Jesse D. Garrabrant / Getty Images

Evan Turner killed it on Sunday night. The numbers: 20 points (on 9-15 shooting), 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 1 memorable moment after a frantic sequence, and 1 undeniably endearing postgame soundbite.

It was a great watch. Sure, he made some mistakes – a few botched defensive possessions, a couple of turnovers, and one airball I’d like to forget – but this game was exactly what Sixers fans were waiting for. He made aggressive moves and quick decisions, just like he did when dominating at Ohio State. It was what we could easily call a breakout performance, but we won’t.

Turner followed this up by scoring 10 points on 3-8 shooting last night. He started strong, hitting a corner three, a midrange jumper off a hard dribble to his right, and a second midrange J after a spin that made Clark Kellogg exclaim, “My goodness!” But after taking a flagrant foul from Dahntay Jones, he basically disappeared. He played meaningful minutes in a good win, but those minutes felt nothing like those he played on Sunday. And that’s okay.

This Pacers game reminds us that Evan is still a rookie, one who was correctly described as “shamefully gun shy” in December. And while it would be convenient to see modest showings like this eliminated rather than limited, it’s rewarding to catch a few flashes of brilliance before brilliance becomes the norm.

We should celebrate inspiring games and promising stretches. We should cherish all the firsts in bright young careers. But if we believe our guy’s got stardom in him, we should treat each impressive night as evidence, not proof, that he’s going to let it out.

The potential star in my hometown is DeMar DeRozan, which means I sometimes find myself in discussions about what his peak might be, whether or not he can be a franchise player, and what we should reasonably expect from him next season. His scoring totals warrant these questions, but it’s foolish to act like we’ve seen enough to answer them. What we have seen, though, is progress. We’ve seen the results of a willingness to work and a very obvious increase in confidence.

A year before reading articles with “Turner” and “problem” in their titles, I was yelling at my laptop whilst reading about the Raptors’ apparent need to start Antoine Wright over DeRozan. Now, I’m enjoying his emergence as a go-to scoring option. Seeing him break out the Kobe spin I saw him testing in Summer League could not make me happier, and when I hear that he wants the ball in crunchtime, I’ll admit that I’m a little proud, as someone who’s believed in him from the day he was drafted. But, what’s DeMar proven this season about his place in the league? Has he “turned the corner?” With a PER of 13.9 and a long way to go with his handles, defense, rebounding, and three-point shooting, I can’t say he has. But I can question what exactly “turning the corner” means.

A partial list of players/teams who came up when I searched my RSS reader for “turned the corner,” along with the aforementioned Turner and DeRozan: J.J. Hickson, LaMarcus Aldridge, Roy Hibbert, Rodney Stuckey, James Harden, the Lakers, the Magic, Darko Milicic, the Pacers, and the Heat.

The fact that the word “inconsistent” could be applied in most instances here should be instructive. It sounds great to say players or teams have “made the leap” but in reality they’re jumping around until they’re (hopefully) somewhere near their desired destinations. And as for the one guy on that list who does seem to have transformed himself overnight, we must note that the shift took place years after we thought it would.

Development in anything is a product of more reps, more responsibility, more opportunities to screw up and learn from those screwups, and, eventually, more confidence. Improving in the NBA is about slowing the game down, thinking less, and fearlessly doing the things that have been practiced thousands of times. In Lee Jenkins’ phenomenal SI feature that you’ve likely read multiple times by now, Derrick Rose is described as having turned the corner to superstardom. By embracing the challenge of being the MVP, ceasing to defer to others, and finding his killer instinct, Rose has become, in Brian Scalabrine’s words, a motherfucker. All the moves he used on his buddies at 1 A.M. at the Bulls’ practice facility are now being unleashed on the poor, helpless point guard defenders in the pros. But does that mean he’ll play like an MVP every night? Do the thousand of threes a day in the summertime and the much-improved three-point shooting we saw for most of this season mean that his game has changed forever? Evidently, no, as he’s made just 12 of his last 68 three-pointers and still routinely has nights where he only attempts three or four free throws.

I point this out not to put a damper on Rose’s unbelievable season – he’s unquestionably evolved from where he was in his first two years – but rather, to emphasize that he’s still, as writers and players line up to declare him the league’s Most Valuable Player at age 22, very much a work in progress. And this is the way it should be, for just as some of us don’t want the game to be too easy for anyone, climbing the ranks of the league’s elite shouldn’t be easy, either. We don’t want to miss any of the steps along the way.

If you’re a fan of Evan Turner, realize that if Rose is allowed to have rough nights, your rookie is definitely allowed to have rough nights. Perhaps what we saw Sunday was a glimpse of what’s to come as he gradually matures into the all-around Villain Philly envisioned when it picked him second in the draft.

Chicago impressed me on both ends last night in its 110-98 win over the Blazers. Fun stats from hoopdata: The Bulls shot 14-26 from 16-23 feet and Luol Deng got his 40 points (!) on an 83.9 TS%. Insane. Thibodeau has the defense looking very, very good. I couldn’t believe how invisible Brandon Roy was.

The Kings are soon going to learn what the Blazers learned yesterday: they can’t afford to rely on late-game comebacks. Sacramento started off its 111-108 win over the Raptors playing the most porous defense I’d seen since… the beginning of the Kings/Cavs game on Saturday. The Raps should have won the game, but they only really played well defensively in the first quarter. They masked their poor D with good O for most of the game, but in the fourth the Kings played better and the crowd got louder and they Raps threw the game away. It was lots of fun to watch Reggie Evans grab 39282489 rebounds and DeMar DeRozan aggressively attack the rim, though.

I haven’t got a chance to watch much of last night’s Cippers/Spurs game yet, but I’m LOVING Richard Jefferson’s resurgence. I knew he coudn’t be as bad as he was last year again, but the guy’s averaging 17 points on 71.5 TS% (!!!!) right now. That won’t hold up, but still. And even though the Spurs won the game, Eric Gordon won the night – holy crap. One last note – Craig Smith, I know you didn’t MEAN to viciously take out George Hill last night, but you fully deserved your flagrant-2 and you can’t be high-fiving fans after a play like that. BAD RHINO!

Okay, before I get to today’s feature: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Matt Moore’s rant on the ludicrous Mike Conley extension is brilliant. I am going to read it a thousand times.

The 2010-2011 All-OTN Team

Last year, I thought it’d be fun to follow a team full of underdog types through an NBA season. The plan was to pay special attention to them in games – not difficult because I only picked guys I’d pay attention to anyway – and keep track of their progress throughout the year. If someone wrote about one of them, I’d link to it. If one of them had a great game or a spectacular play, I’d excitedly share the news. The idea was to feel a part of any success these guys had, the way you do when you follow the careers of the guys on your hometown team.

Instead of picking guys who are trying to establish themselves as role players, this year I’ve picked second-year players who are looking to make the leap from role player to more than that. I went with sophomores because last year’s rookie class is full of examples of why I love the NBA. This was meant to be a weak class. Picks weren’t worthless, but they were meant to be worth less. After Blake Griffin went down in the last game of the pre-season, we were supposed to hand the Rookie of the Year award to Tyreke Evans and be done with it.

Obviously, it didn’t shake out that way. Evans did win the award, but Stephen Curry, Brandon Jennings, and Darren Collison proved themselves to be major contributors capable of running NBA teams. And, in what might have been even more of a surprise, the draft turned out to be DEEP. There were rookies all around the league making an impact. Look at all the relevant names on this list.

So, I’ve decided this year’s All-OTN team will be full of sophomores. The guys I’ve chosen are all full of energy and enjoyable to watch. They’re definitely rotation-worthy players. I think they’re starting-quality, but none of them have a starting spot guaranteed this year. Only the power forward managed to even crack the All-Rookie Second Team last season. Here we go:

Garrett W. Ellwood / Getty Images

Point Guard: Ty Lawson

Heading into the 2009 draft, the stats loved Ty Lawson but NBA GM’s didn’t. He was the ACC Player of the Year, he won an NCAA championship, and some very smart people forecasted NBA success, but he slipped all the way to the 18th pick. You know the story: the Nuggets bought the pick from the Timberwolves in order to acquire him. This move was at least partially influenced by Dean Oliver, Denver’s director of quantitative analysis.

In his first NBA game, Lawson put up 17/6/4 in 26 minutes and he was on the court in crunch time. At halftime, coach George Karl started writing “Ty” on his board instead of “Rookie.” It immediately looked like Lawson’s numbers and skills translated to the pro level. We saw him get to the rim, set up teammates, hit the NBA three, and compete defensively despite his small stature. And we saw him enter the “dunk of the year” discussion less than a month into the season.

When Chauncey Billups got hurt, Lawson filled in more than capably as a starter. It was clear to those paying attention that Denver had found its eventual successor to Chauncey Billups. Still, he was left off the roster for the Rookie Challenge. And later in the season, he inexplicably lost his spot in the rotation to veteran Anthony Carter. With Adrian Dantley running the show toward the end of the year, Denver had lots of problems. The easiest one to fix would have been giving the far more productive Lawson the minutes allocated to Carter.

Thankfully, Lawson was plugged back into the rotation once the Nuggets were in the playoffs against Utah. And even though they retained the services of Carter, Lawson will continue to get his minutes with George Karl back at the helm in 2010-2011. He’ll be expected to follow his strong summer league performance with an improvement on his rookie success. He’s proven he’s capable of scoring at this level; now he needs to call his number more often. He’s proven he can play alongside Chauncey Billups; now he needs to make sure his aggressiveness and production give him some of the minutes otherwise allocated to Arron Afflalo and J.R. Smith. And with the Carmelo Anthony situation hanging over the franchise, he might need to do more than that.

We know Carmelo wants out, but we don’t know how the Nuggets are going to deal with it. They’re under no obligation to trade him and if they go through the season as presently constructed they have a chance of being a dangerous playoff team. But if they DO trade him, it’ll likely be for young talent and draft picks. If they trade him, it’ll be the start of a rebuilding plan that will feature Ty Lawson as a key piece. If Melo goes elsewhere in 2009-2010, don’t be surprised if Chauncey Billups does as well. And boy, that would be a great opportunity for this point guard from UNC.

Quotes

“He plays at a high speed but he’s under control. Most people that play at his speed lose control or lose vision or lose something but he doesn’t lose anything. People don’t understand how strong he is. He could be a running back in football.” – George Karl

“He’s small in stature, but he’s stronger than people think. You can’t just knock him around. He’s low to the ground, like a pit bull. But a lot faster than a pit bull.” – George Karl

“I got a real big chip on my shoulder. Every time I play against a team that passed me up in the draft I want to go out there and play well and prove that they should have picked me. I’m going to have that chip probably until I’m an All-Star. I want to keep proving a point every night.” – Ty Lawson

“Lawson plays like a veteran with sound decision making, has a 6th gear like nobody else in the league, has court vision that leaves me in awe, attacks the basket like he’s made of metal and the rim is a magnet, looks to get his teammates involved, has the desire to play defense and has a reliable shot from just about everywhere on the floor.” – Nate Timmons, Denver Stiffs

Fun Facts

Lawson played on an AAU team with Kevin Durant called the D.C. Blue Devils. Here’s a video of them playing against Athlete’s First, featuring Blake Griffin.

There’s a documentary about his draft journey entitled “The Crossover with Ty Lawson.” It was never distributed, but you can watch the trailer.

Tony Gutierrez / AP Photo

Shooting Guard: Rodrigue Beaubois

In his first Summer League game, Rodrigue Beaubois scored 34 points, shot 7-12 from three, and dished out eight assists. Oh, and he picked up nine fouls. So began Roddy’s NBA experience, characterized by incredible promise and tons of questions.

He began the regular season at the end of the bench, but was a starter less than a month in. That’s when people started asking about the little guy who was catching alley-oops. It was easy to get excited about Beaubois in November, seeing this young kid play with such quickness and aggressiveness on both ends. He’d make mistakes and some nights his shot was off (which caused him to lose his spot in the starting lineup), but the overall production from this long-armed kid from Guadeloupe demanded playing time and your attention.

After November, though, he had little of either. With only DNP’s and very limited garbage time minutes until March, the only people talking about Roddy were bloggers and Mavericks fans. It took a Jason Kidd injury to get Beaubois back on the floor. He wasn’t rusty, scoring 17 points on 9 shots against Minnesota when Kidd sat out on March 3. He followed that up with 22- and 24-point performances to cement his spot in the rotation. And, like another rookie guard, he came to national attention on a Saturday night against the Warriors. In Golden State, he exploded for 40 points on 22 shots. I don’t care how terrible the Warriors were, this should have proved that he was too good to keep sitting.

Yet, he sat again. Less than two weeks after he put on his 40-point show, he was in the doghouse. He didn’t play much as the regular season ended and played a total of 10 minutes in the Mavs’ first five home games against San Antonio. Down 19 in the second quarter of Game 6 and down 3-2 in the series, coach Rick Carlisle decided to give Rodrigue a shot. He led the team back, scoring 8 points in 6 minutes. He raised that total to 16 in the third quarter and gave Dallas the lead, before being benched in the fourth quarter. This was a baffling decision and the Mavs lost the game.

Since then, Beaubois has had a shaky Summer League and suffered a broken foot before he was supposed to play for the French national team in the World Championships. He’s still in a walking boot, so we might not see him play before December. Safe to say, his summer could have gone better. But still, I think he’s poised to break out this year.

Even with the two veteran Jasons needing minutes, J.J. Barea shooting those odd runners and taking charges, and the draft selection of Dominique Jones, Beaubois should get his proper playing time this year. It would be ridiculous if he didn’t. There’s a reason why I’m not the only person to put him on a must-watch list, Jason Kidd said he’d be okay with coming off the bench for him, and Mark Cuban expects him to be an All-Star. Dallas is a very good team that needs a boost to become great. The Kidd/Terry/Butler/Marion/Dirk/Haywood/Chandler group is solid, but they’re not improving at this point in their careers. Dirk’s still one of the very best in the game, but he could use another knockout offensive player to take some defensive attention away from him. Rodrigue Beaubois represents the Mavs’ only real hope to get better this season without making a significant trade.

All that said, it’s still up to Carlisle. Even if he has the best intentions, we don’t know if he’ll stick with Roddy if he goes through a slump. It’s easy for me to say that he should throw him out there and let him play through mistakes so the team is better in the long-run – my job isn’t on the line if the Mavs go on a losing streak. We just have to hope that Beaubois doesn’t let this year’s high expectations get to him. I don’t think he will, can’t wait to find out. Get better soon, Mr. Beaubois.

Quotes

“I think he’s the future for that team.” – Brandon Jennings, after Beaubois held him scoreless in overtime.

“Stevie Wonder can see that this kid deserves to be on the floor.” – Derek Harper, after the 40 point game.

“He’s more mature than the average 22-year-old. He’s a great listener, a great learner, and I think the best way to put it is he has an unusual capacity for a young guy to grasp things. He got a lot under his belt last year. We’ve got to get him through the injury thing and then we’ll be right back on track.” – Rick Carlisle

Beaubois was so good as a rookie that the Mavs have no choice but to play him, even though they don’t have a rotation spot open for him… If he just takes better care of the ball, he can be a devastating scoring option at either guard spot – John Hollinger, from his Mavericks player profiles

Fun Facts

He’s good at eyebrow dancing.

Jason Kidd calls him “Boo Boo.”

Steve Yeater / AP Photo

Small Forward: Omri Casspi

I’m going to link to numerous articles and videos in this section. Unsurprisingly, the lovable young King inspired lots of great journalism last season. But if you’re going to click one, PLEASE make it “Omri Casspi: The King of a Nation” by Noam Schiller. The definitive Casspi piece could only come from a hoops junkie in Israel and, luckily, the basketball blogosphere has Noam.

Since the “what he means to Israel” bit has been covered so well elsewhere, I’ll keep my focus on-court. Casspi started out strong as a rook, but faded toward the end of the regular season. The biggest surprise about his game early on was his excellent three-point shooting – unfortunately, after the All-Star break, his shot was extremely streaky. All the media attention and off-court demands placed on Omri amplified the difficulty of adjusting to the relentless NBA schedule and he hit the rookie wall harder than most. Because energy and enthusiasm define him, it was obvious when exhaustion set in.

