Jim Rogash / Getty Images

John Bennett’s been on the OTN team for a few weeks now, as the host of The Outside The NBA Podcast. This is the first edition of his weekly column The Lookahead, where he’ll preview the games he’s most looking forward to. He just joined Twitter and you should harass him because doesn’t worship Hubie Brown. -Ed.

1. Thursday’s TNT Doubleheader: Boston @ Miami & Lakers @ Denver

Miami looked completely lost in its season opener in Boston. Wade was understandably horrible as he played 3 minutes in the pre-season, and they barely ran an offense. That will not happen this time and while the crowd won’t be as ridiculous as it was in the Garden, it should help the Heat when Boston’s D tries to clamp down.

The Nuggets won both times the Lakers visited Denver last season. Maybe this time Ty Lawson will dunk on Theo Ratliff.

This is a new year, though, and the Lakers’ new pieces have blended smoothly into the rotation. Everyone seems to be playing their roles perfectly and it’s resulted in a 7-0 record. Pau’s touch passes are as crisp as ever. He’s so good at them it makes me think he should be the setter on Spain’s volleyball team come London 2012.

2. Portland @ New Orleans, Saturday

This off-season I punched the Hornets franchise in the face. I mean, Trevor Ariza’s a great defender and when he shoots the 3 well, he can be a dynamic offensive player… but really, that’s your move to keep Chris Paul?

I won’t say I ever doubted Chris Paul’s ability but I did doubt his body. Paul hasn’t missed a beat and shows no sign of injury. He also punched me right back in the face by leading the Hornets to a 6-0 start to the season.

I felt this was a bubble playoff team at best. 6 games in, they look like a legit threat in the West and have beaten some very solid teams.
Jerryd Bayless faces his former club for the 1st time. It should be a solid battle of backup PGs in Bayless and Amon Johnson.

3. Portland @ Oklahoma City, Friday

Looks like too many mainstream prognosticators labeled Oklahoma City the 2nd best team in the West. They’re 3-3 and their defense has slipped to 23rd in the league.

I think they’ll break out of their current funk by the time these two teams meet. I also think that Portland goes into this game with a bit of an attitude. All the attention going to OKC when Portland went 50-32 (same as the Thunder) last year with massive injury issues. Here’s hoping they’re upset about being overlooked, giving this game a real playoff feel to it.

4. Golden State @ Milwaukee, Saturday

MONTA ELLIS! MONTA ELLIS! MONTA ELLIS! Loving the new and improved Monta Ellis.

The last time these two played in Milwaukee, Brandon Jennings dropped 55 points. G-State is a completely different team than they were last year, though. They have a new head coach who cares, and a retooled roster. And the Bucks have one of their main scorers from last year, Mr. Corey Maggette.

5. Milwaukee @ Atlanta, Wednesday

This is a rematch of last year’s first round series. It’s a statement game for the Bucks as they lost last year in 7 without their big Aussie.

I can’t tell you why, but I have a feeling Drew Gooden has a great game. Don’t ask me, it’s just a hunch that by all accounts makes absolutely no sense since Josh Smith should theoretically destroy the Kansas grad on both sides of the ball. Only bring this up if I’m right.

6. Washington @ Chicago, Saturday

I fully expect John Calipari to sit back and drink a beer while marvelling at two of his former players fail to contain one another. Any way we could have the eight other players just hang out on the sideline while John Wall and Derrick Rose play a 48 minute game of 1-on-1?

Layne Murdoch / Getty Images

My God, it’s great to watch Chris Paul again. The Hornets/Heat game last night might have been my favourite game of the whole season. Dude was the best player on the court for those 48 minutes, and that court had a few pretty amazing players on it.

I’m sure you’re aware the Hornets are 5-0. And it hasn’t been an easy schedule – Milwaukee at home, Denver at home, San Antonio on the road, Houston on the road, and Miami at home. Plenty more impressive than Atlanta going 6-0 against MEM/PHI/WAS/CLE/DET/MIN, right? Or the Lakers beating HOU/PHO/GSW/MEM/SAC/TOR? Yeah. Shoals is right, New Orleans is the biggest story in basketball.

You know who else might be right? Ethan Sherwood Strauss, who picked CP3 to win MVP before the season started. He said, essentially, that CP3 could win because he’s the second best player in the league, he’s going to have an amazing statistical season, and there’s a good chance his team will outperform its modest expectations. The media people who vote on the award will still dislike LeBron and view Dwight Howard as more physically gifted than skilled, KD’s Thunder will underachieve, and Paul will emerge as the guy with the best MVP story. [This is just a stupid summary - pleeeease read the whole thing 'cause Sherwood Strauss is good at writing.]

