ugly night, only recording 10 points in the 2nd quarter.  As mentioned the starters all sucked.

The bright spots come off the bench with Pachulia scoring 11 and getting 9 rebounds

Childress scored 18

Rockets (30-20) W

If the playoffs started tomorrow, the Rockets would barely squeeze into the playoffs over G-State (29-20).  But with that record in the east they would have home court advantage in round one.

T-Mac finishes with 15 points, 8 assists, and 4 rebounds

Scola has 14 and 9 rebounds

Wells comes off the bench and gets 11 points, 6 assists, and 3 rebounds in only 16 min

Bulls (20-30) L

I was excited to test out all my new theories on the Bulls, but then I see that Gordon, Dend and Hinrich are all not in the line-up.

Sefolosha scores the team high with 22 points

Duhon has 11 points and 8 dimes

Smith and Nocioni both get 14 points and 4 boards

Jazz (33-19) W

Boozer and Williams both have typical nights

Boozer goes for 22 points and 12 boards

Williams has 15 points and 11 dimes

Korver and Price both score 10 from off the bench

Kings (23-25) L

The Kings get some pretty good numbers out of this night.

Bibby hits for 24 and 7 assists

Artest had 21 points, 13 boards, 2 assists, 3, steals and 2 blocks

Miller records a double double with 10 and 13 boards

Warriors (29-20) W

Davis finishes off with just a few numbers shy of a triple double with 10 points, 9 boards and 7 assists

Eillis had that big game that led them to victory.

Jackson had 26 points, hitting 4 three pointers

Biedrins has 9 points, 9 boards

That's it for this Saturday night

Team Breakdown - Chicago Bulls

At the suggestion of a friend and faithful reader, I will attempt to do team statistical breakdown and see how it goes.  Just a couple numbers, nothing too in depth.

Chicago Bulls

The Bulls are a team that showed a lot of promise in the last couple seasons.

In the last two seasons decent playoff showings.  In 2006 they pushed the Miami Heat in the first round, winning 2 games and giving the soon to be champs a scare early.

in 2007 they would meet the Heat again in the first round, sweeping the reigning champs and winning by an average of 11 points a game.  They were no match against the Pistons, even though they pushed the Pistons to a 6 game series, in games they lost they only averaged 79 points against Detroit's raging D.

Here are some big time numbers for this team this year

Bulls average 95 points of offense a game

They allow 97.6

Losing by an average of 2.6

Wallace averages 4.1 offensive rebounds in a win

and 3.1 when they lose.

Seeing on how offensive boards often leads to points, that is one big rebound for this club

Another huge stat for the team is Deng’s numbers

He averages 21.6 in a win

But only 15.5 in losses (That’s a BIG difference)

So when Deng gets into the 20 point range it is statistically going to equal a Bulls victory

The only Bulls player who's numbers don't drop when they go on the road is Joe Smith

He averages 9.8 points and 4.7 rebounds at home

On the road he gets 11.8 and 5.6

At home Gordon, Deng and Hinrich average 21.8, 18.4, and 15.2

On the road they get 18.4, 17.4, and 10.9

They average a 4 point loss on the road (93.7 for, 97.6 against) 

4 points is almost exactly the scoring drop that Hinrich sees when he hits the road

You also see his assists go down by 2 on the road from 7.0 to 5.1, which once again makes a difference of at least 4 points

Statistically speaking if Hinrich either scores 15 or dishes out 7 assists, the team wins.

An encouraging stat for the Bulls is Jo Noah.  

His game averages read 5.1 points and 4.8 rebounds a game, but he also only gets 15 min of playing time

Per 48 minuets he is averaging 15.7 points and 14.5 rebounds

There has been some wind of Wallace being traded out of Chicago, which would most likely open up more court time for Noah.  But at the same time Noah isn't quite ready to be starting every game and playing big minuets, he is a great energy guy off the bench and will see his court time increase slowly. 

No player on this team averages over 35 min a game.  The Bulls rely on a very even attack as they have 6 players who average between 4 and 6 points a game.  While 5 players average between 10 and 20.

In my opinion, what will need to happen for this team in the future is to have their big 3, Hinrich, Deng, and Gordon step it up and take complete charge of this team.  Then they will need to see their role players, Thomas, Noah and Duhon, find their place as important role players.  I see Nocioni fitting in as the type of player that Stojakovic is for the Hornets right now, can have huge games and lead the team, but isn't the teams top option for most nights.

I would like to hear your feedback on this article.  If you enjoyed it, if you have anything to add, or if there is anything that I should add during my dissection of teams.