So, in the summer, as well as meeting Israel’s President and connecting Israeli and Palestinian kids through basketball, he worked on his body and his jumpshot with the hopes of locking down the starting small forward spot. We saw some of the results in the summer when he played for in FIBA competition. If we’re lucky, in 2010-2011 we’ll see the all the good things we saw at the beginning of last year hold up all the way through. And he’ll be armed with the knowledge and confidence that comes with a year’s experience.

And after a week? He is starting at small forward over Donte Greene. He led the Kings to a win on Saturday in Cleveland, scoring 20 and shooting 6-7 on threes. Then last night, in Sacramento’s home opener, his two fourth quarter threes keyed a win over Toronto. One gave the Kings their first lead; one capped an 11-run which put them up 8. We know Paul Westphal can do strange things to his rotations, but it’s looking fantastic for Omri right now. It’ll be interesting to see if he can avoid slumps, start the entire year, and earn a bigger role in the offense.

Quotes

“I love the game of basketball. I’m one of those guys that would play basketball no matter what. I’ll play hard every time I get on the floor, I’ll play as hard as I can; I play with all my heart.” – Omri Casspi

“When we lose, I’m miserable. That’s just who I am. I don’t want to change. Nobody (from Israel) has ever done this, you know? I have to do well.” – Omri Casspi

“He can piss some people off, and I love that about him.” – Francisco Garcia

“[Energy is] his specialty. Energy in the N.B.A. is a real talent.” – David Thorpe

“Everywhere I went, there was a life-size poster of this guy. I’d go to every store, and he had his own Nike shirts. Casspi is definitely a big deal over there.” – Dionte Christmas, who played for Hapoel Afula last season.

I think that it transcends religion. I think that Omri, because of his tenacity – you can see it when he plays on the court – endears himself to any basketball fan. He has this desire to succeed.
-Rabbi Reuven Taff [Read more about Taff, who took 21 members of his congregation from Sacramento to Israel and visited Omri’s childhood home]

“We both show how we feel. I don’t understand what everybody was saying about his attitude. In Israel when I was 15, 16, they said the same bad things about me. That I didn’t listen, wasn’t coachable, was not a good guy. Then people get to know you, and they realize that you just care very much.” – Omri Casspi, comparing himself to another favourite of mine, DeMarcus Cousins

Videos you must watch

One of my favourite commercials of all time.

This clip includes the reaction at Casspi’s house when David Stern called his name.

Two parts of the NBA TV Casspi documentary, Promised Land.

Omri dunking all over Danilo Gallinari at MSG. The Garden was full of people cheering him on, including his brother and his father.

Darren Abate / AP Photo

Power Forward: DeJuan Blair

Like Lawson, the stats indicated that DeJuan Blair was better than NBA General Managers thought he was when they let him slip to #37 in the draft. Or, more accurately, the stats outsmarted the GM’s because the stats weren’t afraid of his injury history. Executives must have known that a) rebounding numbers translate from college to the NBA better than any other stat and b) DeJuan was an absolute rebounding machine in college. They just didn’t want to take a risk a guy with no ACL’s.

The Spurs are thankful they were given the opportunity to take that risk. DeJuan was a fixture in the rotation from day 1 and played all 82 games in his rookie season. Fans fell in love with him quickly and statistical analysts were proven right – he was better on the offensive glass than anyone except Jon Brockman. Every time he was given major minutes, he responded. When he started in place of Tim Duncan against the Thunder in January, his 28 points and 21 rebounds didn’t even seem surprising. In the Rookie Challenge, usually not a place where physical interior players shine, Blair’s 22 points and 23 rebounds were enough for Tyreke Evans to share his MVP award with him. And, although his minutes decreased in the playoffs, his advanced stats actually got better.

If you’ve watched the Spurs this season, you’ve probably noticed that DeJuan has lost a lot of weight. You’ve also noticed that he’s currently their starting center. The questions, as the year goes on: Can he and Duncan be a good defensive duo all season? Can he increase his minutes significantly from last year and hold off Tiago Splitter in the starting lineup? Can he keep up his insane rebounding rate at his reduced weight? Will his work in the summer with Chip Engelland translate into an ability to score from beyond three feet from the basket? I can’t answer any of these things right now, but I’ll be watching.

Quotes

“For the vast majority of people, not having an A.C.L. and playing basketball don’t really go together.” – Dr. James Gladstone, chief of sports medicine in the department of orthopedic surgery at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

“He’s amazing, man. He’s a rare rookie, I would say. It seems like he has the experience already, has been a rookie. He has come in and been very humble, willing to learn. He’s been great. When you’re a rookie in the NBA and you want to learn, you’re only going to get better. You don’t usually get that. You get rookies coming in thinking they’re the man, they’re going to destroy the league. DeJuan is humble and the sky is the limit for him because of that.” – Antonio McDyess

“I love guys like that. All coaches love guys like that. There’s no maintenance to them other than just go out there and get me five offensive rebounds and be physical and hit the boards and hit people and set screens.” – George Karl

“If the coach had any brains we’d be playing him more. The guy is like a stat machine and I still haven’t figured out how he does it, how he scores. He has no moves on the post. He’s not a shooter. I don’t get it. And he figures out a way to get to the hole and get to the line, blocks shots. He guards people I don’t think he can guard whether they are quicker, bigger or whatever.” – Gregg Popovich

“I’m just going to keep putting him in the game, and whatever he does, he does. Because, honest to God, I don’t know.” – Gregg Popovich

“I always say I’m blessed. That’s why I take advantage of every day and try and smile. I’m in the N.B.A. and without A.C.L.’s and with the Spurs. Doing my dream. I’m blessed. It’s amazing.” – DeJuan Blair

“I see (DeJuan) play at 21, and sometimes we are too demanding on him, which is natural, because we want to win. But he’s got such a long career ahead of him and so many things to learn and improve. He’s doing it quick and well. It’s remarkable.” – Manu Ginobili

“Watching Blair makes me want to have my ACLs removed.” – John Hollinger

Fun facts

Dick Stockton unwittingly gave him one of the best nicknames in the league, DEJUAN BEAR!

He scored for the wrong team one time.

He dabbles in music.

Kevin Durant's mom loves Serge and you should too. (Layne Murdoch / Getty)

Center: Serge Ibaka

Serge was on the team last year and I’m too big a fan not to keep him around. I want to start this by directing you to this Daily Thunder piece. How hilarious is it that he was grouped in with Byron Mullens? How ridiculously conservative do those “optimistic” projections look? And this was all completely reasonable at the time. Ibaka turned 20 the day that was posted. He’d only been playing organized basketball for a few years. I’d watched his highlights on YouTube and thought he had loads of potential, but in no way thought he’d contribute in his first year in the league.

His hustle and athleticism straightaway earned him some playing time, inexperienced or not. And as the year went on, he was given more minutes and responded with increased production (check his splits) His activity level meant you meant you couldn’t miss him on the floor and he became everyone in the blogosphere’s favourite player. If you somehow didn’t know who he was by the time the playoffs started, you were given quite the introduction. In Game 2 against the Lakers, his SEVEN blocked shots kept the Thunder in the game. The voices endorsing Ibaka as Oklahoma City’s big man of the future got louder.
In this piece, Bethlehem Shoals argues that this “monster-in-training” has made Jeff Green expendable and refers to him as “Amar’e with a conscience.” And, indeed, November 1st has come and gone and Green is without a contract extension. This is no surprise – I’m not going to definitively say that Ibaka is a better player than Green, but the team performed significantly better on both ends with Ibaka on the court last season.

This year, through three games he’s averaging 3 blocks a game and he’s averaging more minutes than starting center Nenad Krstic. Also, he’s got more confidence in his shot and his English has vastly improved. These are good signs, people.

Quotes

“Let’s say Sam Presti resigned, OKC hired me to run the team, David Stern announced that the league was adding 10 more teams, and there was a mega-expansion draft coming in June in which I could protect only three of my players. (I know, this isn’t the most likely scenario. Just bear with me.) I would protect Durant, Westbrook … and Serge Ibaka. It’s true.” – Bill Simmons
“He’s a fearless competitor. He’s serious about getting better every play. We all like what he brings to the team … a protect-the-basket-block-shots-alter-shots mentality. And he just gives up his body.” – Scott Brooks

“There are a lot of guys who played AAU ball and up who don’t have his basketball IQ. He understands the game and he understands what we want.” – Scott Brooks

“I’m not even sure I can corral Serge’s development for next year into a definitive structure because he apparently has no true ceiling–and if you put one on him, he jumps right through it and past the vertical leap test device’s highest setting in the process (true story, Ibaka did that).” – J.G. Marking, Daily Thunder

Fun facts

His full name is something like “Sergeballu LaMu Sayonga Loom Walahas Jonas Hugo Ibaka.”

He speaks Congolese, French, Spanish and English.

He posts cooking videos on YouTube.

You can buy your Air Congo shirt here.

David Liam Kyle/Getty Images

Just two games on the sched, Tuesday night, and I only watched one of them. This doesn’t feel right, and neither does being done with writing by 1:00 AM. A much quicker BfB than normal as we hit the halfway mark of the season.

Cavaliers 108, Raptors 100

• “Conflicted” doesn’t even properly capture how I felt watching LeBron James in this game. Generally, when I watch players I love up against the Raptors, I’m simultaneously rooting for them to do well and for the Raptors to win. It’s weird – things get tricky when it’s a close game and a favourite of mine on the opposing team makes a big play. With LeBron, it’s weird every time I watch him anyway. I feel privileged to watch him as he makes breathtaking plays, and then I get angry as he needlessly hoists up three-pointers. As Twitter favourite Noam Schiller pointed out, LeBron’s shot selection was plain stupid at times. He could score whenever he wanted to on drives or post-ups, but he chose to bail the Raptors out with jumpers on numerous occasions. As a Raptors fan, I was hoping he would jack shots because I knew my team couldn’t stop him otherwise. As a LeBron fan, I wanted to yell, “do that every time!” when he scored around the rim. Every missed jumper had me instinctively frustrated and then thinking, “well, at least the Raptors have a chance.” Unfortunately, the Raps didn’t capitalize on those chances.

• One reason why: Chris Bosh disappeared down the stretch. This bothered me because of the stage: a nationally televised game with essentially no NBA competition. People who don’t watch every Raptors game will have seen this and assumed that this is who Chris Bosh is. After an unbelievable start to the game, he missed his last two field goal attempts in the first half and then went just 2-6 in the second half, almost entirely on jump shots. In the whole game, he only shot 3-4 from the line (he averages 9.2 FTA’s). I feel guilty criticizing Bosh at all with how amazing he’s been all season, but I can’t let him off the hook here. Sure, his coach and his teammates should have made more of an effort to feature him. Sure, he can’t be expected to do it all by himself. But he’s got to demand the ball and he’s got to be aggressive when his team needs a bucket. That doesn’t mean no jump shots – if his man is playing off him, I want him to take the J because he’s so damn good at it. I still don’t think 4 free throw attempts is acceptable, though. And I don’t think franchise players should be held to just 5 points in the second half very often.

• Marco Belinelli and Hedo Turkoglu are going to take years off of my life. I’ve seen both of them at various times described as having “high basketball IQ” but I think that’s basically because they’re European and are good at passing. Seriously, they take some of the most maddening shots I’ve ever seen. Sometimes, they go in. Other times, you know as soon as it leaves their hands that there’s no chance. And I haven’t even mentioned the defensive end of the floor… K, I’m not a hater, I’ll stop there.

• I don’t want to hate on Jay Triano either, for a couple of reasons. First, no one should expect Toronto to beat Cleveland in Cleveland. Second, I think .500 is an acceptable place to be right now with the Raptors’ roster and tough early-season schedule. But, again, I have to complain a bit. I just can’t see the logic for keeping both Jarrett Jack and DeMar DeRozan on the bench for the entire fourth quarter. DeMar was fantastic, scoring 14 points on 10 shots and showing the same aggressiveness that was there against the Knicks the other day. I have learned not to expect his good early minutes to be rewarded with fourth quarter burn, but his play in this one had me hopeful. No dice. Now, Jack: the man started at point guard and scored 11 points on 6 shots, but played less than 22 minutes. I haven’t been a huge fan of the duel point guard lineup that’s received a lot of crunch time minutes for the Raptors this season, but against Mo Williams and Delonte West I’m cool with it. There’s also the fact that Jose Calderon failed to play the same type of ball we’d seen from him in his past couple of games. He missed shots I assumed he would make and he lost Mo Williams on a couple of occasions. I wouldn’t have been mad if he was sent to the bench along with Marco and Hedo.

• Positivity: Antoine Wright was very good for Toronto on both ends. This man took a lot of shit earlier this season, at least online, and I’ll admit that much of it was deserved. In this game, he produced just fine in his 23:49 of action: 12 pts (5-8 FG, 1-1 3PT, 1-3 FT), 5 reb (1 off.), 1 TO. This, while putting in more than respectable work against LeBron on the other end.

• Speaking of LeBron, that guy who I blasted just a few bullet points ago… He barely missed a trip dub: 28 pts (8-18 FG, 0-7 3PT (!), 12-14 FT), 9 reb, 11 ast, 3 blk, 3 stl, 3 TO in 41 minutes. The man is incredible, right?

• Mo Williams had one of his best games of the season. Check the line: 22 pts (7-15 FG, 4-8 3PT, 4-4 FT), 3 reb, 10 (!) ast, 4 TO in 37:37. He remains terrifying to me when he’s left open, but Cleveland fans know his shot has been inconsistent at best. Especially in the last two weeks. On nights like this, when he is hitting his shots AND piling up assists (he averages only 5 a game), Cleveland is going to win the vast majority of the time. And they did here, even though I don’t think the team played very impressive basketball on the whole.

Heat 113, Pacers 83

• I recorded this game and intended to watch it following Raps/Cavs, but the final score is just gross. I asked the internet if it was worth my time and this is what Jared Wade said: “Don’t bother. Flash had 18 in the first. Other than that? Huge waste of time.”

• I feel bad for Pacers fans. They start games terribly so freaking often. Sometimes, they make a run and make things exciting. Against the Raptors and Suns recently, they had huge comeback victories. This time? They were down by 17 after the first and they were outscored in each of the following quarters.

• Some efficient stat lines to look at: Dwyane Wade had 32 points on 20 shots in 31 minutes. Michael Beasley had 21 (on 15 shots) and 10 rebounds, but it took him 40 minutes. Brandon Rush, with his sub-50 TS%, remarkably finished with 17 points (on 10 shots) along with 10 rebounds in 36 minutes.

• Again, I feel bad for Pacers fans.

Joe Murphy/Getty Images

I’m really glad I didn’t end up going to the Raptors/Wolves game last night. I considered getting last-minute tickets to check out the classic uniforms and see Jonny Flynn’s first game in Toronto, but this was a League Pass Night. Armed with my remote, Twitter updates, and my new PVR, I was able to catch all of Raptors/Wolves, all of Bucks/Celtics, the 4th quarter and overtime of Cavs/Grizzlies, and the crazy finishes of Bulls/Nets and Kings/Hornets. Oh, and I’ve got Clippers/Magic recorded. My only regret: missing pretty much the entire Suns/Mavericks game, which is always a great matchup and last night featured Steve Nash scoring 8 of his 27 points in the final minute but still falling 102-101 to his buddy Dirk’s squad. Oh well.

The All-OTN Team

Will Bynum:

“I think what Will has done is solidify himself here as a one of our core guys going forward. He has cemented himself as one of the core members here. That’s how we look at him. We look at him as a long-term guy who’s going to grow with this team. Will was given an opportunity last year, when we signed him and brought him aboard, and he’s one of those kids that got the opportunity and he just grabbed it and took it and never let it go. He’s the poster child of when you get that opportunity, don’t let it slip. And he hasn’t. He hasn’t let it slip.” – Joe Dumars, who plans to re-sign Bynum at the end of the season.