I loved the post when he wrote it, but still would have picked LeBron James. And now, I think I’d still roll with LeBron, but I’m nervous about the pick. Here’s why: LeBron is the best player in the world, but statistically he might not be THAT much better than Chris Paul. Paul’s started the season putting up impossible-looking numbers, but this isn’t anything new. Last year, before the injury he was producing more than anyone else on the planet. And even though he won’t shoot 50% on threes all season and defense means LeBron will still be the better overall player in my books, there’s a good chance at the end of the season that Paul’s numbers will suggest that the “best player alive” conversation is at least worth having. Couple that with a winning team that no one expected to do anything, and bam. He’ll be MVP, unless the Heat win close to 70.

Everything hinges on the Hornets continuing to win, though, and I’ve got lots of questions that I sort of want to think about and sort of want to push away so I can simply enjoy watching them.

• How can I possibly reconcile my belief that Monty Williams is an excellent young coach absolutely perfect for this team with the fact that he’s playing Marcus Thornton fewer minutes than Willie Green?

• Is Emeka Okafor seriously going to make a leap in his seventh season in the NBA?
• Has Jason Smith’s more-than-solid play been a figment of my imagination?
• Can Trevor Ariza figure out how to score efficiently and become the perfect 3′s and D role player we want him to be?
• Shouldn’t employing D.J. Mbenga and Aaron Gray as your only backup centers disqualify you from winning 50 games?
• Is Chris Paul the best point guard… ever? [And all the other questions Dwyer posed here, really.]

Planning to watch all of the Bucks/Hornets game tonight, with absolutely no idea who to cheer for, so maybe I’ll have more of a handle on New Orleans tomorrow. For now, I’ll just say Chris Paul is brilliant at basketball and you should be obsessively paying attention to his team for the next little while despite its lack of national TV appearances.

Before today’s quotes/tweets feature, a quick programming note: LeBlog James is generally going to run Mon-Fri, but I’ll put something up on the weekends sometimes as well. If I miss a weekday, like I did yesterday, there will pretty much always be a Saturday post to make up for it. ONWARD:

Quoted

“He just absolutely was adamant when we talked about it. He didn’t feel it was correct to be there for a week and get paid for the season.” – Herb Rudoy, Fabricio Oberto’s agent. Oberto suddenly retired on Thursday because of a heart condition. Amazingly, he decided to give ALL of the $854,389 he was set to make this season back to the Blazers. Players who suffer career- or season-ending injuries have no obligation to give back even a penny.

“My phone’s on mute.” – Nate McMillan, asked for a reaction to losing two players in a span of four hours. In addition to the Oberto news, it was announced Thursday that Eliot Williams would have surgery on his dislocated right patella. This will likely mean he’s out for the season.

“SEMIH … YOU … GO!” – Doc Rivers, to Semih Erden, after he missed a defensive rotation. The lovable Turkish rookie apparently is not amazing at English just yet.

“I thought it was a great idea and I think it will really help the team. I won’t have to start the game off and I’m still learning. Coming in off the bench, I can see how aggressive the game is so I can know how aggressive to be and not be. I’ll get the feel of the game a lot better.” – The totally immature, team-killing problem child DeMarcus Cousins, after learning Samuel Dalembert would replace him in the starting lineup. What a jerk. Good thing the Wolves didn’t draft him at #4.

“There’s one thing that I know for sure, and it’s that KG would not offend cancer patients. That makes no sense. It makes no sense on a lot of fronts. Not only is he experiencing it in his own family, but that’s just not something I’ve ever heard — in 30 years — ever say, in trash talking.” – Danny Ainge

“I’d love to see Charlie and KG in the ring. I’d pick Charlie. I’ve seen KG get his ass whupped. … He’s always barking, and when it’s time to get physical, he’s always been a little chihuahua.” – Reggie Evans

“I’m trying to change it now where instead of avoiding the contact and hitting crazy shots, I’m trying to get fouled and go to the free-throw line. It’s kind of weird for me right now getting used to it, but it’s coming along.” – Derrick Rose, making people who care about scoring efficiency extremely happy.

“Against a good defensive team we have trouble a little bit. We don’t have — and this isn’t to put down anybody in our locker room — but we don’t have the great one-on-one players. We don’t have [Dwyane] Wade and [LeBron] James and Paul Pierce and Kobe Bryant.” – Stan Van Gundy, after the loss to the Heat. You better believe this is a challenge to Vince Carter.

“I couldn’t have said this with 100 percent honesty last year: We’re way better than this. We know we are. We’re way, way better than this. It’s heartfelt and upsetting to see where we’re at right now.” – Kevin Love, after the Wolves lost by 42 to Orlando. God, I feel bad for him.

“Obviously, I’ll be Prime Minister one day but I was going to wait until after I finish playing basketball.” – Steve Nash, when asked about this nonsense.

“I just hope I don’t pass the ball to Rondo, and then go set a screen.”- Brian Scalabrine, on his return to Boston as a Bull.

“Scal is the ultimate professional athlete. I have uncanny respect for the guy. He came in here and was a professional every day that he put on the green and white. I respect him more than anything. He’s one of my favorite ex-teammates in my small 15 years [in the NBA].” – Kevin Garnett, on Scalabrine. Wow. And Scal got a hell of a welcome – the crowd gave him a standing ovation and chanted his name when he subbed in, and a tribute video was played for him and Tom Thibodeau on the big screen.