Feb 8/ 08

A nice big night in the NBA tonight with 11 games.  A couple easy wins came about not so easily as the Suns only beat the Sonics by 4, and the Celtics beat the Timberwolves only by a last second lay-up.

The Expected: Kidd - Yep Jason Kidd is so good that a triple double is expected out of him, on this night he gets 19, 13 dimes and 11 boards

The Surprising: Douby - Kings - scores 15 points in 14 min, tripling his season average on the night.

The Disappointing: Felton scored 4 points on 2-10 shooting and only added 1 assist in 32 min of play.  

The Feel Good: Ford coming back after that nasty fall delivered by Al Horford.  He walked onto the court, when he entered the game, to a standing O.  He only played 13 min, but got 6 assists in that time

the odds and ends

Clippers - (16-31)  W

Maggette scores 14 points above his season average with 35.

Thornton and Mobley both score 19

Kaman picks up a double double with 16 and 12

Raptors - (26-22) L

Calderon gets more dimes than buckets with 14 and 11

Bosh had a typical night for him with 29 points and 12 boards

Moon racks up the 2nd most on the team with 16, a good night for the rookie

Nets - (21-29) W

Kidd's triple double night already mentioned

Jefferson scores 23

Carter has a good line wth 18 points, 9 boards and 5 assists

Boone grabs himself a double double with 12 points and 11 grabs

Bobcats - (18-32) L

Wallace leads the team with 21

Okafor scores a meek 10 but picks up 17 rebounds

Dudley and Boykins come off the bench scoring 15 and 13

Lakers (32-17) W

Here is a scary stat for the rest of the league to see - Kobe and Gasol combine for 66.

Looks like Gasol's transition into this line-up isn't going to be that difficult

Kobe's line reads 36 points, 10 boards, and 6 assists

Gasol added 9 boards to his 30 points

Fisher had 14 and 7 assists

Magic (32-30) L

Even all around numbers, no one with 20 points.  But 7 scored 10+

Howard leads team (as he should) with 19 and 11 rebounds

Nelson had the next best line with 17 points and 9 helps

Spurs (32-16) W

Duncan - 21 points, 14 boards and 3 blocked shots

Ginobili - 20 points, 9 assists and 7 rebounds

Finley comes off the bench with 17

Horry follows him with 13

Knicks (14-36) L

No surprise that the Knicks lose to the Spurs, a troubling stat is 62% free throw shooting on 22-35.  You guys are pro's you should at least sink those

Crawford gets the team high with 24

Randolph gets a double double 13 and 10

Lee and Balkman comes off the bench scoring 14 and 10.  While both got 7 rebounds

Cavs (28-21) W

Like I would expect anything different, Lebron led the way to a Cavs W tonight.  His line reads 26 points, 11 boards, and 7 assists.  Coming up just short of the triple double

Ilgauskas has the type of night he needs to have for the Cavs to win with 17 points and 11 boards

Hawks (21-25) L

Johnson scores 23 points, dishes 8 times and grabs 6 boards

Williams scores 21

Josh Smith has yet another nice line with 15, 8 boards, 4 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks

Blazers (28-21) L

Not a great night for the Blazers.  Roy sits out and it looks like this team falls apart.  Although that does seem to happen to a lot of teams that play the Pistons

Aldridge scores the most for the Blazers with 22

Not too much else stands out on this night as no other players finish with 10+ points

Pistons (36-13) W

Billups - 17 points, 5 assists

After that, all the stats are quite scattered about. 9 players get 2+ assists, the highest being Billups with 5

Only one player logged more than 25 min on the court (Prince, 27 min)

Celtics (38-9) W

Didn't expect that the C's would barely escape Minnesota with a W

Pierce leads the way with 18.  Adding 6 assists to his line

Powe had 16 points and 8 assists.  No points bigger than his lay up that barely got out of his hands before the buzzer.

Timberwolves (10-38) L

Jefferson has 18 points, 9 boards, 2 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks

Smith gets 2nd in scoring despite being the 6th man (16 points)

Grizzlies (13-36) L

Gay has the best night for the Grizzlies with 18 points and 12 boards

Miller 2nd with 15

Mavs (34-15) W

Nowitzki has an alright night with 21 points and 6 boards

After that, only players coming off the bench scored more than 10

Bass, 12 points. Terry, 11 points. George, 13 points.

Sonics (13-37) L

Sonics nearly pull out a W in Phoenix, if it wasn't for Szczerbiak pulling a C-Webb and calling a timeout when there were none left.