Jared Dudley: 11 Pts (2-5 FG, 2-3 3PT, 5-6 FT), 3 Reb (1 Off), 1 TO, 2 PF in 29 mins.

Foul trouble led to Dudley entering the game early and he helped spearhead a 9-2 run to close out the first quarter. 11 points on 5 shots is not too shabby if you ask me – you have to like that he went 5-6 from the line. On this team, where he might be the 5th offensive option when he’s out there, getting to the line will really help bring his numbers up. But we know Jared Dudley isn’t about numbers. Unfortunate that his team couldn’t pull out a win in this battle, and he might have nightmares about being matched up with Dirk Nowitzki in the post, but this is still a fine night for Jared.

Amir Johnson: 2 Pts (0-1 FG, 2-2 FT), 7 Reb (4 Off), 2 Stl, 1 Blk, 2 PF in 13 mins.

Only 13 minutes for the second straight game, which isn’t helping the man’s stats. He still managed to get an impressive 7 rebounds in limited action, though. It was fun to watch him battle with Kevin Love for rebounds under the basket, but the Raptors decided to run with Bosh and Bargnani in the frontcourt for almost 40 minutes apiece because they needed scoring in the worst way.

Rookie Watch

DeMar DeRozan: 15 Pts (4-10 FG, 7-7 FT), 6 Reb (3 Off), 2 TO, 4 PF in 24 mins.

Another strong effort from DeRozan. He is being very aggressive on offense so that he can help the team even if his jumper isn’t falling. He had 7 quick points in the third quarter and you have to be impressed with those 7 made free throws and 3 offensive rebounds. I still think the Raps should make more of an effort to involve him on offense, but I have no complaints about where the high-flying rookie is right now.

Jonny Flynn: 17 Pts (6-14 FG, 2-4 3pt, 3-4 FT), 4 Reb, 8 Ast, 3 Stl, 3 TO, 2 PF in 32 mins.

A nice game from Flynn, with a large group of family and friends in attendance. He is looking more comfortable on the court now that coach Kurt Rambis has realized this roster is not right for the triangle offense. A few things stand out: his beautiful pass to Wayne Ellington on the break, his use of left-handed passes (a rare skill, as pointed out by Raptors colour commentator Leo Rautins), and his unfortunate turnover in crunch time that led to a Hedo Turkoglu dunk. Sorry I didn’t attend your first game in T.O., Jonny – I’ll be there next year.

Taj Gibson: 20 Pts (8-12 FG, 4-8 FT), 6 Reb (4 Off), 2 Ast, 3 Blk, 1 TO, 5 PF in 36 mins.

After being benched in favour of Brad Miller, Gibson posted a career-high in points and earned starters’ minutes. It’s nice to see 3 blocks from him, and the 4 offensive rebounds are huge. If he wants to become a legitimate starting 4 in this league, though, he’s going to have to get on the defensive glass. Still, great work from the 26th overall pick.

Tyreke Evans: 25 Pts (10-17 FG, 0-1 3PT, 5-8 FT)

This kid looks like a star right now. He scored 9 points in the last 2:02, getting to the basket at will and almost winning the game for the Kings by himself. He missed a potential game-tying shot with just a few seconds left, though, which set the stage for Andres Nocioni to miss the free throws required to extend the game. A great effort from the rookie, but his team fell 96-94 to a Hornets team that got 24 Pts/12 Reb from David West, 17 Pts/12 Reb from Emeka Okafor, and 15 Pts/12 Ast from Chris Paul.

Brandon Jennings: 17 Pts (7-19 FG, 0-4 3PT, 3-3 FT), 3 Reb (2 Off), 4 Ast, 4 TO, 5 PF in 39 mins.

As has been the theme with my favourite rookie as of late, there was some good and some bad here. The good? Jennings shot 7-12 inside of 12 feet. Celtics commentators Tom Heinsohn and Mike Gorman complimented his floater near the end of the 3rd quarter and it brought a smile to my face. The bad? His outside shot isn’t falling, he had as many turnovers as assists, and he had a very rough time trying to stay in front of Rajon Rondo. Methinks he’ll have an easier time and a better stat line against the Raptors tonight.

Fun With Stats

Free throws turned out to be extremely important last night in many strange ways. In the Raptors/Timberwolves game, Toronto found a way to go 40-48 from the line to counteract their awful shooting (26-81 FG, 2-21 3PT) from everywhere else. The Wolves shot 19-23 from the stripe, which is a great conversion rate, but with that kind of free throw disparity it is very hard to win games. In the Hornets/Kings game, both teams shot very poorly from the line – New Orleans finished 14-23 and Sacramento finished 9-19. Ew. In a game decided by 2 points, that is huge. Fitting that the game was decided when Andres Nocioni missed an essential free throw at the end. Conversely, both Phoenix and Dallas shot incredibly well in their game. The Suns went 25-25 and the Mavs went 20-23 in a game decided by only 1 point. Finally, in Los Angeles, Dwight Howard had an uncharacteristically decent night from the line on his 24th birthday, going 11-15. Clips coach Mike Dunleavy said, “If he was shooting free throws like he normally does, we would have been in the game.” Worth noting that Howard also finished with 7 blocks and 5 assists in this 97-86 victory.

In what has become one of the most frustrating storylines of the season for me, Ramon Sessions continues to waste away on the Timberwolves’ bench. Despite being effective in his limited playing time last night, he only saw the floor for 15 minutes. Seriously, Kurt, I understand that Flynn is your #1 point guard. I agree that it should be that way. But for God’s sake, play Sessions next to him. There is no way you can justify Corey Brewer, Damien Wilkins, and Wayne Ellington getting 27, 26, and 21 minutes respectively and ignoring Sessions, especially when you’re losing games.

LeBron James posted season highs in both points (43) and rebounds (13, 4 offensive) in 45 minutes of an overtime loss to the Grizzlies last night. You can knock the Cavs for reverting back to their predictable “LeBron Offense” when the going got tough, but it was effective. He scored Cleveland’s last 13 points. I’d quibble with the shot selection on some of the 11 threes he took, but it’s hard to criticize LeBron too much – it was a brilliant performance, even if his team came up short on the defensive end.

Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson scored 25 points apiece in a win over the suddenly-beatable Denver Nuggets. The two combined to shoot 16-35 from the field and 17-20 from the free-throw line. Wallace continues to somehow lead the entire league in rebounding, as he contributed 16 rebounds (5 offensive) as well. Captain Jack added 6 assists and both of them added solid defense. The Bobcats may not seem like a scary team, but I would NOT like to be an opposing wing player going up against these two.

Sophomores Brook Lopez (25 Pts, 10 Reb) and Derrick Rose (27 Pts, 7 Reb, 10 Ast) came through with big games last night. Both are playing their best ball of the season, as Lopez is a better basketball player when Devin Harris is on the court and Rose is a better basketball player when he’s, you know, healthy. The Nets squeaked out a victory when Harris converted with 15 seconds to go, countering the floater Rose had made on the previous possession. The Bulls’ last shot to take back the lead came in the form of a missed John Salmons 3-pointer, as they couldn’t find a way to get Mr. Rose the ball.

Impressive

O.J. Mayo: 28 Pts (10-18 FG, 3-4 3PT, 5-5 FT), 5 Reb (1 Off), 5 Ast, 1 Stl, 7 TO, 3 PF in 45 mins.

Zach Randolph: 32 Pts (10-19 FG, 1-1 3PT, 11-11 FT), 14 Reb (7 Off), 2 Ast, 4 Stl, 1 Blk, 1 TO, 4 PF in 47 mins.

Honestly, the whole Memphis team impresses me. The vast majority of the time, they play team basketball and they work on D, which is not at all what I expected of them after what I saw last year. Those Mayo/Randolph numbers are fantastic, but you have to also appreciate the work of Rudy Gay, who started the game 2-10 but still managed to finish with 21 points whilst chasing LeBron James around screens all night. Mike Conley finished with only 12 points in 39 minutes, but there were no bigger points in this game than his driving layup off of a hesitation move that froze Shaq with 3 seconds left in overtime. Huge win for the Grizzlies, who are gaining new fans with their surprisingly enjoyable play.

Jarrett Jack: 17 Pts (3-8 FG, 0-3 3PT, 11-12 FT), 7 Reb (1 Off), 8 Ast, 2 Stl, 2 TO, 4 PF in 37 mins.

Chris Bosh: 21 Pts (8-18 FG, 5-7 FT), 16 Reb (5 Off), 1 Ast, 1 Stl, 3 Blk, 2 TO, 1 PF in 38 mins.

These two college buddies were huge for the Raptors in this gritty win. Sure, Bosh’s line isn’t as nice as the ridiculous 25 Pt/12 Reb (7 Off) IN 22 MINUTES he posted the other night in Chicago, but it’s still damn good. I’m not sure if Bosh is getting the recognition he deserves this year – he’s having a legitimate MVP-level season and has a PER of 27.4. Raptors fans will be interested to know that Vince Carter’s highest PER with the Raptors was 25.0 in 2000-2001, which was the only time he came within 4 points of Bosh’s current rating. Jack did an admirable job starting in place of the sidelined Jose Calderon, making up for his poor outside shooting by getting to the line way more than a point guard is expected to. The 8 assists are nice, too, and the haters have mostly quieted down.

Andrew Bogut: 25 Pts (11-17 FG, 3-3 FT), 14 Reb (4 Off), 5 Ast, 1 Stl, 2 Blk, 7 TO, 2 PF in 39 mins.

Jeremy Schmidt of Bucksketball warned pre-game that Kendrick Perkins is precisely the type of defender that tends to give Bogut problems. And he did, sort of, causing the big Aussie to turn the ball over 7 times. But Bogut also was able to score very, very efficiently. The Bucks, as they usually do, made a concerted effort to feed him early and he delivered. He showed his diverse skill-set last night, scoring on hook shots, drives to the basket, turn-arounds, and lay-ups, using either hand. And I haven’t even mentioned how he protected the paint and defended the pick-and-roll. Another great performance against a fellow big man coming into his own. If the All-Star Game was tomorrow, Andrew Bogut would have to be backing up Dwight Howard at the 5-spot for the East. No doubt in my mind.

Kevin Garnett: 25 Pts (9-13 FG, 7-9 FT), 9 Reb (1 Off), 2 Stl, 2 TO, 4 PF in 33 mins.

Bogut wasn’t the only impressive big man in Boston last night. KG set the tone early with a dunk on the very first possession of the game. He showed no respect to Ersan Ilyasova on either end of the floor, despite the formerly-masked Turk’s best effort. His jump shot was falling and he was able to score inside a few times, too, looking more like the KG of old than he has all season long. He did a masterful job defending the pick-and-roll, which is no easy feat when it’s being run by Brandon Jennings and Andrew Bogut. Garnett’s antics are as annoying as ever (slapping the ball out of a rookie’s hands after a whistle, really?), but I very much respect how he produced for the Celtics last night.

Rajon Rondo: 11 Pts (3-9 FG, 0-2 3PT, 5-7 FT), 9 Reb (3 Off), 13 Ast, 5 Stl, 1 TO, 4 PF in 38 mins.

That looks like an old Jason Kidd line. What’s most impressive is that he was able to record this near-triple-double without scoring a single point in the first three quarters. This man is one of the very best all-around point guards in the game and he taught my guy Brandon a few lessons last night. Jennings struggled to stay in front of Rondo (like every point guard in the league does) and he was bothered by Rajon’s pesky defensive effort. Even though Garnett was superb, to my eyes the Celtics’ point man was the biggest reason they pulled away down the stretch and secured a win.

Quoted

“What I’ve been impressed with is the tempo that he plays at. Even though he’s quick, he doesn’t play quick all the time. He’s scoring but he’s keeping everybody involved. That’s a sign of maturity for a young player.” – Doc Rivers, on Brandon Jennings, pre-game.

“He’s the best Australian I’ve ever seen.” – Celtics play-by-play guy Mike Gorman, on Andrew Bogut.

Tweeted

@BothTeamsPlayed: There’s no possible way I could hate Nocioni more, but if you miss one of these and don’t force OT…..

Moments later…

@BothTeamsPlayed: No judge in America would convict a person for murdering Andres Nocioni. None.

@Adaye5: Watchin the MEN vs CLE game and watchin my boy @rudygay22 guard lebron and try to get through a thousand on-ball pick…JEEEEEZ

@statcenter: 4 NBA games tonight decided by 1 or 2 pts – and the team with the worse record coming in won all 4.

To Read

Discerning Morey’s Philosophy by Rahat Huq

The Art Of The Steal: How Trevor Ariza has become a passing pickpocket by Jason Friedman

The Importance of being Allen Iverson by David Aldridge

Get Well Soon, G.O. by Holly MacKenzie

To Watch

Devin Harris’s ridiculous buzzer-beating 3-pointer off of one foot:

The Birdman and a Frenchman have a block party in Charlotte:

One last look at Allen Iverson’s return to Philly, with a conversation between him and David Aldridge:

To listen

Kelly Dwyer talks to Rockets.com

Ben Golliver and Kevin Pelton discuss Greg Oden in the latest Dontonio Wingcast

Gary Dineen/Getty Images

A quick recap this morning, due to time constraints. First, though, I should mention Saturday night. I skipped out on BfB yesterday because I didn’t want to talk about the horrible thing that happened in Portland. I feel like I should acknowledge the other stuff that took place that night, though: DeMar DeRozan kicked ass and made me happy, Jarrett Jack tied his shoe while holding onto the ball and made Bulls fans angry, Steve Nash and Vince Carter owned their respective 4th quarters to secure wins, Joe Johnson helped his Hawks win ugly, Kevin Love put in his second straight double-double in a win against the Jazz, and the Spurs are apparently not to be feared anymore. Okay, we good? Onto Sunday…

The All-OTN Team

Will Bynum: 16 Pts (3-12 FG, 1-1 3PT, 9-14 FT), 2 Reb, 1 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 TO, 2 PF in 28 mins.

Bynum continued his poor field goal shooting but also continued to make up for it by getting to the foul line. In the interest of fairness, I’ll mention that some of those free throws came at the end of the game on intentional fouls, but it’s an impressive number nonetheless. His team took care of the struggling Wizards, 98-94.

Shannon Brown: 12 Pts (4-10 FT, 2-4 3PT, 2-2 FT), 2 Reb, 1 Ast, 3 TO, 0 PF in 19 mins.

No dunks for Shannon last night. Bummer. He came up big in the 4th, though, hitting back-to-back threes (!) when the Suns were trying to make a game of it. Another Lakers blowout, 108-88.

Jared Dudley: 9 Pts (3-7 FG, 2-3 3PT, 1-2 FT), 5 Reb (3 Off), 1 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 TO, 1 PF in 24 mins.

Jared knocked some down threes and worked his ass off. If you didn’t know, that’s what he does. He drew the unenviable (not a strong enough word) task of guarding Kobe Bryant for long stretches and kept the intensity up even when the point differential was enormous. Hated to see the Suns fall behind like that, but still loved watching Dudley play. Oh, another thing: HoopsHype named him the NBA’s MVT. And… one more thing. I came across this fantastic picture of him:

Serge Ibaka

J.G. of Daily Thunder wrote a great piece on Ibaka yesterday. While I’m incredibly biased and want to see him get all the minutes he can get, the distribution of playing time in Oklahoma City is becoming quite a tricky puzzle to solve.

Rookie Watch

Brandon Jennings: 24 Pts (9-22 FG, 0-2 FT, 6-6 FT), 4 Reb, 4 Ast, 3 TO, 1 PF in 40 mins.