“We have a saying: ‘DTW — Defense Travels Well.’ Your legs and your shots won’t go all the time. Your jump shots may not be there. But if you can lock into your defense — that’s what they’ve done. And that kept us in the game. We weren’t down by 10, 15 points. Our defense kept us close.” – Keith Smart. THE COACH OF THE GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS SAID THIS! Get very excited.

“We are not trying to take so much crazy shots as we did in the last couple of years. We try to more move the ball and get easier shots and get everybody else involved in the offense. So I think that helps, that we don’t take those shots after five or seven seconds on offense, just pulling up.” – Andris Biedrins, who must be unbelievably happy that Don Nelson is no longer the coach of his team.

“This is probably one of the toughest things to do when you leave a year. One of the things about the NBA is out of sight, out of mind. For Denver to give me an opportunity, I want to do well, not only for the opportunity but so they don’t feel they wasted a spot.” – Melvin Ely. I bet you didn’t know he started for the Nuggets last night.

“I’m not here to defend myself. I just want to get on the court and just let my actions, the way that I play (take care of it). That’s all I care about is just getting out on the court and playing at the level that I’m capable of playing at. I don’t really worry what people say about me.” – Baron Davis. Good. I’d love to be wrong about you, Baron. Let’s see it.

“None of your business.” – Gregg Popovich, when asked what drills Richard Jefferson was put through to rejuvenate himself in the summer.

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I don’t even have a computer, I barely can answer my cell phone.” – Jerry Sloan, on Twitter.

Tweeted

“I am sorry Indiana. That was not Pacer basketball. What u saw is not acceptable and we r not gonna let this be the norm. We can do better!” – Roy Hibbert, after Indiana lost by 26 in Philly.

“Gotta talk to Leo and figure out how to use Inception.” – Roy Hibbert.

“I would like to apologize 2 the woman who I jumped in2 when I dove for the loose ball out of bounds. I am sorry and I hope I didn’t injure u” – Roy Hibbert, who accidentally kicked a woman in the head last night.

“I’m starting to feel like I did something to the refs in my previous life! I felt like a kid who couldn’t play with his friends!”- Jermaine O’Neal, who is averaging 7.5 fouls per 36 minutes so far this season.

“Big congratulations to JD! He’s worked really hard and is a great teammate. He deserves everything he gets.” – Steve Nash, congratulating former All-OTN Team member Jared Dudley on his contract extension. Who would have thought 3 years ago that the only members of the 2007 draft class to be extended would be Kevin Durant, Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Mike Conley, and Jared Dudley? Very happy for Mr. JMZ.

“Rod Strickland was REAL!!!! I don’t care what nobody say. Top 5 to me, no ASG, no Hype….” – Brandon Jennings, who also studies tapes of Kenny Anderson and watches several NBA games simultaneously.

“I really hope the rockets lets me know something soon…” – Jermaine Taylor, who is the most likely Rocket to be waived in order to facilitate an Erick Dampier signing.

“Beyond frustrated…feels like I’m being lied 2″ – Jermaine Taylor, who might be talking about his situation with Houston or might be talking about something completely different.

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

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

Gary Dineen / Getty Images

This past week, I’ve been tweeting and League Passing my face off and loving every minute of it. I’ve seen buzzer-beaters, incredible dunks, and one of the most captivating individual performances I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. Here’s a recap of the week that was, using selections from the Outside Twitter account as a guide.

Monday, Nov. 9

6:55 PM: I guess as a Raptors fan I should be excited about Duncan and Parker not playing. I’m scared of the Raps letting up, though. Spurs are deep.

This is one of those times where I wish I was wrong. Manu Ginobili was brilliant, the Raptors’ defense was awful, and Toronto lost despite shooting 59% from the floor.

9:45 PM: I want that Matt Bonner dunk on a poster.

10:42 PM: This Raptors lineup is fucking FUN. I’d be rooting for them even if they weren’t “my” team.

I believe Sonny Weems, Marco Belinelli, and Amir Johnson were all on the floor at that point. The Raptors’ revamped bench has been a huge bright spot so far this season. While these new guys have flaws (i.e. Belinelli’s shot selection, Johnson’s propensity to foul), they are exciting and they bring stuff to the table that the Raptors needed. Every game, I look forward to the bench unit getting some run. It’s especially nice when Antoine Wright and Johnson are on the floor at the same time, doing their best to shed the “soft” label this club has had for years.

12:08 AM: Is Stephen Jackson reinventing himself as a distributor on this team loaded with scorers? For one game against the Wolves, the answer is yes.

There really wasn’t much defense being played here, but what Jackson did was still impressive. He didn’t look for his own shot AT ALL, choosing to create for his sweet-shooting teammates like Kelenna Azubuike and Anthony Morrow. “Coach” Don Nelson even joked about how Jackson’s agent ripped him earlier that day.