Wilcox had a good night scoring 22 and grabbing 15, doubling his season average on both accounts

Collison picks up a double double off the bench with 11 points and 12 boards

Suns (35-15) W

Nash has 13 points and 8 assists

Stoudemire has team best with 33 and 10

Hill, Barbosa and Bell go for 16, 15 and 14

The Sonics out rebounded and also dished out more assists than the Suns

Jazz (32-19) L

6 players score 10+ points

Boozer has 23 points and 12 boards

Williams has a good night with 18 points and 9 assists

Harpring and Price scored 13 and 11, while both logged under 20 min

Kings (23-25) W

Martin and Artest take charge of this game with 27 and 22

Douby's big game in short minuets was a huge lift as the Kings beat the Jazz

Kings out rebounded the Jazz by 15

Wizards (24-25) L

5 players get 14+ points.  The most by Jamison with 21

Blatche gets a double double with 14 and 10

Nuggets (30-19) W

Saving the best for last, as Carmelo Anthony has a career night scoring 49 points.  He had a very hot hand as he shot 19-25 on FG's (3-3 from 3 point land) and 8-8 at the line

 AI had 18 with 11 dimes

Camby had a good night with 8 points, 17 boards, 8 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks

Anthony was the only player on the Nuggets to record a 3 pointer.

So that was a ordinary night for most, and a very special night for Anthony.  So close to the 50 point mark, but he will have to save that for another night.  As it is a given that he will make it there eventually.

Feb 7/08

Not too much going on last night.  Just 3 games on the schedule.

The Expected: Lebron - 32 points, 7 boards, 6 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals. 

The Surprising: Duhon scoring 34 and adding 9 assists.  Where did that come from, with season averages of 6 and 4?

The Disappointing: Ilgauskas scoring only 8 points.  This game against the Rockets should have been a close contest, instead they get blown out, only scoring 77.  When Big Z scores big, W's are usually not too far behind.

the odds and ends

Heat

Wade has an alright game with 19 points, 9 assists and 6 boards

The two down low, Wright and Blount both get 10 boards and scoring 16 and 15

Not too much else to talk about for the Heat as they suffer yet another night.  The Heat are so bad right now, Marcus Banks is going to look like an all-star in their line up.  I am also excited to see what Marion will do with a lot of added weight to his shoulders.

76ers

Offensively Iguodala and Miller took the lead with 25 and 21 points.

A surprising stat comes from Evans off the bench with 8 points and a large 14 glass grabbers.

Cavs

Lebron is his normal self.  Looks like the rest of the players just wanted to sit back and watch him as no one else got involved.  Maybe the Cavs ought to start charging their bench for court side tickets to Lebron.

Hughes is the only other player in double digits with 13 points.

Rockets

It was a battle of big slow men, and Yao got the best of Ilgauskas with 22 points, 12 boards and 4 helpers

5 players finish with 10+ points, surprisingly McGrady is not on that list.

Wells goes for 13 and 10 off the bench. Skip To My Lou scores 17 and adds 9 dimes

Bulls

Duhon's monster night already was mentioned

Smith gets a nice line of 27 points and 8 boards

Thomas got 15 off the bench

Noah recorded 10 boards in only 14 min

Warriors

The debut of Webber was nothing special.   Don't expect him to get any major numbers till about the post season, it will take him a while to fit into the offense.  But he will be a valuable asset if the Warriors can make the playoffs.

3 players finished with 20+ points and Jackson was only 1 point off that mark

Ellis gets high score for G State with 25

Biedrins had a very impressive 18 boards, 9 of those coming on the offensive end

short night, short entry

Feb 6/ 08

A huge huge night. Big games, and big numbers all around.
6 players finished with above 30 points
24 players recorded double doubles
Nowitzki and Watson brought in triple doubles
The Denver Nuggets were 2 Carmelo Anthony rebounds and 4 Carter assists from having all 5 starters finish with a double double
6 games were within 3 points points of each other.

The Expected: Williams, scored 29, 11 dimes and 6 boards. A typical night for D Will
The Surprising: The Suns-Hornets game, 8 players finished with 20+ points
The Disappointing: Thorton - Clips - scoring 4 points on 1-6 shooting, on a night where he got infused into the starting line-up.


the odds and ends

Spurs
Duncan finished with 23, 9 and 4 assists.
Oberto had 10 points and 11 grabs
Even production all around otherwise, no one else scored 10, but 4 finished with 9 and one with 8

Wizards
Jamison had the best night offensivly for this squad with 18
Though Blatche had the line for the Wizards with 16 points and 15 boards.