Yeah, he only shot 41% from the field, but that represents a better shooting percentage than the vast majority of his teammates could muster yesterday. After a stunning 11-0 Milwaukee run to start the game, the Cavs’ picked up their defense when Shaquille O’Neal moved to the bench. The Bucks were scoring at will on high pick-and-rolls early, but these dried up when the Cavs ratcheted up their defensive intensity and the Bucks’ offense degenerated into “give Bogut the ball and hope for the best”. Cleveland ended up going on an unfathomable 29-0 run that spanned some of the 1st and 2nd quarters, fueled largely by the great play of Delonte West off the bench. In the second half, Jennings put a lot of pressure on Cleveland’s D and found ways to score, but it was way, way too late. I loved his play and I love his team, but damn. That was a beating. The final score, 101-86, doesn’t really tell the story.

Austin Daye: 11 Pts (5-5 FG, 1-1 3PT), 2 Reb, 2 PF in 12 mins.

In the second half, creative Pistons coach John Kuester put the 6’11 Daye at 2-guard. It worked mighty well, as, um, he didn’t miss a shot. His 7 points in the third quarter were huge and he added a couple of key baskets in the 4th. Only 12 minutes, but those were 12 BIG minutes. This kid really has the potential to be a dangerous offensive player. He might need to put some weight on, though – I think he’s the only NBA’er skinnier than Kevin Durant.

Jonas Jebreko: 10 Pts (3-8 FG, 1-3 3PT, 3-4 FT), 11 Reb, 1 Ast, 1 Stl, 2 TO, 3 PF in 38 mins.

Look at that – 38 minutes! That’s more than any other Piston in this game and it allowed the rook to get his second career double-double. I continue to really dig this kid’s game. I like him for the same reasons I like Omri Casspi – he’s tough, skilled, and plays both ends of the floor. I’m really interested in how Kuester will distribute the minutes when Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince come back. The Pistons might not be loaded with elite-level guys, but they have as many rotation-worthy players as any team in the league, save for the Magic.

Omri Casspi: 14 Pts (5-8 FG, 4-4 3PT, 0-2 FT), 3 Reb (1 Off), 1 TO, 5 PF in 19 mins.

And speaking of Casspi… These are some nice numbers. I’d have more than stats for you, but I didn’t catch much of the game. Going to give it a close look later today, as I recorded it with my brand new PVR last night. Anyway, 4-4 from downtown? Great to see. He continues to confuse me with his free-throw shooting, though – by all accounts his stroke looks fine, but something’s going wrong when he lets the damn ball fly. He’s at 50% on the year, whilst shooting 51.2% from behind the arc! That’s messed up.

Tyreke Evans: 30 Pts (10-19 FG, 0-3 3PT, 10-12 FT), 4 Rebs (3 Off), 4 Ast, 3 Stl, 2 TO, 5 PF in 39 mins.

‘Reke continues to make his case for ROY… You have to love him doing his D-Wade impression against the real Wade (who bested the rookie with 34 points on 16 field goals with 10 assists to boot). It’s obvious that Evans is extremely gifted at getting to the basket. Looks like a special player. He couldn’t lead his team to a victory last night, though, as the Kings dropped their second in a row after winning four straight, falling 115-102 to Wade’s Heat.

Impressive

Alright, here’s where the time constraints are kicking in. No “Fun With Stats” today, and I’m going to be quick with who impressed me yesterday and stick with just the Cleveland/Milwaukee game. For the Cavs, Delonte West and Anderson Varejao were phenomenal off the bench. Delonte played a very, very efficient game, somehow managing 21 points on 9 shots in just 24 minutes. He was simply brilliant on offense, dominating Milwaukee’s usually-stellar D and getting numerous and-1s around the basket. You have to think he rejoins the starting lineup at some point soon. Just hope he has his head straight. Varejao was almost as dominant as Delonte, but it won’t show up in the stats. He did his work on the defensive end, effectively protecting the paint and stopping penetration at the same time. In his first 16 minutes on the floor, he was +31. Crazy. Before I move on, I have to mention the Bucks’ Luc Richard Mbah A Moute. I expect amazing defense from him because that’s what he does, but he surprised even me yesterday with how well he defended LeBron James. No one on this planet can stop LeBron, but LRMAM can at least make life more difficult for him. I think he’s the best in the world at guarding the MVP, and with his ability to guard 1-4, he might be the best defensive player in the league overall.

Quoted

“It’s very tough to be a superstar in this league, but right now he’s doing an unbelievable job for this team, for this franchise and he’s only going to get better.” – LeBron James, on Brandon Jennings.

“The biggest thing I was saying to the guys was we can’t lose to the Nets. No disrespect to them, but if we want to start taking steps forward and going in the right direction, we have to win games vs. teams like the Nets.” – Al Harrington, after his Knicks took down the Nets 106-97 in the afternoon. No disrespect, really? Because to me, that is very disrespectful to the Nets. Not that they haven’t earned this, but still.

“He pretty much came in and changed the complexion of the game. We needed something, so it was great for a young guy to come in and make that kind of contribution.” – Ben Gordon, who was limited in action yesterday because of his lingering ankle issue, on Austin Daye.

Tweeted

@cdouglasroberts: I’m late, but respectt to my big dog AI. Glad he’s back in the “A”. Cuz retired for 13 hours. Haaaaa. #1 hardest player I’ve EVER guarded. If I was to give out my own MVT, I’d have to give serious consideration to CDR.

@KDonhoops: Also, I just clicked over to the Y! NBA page, I didn’t know, and I’m … no other way to put this, crying. This just isn’t fair. Well, I know I wasn’t alone.

To Watch

Rockets broadcaster Matt Bullard hilariously castigating referees:

Raptors broadcaster Jack Armstrong hilariously enjoying some in-game entertainment:

LeBron James ruining a nice Brandon Jennings play:

The third instalment of the “One Rookie” series starring my boy DeMar DeRozan:

To Read

Some great quotes from AI’s first practice with Philly.

A look at what’s happened to ex-Syracuse guard and ex-SLAM High School Diary keeper Eric Devendorf.

Some clarity on the Portland/Andre Miller situation

Evan Gole/Getty Images

In yesterday’s recap, I said I “let myself down” by falling asleep and missing 4 hours of NBA action. Well, last night I fell asleep and missed one half of basketball. Just one half. But, ugh, when I was awoken with a phone call at about 1:30 AM and the broadcast was over, I positively hated myself. I stay in to watch basketball, always loving it, always hoping to see something amazing… and last night, although I was in, I was passed the hell out on my couch when amazing happened. There were numerous great performances last night and I’ll get to them all, but first let’s re-live the incredible ending of the Lakers/Heat game, the ending that I missed because I am a complete idiot:

Holy shit. Okay, let’s move on…

The All-OTN Team

Will Bynum: 12 Pts (2-8 FG, 0-2 3PT, 8-10 FT), 5 Reb, 5 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 PF, 4 TO in 29 mins.

Gotta focus on the 10 free throw attempts, here (although the 5/5 is nice too). I read an excellent Pistons breakdown on Bucksketball the other day, where Jeremy Schmidt pointed out that Bynum averages four attempts at the rim per game. Beyond that simply seeming impossible for sub-6-footer playing less than 30 minutes a game, this is just so valuable to a team. Penetrating the D and making the opposition shift is one of the most important parts of basketball and Bynum is able to do that extremely well at the NBA level. He can get himself all the way to the basket seemingly by sheer will-power (oh man, no pun intended – seriously) and draw fouls if he can’t convert. Terrific skill to have for a “backup” point guard.

Shannon Brown: 2 Pts (1-5 FG, 0-2 3PT), 2 Reb, 1 Ast, 2 PF, 1 TO in 15 mins.

I don’t have much on Shannon from last night, but should point out that he spent a bit of time guarding Dwyane Wade during Flash’s quiet first half. Also, check out his reaction to Kobe’s buzzer-beater:

Jeff Gross/Getty Images

Amir Johnson: 4 Pts (1-2 FG, 2-2 FT), 3 Reb, 1 Stl, 5 PF, 2 TO in 17 mins.

Funny how a guy who deservedly has a bad reputation for fouling ends up saving a game for his team by avoiding contact. After having picked up 5 fouls in 17 minutes of action, Amir was able to use a bit of “trickery” to fool Gilbert Arenas on the final play of OT. As Gilbert went to the basket, he was focusing on drawing contact rather than putting the ball in the hole. When Amir got out of the way, Gil was unable to convert. Check out Amir talking about the play, post-game:

Serge Ibaka: 6 Pts (3-5 FG, 0-1 FT), 2 Reb, 1 Stl, 1 Blk, 1 TO, 2 PF in 23 mins.

The numbers won’t blow you away, but this nasty block will:

Rookie Watch

DeMar DeRozan: 16 Pts (6-10 FG, 0-1 3PT, 4-5 FT), 2 Reb, 1 Ast, 4 PF in 27 mins.

So proud of DeRozan last night. The first half was something special. Building on what we have seen before, he made aggressive move after aggressive move on offense, putting pressure on Washington’s weak D. He scored 16 points in his first 16 minutes, including these three beauties:

It’s just a shame he didn’t add much in the second half. I wanted to see him come back in the game down the stretch, but it’s hard for me to complain too loudly when his team came away with the overtime win.

Wesley Matthews: 18 Pts (7-13 FG, 2-7 3PT, 2-3 FT), 5 Reb (2 Off), 1 Ast, 2 Stl, 1 Blk, 1 TO, 5 PF in 35 mins.

Matthews was absolutely huge for the Jazz in this game, which ended up being closer than it should have been after Utah started the game up 22-3 on Indy. The Pacers were killing it in the 2nd quarter, but this rook converted a 3-point play with 37 seconds left in the half and followed it up with a three-pointer to beat the shot-clock with just 3 seconds remaining to keep the lead at 13. He continued his solid play on both ends of the floor down the stretch. The 18 points were a career-high and his defense on Danny Granger was fantastic. No Jazz player was bigger besides Carlos Boozer, who finished with 35 and 13 in this 96-87 victory.

Taj Gibson: 14 Pts (7-14 FG, 0-2 FT), 13 Reb (4 Off), 1 Stl, 5 PF in 36 mins.

This is the first double-double of Taj Gibson’s career and I’m actually surprised it hasn’t come sooner. The guy plays with a ton of hustle and you have to dig that. As the 26th pick in the draft he was definitely not supposed to be starting for the Bulls, but he has done a more than admirable job all year considering the circumstances. Of course, you’d like him to get to the foul line more often, but, again, this is a late first-round pick giving his all. Appreciate this guy, even if you’re still bitter about the whole DeJuan Blair thing.

Brandon Jennings: 15 Pts (6-20 FG, 3-10 3PT), 5 Reb, 8 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 Blk, 1 TO, 2 PF in 38 mins.

Damn. Another poor shooting night for Brandon. I can get behind the 8 assists and 5 rebounds, though. Here’s the frustrated rook on Twitter, down on himself after this 105-96 loss on the road.

You just feel his frustration, don’t you? But here’s what I love about Twitter: two of my very favourite players in the league telling the star rookie to keep shooting:

Jonas Jerebko: 16 Pts (5-9 FG, 0-1 3PT, 6-7 FT), 7 Reb (2 Off), 3 Ast, 1 Blk, 1 TO, 2 PF in 27 mins.

This is the first time this Swede has been mentioned in my Rookie Watch but it won’t be the last. He is definitely an All-OTN-type player, doing all the little things that help you win games. He’s only 22, but he contributes on both sides of the floor. Always great to see that in a rookie. You have to read Brian Spencer’s piece on him for Empty The Bench and check out this quote from his coach last night:

“Jonas has emerged as one of the best rookies in this league—he is really expanding his game. He was huge.” – John Kuester

Before I move on, I should mention that he hit a key jumper with less than 2 minutes to play to put his team up by 9. Fantastic when a rookie helps to secure a victory like that.

Fun With Stats

For this night, I’m going to examine a few pairs of players who came through in big ways.

Kobe Bryant: 33 Pts (12-25 FG, 2-3 3PT, 7-8 FT), 7 Reb (3 Off), 3 Ast, 3 Stl, 2 TO, 5 PF in 42 mins.
Dwyane Wade: 26 Pts (7-21 FG, 0-1 3PT, 12-18 FT), 7 Reb (2 Off), 9 Ast, 2 Blk, 2 TO, 4 PF in 41 mins.

Those lines aren’t important – these are superstars, you expect numbers. What’s important here is the battle these two had in the 4th quarter. Kobe had 17 in the final frame and Wade had 12, including 9 in the final two minutes. As you know, though, Kob’ had the last laugh with his impossible game-winner after Dwyane missed a free throw.

Brook Lopez: 31 Pts (12-22 FG, 7-7 FT), 14 Reb (6 Off), 2 Ast, 2 Blk, 2 TO, 3 PF in 40 mins.
Courtney Lee: 27 Pts (11-16 FG, 3-4 3PT, 2-4 FT), 4 Reb, 1 Ast, 3 Stl, 1 Blk, 0 TO, 5 PF in 33 mins.

Amazing numbers there, but the most important numbers are here: 1-18. Yes. FINALLY. The Nets have erased that 0 from the win column. It took enormous efforts from these two sophomores to get it done, but they finally got it done. Thank God Courtney Lee is finally starting and thank God Stephen Jackson’s clutch three-point shooting wasn’t enough for the Bobcats to avoid the 97-91 defeat. On this night, the whole NBA world was rooting for the Nets and they came through. Such a relief.

Al Harrington: 27 Pts (11-17 FG, 4-8 3PT, 1-4 FT), 5 Reb (2 Off), 1 Ast, 1 Stl, 3 TO, 4 PF in 39 mins.
Chris Duhon: 25 Pts (10-16 FG, 4-8 3PT, 1-2 FT), 4 Reb, 10 Ast, 1 Stl, 0 TO, 1 PF in 36 mins.

Look at that efficiency! BY FAR the best performances from these two guys this year. Knicks fans have been used to these two clanging threes, but on this night they went in. Harrington took it to his former team in Danilo Gallinari’s absence and Duhon thoroughly outplayed Mike Bibby. I bet you didn’t expect the Knicks to beat the Hawks by 7 on the road, but it happened: 114-107.

Zach Randolph: 24 Pts (11-20 FG, 2-2 FT), 15 Reb (9 Off), 3 Ast, 3 TO, 3 PF in 39 mins.
O.J. Mayo: 25 Pts (10-16 FG, 5-8 3PT), 4 Reb (1 Off), 1 Ast, 2 Stl, 2 TO, 0 PF in 40 mins.

I bet you didn’t expect the Grizzlies to beat Dallas by 16, either, but you should know that Dallas has now lost 3 straight games in Memphis. The Mavs couldn’t match the Grizzlies’ energy and they let Randolph and Mayo completely school them on the offensive end. Knock their low assist totals if you like, but these guys can flat-out put the ball in the hole and that helped their team get a 98-82 win on this night.

Impressive

I’ll continue with another pair of players here – these two faced off against each other as they returned from injuries:

Chris Paul:16 Pts (6-13 FG, 1-3 3PT, 3-3 FT), 6 Reb, 15 Ast, 8 (!!!) Stl, 1 Blk, 3 TO, 3 PF in 38 mins
Kevin Love:11 Pts (3-7 FG, 2-3 3PT, 3-4 FT), 11 Reb (3 Off), 3 Ast, 2 Stl, 2 TO, 3 PF in 24 mins.

Woooooow. 8 steals for Paul? 11 rebounds in 24 minutes for Love? It’s amazing how these guys can come back and be seemingly without rust. Don’t expect them to put up these performances every night from now on, but appreciate what they did last night. Paul completely dominated the game en route to a 98-89 Hornets win, and Love showed off the three-point stroke he worked on this summer. I am so very much looking forward to watching these two play for the rest of this year.

Now, the most impressive player of the night for me (aside from Kobe, obviously). This guy showed the heart and determination his team desperately needed in a winning effort:

Chris Bosh: 31 Pts (13-25 FG, 0-2 3PT, 5-8 FT), 16 Reb (9 Off), 4 Ast, 2 Blk, 2 TO, 2 PF in 41 mins.