12:59 AM: Huge dunk from Jawai! Big smile on my face. Don’t care that it’s in this context.

The context: right at the end of the worst loss in T-Wolves history. It really couldn’t have been less meaningful. I’m really rooting for the Aussie to succeed, though. The Raptors had high hopes for him when they picked him up in the 2nd round of the 2008 draft, but he was soon dealt a crushing blow, mistakenly being diagnosed with a cardiac issue and barred from undergoing any physical activity. He missed training camp and never managed to get in game shape for his first NBA team. When he was traded to Dallas in the Turkoglu/Marion deal, it looked like he would unfortunately get lost in the shuffle again. But then the Timberwolves called, with their injury-riddled frontcourt requiring another big body. He still looks like he needs to drop a bit of weight in Minnesota, but he has finally been given a chance to play and has been a contributor.

1:46 AM: Working on article about the rooks. Started off writing full paragraphs, now typed “Beard! Shooting! Perfect fit! Thunder!” Ugh, bed time.

Tuesday, Nov. 10

1:28 PM: My ASG Voting: W: Nash, Kobe, KD, Melo, Amar’e. E: Gil, Wade, LeBron, Bosh, Dwight. Hardest part: No CP3. Unfair, want him instead of Gil.

Getting left off of my All-Star team was is just the start of a horrible, horrible weak for Chris Paul that saw his team lose 3 of 4 games, including being blown out by Phoenix and Atlanta. We’ll get to the rest of it soon. Also, I’d now put Brandon Jennings there instead of Gilbert. No contest.

8:34 PM: Carmelo just did the most impressive offensive thing (1:31 here) I’ve seen since that Wade “slashing through the whole D” thing.

I was watching the game with Julian and Wagman. It was one of those plays where we all went “holy shit!” when it happened and were even more impressed when we saw the replay. The degree of difficulty on that play is off the charts; Melo is unbelievable.

9:47 PM Gilbert Arenas is in danger of breaking Jason Kidd’s all-time record for turnovers in a game (14).

He finished with 12, tying the opposing team on the night and Dwyane Wade, Paul Pierce, Allen Iverson, Damon Stoudamire, and Scottie Pippen in the record book. Kelly Dwyer said he should have sat this one out and, even though I’m a massive Arenas fan, I’m not going to offer a counter argument.

10:29 PM: BRAD MILLER IS THE NEW DEREK FISHER. HOLY HELL
10:33 PM: I’ve seen this replay 20 times and still don’t know if it should count or not.

I flipped to the OKC game because it looked like it was over when Billups was at the foul line with 0.6 on the clock. Something told me to check back on this one more time, though, and we were lucky enough to get there literally a second before the inbound pass. When Brad Miller’s desperation shot (1:40 here) went in, we all went apeshit. I’m surprised nobody got hurt. Then, there was 10 minutes of watching replays and debating over whether or not it was good. Julian and Wagman were certain it was late. I wasn’t sure. In retrospect, they were right.

11:09 PM: Numerous buzzer-beaters tonight. James Harden just hit a RIDICULOUS one to end the half. Yes, it counted.

12:41 AM: Blah. Not happy about that ending for my 2nd-favourite team (1:55 here). Thought that last shot had a chance.

Kevin Durant had 37 points on 23 shots, shooting 18-18 from the line. Wasn’t enough, though, against this powerhouse Sacramento team.

12:48 AM: Nice timing. As soon as the OKC game ended, Bill Simmons appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Still on right now.

4:37 AM: Stayed up all this time editing a podcast. Have never done that before. Crap, have to leave for work in 4 hours

Wednesday, Nov. 11

11:51 AM: B. Jennings on NBA TV yesterday

2:37 PM: Never thought I’d see Nash referred to as “the Iggy Pop of the NBA”. Can’t really argue, I guess.

7:19 PM: Every time DeRozan scores I’m… uhhh… proud? Is that what it is? Have no idea why. Anyway, I like him.

Holly MacKenzie re-tweeted this one and said “Thanks for saying it for me.” Thing is, as someone who covers the Raptors, she has talked to DeMar in a pre-draft workout, at the draft, at the Vegas summer league, and at practice all the time. It makes sense for her to feel that way; she’s been there and seen him working hard. I, on the other hand, have never met the guy. I didn’t even see much of him in college. I don’t really know how he became “my guy”, but he is. There’s something about him that makes me watch him in the same way I imagine people watch their kids. If he makes a mistake on the court, the first thing that comes to my mind is always something like “noooo, I hope he doesn’t lose any confidence” instead of something like “get that rookie out of the game”. I root for him harder than anyone else on my hometown team. This has definitely has added to my enjoyment of the Raptors this season, but it’s a bit weird. I even added him as a friend on Facebook.

10:00 PM: Feel bad for New Jersey (1:52 here). Oh man. “They end this one with a whimper” – that is correct, Ian Eagle.