Lakers
6 players score 10+ points
I was going to jump on Kobe's back for having yet another weak offensive performance, but he was playing injured (finger). Kobe scored only 11, but he did add 10 assists to that.
Odom had a team high 19, with 11 boards to his total as well
The Lakers are obviously still working out the kinks of having Gasol in the line-up. How to properly more around the ball and let someone take charge in every game

Hawks
4 players finish with 15+
Joe Johnson drops the most, with 28
Horford had 15 points and a very nice 20 boards
Josh Smith was so very close to a triple double with 17 points, 9 boards and 9 assists. He also had 5 swats.

Nets
5 players had 10+ points, although only 1 had 15+ (Carter with 18)
Nothing really standing out on this one. Lots of even production, no one really stands out. 4 players had 6 boards and 4 players had 4.

Magic
Howard gets 21 and 13, with 2 blocks
6 players finished with 10+
Cook and Dooling both got 11 points in 16 min of PT off the bench
Lewis and Turkoglu tied for second in points with 19

Clippers
Maggette leads with 33
Kaman had a nice line with 12 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 6 blocked shots

Celtics
With all the talk of the Celtics waiting for the Clippers to drop Cassell, you think Rondo wanted to go out there and show what he can do?
Rondo led the team with 24 points, 8 assists, and 5 boards. (Cassell took a cheap foul cranking Rondo in the head and he was heading to the rim and got himself ejected)
Allen and Pierce went for 19 and 17
Powe came off the bench to grab a double double with 13 and 10

Pacers
Rush led the way from the bench with 24 points, with 7 boards
Dunleavy had a good line of 19, 9 assists and 7 boards
Pacers had 15 less boards, had a worse shooting % and still came away with the game

Knicks
3 players finish with 20+
Randolph scoring the most with 29
Balkman came out strong off the bench with 12 boards (6 offensive) and 3 blocks

Heat
While everyone knew it all along, yesterday's trade was a statement. Wade is the face of the Heat.
With that in mind Wade finally had a big game with 30 points, 12 assists and 5 boards
Davis came off the pine to shoot down 20

Pistons
Had another all around effort. all 5 starters finish with 10+, 3 starters grab double double's
Here are all of them
Billups 15 points, 10 assists
Hamilton 19 points
McDyess 10 points, 13 boards
Prince 14 points, 7 assists, 6 boards
Wallace 26 points, 10 rebounds

Bucks
Williams comes up huge again going for 36 points
Bogut had a nice night too with 24 and 14

Mavs
Nowitzki gets the triple double with 29, 12 assists and 10 boards
Terry had 23, solid 6th man production
Howard had 17 and 8

Jazz
Williams had that nice line of 29 and 12
Korver scored a hot 27 points
Okur scored 15 and grabbed 10. Fouling out limited him to 32 min
3 players off the bench finished with 10+ (Korver, Millsap, Harpring - 27, 10, 13)

Nuggets
Iverson and Melo go off again
Iverson for 34
Melo for 29
3 players with double double's, Iverson 34 and 10, Martin 18 and 10 boards, Camby 11 and 17 boards (including 7 offensive)
Camby also added 4 blocks

Sonics
Watson get a very impressive triple double 23, 10 and 10
Durant finished second in scoring on the Sonics with 17
Wilcox grabbed a double double with 15 and 10

Kings
6 players finish with 10+ (5 of those scoring either 10 or 11)
Artest racked up the team high with 20
Team only finished with 14 assists

Bulls
Lose a close one to the hot Blazers
Sefolosha and Nocioni tied for the lead with 22 a piece
The Bulls most impressive stat is the 44% 3 point shooting (compared to Portlands 17%)

Blazers
No surprise here as Roy leads the way for his team, dropping 28
Outlaw comes in strong off the bench getting 14 points in 20 min
Aldridge and Jack finish with 18 and 17

That's it for a very great night of basketball

A question came to my head as I wrote. The NBA are making the Heat and Hawks play the final portion of a game because Shaq was imporperly fouled out. But what happens now? Does Marion just take Shaq's spot and enter the game with 5 fouls? They are pretty much making them replay the end of the game because of the big fella and now he is gone. If anyone knows what's going to happen, let me know.

I hope you all enjoyed last night as much as I did

Suns vs. Hornets

This game deserves its own blog for a number of reasons.  I have tried thus far to be impartial, and only look at numbers because I don't get to check out action from each game.  But I was fortunate enough to turn on this game midway through the 3rd quarter.  This could be arguably the best game of the year.  I will run down this game from top to bottom

Pre-game factors

First off this is a match up of the two top teams in the western conference.  Playing in the rambunctious city of Phoenix.  You have the two top point guards in the league facing each other.

Chris Paul just came off a game that he was not so stellar in,  but he has had to have back to back games of Williams and Nash.  You think he had those days marked off on his calendar?  Since he was coming off that stinker game last night, you knew he was going into this game gunning tonight.