His work in the 4th quarter was breathtaking: 13 points and 6 boards, with 5 of them coming on the offensive glass. He made timely, difficult plays and bailed the Raptors out when nothing else was working. Hedo Turkoglu ended up making the game-winning shot in overtime, but it was Bosh who kept the team alive and put them in a position to win. Raptors fans have been seeing these amazing performances from him all season, so it’s a shame the team only has 8 wins. Really hoping the team can string a few wins together here and it’s not just because I’m from Toronto. It’d just be a shame to waste an MVP-level season from this young power forward.

Quoted

“Chris Bosh is a man possessed right now.” – Raptors colour commentator Jack Armstrong, during the 4th quarter I just mentioned.

“It’s just one at the end of the day. It’s one win. We wanted it to get it out of the way. It means a lot. We did it. We can’t be satisfied with it. We’ve got to move forward and put something together.” – Chris-Douglas Roberts, after the Nets defeated the Bobcats.

“That’s Black Mamba. I knew he was gonna make it.” – Ron Artest, on Kobe’s game-winner.

Tweeted

I’m just going to go with a string of Kobe-related tweets today.

@RobMahoney: For everyone who doesn’t think it’s worth it to stay in on a Friday night to watch the NBA…you just missed something special from Kobe.

@offseasonblog: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@seanfrancois: KOBE! wow…#ShouldWeHaveExpectedAnythingLess?

@kpelton: Are you kidding me? #wherekobehappens

@jalenrose: Lakers Kobe for 3…of the wrong foot for the Win vs heat…best clutch in the NBA…insane!

@Nat77: wow… That was a ridiculous shot! you can’t help but love this game when you get moments like that from legends like Kobe

@AndreHoops: You watched it for 2-plus hours like I did. It’s not about hate, it’s about excellence. Appreciate THE best player n the NBA 2day. Thx Kobe.

@stackmack: I just lost my mind. Totally just lost my mind. Holy freaking Wow.

@outsidethenba: fjsad;klj;sakljls I didn’t see Kobe. Didn’t see anything. FUCK.

To Watch

An unfortunate series of events for rookie Sam Young:

Jeff Green hammering home the reverse before the Celts took over to win 105-87 :

LeBron James and Joakim Noah exchange words during the Cavs’ 101-87 victory over the Bulls:

Some long-overdue joy in New Jersey:

The newest 76er talking to his college coach, John Thompson:

To Read

The best piece I’ve ever read on future #1 pick John Wall.

Part One and Part Two of Chip Crain’s interview with Grizz owner Michael Heisley.

Some words on Allen Iverson from Eric Snow, Holly MacKenzie, and Dei Lynam.

To Listen

Kelly Dwyer on Lakers.com

The latest FreeDarko Presents: The Disciples of Clyde NBA Podcast

The latest Chronicles of Crotty

Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images

I let myself down last night, failing to keep my eyes open after the Boston/San Antonio game tipped off. Apparently you shouldn’t go for late-afternoon/early-evening drinks with co-workers when you haven’t slept properly in weeks. After waking up on my couch at 12:00 AM with freaking hockey on the TV, lesson learned. I’m not going to compound this failure with a failure to complete the third BfB, though, so bear with me as I sort through last night’s action despite missing the majority of it live.

The All-OTN Team

No one in my fab five played last night, unfortunately. The small forward on the team did bring a smile to my face, though:

Rookie Watch

DaJuan Blair: 18 Pts (9-11 FG, 0-1 FT), 11 Reb (5 Off), 2 Blk, 1 TO, 2 PF in 21 mins.

What a beast. The point total is a career high and his inspired play will make everyone forget about the embarrassing moment where he tipped the ball into his own basket to give the Celtics 2 points. In the last two games, he’s totalled 29 points and 21 rebounds (12 offensive). Care to guess how many minutes he played in those games, total? 38. Utterly mind-boggling. Love that he had a huge game on national TV, although it kind of sucks that it was in a losing effort. Despite grabbing 23 more rebounds than the Celtics, the Spurs’ inferior shooting and higher turnover total resulted in a 90-83 loss. Oh, and here’s something from the Sports Guy, who recently made his glorious return to Twitter:

Ty Lawson: 6 Pts (2-4 FG, 2-2 FT), 1 Ast, 1 TO, 1 PF in 21 mins.

Quiet night in this 114-96 blowout victory against the Heat, but it’s worth noting that both of his field goals came on floaters. This is such an essential shot for smaller players in the NBA. As I mentioned with Brandon Jennings yesterday, if you can get to the hoop, hit open jumpers, AND hit contested floaters, you’re almost unstoppable. And just like with Blair, he’s making other teams and their fans jealous:

Stephen Curry: 11 Pts (4-8 FG, 1-3 3PT, 2-2 FT), 5 Reb (1 Off), 2 Ast, 2 Stl, 1 Blk, 4 TO, 3 PF in 32 mins.

2 assists and 4 turnovers? Damn. I still believe in you, Steph. I remember your 14-point, 7-assist debut against Houston and you better believe everyone in that opposing locker room did, too. Just make some adjustments and forget about this tough 111-109 loss. Oh, and stay aggressive.

Fun With Stats

Monta Ellis: 24 Pts (9-27 FG, 0-2 3PT, 6-8 FT), 6 Reb (1 Off), 8 Ast, 2 Stl, 9 TO, 5 PF, 7 BA (Blocked Attempts) in 47 minutes.

What a weird, weird line. Steph’s 2 assists to 4 turnovers have nothing on Monta’s 8 to 9. I guess when you play all but 32 seconds of a 106-posession game, you’ve got plenty of opportunities to rack up field goal attempts, assists, and turnovers if you’ve got the ball in your hands most of the time, but… damn. That’s crazy. A bit of a rough night, efficiency-wise, to say the least. It would have been nice if he had capped it off with a game-winner, but unfortunately that 9th turnover came on a frustrating travel with 2.1 seconds left in the game, as he slipped when he caught the inbounds pass.

Rajon Rondo: 12 Pts (6-11 FG, 0-1 3PT), 6 Reb, 12 Ast, 3 Stl, 1 Blk, 3 TO, 4 PF in 36 mins.

I don’t know if this really means anything but he was +19 on the night, as well. Easily the game’s leader in that stat. You should be used to these kinds of stat lines for Rondo, though, and since I only saw highlights of the game I don’t have much in the form of analysis for ya. I do have a rant, though: Last night, I made a quick list of guys who I root for harder because other people hate them. Rondo inspired this list. It’s odd that I root for him – I’m a Raptors fan and kind of hate the Celtics. The attitude on that team pisses me off. Believe me, I respect the hell out of them, but I was screaming at the TV when they were playing the Bulls in that amazing first round series last season. Especially when KG was mouthing off from the bench. I know I’m not alone – they’re a team that’s eminently hateable, but everyone generally respects Garnett, Pierce, and Allen’s play. My problem is that there are STILL people who hate on Rondo’s game, not just his attitude. It might just be a vocal, ignorant minority but it’s a piss-off. I fail to see how anyone who has watched the Celtics since last season began can discredit his talent. He’s not just good because he’s playing with good players. He’s not hurting his team with his sub-par outside shot. Yes, he has a sub-par outside shot, but the fact that he’s playing like an All-Star despite this is a testament to how great he is at almost every other aspect of the game: look at his defense, his rebounding, his passing, his efficiency, and his ability to penetrate. He gives you absolutely amazing production from what is arguably the most important position on the floor. So don’t hate his game, thanks.

I want to close out the stats section with a quick mention of something the great Dave D’Alessandro uncovered yesterday (check the link for the Keyon Dooling quote about Lawrence Frank at the bottom, which jives with just about everything I’ve read about Frank lately):

Through 18 games, Jason Kidd is 37-for-78 (.474) from downtown.

_

Through 17 games, Rafer Alston, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Devin Harris, and Courtney Lee are a combined 30-for-106 (.283) from downtown.

_

Again, we’d like to call this the worst 3-point team of the last two decades, but we can’t. That’s because their .270 norm from international waters is actually better than Minnesota’s .260.

That is ugly. Crap. Let’s move on to the opposite of that…

Impressive

These four guys impressed me last night during the Rockets/Warriors game because they showcased all-around games that weren’t always there.

Carl Landry: 22 Pts (8-10 FG, 6-6 FT), 9 Reb (2 Off), 1 Ast, 2 Stl, 3 Blk, 3 TO, 4 PF in 26 mins.

You really can’t ask for more than that production in 26 minutes. That’s incredible. I know the Warriors’ interior D is very, very, veryveryvery weak, but you have to give Landry props here. What I love about his play is that he’s improved as the year has gone on. I knew he was going to be an efficient scorer on the block, but have been pleasantly surprised with his defense and his rebounding. And by defense, I don’t just mean the blocks and the steals – he’s really working on that end, which wasn’t always the case before. It’s a bit funny that Adelman is still bringing Carl off the bench, as he’s developing into their go-to guy in key situations. I linked to this awesome article on him the other day – if you missed it, you should give it a read now.

Aaron Brooks: 25 Pts (8-15 FG, 5-8 3PT, 4-4 FT), 2 Reb, 7 Ast, 2 Stl, 4 TO, 5 PF in 35 mins.

Ooooh, an undersized scoring point guard. Of course I’m into it. 14 of those points came in the 3rd quarter alone, by the way. Brooks has improved his three-point percentage by 3.4 this year, whilst averaging more attempts than ever before. His efficiency in the last 3 games has been phenomenal (21 pts on 15 shots, 22 on 11, and now 25 on 15). What catches my eye, though, is the assists. 7 of them. If he can keep that up or improve it, it would really help this Rockets team. We all know you can score, Aaron – finding easy looks for your teammates is the next step. (Update: Somehow when I wrote this I forgot to mention that Brooks scored the game-winning free throws last night. Well, he did. Now you know.)

Anthony Morrow: 21 Pts (8-13 FG, 4-8 3PT, 1-1 FT), 3 Reb (1 Off), 5 Ast (!), 4 PF in 40 mins.

Morrow matched Brooks’s 14 points in the third and was a major part of the Warriors’ offense last night. What’s great about this is he’s showing he has the potential to be more than just the sweetest-shooting three-point threat in the league. The five assists are a sign that his team would be served to use him as more than just a spot-up guy and his biggest basket was not a three: down by 2, when he had the ball in his hands and Shane Battier (obviously) made the proper decision to take away his three-point shot, Morrow performed a nice crossover, got to the basket, and converted a difficult lay-in off the glass to tie the game. Shame about the 13.3 seconds that followed.

Vladimir Radmanovic: 20 Pts (8-13 FG, 4-7 3PT), 8 Reb (3 Off), 6 Ast, 3 Stl, 1 TO, 0 PF in 35 mins.

First, he dunks on Nene, and now this. I am having trouble comprehending what I’m seeing. What an all-around game! Look at those rebounds, assists, and steals. So nice. What’s wild is that his last basket came with 6:09 left in the third quarter. After that, he went scoreless for the remainder of the period and Don Nelson didn’t insert him back into the lineup until there was 2:55 left in the fourth. He checked into the game as Carl Landry hit two free throws to score Houston’s 9th and 10th consecutive points. The lineup that allowed this? Curry, Watson, Ellis, Morrow, and Maggette. You’re crazy, Nellie.

Quoted

“Yeah I can win it. I don’t care if (Michael) Jordan was in it.” – DeMar DeRozan, after being asked if he could win the dunk contest if LeBron James was competing.

“I just get the feeling now that this team really wants to be great. Every day that we’re in the gym we’re going hard and doing what we can to get better. This team wants nothing but to be great. We’re improving in a lot of different areas and if we keep that up I think we have a chance to be really good again.” – Dwight Howard, on his fantastic Magic team, from his blog.

“If you go to a team that’s not really winning, like the New Jersey Nets, they haven’t won a game yet. I might go crazy if I haven’t won a game. I’m a competitive person. I’m glad I’m on a team that’s winning like we are right now.” – Ty Lawson, from a great piece comparing the drastically different situations Lawson and Steph Curry are in right now.

“Someone has to take those shots. That’s just the way the NBA game goes. You’re not going to be able to get a high-quality, open 3-point look at the basket or a layup every time down.” – Shane Battier, of course referencing the two most efficient shots in basketball from an excellent article about Trevor Ariza.

Tweeted

@YUNGBUCK3: Oh yea forgot to till yall I was at the white house, chillin with Obama. He actually know who I am. That’s crazy.

@gswscribe: Monta Ellis didn’t talk after the game. He was the first one out of the locker room, whisking past media after we exited Nellie’s postgame
@gswscribe: I caught up w/ him for one question. “How do you feel?” He shook his head no. Wasn’t sure if he meant not good or not talking.

@BothTeamsPlayed: Wait? Vlad Rad scored 20 points? Is it 2004 already? (Moments after this, I saw Jamaal Magloire get a layup and I was convinced it was actually 2004.)

@ShamSports: Heh. Just realised that Al Harrington’s nickname is Free Candy. Tyrus Thomas’ nickname is Free Money. Now the trade MUST happen.

@TheJetOnTNT: Hey shout out Charles ! Pray for his fam. Cuz granny passed! Will be missed
@TurnerSportsEJ: if ya’ll didn’t catch pre-game , charles lost his grandmother today…83.. a great lady. If you’re the praying type, toss one up. Thanks

To watch

Allen Iverson’s emotional press conference back home in Philly:

Rad Man’s backcourt alley-oop to Monta:

Kyle Lowry’s huge block on C.J. Watson:

To read

The Disappearing Portland Defense, by Kevin Pelton

I think the Blazers do have the personnel to improve on D if they would just play smarter/harder on that end, but it’s got to be a bit worrying that they’ve gotten worse as the season has gone on.

Loose Balls, Thursday, by Knee Jerk NBA

KneeJerk backs up the “Damon Stoudamire on steroids” Brandon Jennings assessment that I made, except he leaves the steroids bit. He also talks about the Blazers’ D, AI, and Ron-Ron.

When Hope Is All That’s Left, By Holly MacKenzie

A great, but depressing look at the state of the 0-18 Nets. Before reading this, I felt worse for CDR than anyone else in the league. Now, T-Will is right there with him, followed by Courtney Lee and Rafer Alston, then the rest of the team. They’ve got the Bobcats and Knicks coming up – they’ve gotta win one, right? Right? I hope so.

The season so far, in quotes, by Scott Carefoot

The selected quotes make me happy but the way they’re applied to this year’s Toronto Raptors makes me sad. Or angry. A bit of both, really. What’s worst is that I can’t argue with a damn thing Carefoot said.

Andrew Bogut and The “Oi!” of Six, by Chris Tomasson

Terrific look at one of the cooler things I’ve seen an NBA player do. I’ve always wondered where the college-like chanting was coming from at Bucks home games. Now I know.

Nothing easy, except scoring on the Raptors. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Finished this up late again today, my apologies. I wish I could blame the mental trauma from that Raptors loss, but that wasn’t even it. I might have to change the title to Basketball For Brunch. Anyway, let’s get to it.

The All-OTN Team

Will Bynum: 10 Pts (4-9 FG, 0-1 3PT, 2-2 FT), 3 Reb (1 Off), 7 Ast, 1 Stl, 2 TO, 3 PF in 33 mins.

On night where Rodney Stuckey (17 points on 16 shots, 4 Ast) and Ben Gordon (18 points on 16 shots, 0 assists) didn’t score very efficiently or distribute, Bynumite stepped up with a team-high 7 assists. Pity it wasn’t enough to help a not-yet-100% Gordon get a victory against his old team, where a smattering of ignorant fans were booing him.

Shannon Brown: The Lakers didn’t play last night, but here’s a video of Lamar Odom gushing about “Mr. Fantastic” for his Let Shannon Dunk campaign:

Favourite bit there: “Even the shots that he blocks or tries to block are like posters.” Yup.

Jared Dudley: 6 Pts (2-6 FG, 1-2 3PT, 1-2 FT), 3 Reb (1 Off), 1 Ast, 2 PF in 21 mins.