That had to hurt. So much. Without Harris, this is a team full of young guys trying to scrape together wins even when they’re overmatched. To come this close, and then have a turnover like that one? Gutting.

10:14 PM: Huge 3 from Jennings. He has 23 and 9. Then he drew the 5th foul on Nene while trying to get a rebound.
10:15 PM: ANOTHER 3! Jennings! I have no words.
10:25 PM: Normally I like the Nuggets but against this Bucks team they are pure evil to me. Go Jennings.
10:27 PM: Clutch ft’s, Brandon. Nice.

I’m not apologizing one bit for all this Jennings love (and this is nothing, wait till we get to Saturday). This rookie is a wonder. We haven’t seen a small, left-handed rookie point guard who can score from anywhere on the court, keep his teammates happy, and come through in the clutch like this since Damon Stoudamire won the Rookie of the Year in 1995-1996. He is like Damon on steroids. His drives are captivating, his shot is pure, and his swagger is immense. Defenses fear him. Try asking me when the Bucks are coming to Toronto and I’ll tell you “January 22” before you finish your sentence. It’s as if God created Brandon Jennings to thank me for being a basketball fan.

10:30 PM: Switched over to HOU game for a second and saw Carl Landry get a fucking vicious block on Rudy Gay. Along with it, a nice scream.

I couldn’t find a video of that particular block, but I found this one. Insane. Landry really embarrassed Rudy that night, just like Travis Outlaw did the night before. Rough week. Sorry, Rudy. One more thing: I’m not the least bit surprised that Landry is having so much success this season. In fact, I thought he’d be scoring more than this. He was quietly a very efficient scorer for the Rockets for the past couple of seasons and he possesses passion, energy and all the other good stuff that can’t be seen in his stellar PER. Love this guy. He’s on both of my fantasy teams.

10:35 PM: Read Shoals’s piece about being either extremely pro- or anti-Jennings. Um, yep. 1st time in my life I’ve considered buying a Bucks jersey.

I looked into this. The NBA Store shamefully doesn’t have pre-made Jennings jerseys on the Bucks’ page – you have to select a customized jersey and then find his name on the list, just like you would if you wanted a Francisco Elson jersey. Also, the Bucks’ official store is on the Bradley Center’s website, which is down. (Update: Home, Road, Alternate.)

10:48 PM: I generally can’t turn down a Thunder game but we’ve got Steve Nash and Chris Paul on the floor at the same time here, so… sorry OKC.

Sadly, this was my final tweet of the night. I thought that seeing two of the best point guards ever go at it would keep me going, despite getting less than four hours of sleep the night before. Nope. At some point, I apparently woke up enough to turn off the TV and fall right back to sleep.

Thursday, Nov. 12

7:13 AM: 75 1st-half pts for PHO? Clutchness from KD? F me for falling asleep. Ok with missing Westbrook’s injury live tho, wouldn’t handle that well

I woke up on the couch with the lights still on, a bit confused. Immediately checked highlights to see that Durant had taken out the Clippers without much help from the Thunder’s backcourt terror, including a game-winning jumper with 39 seconds left in the game (1:45 here). Westbrook shot 1-11 in less than 22 minutes and probably shouldn’t have even tried to come back after Marcus Camby landed on his ankle. The Portland/Phoenix game probably would have just depressed me, in retrospect. 75 points in a half sounds like fun, but I’m sick of seeing Chris Paul’s team get killed. Turned out to be Byron Scott’s final game as their coach.

7:29 AM: If you’re not a Will Bynum fan, you have no soul.

7:38 AM: “It felt good, it made me feel young again.” – DeRozan, 20 years old, on his dunk last night.

Aw… What a great kid! Shit, I’m doing it again. I’ll stop.

1:29 PM: Bryon Scott is gone. Not surprised in the least. Lil Buckets & Lil Dimes are free!

The first thing I thought about when I heard the news was that these two rooks would get to see more playing time. I was excited. No one knew who was replacing Byron at this point, though.

2:16 PM: Erm… Bower? I don’t know about this. I guess he’ll probably play the rookies he drafted, which is good. Worried about that team though.

I’m an idiot, I didn’t even notice the Tim Floyd thing initially.

2:30 PM: Sham nails it RT @ShamSports Byron Scott fired, Tim Floyd strangely hired.

I wasn’t going to include re-tweets in this thing, but he said it way better than I could.

2:47 PM: I actually get angry when I think about the Warriors. So much talent. Damn it.

Should I rant here? Do we need another rant about this organization? I’m so far beyond sick of reading about the clusterfuck that is the Golden State Warriors, and I bet you are too. I just want this to end.

8:39 PM: Came on here to see the reactions to Wade’s dunk. Love seeing there are so many people who just freaked out like I did. Thanks, Twitter.

I never thought I’d fully get into this Twitter thing like I have. I’m not just spending so much time there because it’s how you get news now; I legitimately enjoy seeing people’s commentary during games and their responses to crazy plays like this. When you’re staying in to spend quality time with League Pass and your laptop, there’s something pretty cool about seeing a ton of other people doing the same thing and loving it.