Pargo was coming off of a big game scoring 24 off the bench and really finding his place as a big time option for this team.

Then of course there is the Suns drama that happened in the last 24 hours...

I checked espn.com last night and literally gasped out loud.  My initial reaction was that this was one of the stupidest trades I have ever seen.  Rumors of Shaq retiring before the season even ended, and then they are trading someone who will only be 30 this May for Shaq's old butt.  But then I gave it some time...

Here are the upsides for the Suns in this trade.  As much as you could argue it, the Suns weren't going to win a title with the line-up that they had.  They would win some series, push teams to the limit.  But in the end they did not have the toughness or physical dominance down low.  

The Big Diesel will not be able to run up and down the court, but on fast breaks this team isn't going to run the ball through 5 players in 5 seconds anyways.  Shaq gets to go to a team where he isn't the first option (Nash, Stoudemire), so that rules out him being the second option, he isn't the third option (Barbosa), and with the way that Diaw played tonight he doesn't even need to be the fourth, fifth or sixth option (Bell, Hill, Diaw)  So on any given night, Shaq could lead the way (he still has a couple more of those games left in him) or he could finish 7th in line and it wouldn't definitely mean a L for the squad.  In Miami, it was either Shaq, Wade or a L.

Shaq had incredible court sense, can stare over top his defenders and is an excellent low-post passer.  Which has the ability to gel right in with this offense.

The game:

There was enough pre-drama to this game I didn't even need to talk about this game.  It didn't even need to be close, good, quality, nail-biting, right down to the wire.  But the Suns and Hornets decided to put on a show.

First I'll break down the jaw dropping numbers from this game.

Hornets

Paul, getting one of the best lines of the year going for 42 in points, 9 in assists, 5 boards, 8 steals and only 1 turnover.  Unbelievable.

Pargo went for a big time 22 points, including 4 clutch clutch free throws (6-6 total)

West finished with a double double getting 21 points, 13 boards and adding 2 blocks to the pile.

Stojakovic scored 26 and added 6 boards.  Most impressively was his shouldn't-go-in game winner at the buzzer of the 2nd OT.

Suns

Nash's line reads 32 points, 12 assists and 4 boards.  But the glaring stat is the 10 turnovers.  To be fair, many of those came at the lightning quick hands of Paul while Nash was fearlessly driving the lane.  Huge clutch trey's at the end of the game as well as focused intensity and leadership are things that just the stats won't show (All this to be said, I will never change my stance on stat's on their position of truth telling as opposed to falsehood (stats don't lie))

Look down the box score a little more and you see another monster game.  Stoudemire scoring 26 and pulling down a massive 20 off the glass, he added 4 blocks to his total as well.

Other big numbers came from Barbosa who rang in 22, many of which came from clutch fade away 3's. 

Diaw matched Barbosa's 22, getting a season high for him.  I would have liked to seem him go to the basket fearlessly instead of passing a couple times when he was less than 2 feet from the rim.

Hill and Bell both had respectable lines.  Bell scoring 11 and pulling down 5, and Hill scoring 8, 4 assists and grabbing 6 misses, including the one that saved the day in OT 1 for the Suns, when he chased down the ball and kicked it out to Barbosa.

Another interesting stat is seeing the rookie Strawberry coming off the bench and scoring 9 in 11 min of play.  He also showed a lot of hustle on the defensive end, and provided a spark plug for the fans a well timed rest for the big guns.

This game will be better than most games you will see in the post-season.

A couple random notes at the end

Paul had two chances to win the game with buzzer beater shots, both from less than 15 feet from the basket

Paul's quickness is unfathomable, he can move and cut like nothing I have ever seen.

Strawberry injected life at just the right time for this team.  Getting a well deserved applause when he came out of the game with 9 min left.

Kudos to the Phoenix crowd for knowing that the rookie would not come back in the game, even though there was a lot of time left and he left it with a hot hand.

Another kudos to the Phoenix crowd for showing all other NBA arena's how to act, that is what home court advantage looks like.

I hope that Shaq's ego does not get in the way of a team first-me second Phoenix attitude.  He pointed to his finger signifying that he would bring them a ring.

The good and bad in Shaq's history, the last two times he was traded to a team he has brought them a ring.  Unfortunately he has left both of those teams in dismal states, the Lakers struggled for a couple years after and the Heat are now the worst team in the NBA.  So the Suns could quite possibly bring home a championship this year, but also be in some pretty rough shape in the not to distant years to follow.

I hope you all enjoyed these stats as much as I did.  I will get to the rest of the night in a short while.

I love this game!