Uninspiring numbers for Jared in another bad loss. The Suns failed to score 100 points for the second time this season and the second night in a row, falling 107-90 to Cleveland in a game that by all accounts didn’t feel even as close as that. I’d like to tell you Dudley’s hustle and defensive intensity was a positive (as it was in their loss to the Knicks – see the “Aside from Jared Dudley and Steve Nash…” sentence here), but I can’t be sure because I didn’t see the game and none of the recaps I’ve seen have mentioned his name, preferring to focus more generally on his team’s epic failure. We know he’s keeping his head up, though.

Amir Johnson: 9 Pts (4-6 FG, 1-2 FT), 7 Reb (3 Off), 1 Blk, 2 TO, 5 PF in 19 mins.

“If you are looking for bright spots in this game, Amir Johnson certainly is one of them, if not the brightest one.” – Leo Rautins, during the Raptors telecast.

I fortunately did not see too much of this horrible 146-115 blowout as it was happening (although I feel like I saw every second because of all the tweets and text messages I read), but I believe I saw the perfect microcosm of Amir Johnson’s game during a timeout of the Bucks/Wizards game. In one possession in the first half, Amir Johnson grabbed a difficult offensive rebound, kicked the ball out, eventually received it again, and hit a tough inside shot. On the ensuing defensive possession, he had a vicious block but then sent Zaza Pachulia to the foul line after the Hawks recovered the ball. That is Amir: activity all of the time, even if his team is getting slaughtered. 5 fouls in 19 mins, though. You know I love the guy, but I have to mention the fouls.

Serge Ibaka: 2 Pts (1-2 FG), 2 Reb (1 Off), 1 Stl, 1 TO, 2 PF in 6 mins.

Rats. Only 6 minutes for Serge. Sort of hard to complain, though, as I would have played Nick Collison over him on this night too. Collison was brilliant as he returned from a sore knee – 18 points on 8-9 shooting, with his one miss coming on a three pointer at the end of the shot clock with 20 seconds left in the game. Add in the defense (drawn charges, 1 steal, 1 block) and his team-high 7 rebounds (5 offensive!) and he might have been the most important player in this 117-106 Thunder victory over the Sixers. But wait, this is supposed to be about Serge Ibaka! Not to worry, I have a link to share. Here’s Tom Haberstroh of Hoopdata giving Ibaka some love for contributing more quickly than anyone expected and being a major contributor to his team’s elite defense around the basket.

Rookies

Brandon Jennings: 17 Pts (7-21 FG, 2-8 3PT, 1-2 FT), 2 Reb, 7 Ast, 1 Stl, 0 TO (!), 5 PF in 36 mins.

There’s some good and some bad here. Obviously, looking at the stats, you don’t like the shooting. I can tell you one positive from this though – Jennings made more floaters than he missed last night. That is HUGE. As per Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus, Jennings’s recent shooting slump is mostly because he is missing shots around the basket. My eyes tell me that this is because, rather than getting all the way to the hole for layups, Jennings is shooting a lot of contested floaters around the rim. In Jennings’s words, from the always-excellent Bucksketball:

I learned in pre-season that I wasn’t going to be able to go to the rack that much, so I had to change things quickly and get a floater going. It makes things easier. It’s still in the development phase.

I’m not worried at all about Brandon’s 3-point shot. He had an off-night from behind the arc last night, but that happens to everyone. If he gets more consistent with his floater, I don’t see how you stop him. You already can’t let him shoot from distance and have to be terrified of his pull-up jumper. Watch out, league.

…I can’t move on from Brandon without talking about the last few possessions of the game, though. I was on an emotional rollercoaster watching this. First, he took a ballsy pull-up jumper with 50 seconds left when his team was down by 1 and then committed a silly frustration foul when it missed. Then, with his team down 3, he hit an incredibly difficult leaning three to tie it up with 10.5 seconds left. I’d say it got me out of my seat, but I was already standing up. Unfortunately, on the next possession, he bit on an Earl Boykins pump-fake and sent him to the line for what turned out to be the game winning free throws. The game ended when Luke Ridnour (who played a great game, more on him soon) badly missed a desperation three with 1 second left in the game. I can’t have been the only one who wanted Jennings to get that last shot.

DeMar DeRozan: 21 pts (6-11 FG, 9-12 FT), 3 Reb, 2 Ast, 3 PF in 30 mins.

I really wish his career-high didn’t come on a night like this. But then again, it gives me something positive to think about. Look at that, 12 free-throw attempts! Love that. I saw DeRozan get two impressive and-ones near the end of the first half and it would seem that he kept up that aggressiveness for all of his career-high 30 minutes. Raptors colour guy Leo Rautins, who has not been one to hand out excessive praise to the rookie, said he played with “hustle and determination that wasn’t necessarily shared by his entire team.” That’s a very polite way of saying it.

Jonny Flynn: 12 Pts (5-12 FG, 1-4 3PT, 1-2 FT), 2 Reb (1 Off), 9 Ast, 2 TO in 30 mins.

Gotta love those 9 assists, even if the 12 points on 12 shots is a bit blah. Whenever I watch Minnesota play, I feel like Flynn deserves more assists than he gets – he simply does not have shooters on the team that will convert open looks. Luckily, Ryan Gomes knocked down some shots tonight, going 8-13 including 2-3 from downtown to score 20 points. One of his threes came off of nice behind-the-back feed from Flynn with 1:39 left in the game. The miss? It came with 1:14 left on a wide open corner three, set up by… you guessed it, Flynn. It’s easy to dismiss the rookie from Syracuse, trying to run the triangle with an incredibly unbalanced team, but you shouldn’t. He can play. This was the first time he had recorded 9 assists in an NBA game, but it won’t be the last.

Toney Douglas: 17 Pts (7-11 FG, 2-5 3PT, 1-2 FT), 1 Reb, 1 Ast, 1 Stl, 4 PF in 21 mins.

Nice line for Toney Douglas. He can really, really score. Reason #958 I’m happy Allen Iverson ended up in Philly: he’s not taking minutes from Douglas. I’m not getting too optimistic about his standing in New York, though – this performance came on a night where they were losing by 22 at the end of the third quarter. Douglas only got these minutes because the game was lost and Nate Robinson is in the coach’s doghouse. Blarg. Stupid Knicks.

Tyreke Evans: 26 Pts (7-14 FG, 0-2 3PT, 12-14 FT), 5 Reb, 6 Ast, 4 TO in 32 mins.

Now this I can be optimistic about. Yeah, it was against Indiana. But isn’t it crazy that we suddenly EXPECT the Kings to beat Indiana? This team has a 9-8 record and a 4-game winning streak despite losing Kevin Martin five games in and not seeing a single minute from Francisco Garcia. Huge credit has to go out to Paul Westphal and everyone in the rotation, especially Evans. I admit that, as far as ROY is concerned, I’m with Kelly Dwyer and not Zach Harper, but Evans has been fantastic this year. He can get to the basket and score with ease and has played point guard with much greater success than most people imagined he would have. If he shoots fewer jumpers and gets to the foul line at a rate similar to last night, I might have to reconsider my stance on the aforementioned award before this season is over.

Fun With Stats

Blowout city: There was a point last night where, of the eight games being played, four of them (TOR/ATL, NYK/ORL, PHX/CLE, DAL/NJ) had a point differential of at least 20.

Let’s get the Raptors out of the way: Chris Bosh scored 2 points, going without a field goal for the first time since November 6, 2007, when the Raptors were routed by the Milwaukee Bucks. Bosh only played 16 minutes, sitting during the first time because he was in foul trouble. One of those fouls was assigned to someone else at halftime, but by then it was way too late. Oh, and the Italian Rodman? Andrea Bargnani failed to grab a single rebound in almost 22 minutes of action last night. Sad face.

No more negativity here. Let’s talk about some point guards. I love me some point guards. First, Jason Kidd: 16 Pts (5-6 FG, 2-2 3PT, 4-4 FT), 8 Reb, 10 Ast, 5 Stl, 1 Blk, 4 TO, 1 PF in 34 mins. Wow. That’s… insane. I’d be impressed with a line like that even from 2002 Jason Kidd. The downside is it added insult to injury, as he did this whilst etching his former team’s name into the record books in a most unflattering way. Next, Russell Westbrook – weird line for him. Definitely not the perfection of J-Kidd, but check this out: 7 Pts (1-11 FG, 0-3 3PT, 5-6 FT), 5 Reb (2 Off), 15 Ast, 2 Stl, 2 TO, 3 PF in 33 mins of a winning effort. Again, wow. He was supposed to be a scorer, someone who could get his but would have trouble involving his teammates and being a true point guard. Well, hey, critics: 15 assists! He already has more than half of the 10+ assist games he had last year and we’re only a month in. Let’s just ignore the terrible shooting on this night. Hell yeah, development! Thunder!

Now, onto the bigs. I’ve gotta mention Brandon Bass here – this beast has been waiting patiently to be unleashed this season, as Stan Van Gundy has understandbly opted to keep the floor spread with the sweet shooting of Ryan Anderson and Matt Barnes off the bench at the 4 spot and stay big at the 5 with Marcin Gortat. With Bass out of the shuffle, he has been unable to show us what we saw from him last season: rebounding, interior scoring, solid D, and the mid-range shot. Against the Knicks, however, there was no need to stay big off the bench, so Bass got Gortat’s minutes at center. He responded by scoring 17 points in just 17 minutes, shooting 7-12 from the field and adding 3 rebounds. This is how you earn more minutes. Also, Marcus Camby had a Marcus Camby night: 9 points on 4-6 shooting, with 19 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 steals, and a block in 39 minutes. I miss seeing those numbers on my fantasy team. Gotta wonder, though – as Kelly Dwyer mentioned in the BDL chat yesterday, do the Clips try to trade Camby? His value has to be pretty high and Griffin is going to need every minute he can get when he comes back. Just something to think about.

One more tidbit before I move on – not only did Zydrunas Ilgauskas become the Cavs’ leader in games played last night, he moved into third place on the team’s all-time scoring list. He now trails only LeBron and Brad Daugherty. Effing great night for him.

Quoted

Argh, a bunch of depressing ones today. I apologize.

“It’s not the coach. Red Auerbach couldn’t coach us the way we are playing. It’s us. It doesn’t matter who you bring in. It starts in here. You have to have heart. You have to have the heart to overcome something like this.” – Chris Douglas-Roberts, after his team became the lone team in NBA history to lose its first 18 games.

I’ve been following CDR closely this season. I feel worse for him than any other player in the league. It’s not hard to see how rough this has been for him. He’s never been through anything similar to this in life. I really hope they win a damn game soon. Anyway, onto more depressing stuff – here are ex-Yellow Jackets and current-Raptors Chris Bosh and Jarrett Jack, post-game.

“We can’t give up 75 points in the half and expect to be successful in this league. We can’t come in with the mindset that we’re just going to outscore everybody. It’s not possible.” – Jarrett Jack.

“We’re not playing D and we’re not rebounding – we’re shooting ourselves in the foot twice.” – Jarrett Jack.

“You can’t say we did anything right on defense. We should be embarrassed, everybody should be embarrassed. Us, coaches – everybody who was involved in this game should be embarrassed.” – Jarrett Jack.

“I was upset that we don’t buy in on the defensive end of the floor and every time something happens, it’s, ‘it’s okay, it’s alright.’ It’s not alright. We’re letting problems go by without attacking them or challenging them or bringing them to the forefront or getting them solved.” – Jarrett Jack.

“Everybody can’t just walk on eggshells around here and act like we’re playing good basketball. We’re not, we’re playing terrible.” – Jarrett Jack.

“We haven’t stopped anybody all year.” – Chris Bosh

“We don’t get on the ground, we don’t consistently get rebounds, we give up points in the paint… We’re just not a good team.” – Chris Bosh

Jesus. It’s not even 9:00 AM and I need a drink. This is bad. Very, very, very bad. It’s only early December, but I’ve seen previous awful Raptors teams lose games like this. Well, rarely EXACTLY like this – I mean, down by 30 at the end of the third? Anyway, it’s obviously not the loss to Atlanta that bothers me. The Raptors need a win in the worst way, but I wouldn’t have been too upset with an L if they had just shown some signs of life on defense. Jay Triano stressed from training camp onwards that defense would be his main focus – he knew he had the pieces to be a great offensive team, but this squad severely lacked athleticism and one-on-one defensive skills. To compensate, you have to play extremely focused, smart team D. The Raptors have done this only for small stretches this year and haven’t done it at all during this 5-game losing streak. Damn it. I need a happy quote to cheer me up…

“That’s the closest I’ve ever come to tears on the basketball floor.” – Zydrunas Ilgauaskas, on his big night. The fans chanted “Z” for him. Yay!

Impressive

These will all be from the Bucks/Wizards game, since it had my complete attention.

Nick Young: 21 Pts (7-12 FG, 0-1 3PT, 7-7 FT), 5 Reb, 1 Ast, 1 Stl, 5 TO, 2 PF in 34 mins.

Gotta love his aggressiveness. The man just knows how to score at the NBA level. You can criticize him for being sort of one-dimensional, I guess, but when that dimension is great, it’s okay. Same argument I’ve always made for Ben Gordon, even though Young isn’t near Gordon’s level yet. Love seeing him starting again, though – those erratic minutes and DNP-CD’s from the early part of the season were starting to piss me off.

Earl Boykins: 13 Pts (3-5 FG, 7-10 FT), 1 Reb, 4 Ast, 2 TO in 19 mins.

I’ve always loved watching Earl Boykins play. You know why. He’s the tiniest guy on the floor, by far, but he doesn’t play like it. The effort, the confidence? Always there. I’m definitely enjoying his return with the Wizards, and so is Gilbert Arenas, as it’s allowing him to play off the ball. Put a smile on my face just to see Boykins on the floor at the end of this game, let alone seeing the ball in his hands on the Wizards’ final possession. Still not pleased with the result, but whatever. Go Earl.

Hakim Warrick: 20 Pts (6-9 FG, 8-8 FT), 4 Reb (3 Off), 3 TO, 2 PF in 32 mins.

14 of those points came in the first half, including two aggressive and-ones and the missed shot that resulted in Scott Skiles’s ejection. Quick note on that if you didn’t see it – Skiles was miffed that Hak didn’t get the foul, so he approached the nearest ref and screamed at him. Upon receiving a technical foul, Skiles made a “T” with his hands and screamed, “Technical!” in the ref’s face. For this, he received another tech and was ejected. After storming to about halfcourt to let out some more steam, he went back to the locker room. Anyway, Hak – love the effort, as always. Nice to see the shots falling tonight and VERY nice to see all those free throw attempts. It’s ridiculous how many of these Bucks I look forward to watching – him, Jennings, Bogut, Ilyasova, Bell, Luc Richard Mbah A Moute (come back soon!), Meeks, Delfino, and…

Luke Ridnour: 20 Pts (9-16 FG, 2-6 3PT), 4 Reb, 6 Ast, 1 Stl, 4 PF in 33 mins.

Whoa. Didn’t expect that. I didn’t even expect to become a Ridnour fan. This year, though, he’s proven to be a much more than capable backup point guard, even if I’d much rather have the ball in Jennings’s hands at the end of the game. You won’t see 20 point games from him all the time, but last night wasn’t that much of a statistical aberration. He has a PER of 18.3 this season. I love that Skiles has been playing him and Jennings together from the start, realizing that the advantages that the pair bring on offense far outweigh the defensive limitations of having two small, thin point guards on the floor on D. I wish Kurt Rambis would realize the same thing and play Jonny Flynn and Ramon Sessions together more often in Minny. While they did see some time sharing the floor last night in their 97-95 loss to Memphis, Sessions still played 6 fewer minutes than Damien Wilkins even though he was hot, going 7-9 from the floor.

Tweeted

@NBAKays: I’m starting to think that the Raptors are not a very good defensive basketball team. (When he tweeted this, the Hawks had 118 points with 9:41 left in the game.)

@NBAguy: @jeskeets who’s your squad?

@jeskeets: @NBAguy The [/covers mouth] Raptuyfdgyrs.

That does it. I’m going to puke.