9:44 PM: Shortly, there will be a picture of 9-year-old me wearing the purple ‘dino’ uniform on the internet. I’m not sure how I feel about this.

I must say, one of the highlights of my week was when Tas Melas tweeted about the picture. The thing was sent around my office, too. One of my co-workers made it his background image. I’m not seeing any real downside to posting it… yet.

9:52 PM: Barkley, you are killing me.

11:52 PM: The Machine = The ENFORCER!

2:46 AM: Bloody hell. Didn’t quite register how FAR Shannon Brown took off from, live. Bynum, Iggy, Wade, Brown. Couple of amazing nights for dunks.

2:55 AM: “I’m in the NBA and without ACL’s and with the Spurs. Doing my dream. I’m blessed. It’s amazing.”

Friday, Nov. 13

12:02 PM: What the FUCK is this about? CB had a hell of a summer and is 2nd in the league in PER. What more do you want from him?

Um, yeah. This didn’t please me. I just don’t understand what prompted it. Chris Bosh is by no means flawless, but how does he deserve this sort of treatment? Blaming Bosh of all people for Toronto’s lack of post-season success is ridiculous. It’s a team game. And why write this now? There are games to talk about. Reading this article, you would have no idea that almost nobody has been better than Toronto’s franchise guy so far in this young season.

4:35 PM: I need to write about OKC so I have an excuse to use this pic.

Andrew D. Bernstein / Getty Images

5:49 PM: Rockets cut Pops, and the Raptors have a roster spot. I’m sure there are people thinking what I’m thinking.

10:09 PM: Just saw Chris Paul being carried off the floor. Heart fucking sank. Damn it.
10:18 PM: Someone say Chris Paul is okay.

This looked awful. I couldn’t concentrate properly on any basketball being played for the next little while after I saw this (was watching the fantastic first half of the Lakers/Nuggets game at the time). I don’t even know how to put into words how devastated Hornets fans would have been if it turned out to be a season-threatening injury. Then, imagine what Paul himself was going through. Gah. Anyway, it turns out he’s sidelined 3-4 weeks, which isn’t good but isn’t as bad as it could have been. (Update: Now, the Hornets announced Paul is out “indefinitely”. Damn it. I want him back soon. Selfishly, I want him back before December 20, when his team makes its annual visit to Toronto. I was going to take my mom to that game for her birthday! Not going to bother, if there’s no CP3.)

1:31 AM: Um, WHAT? Raptors, Lawson, I didn’t see any of it. Can’t get home fast enough! Ahhh
1:50 AM: I just watched that Lawson dunk 5 times in a row. And I’m not done.

When I went out to watch my friend’s band play, the Lakers/Nuggets game was very competitive and the Raptors had cut a 22-point Clipper lead to 11. This was one of the countless times I’ve been thwarted by not being able to be in two places at once. As soon as the set was over, I checked NBA Game Time Lite and Twitter on my phone. The Raptors had won by 15, the Nuggets by 26, and everyone was losing their shit over one of my favourite rookies dunking over a 7-footer. You should have seen my face. I booked it home, reveled in Lawson’s awesomeness, and watched the Raptors Game In An Hour on Raptors NBA TV.

Saturday, Nov. 14

11:54 AM: Hot damn. I’ve watched a lot of basketball, and DeAndre Jordan’s wide-left attempt last night was one of the worst FT’s I’ve ever seen.

That wasn’t the only great video to come out of this game. Check out Kevin Arnovitz’s work for ClipperBlog. Along with Rob Mahoney at The Two Man Game, online basketball analysis is going to the next level with the use of video.

4:30 PM: About to post another book review. This time, no pics of me as a kid. Just fawning over what’s one of my favourite books ever.

7:12 PM: I’m totally ready for Will Bynum vs. Earl Boykins.

Wagman gets on my case sometimes, saying “you love any little guy who shoots a lot”. I maintain that, while I definitely do like me some small point guards with swagger, he’s simplifying things. For example, I am not a big fan of Bobby Brown or Jannero Pargo. So there.

7:34 PM: Okay, I know AI’s made some mistakes here, but… The Grizz would prefer TINSLEY? Argh. Sigh.

Nothing personal against Tinsley here. When he was in shape, the guy was one of the best distributors in the game. The Grizzlies could definitely use a player like that. It’s just that this whole Iverson scenario pisses me off. It’s inconceivable to me that he signed there without even discussing what his role would be on the team. Bitching to the media won’t solve anything, obviously, but it should have never reached that point. Iverson wasn’t much good in Detroit, but it would be very sad if he went out like this. I still hope that another team gives him a chance to prove he can still play, and that, if given that chance, Iverson makes a concerted effort to fit in, share the ball, and pick his spots. Ron Artest has done this remarkably well in L.A. up to this point, so I guess what I’m saying is… A.I., be more like Artest! Good god.

7:51: Oooooh, Boykins almost converted a 3 while getting fouled. I’ve missed this guy.
7:53: Boykins has 11 points already.

This was crazy. After being out of the NBA since the end of the 2007-2008 season, Earl Boykins hit 5 of his first 6 field goals and energized his new team. Exciting stuff.

9:51: Q-RICH!!!!!! WHAT?!!?!?!?
9:55: Yes Brook!!!
9:56: Noooooooo NJ! Ahhhhhh

At this point, my buddy Justin had come over. He wanted to watch Spurs/Thunder, but I insisted that he had to see Brandon Jennings play (but I hadn’t the slightest fucking clue what we were in for), so we had it mostly on Bucks/Warriors despite him saying they were “bad teams”. Thanks to Twitter, I saw that the Utah/Cleveland and Miami/New Jersey games were going down to the wire. Managed to flip to MIA/NJ in time to see Quentin Richardson bank in a ridiculous three to tie it, Brook Lopez hit a layup to take back the lead, and Dwyane Wade hit an incredible three to crush the Nets’ hopes of finally winning a game. Exciting as hell, but I felt terrible for Jersey – this was probably even tougher than the loss to Philadelphia.

10:06 PM: There is literally no one I like watching more than Brandon Jennings these days
10:09 PM: They’re chanting “Bran-don Jen-nings” in Milwaukee.
10:10 PM: I am freaking out. This is unreal. Brandon Jennings.
10:17 PM: This kid is not human. I don’t even understand this.
10:17 PM: THIS IS WHY I WATCH BASKETBALL
10:19 PM: I feel like I’m high right now.
10:20 PM: This is too much. This is like an advertisement for the sport.
10:34 PM: I am barely paying attention when the Warriors have the ball. Just waiting for Jennings to get it back.
10:50 PM: I keep getting chills.
10:50 PM: When Jennings scores, I feel like I am scoring.
10:53 PM: HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!!
10:59 PM: Jennings with the rebound. Fitting.
10:59 PM: BRANDON JENNINGS DID NOT SCORE IN THE 1ST QUARTER
11:05 PM: I am completely spent
11:07 PM: How the fuck did I gain followers tonight? All I’ve done is ramble like a crazy person.
11:14 PM: Fuck you Canada, we have Euroleague right now. Okay, I’m outta here. RT @johnschuhmann Brandon Jennings interview on NBA TV now.

To anyone who saw this live, you understand. If you didn’t, well… I’m not sure I can do it justice with words, but I’ll give it a shot. This was a special performance from an extraordinarily talented player. In the third quarter, everything Jennings did worked. Threes, pull-up jumpers, floaters, layups, they all went in. In the fourth, he wouldn’t let his team lose. The Warriors made a comeback, but every time they needed a basket, Brandon would get one. He even got a key rebound. As he was dominating the game, it never even felt like he was forcing things – he was just on another level. My mind was racing, thinking about what, if anything at all, was going through his head; thinking about what it must be like to be in that arena; and thinking about all the other die-hards lucky enough to have chosen to spend their Saturday night this way, hoping to see something even one-tenth this amazing. Justin and I were screaming, jumping, and high-fiving. I frantically called a few friends to tell them what was going on. I told the guy who has Jennings in our fantasy pool that I’d trade a kidney for him. All this, and I wouldn’t even say I got carried away. This display of excellence deserved extreme reactions. Some descriptors that come to mind: thrilling, awe-inspiring, and emotional. We went out to a bar afterward and it was showing a UFC event. I struggled to talk about anything besides the game and I kept wishing all of the TV’s would suddenly ditch the brawling dudes and play a replay of The Brandon Jennings Show. This game wasn’t only great; for someone like me who recently decided to give this NBA blogging thing a serious try, it was life-affirming.

Sunday, Nov. 15

6:01 PM: Beaubois! Bynum! Pistons vs. Mavericks, I’m up for this.
6:23 PM: Has there ever been a better point guard draft than this one? Jennings, Lawson, Flynn, Beaubois, Maynor, Collison have been very impressive.
6:23 PM: That’s not even mentioning Rubio. Or Evans/Curry/Douglas ’cause they’re combo guards. I think Teague can be a player, too. Damn.

In a liveblog on The Score the other night, we were talking about the rooks and I said this was pretty much a perfect class for me. Tons of really good point guards and pretty much everyone feeling like an underdog after it was declared a “weak” draft class – I can’t ask for more. Beaubois went off against the Pistons, by the way, finishing with 14 points and 4 assists without missing a single shot in 19 minutes of action. At one point, Jason Terry subbed in for him and the announcers talked about how the Pistons were catching a break.