@HowardBeckNYT: Not that anyone cares, but the Mavericks have scored 90 points on the Nets with 6:54 left in the third. They lead 90-66.

@johnschuhmann: This may be the Nets’ best offensive game this season… and they’re down by 27.

At least I’m not alone.

To watch

Al Thornton off the backboard to himself:

Trevor Ariza on Chris Kaman:

Apologies for not mentioning the Rockets/Clippers game until now. I fell asleep and missed it, bummer. Seems like it could have been a good one for three quarters, until the Rockets put the Clippers away with a 26-13 4th Q to win 102-85. Aaron Brooks managed 22 points on 9-11 shooting from the field.

Caron Butler on poor Andrew Bogut:

Derrick Rose’s alley-oop from Brad Miller:

LeBron’s sweet chasedown block in the throwback uni:

To read

Britt Robson, one of my favourites, takes a look around the league for SI.

Kendrick Perkins is getting scary good, says Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston.

Bethlehem Shoals’s take on Ron Artest for the Baseline.

Eddy Rivera’s great interview with J.J. Redick for Third Quarter Collapse

Hey, check it out – a new feature! This is the debut of Basketball for Breakfast, my stab at a daily recap. I know, I know, there is already a wealth of excellent recaps in the NBA blogosphere. I read them all and that won’t change. This isn’t an attempt to compete with anyone; I’m simply trying to add something of my own. I’ll do my best to keep it fun and unique.

The All-OTN Team

Amir Johnson: 2 Pts (0-2 FG, 2-4 FT), 7 Reb (4 Off), 1 Ast, 4 PF in 20 min.

Not the most impressive stat line in this 106-102 loss to the Wizards, I’ll admit. He was enjoyable to watch, though. The man always brings the energy. Those 7 rebounds? 6 of them came in the first half, including an amazing grab that he followed up with an assist to a cutting Chris Bosh. What’s most impressive about Amir’s rebounding is that he gets them in different ways – last night, I saw him tip the ball to himself, tip it to his teammates, and straight-up wrestle it away from opponents’ fingertips. He is one of the few Raptors in the franchise’s history who manages to get rebounds that he shouldn’t. The 4 fouls in 20 are unfortunate, but he’s still learning.

Jared Dudley: 7 Pts (2-5 FG, 1-2 3PT, 1-2 FT), 7 Reb (3 Off), 1 TO, 2 PF in 18 min.

Again, these numbers won’t blow you away, but they rarely do with Jared. I’ll tell you this: I didn’t see much of this 126-99 blowout, but in the couple of minutes where I tuned in during the 2nd quarter I saw Jared Dudley make three impressive plays in succession: hitting a three-pointer, drawing a foul underneath the basket, and saving a possession for his team. Clyde Frazier, calling the game for the Knicks, seemed positively smitten with him. It’s always nice to get 7 rebounds from your backup small forward, too. Shame his effort wasn’t anywhere close to enough to avoid this embarrassing defeat.

Shannon Brown: 4 Pts (1-6 FG, 0-2 3PT, 2-2 FT), 2 Reb, 2 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 Blk, 3 PF in 23 min.

Argh. More crappy numbers. Doesn’t mean he had a bad game, though. On the night where his new website launched, he entered the game with 1:07 left in the 1st quarter and stayed there through most of the 2nd, absolutely shutting down sharpshooter Marcus Thornton. Brown quite obviously wasn’t on the court to score; he was there to stop Lil Buckets from doing so. And he succeeded – Lil Buckets couldn’t get anything going in the first half. Unfortunately, the Hornets didn’t Let Shannon Dunk on this night, as his best opportunity was a missed alley-oop from Kobe Bryant. His one FG was pretty nice, though:

Rookie Watch

DeMar DeRozan: 2 Pts (1-4 FG), 2 Reb, 1 Ast, 2 TO, 1 Blk, 1 PF in 16 mins.

Not a standout night for DeMar, as he missed a couple of jumpers we know he can make. It’s important to remember what his role is on this team, though. Since Jay Triano has opted to play him pretty much exclusively with the starting unit, he is not asked to take a lot shots and doesn’t get many opportunities to get in rhythm. We saw some nice plays, though – DeRozan’s 1 FG came on an alley-oop from Jose Calderon, where he didn’t have the angle to slam it down so he adjusted and layed it in. His block on Gilbert Arenas in the 3rd quarter was fantastic, too. I’ve got to add that the 1 Ast is a bit deceiving, as he made a couple of aggressive plays that led to scores where he was not credited for any stats. One in particular stands out, where he drove on the right baseline and kicked it out to Chris Bosh, who found Andrea Bargnani at the top of the key for three. That’s a hockey assist. Nice to see. Still firmly on this bandwagon.

Ty Lawson: 13 Pts (5-7 FG, 1-1 3PT, 2-3 FT), 5 Reb, 5 Ast, 2 PF in 24 mins.
Very nice line for Lawson, on the night that his alma mater beat my Spartans by 7. 13 points on 7 shots, in 24 minutes? You have to love that efficiency – this is why statheads love him. And why you should love him? He can score in various ways, as he hurt the Warriors last night with his jump shot, his runner, and his ability to get to the basket. He outscored fellow rook Stephen Curry on this night, despite playing 16 fewer minutes and attempting 7 fewer field goal attempts. Another fun fact: his PER so far this season is 17.6. His teammate J.R. Smith’s? 15.1. Can’t give Denver enough credit for acquiring him in the draft.

Dante Cunningham: 6 Pts (2-6 FG, 2-3 FT), 5 Reb, 1 Ast, 4 PF in 18 mins.

Four fouls in 18 minutes? Ah, rookies. You have to be happy for Cunningham, though, as he made his first career NBA start last night due to LaMarcus Aldridge nursing his knee. While he obviously didn’t make up for Aldridge’s production, he had a positive impact on the game with his hustle. You know I love players like that. And I’m not the only one, check out what Seth Johnston of Bust A Bucket had to say:

Energy like Cunningham’s is something I am craving more and more as we sit and wait for the team’s bigger personalities to sort out their issues. I want a hyperactive role player power forward to just go nuts out there and provide me with some sort of vicarious catharsis. So thanks for giving me a little of that, Dante.

Darren Collison: 20 Pts (7-14 FG, 2-4 3PT, 4-4 FT), 5 Ast, 2 Reb, 4 TO, 2 Stl, 2 PF in 34 mins.
Collison continues to be awesome. I cannot BELIEVE Byron Scott was playing Bobby Brown over him earlier this season. I mean, I feel bad that Byron is without work, but I’m sorry, that was inexcusable. A kid this quick, with his ability to penetrate, knock down shots, and play defense? You put him out there over a chucker like Bobby, every time. Some analysis from Niall Dohery of Hornets247:

He would have had a few hockey assists if anyone kept count, and he was pesky as always on defense. He had two nice plays against Kobe, first getting by him on the perimeter late in the third quarter, keeping him on his back and then using a hesitation dribble to open up a gap for the layup. About a minute later he shadowed Bryant brilliantly to slow down the break and help stop the Lakers getting an easy bucket at the end of the period.

Additionally, he had a crazy buzzer-beater at the end of the 1st half. I’ll put the video here when/if it surfaces.

Fun With Stats

Brendan Haywood shot 1-8 from the line last night against Toronto. This, obviously, hurt his team. Fortunately, he made his minutes worthwhile by doing a very respectable job on Chris Bosh, who was held to 7-22 from the field. If the big man had just made his free throws, though, this game wouldn’t have come down to the final couple of minutes. The Wizards managed to escape with a victory after Hedo Turkoglu committed an unforced turnover with 31 seconds left in the game, but if you’re a Wizards fan you have to think it shouldn’t have got to that point.

In the Phoenix/New York game, the Suns failed to reach 100 points for the first time this season. The Knicks managed 100 points by the end of the third quarter. I should also point out the magnificent work of Danilo Gallinari: 27 pts (10-19 FG, 6-12 3PT, 1-2 FT), 10 Reb, 2 Ast, 2 Blk, 0 (!) TO in 36 mins. Check out what Seth of Posting and Toasting had to say about Gallo’s fantastic all-around game:

He looked much more confident and made his way into the center of the court to participate more in the offensive flow. There were backdoor cuts, frontdoor cuts, and even a stop-and-pop banker from about 12 feet out.

So great that he’s being more than just an excellent three-point shooter, isn’t it? I am sure that Francesco Cappelletti of Ball In Europe is proud as hell right now.

Also scoring from all over the floor last night was Anthony Morrow, who scored 27 points against Denver while only hitting 2 three pointers (in all of his other 20+ games this year, he’s had at least 4 threes). It may be because of the limited bodies the Warriors have at their disposal right now, but I can’t tell you how happy I am to see that gorgeous shot launched so often these days.

Two more statistical shout-outs for before I move on – Michael Beasley and Ray Allen were huge in winning efforts. Beas was one point short of his career high, finishing with 27 points on 8-15 shooting from the floor and 11-12 (!) from the line. Pleasing his fantasy owners, he also contributed 8 rebounds, a block, and a steal. Jesus Shuttlesworth came through with his best game of the season, too, as he poured in 27 points on only 9 field goal attempts. When you go 5-6 from downtown and 10-10 from the line, that type of statistical improbability can happen. Oh, and he threw in 5 rebounds, 5 assists, a block, and a steal. Nice to have you back, Ray Ray.

Quoted

“They spread, they go, and they’re kind of all over the place.” – Carmelo Anthony, on Golden State’s offense, from Denver’s telecast. So few words here, but I don’t think he’s missing anything.

“Who are these guys?” – Clyde Frazier, on the Knicks, from New York’s telecast. I must say, Clyde, I was wondering the same thing. 71 points in the first half?

“Just pathetic defense by the Suns.” – Clyde Frazier again, providing spot-on analysis of how Larry Hughes was able to amass about 48 assists in about 4 seconds against Phoenix.

“I’m happy for our fans. They got to go home and watch (North) Carolina and Michigan State. If any of them were smart, they would have left early and watched that game.” – Larry Brown. Wait, there’s more, check out this next gem…

“I think even Doc Rivers had 12 points.” – Gerald Wallace. Ouch. I don’t think you need me to say any more about last night’s Boston/Charlotte matchup.

“I decided today I was going to be more aggressive. It’s fun. It relieves the pressure, it gets me off the ball and puts me back into my old mode where I was just scoring.” – Gilbert Arenas. I was quite impressed with Gilbert last night, even if he’s not quite back to his old self yet. Actually, that gives me an idea…

Impressive

Gilbert Arenas: 22 Pts (7-17 FG, 3-7 3PT, 5-5 FT), 3 Reb, 9 Ast, 1 TO, 1 Stl, 1 Blk in 38 mins.

It took Gil a little while to get going with his shot, but he was dishing out assists as soon as the first quarter began. Only once the fourth quarter began did Agent Zero really join the party, but when he did it was something to see. Like the Gilbert of old, he took control of the game near the end, scoring 12 points in the final frame. Not trying to ignore Antawn Jamison’s 10 fourth-quarter points, but Arenas was leading the team. As a Raptors fan it was annoying, but as a Gilbert fan it was heartening. Give him some more time and he’ll be dominating more quarters.

Andrea Bargnani: 20 Pts (8-14 FG, 2-4 3PT, 2-2 FT), 11 Reb (4 Off), 1 Ast, 2 TO, 1 Blk, 5 PF in 35 mins.

I could definitely get used to seeing double-doubles next to Bargs’s name. Love that. The Italian Rodman grabbed 7 of those boards in the first half, with 3 of them coming on the offensive end. As always, you love his efficient scoring, but when Bargs is boxing out properly and getting after it inside, all of Raptors Nation is proud. More of this please, sir. Oh, almost forgot – his one block came against Earl Boykins. I can’t recall a single instance of Earl Boykins getting a perimeter jumper of his blocked in the NBA, but Bargs managed to do it. Kudos.

Tweeted

@stackmack: On the pizza promo front: Turkoglu’s ONLY make in the fourth quarter was a pointless three at the buzzer to win pizza for the crowd.

@Nat77: Raptor fans cheered when for a buzzer beating slice of pizza and booed while their team was only down 3 and had a chance… #teampromofail

@LakersReporter Lakers crowd is incensed with N.O. scrapping during garbage time enough to threaten free tacos. 99 pts. w/04.8 left…

BAH. Rant time. This stuff pisses me off. Get rid of all of these stupid promotions. If the crowd is chanting, I want it to be about the game. End of story. And, Raptors fans, you’re letting me down lately. I love your passion for the team, I love that there seem to be a gazillon of you on the internet, but smarten up. This isn’t directed at all of you (after all, I am a Raptors fan), just the pizza people and the two fools in the section next to me who were heckling Chris Bosh on Sunday. Not cool.

@ticktock6: I think it’s hilarious that my entire twitter feed is cracking jokes about that Devin Brown airball. Lord, it was so bad. I’m still laughing

@kpelton: Every time I watch this Hornets-Lakers game, Bobby Brown is shooting. He does not lack for confidence.

I don’t even know how I feel about the Browns anymore. It’s just ridiculous at this point. At the beginning of the season, I was screaming at Byron Scott for playing them. Now, they both kind of need to be on the court for at least some stretches, but come on. What is going through their heads with some of these shots? The Devin Brown shot Ticktock6 from Hornets Hype is talking about was honestly one of the worst shots I have EVER seen. Very comparable to Zach Randolph’s boneheaded end-of-game three-pointer last year, except it came in the 1st quarter with plenty of time on the shot clock. As for her reaction (which was the same as mine) – sometimes, you have to laugh because the only other option is to cry. I’ll definitely post the video here if it surfaces later today. Here’s hoping.

To Watch

Lamar Odom destroying Hilton Armstrong:

(This spot is reserved for when nba.com puts up John Thompson’s interview from last night about Allen Iverson. Come on, guys.)

To Read

Generally, I’m going to use this section for articles/posts published the previous day, leaning more heavily on stuff that hasn’t been linked much elsewhere (like this piece on Carl Landry, this one on Jarrett Jack, this one on Mike Wilks, and this one on the Wolves). Today, though, I’ve got to direct you to three excellent Thanksgiving-inspired pieces from a few days ago. If you’re American and you took a break from the NBA for a couple days there, I forgive you, but do yourself a favour and read these. The first two speak perfectly for me, and the last one speaks to me.

Giving Thanks To The Game, by Holly MacKenzie

Guess what I’m thankful for? by Kelly Dwyer

A Different Set Of Eyes, by Tim Donahue

I tried this weekly recap thing last week, using Twitter as a guide. This week, I’m at it again. Same idea, but I’m going to use video as a guide. These clips are mostly from a few fantastic YouTube uploaders, but there are a couple of NBA.com videos in here too. This won’t be quite as good as actually watching the games as they happen, but it should at least give you an idea of what you’re missing.

Monday, Nov. 16

Stephen Jackson finally got his wish on Monday morning, as he was traded to the Bobcats for Raja Bell and Vladimir Radmanovic. Mere hours after the swap was completed, he made his debut in Orlando. I only saw the first few minutes of the game, but it was enough to decide that the Bobcats are no longer my least-favourite team to watch. Captain Jack ends up being on the receiving end of a Vince dagger, though. Magic win 97-91.

This was a crazy shot, but somehow you could feel it coming. As soon as I saw Fernandez was the inbounder, I told my buddy Cory that he would end up getting the ball back. As soon as the shot went up, we both yelled that it was going in. It did, but then Portland was unable to stop Joe Johnson in overtime. Hawks win 99-95.

Again, this was predictable, even though it shouldn’t have been with the degree of difficulty. We were rooting pretty hard for Milwaukee at Casa Herbert; trust that there was a healthy level of fear as soon as Dirkus Circus (hat tip to J.E. Skeets for that one) received the ball. Luc Richard Mbah A Moute is one of the very best defenders in the world and he did all he could do, but Dirk just knocked down the shot to give his team the win. Mbah A Moute, on the deciding play where Nowitzki brought his overtime point total to 7 (hat tip to Scott Carefoot for this one): “(Dirk’s) a good player. I probably should’ve tried harder to deny him the ball, but they just throw it up and he’s 7-foot.” I can’t imagine how frustrating that must have been for him – I was heartbroken and the Bucks aren’t even technically my favourite team. Dirk simply makes unguardable shots.

Tuesday, Nov. 17

Heh, the announcer says it’s the second game in a row Melo has made a shot like this. I think he practices these ones. I used to.

I’ve seen LeBron get chasedown blocks so many times. It still gets me out of my seat, screaming. I can’t imagine this ever changing.

Unfortunately, this is a metaphor for Anthony Randolph’s season thus far. Here, LeBron James is playing the part of Don Nelson.

I was going to say that LeBron is now playing the part of the Charlotte Bobcats here, but that doesn’t work. I don’t know if Vlad Rad is happy to be in Golden State, but if you think about it he and the Warriors are a perfect match. He is essentially the opposite of Anthony Randolph. AR brings energy, athleticism, defense, and gets most of his points on the inside. Radmanovic isn’t athletic or defensively skilled, but he can stand at the 3-point line and hit open shots. Nellie will love him.

I love Kobe’s post game. There is nothing I’m happier about this year in the NBA, besides Brandon Jennings. Kelly Dwyer says it perfectly here (and at 14:55 here, heh). My take: it might have been a long time coming, but it’s here and we should appreciate it. Going down in the post is great for us because we get to see his great footwork that other 2-guards simply can’t stop, plus it’s great for his team because it attracts attention and opens up the whole floor. Perhaps he should have done this sooner, but you have to absolutely love that the man is still adding to and refining his game in the summertime, post-30. This is part of why former haters are changing their tune: even if you don’t want to hang out with Kob’, but you have no choice but to respect his work ethic and love for the game. None.

Had to show another video of Kobe in the post. Thing of beauty. Is there any other SG who would have done that? Serious question, this. If there is someone, let me know.

I will admit it. I was kind of falling asleep as this happened. My eyes weren’t completely open, but then I heard the announcers screaming. Caught the replay – my jaw dropped and I immediately thought “MJ!” The next day, I saw this post.

Kobe woke me up, then I saw this. Man. I love blocked dunks. This is easily one of my very favourite plays of the season – two of the best highlight guys in the league colliding. It was going to be a YouTube hit one way or another, but Maxiell got the best of Brown this time.

Kobe’s getting into that zone where his numbers are so ridiculous that you can’t even properly comprehend them. He’s scored 40 points 100 times? Alright, then. I just can’t believe it has been 14 seasons already. I remember him, a skinny teenager, shaking David Stern’s hand whilst wearing a Charlotte Hornets hat. I remember him scoring 31 points in the Rookie Challenge, trying to dominate the game. I remember him being interviewed on Inside Stuff with fellow rookies Derek Fisher and Travis Knight. Now, he’s the Lakers’ 2nd-leading scorer ever? Only behind Jerry West? Really? Okay. When this kind of thing happens, I realize that I’m going to be telling my kids one day “I got to see Kobe Bryant live”. Living legend, this guy, and he’s still one of the game’s very best. We have been lucky to see his development. Also, um, that was a pretty nice shot.

Wednesday, Nov. 18

Rajon Rondo is nice, but that’s not why I’m showing you this. Watch it again, and look at who the Warriors have on the court. Anthony Randolph at the 5, Corey Maggette at the 4, Anthony Morrow at the 3, Monta Ellis at the 1, and… Raja Bell at the 2? When he was traded to the disaster factory that is the Warriors organization, it was reported that he would go ahead with the wrist surgery he delayed in Charlotte. After all, he needed the surgery and he wasn’t part of Golden State’s long-term plans. But the Warriors only had seven healthy bodies this night and Bell decided to take one for the “team”. Instead of sitting on the bench like everyone expected him to, he decided to give it a go against the very physical Boston Celtics. Let it be known that the only guy playing his proper position really had no reason to chase Ray Allen and Paul Pierce around, as he had a torn ligament in his wrist and was leaving the team to have surgery the very next day. It would be easy to forget a 109-95 Boston victory in November, but I always want to remember that Raja played this past Wednesday. Hence, this paragraph and the picture at the beginning of this article. “Respect” isn’t a strong enough word here.

Sneaky little guy. I like this guy. (I’m going to tone down my Jennings love for a bit. It’s not that I have nothing to say, it’s that I don’t have to draw attention to him these days.)

This was a GREAT basketball game. I missed it live because of Nuggets/Raptors, but got to it on the weekend. Can’t ignore two of my favourite teams going up against one another. So much ball movement, so much effort in this one. Not even sure if this was the best dunk of the night, but I can’t find Budinger’s slam on YouTube. Anyway, my guy Carl Landry had 27 points on 18 shots and added 9 rebounds. Steve Nash took a while to get going, scoring-wise, but finished with 12 points along with his 16 assists. Suns win 111-105, but the final score didn’t seem important.

This is a nice dunk, but I’m posting it here mainly so I can link to this picture of the reaction on the Raptors bench.

I can’t say enough about this clip, or how Dirk is playing right now. Dirk is having an MVP-level season, and I’ve watched this video 4 times now and still get goosebumps.

Left handed? Okay, LeBron. You win. I’m now convinced you will kill it in the dunk contest this year. Had my doubts, as I thought your HS contest stuff was a bit lacking in the creativity department, but I know you’ll get it right this time. With your hops, strength, and coordination, I’m expecting to see some stuff I’ve never seen before.

Insane. New rule: if your shot attempt is from beyond 70 feet, it counts even if it’s up to 1 second after the buzzer sounds. Anyone have a problem with this?

Legendary Clippers announcer Ralph Lawler and partner Mike Smith were suspended for one game for their comments about Hamed Haddadi, the league’s fist Iranian-born player. I wanted to reserve judgment till I saw/heard what actually happened. Now that I’ve watched this? Well, it was a blowout, and they had little to say. They were joking around, but were proven to be very ignorant. Not hateful, but ignorant. The 1-game suspension was about right, methinks.

Thursday, Nov. 19

Peja had 25 points and 13 rebounds, shooting 7-11 from downtown. In 2009. He got WAY too many wide open looks, but this is still impressive. I thought he was done after what we saw last year; if he keeps up anything close to this, I’ll be so happy being wrong. The Hornets, sans Chris Paul, beat the team with the West’s best record on national TV. And they followed it up with a win against the team with the East’s best record two nights later (before losing a heartbreaker to Miami on Sunday). Remember what I said about their rookies? Well, they’re playing now and they’re playing very, very well.

You hear what Doug Collins said there? We are “waiting to see what his effect will be on the team.” Well, we saw it. He makes the Lakers much, much better. And they were already a great team. With his high-post passing and everything else, plus Kobe taking it down to the block, you could make the argument that Tex’s triangle has NEVER been in better hands. After watching for five minutes, I completely forgot that this was Pau’s first game back. You couldn’t tell. The Lakers toyed with the Bulls all night and won easily. They’re still the favourites, people.

Friday, Nov. 20

So, this rookie has some hops, eh? Get on the bandwagon now, while there’s still some room. Not sold? He also did this.

A couple of things: this was a very weird game in the first half. There were numerous crazy plays, but this one stood out. As Julian Guy-McCarvill said, you normally know exactly what you’re going to get with Amir Johnson. No one knew we were going to get this, though.

Welcome back to Toronto, Pops. Wish I could have found video of the ovation he received when he entered his first home game of the season for the Raps. With Amir in the lineup, Mensah-Bonsu is only going to see limited minutes, but he’s the type of guy fans really love. Plays like this show you what he brings – energy, athleticism, and tenacity.

I see how it is, Joel. You show up to play Canada’s team and dunk all over one of their fan favourites. Some patriot you are. Hmph.

Shocking when it happened. Thought this one was going into OT. How do you not box out Josh Smith on a play like this? Anyway, this seems an appropriate time to talk about how great Smith has been this year… You can start with Dave Berri’s statistical stuff if you want, or you can just listen to me. Josh Smith is a different player now. We’ve all seen flashes of this Josh Smith. In fact, two seasons ago, he looked like he was headed in this direction at a rapid pace. With the way he runs the floor; leaps for rebounds, alley-oops, and blocks; guards multiple positions; and scores easily on the inside, we always knew he had star potential. He just had to put it all together. Unfortunately, he regressed in 2008-2009. This year, though, he’s doing it right. Playing hard and smart at both ends of the floor, Smith has been by far the biggest reason for Atlanta’s 11-3 start. He’s ditched the 3-pointers and is occasionally even looking like a point-forward, with five 7+ assist games under his belt already. I can’t overstate how great this is to see, and that’s not because he’s been a beast for my fantasy team. Watching young players (he doesn’t turn 24 for another few weeks) develop, especially those who have been knocked for problems with focus/decision-making/maturity, is one of the most rewarding parts of following this game.

No need for analysis, here. What a play. I’m convinced he’s been watching Vince Carter highlights, even though Vince would have spun in the other direction.

Seeing Harden do this stuff doesn’t make sense to me yet. With his beard, his demeanor, and his sweet shot, he doesn’t seem like the guy who should be making highlight-reel plays. He’s the most sneaky-athletic player since Eric Gordon debuted last year. Haven’t watched enough Thunder so far this year, bad James.

Appreciate this man. He will be done in a couple of years and nobody talks about him anymore. He’s been on my fantasy team for years and his name sometimes comes up in trade conversations, but nobody wants to give up anyone decent for him. Fine with me; his assists, steals, rebounds, and threes can stay right where they are. I don’t know when J-Kidd stopped being cool, but it’s bullshit. He still does things like this, things that not even a handful of other NBA players do. Gotta love it.

That this was the best highlight I can find of Jason Thompson from the past week should tell you a couple of things: he’s not yet anywhere near to a household name and he doesn’t have a hell of a lot of flash in his game. You should start paying attention to him, though. The guy has really improved from last season, even relative to other 2nd year players. On this night against Dallas, he totalled 18 points (on 9-13 shooting), 8 rebounds, 1 steal, and 2 blocks in a 2-point loss. His defense is very good and he’s doing a much better job at drawing fouls. Good thing he has improved his free throw shooting to 80% from 69% last year. Late Saturday night, I heard extremely positive things bout him from two very different, but very trustworthy sources. Seems like he’s the real deal.

The in-game clips here are not actually from this week; they’re from an earlier matchup between Houston and Memphis. This video surfaced on Friday, though, and it’s great. I love how these Rockets seem to care more about the little things than every other team in the league. Even outlet passing. That is a skill. Just like post defense, showing on screens, recovering, closing out on shooters, boxing out, etc. Please don’t think Chuck Hayes’s worth to the Rockets is just having a good build and “effort”. He IS built perfectly to guard multiple positions, and he DOES exert a hell of a lot of focused energy out there, but he wouldn’t be so damn good if not for his brain. If he didn’t play smarter than everybody else, he wouldn’t be in the league. But right now he’s starting at the 5 for the Rockets, at 6’6. And he’s improved immeasurably on the offensive end. Smart guy.

Saturday, Nov. 21

Some would say this sums up the Knicks’ miserable season thus far. Can’t argue; it’s been a mess. My take, though: D’Antoni overreacts a bit here when he jumps on Nate. The shot was clearly after the buzzer sounded – there was only half a second on the clock when the ball was inbounded. Players do this type of thing all the time… except they usually wait a few seconds. Nate Robinson is just impatient, man… Right?

Welcome back, Devin! We’ve missed you. Your team has missed you more. It would have been great if your return had resulted in a win, but I’m sure you’ll get that monkey off your back soon. Oh what’s that, you’re going on a Western road trip now? Um, I gotta go. We’ll talk some other time? Say, two weeks from now? Cool.

All I saw of the game was the first quarter but it was phenomenal for the Cavs (36-23). Philly’s D was not stifling, but what the Cavs did was encouraging regardless. It wasn’t just high screens and isolations for LeBron. There was a lot of ball/player movement with plays like these, and LeBron even had a nice post-up move. I want more of this, but it would seem it didn’t last. After the electric first quarter, the Cavs only scored 18, 21, and 22 points in the next three. If not for stepping up their D to hold Philly to just 10 points in the final period, this would have been a loss. I’m still kinda worried about the Cavs.

I’m showing you this dunk because it’s awesome, but J.R. Smith is not just a dunker. He has come a long way since the Hornets and Bulls gave up on him, but some of his “knucklehead” reputation (unfairly) remains. The “problem” (I wouldn’t really call it that): he can still be inconsistent from quarter to quarter and game to game. On this night, J.R. impressed with ludicrous long-range threes and very nice passes. We’ve seen this before – remember the surprising defense and passing he exhibited in last year’s playoffs? Smith has a complete game and the potential to look like an All-Star on any given night, but, fine, you can’t quite count on him to do it all the time. Holly Mackenzie says, “J.R. Smith WILL put the pieces together one day. Just on his own watch, not on ours.” I couldn’t agree more. And even though it might sometimes be sorta frustrating waiting for everything to click, we should remember that the man just turned 24. He came straight out of high school in 2004. You know who else did that? Josh Smith. It’s come together for him seemingly out of nowhere this year, so don’t be surprised if J.R. makes that leap soon. Stay patient.

Sunday, Nov. 22

Vince was determined to get to the basket early against Toronto. You just know he gets up for these games, where almost everyone in the building is booing him every time he touches the ball. On this play, he succeeded, but for most of the first half his aggressive drives to the basket didn’t end well. Unable to draw fouls or convert around the basket, the Raptors were lucky to not be punished more for being unable to stop Vince getting where he wanted to on the court. In the second half, though, he played more controlled basketball and shifted his game to the perimeter. In an amusing sequence at the end of the third quarter, he ran down the clock for 20 seconds while Toronto fans attempted to defy their lungs and boo for all of eternity. At the end of the shot-clock, he hit a very difficult baseline jumper over good defense. Silenced the place. Finishing with 24 points on 24 shots, he didn’t have an efficient night, but it was enough to beat the Raptors 104-96 despite Amir Johnson’s best effort (rebounding, defense, scoring around the basket, seeming to be all over the court at all times). I was at the game and feel confident saying Amir and J.J. Redick were the two most impactful guys this afternoon – Redick scored 19 points on just 10 field goal attempts and added 5 assists for Orlando. This is two consecutive meetings where he’s murdered the Raptors – you have to think they’ll limit his wide open looks next time out. If not, my brain might fall out of my head.

It has to be a bit worrying for Boston fans that it came to this against this year’s Knicks, but an ugly win is still a win. Paul Pierce dominated the overtime period, setting the stage for KG to step in and hit the open straightaway jumper to win the game despite his and Ray Allen’s poor overall shooting performances on the day. Also, it’s worth noting that Eddy Curry scored 6 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in 15 minutes. The big man has appeared in three games for the Knicks this season, already playing more minutes than he did all of last year. It looks like he’s lost about 70 pounds and I’m not even close to being used to seeing him out there yet. Really hoping the comeback works out, as he does have serious offensive skill and he has been through some legitimately terrible things since he was last in the Knicks’ rotation.

Update, Monday 11 AM: Speaking of Curry, this cheap shot on Rondo is sure to lose him some goodwill. This is a dangerous play that came in a thoughtless moment. I just became aware of it now and have watched the clip a few times, repeatedly getting squeamish right before seeing Eddy knock down the Celts’ point man. To his credit, the big man apologized for it afterward, saying “I felt like he was holding me, but I can’t let frustration get to me. It was [the] heat of the moment. I can’t let emotions get the best of me. It was just stupid.” Agreed, man.

Alright, let’s talk about the last game of the week. Lakers vs. Thunder. I spoke earlier about how great the Lakers looked against the Bulls – this was the same. This group again looked like they didn’t belong in the same league as its opponent. The game was over after the first quarter, where Kobe Bryant put on a show that I can’t describe properly with words. I’m serious, I can’t describe it. I’m just going to show you the videos of what he did, in addition to the videos of Shannon Brown’s garbage time brilliance You will enjoy them, even if you’ve seen them twenty times already.