8:43 PM: This is exactly Marco Belinelli’s type of game

You put Phoenix and Toronto on the court and you can expect to see a hell of a lot of fast breaks and ball movement. Belinelli thrives in these freewheeling games, as he can easily find open looks for himself and use his court vision to make plays for others. Now’s a good time to admit that I wasn’t too fond of his acquisition, initially – I thought his turnover rate and his penchant for taking, um, questionable shots made him basically an average offensive player. With his defense looking poor on a Golden State team that basically ignored that end of the floor, I questioned how well his game translated to the NBA. After watching his first 10 games as a Raptor, though, I have become a fan. He has provided a spark off the bench, scoring at a very efficient rate and keeping defenses on their toes with his aggressiveness. The “bad” shots are still there, but he’s actually making a lot of them. His turnovers have dropped a bit, too, and the defense? Not great, but not THAT bad. I can admit when I was wrong.

9:08 PM: Durant has 38. Lawler just said “he should never pass the ball.” Still over 8 minutes left.
9:25 PM: I feel like a bad Raptors fan. Can’t ignore the end of this OKC game.
9:33 PM: Durant is probably thinking about having another slap fight. Damn it, game over.

I don’t feel like that bad of a Raps fan at this point, since I watched the stuff I missed a few hours later. I love Raptors TV. You know what I’d love more, though? If the Canadian version of League Pass aired game replays. Anyway, onto that Thunder/Clippers game – there was 8:43 left and the score was tied when Durant hit for 38. He then missed a three-pointer on their next possession and didn’t shoot again until he made a jump shot with 4:25 left to bring his team within 1. Somehow, that was basically the end of Durant’s contribution. The remainder of the game saw Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green committing turnovers and missing shots, with Durant’s final shot being a meaningless missed 3 when down by 8 with 17 seconds left in the game. I know this team is young, but there’s no excuse for this. Durant is one of the best offensive players in the game and he was unstoppable to the tune of 40 points on this night. Scott Brooks (who drew up a great play to get Jeff Green an open corner 3 late in the game, only to see him miss it), Westbrook, and Durant himself all have to be held accountable for the fact that he vanished at the end of this one. Very frustrating.

10:01 PM: “Amir Johnson has been spectacular tonight.” – @RaptorsDevlin. Yup. Love it love it love it.
10:04 PM: Haha, I see there’s a stretch of 4 almost-consecutive Amir Johnson tweets on my feed. This makes me happy.

I’m a big Amir Johnson fan. In fact, I think I’m the second-biggest Amir Johnson fan in this city. He is a beast on the boards, a quality defensive player when he’s not fouling people, and an energy guy. Seeing him get a season high in minutes played and finish the game with only 3 fouls put a big smile on my face. There’s not much that’s sweeter than seeing young players starting to realize their potential.

10:16 PM: Ballsy shot by Turk. Ballsy.
10:18 PM: Swirsky would be screaming about onions right now. Oh man. TURK!
10:21 PM: I was 100% sure that Turk shot was going in. Then I was 100% sure that Nash one was going in. Ahhhhhhhhhh.
10:23 PM: Crushing. Great game, but crushing.

The end of this 1-point defeat was tough to swallow. Toronto’s big free-agent acquisition, playing despite a banged up hip, hit HUGE back-to-back jumpers in crunch time. The next sequence: Nash getting an and-1 on a layup (to put the Suns up 1), Turkoglu and Nash each just missing the kind of shots you expect these guys to make at the end of games, and then, with the game on the line, Turkoglu missing a step-back after a rare ball-handling hiccup while matched up with Channing Frye. The Raptors haven’t won against Phoenix since Nash signed with them in 2004. So close.

11:02 PM: OMG I just saw the Ariza/Artest shoe thing.

11:11 PM: Aaron Brooks loves playing the Lakers.

The speedy little point guard abused L.A. again, scoring 33 points on 23 shots while grabbing 6 rebounds (!) and dishing out 4 assists in a Rockets victory. We know Derek Fisher has lost a few steps defensively, but you still have to be impressed by Brooks. He raises his game when he plays the champs.

11:36 PM: Really appreciate how the Rockets have played this season.

The last game of the week, and it’s damn appropriate. Here’s a team that hasn’t seen a minute from its two stars making close to $40 million this season. Their record is 4-3 and they have beaten the Lakers once and lost to them by just 1 another time. Show their roster to a casual fan and they will not get excited – Brooks, Landry, Trevor Ariza (who the Lakers honoured with a very classy championship ring presentation and tribute), Shane Battier, Luis Scola, and Chuck Hayes won’t get a lot of votes for the All-Star Game this season. But all of them, along with Kyle Lowry, David Andersen, and Chase Budinger, have been a joy to watch this season. They play hard, they play together, and they don’t get blown out (with one exception). On paper, they don’t look like they have the personnel to be a good offensive team, but Rick Adelman has them playing above-average offensive basketball thus far. The defense? Even without Yao, they can play D. Chuck Hayes is nothing short of brilliant on that end of the floor and you don’t need me to tell you about Shane Battier. When you watch League Pass all the time, you inevitably have some teams that draw you in more than others. For me, if the Rockets are playing, I’m probably watching. Unless Brandon Jennings is on another channel, that is.