A -33 plus/minus is not good

Thursday, October 29, 2009, 09:04 PM

First big night of NBA action! Box scores!

• Al Horford had a great night to open the year, going for 24/16, but the opposing center was Roy Hibbert, so I think we have to knock about 30% off those numbers.
• Elton Brand? Eight points, six boards. Andre Iguodala? Eight points, five boards, six assists. If not for Marreese Speights improbably going 10/11 off the bench, Orlando would have won by way more than 14.
• LeBron missed six of his fourteen free throws. I've had an argument all summer with a friend who swears LeBron's free-throw shooting woes are behind him. I'm not convinced.
• Andrea Bargnani went off for 26 points against the Cavs' assortment of bigs, although you'd like to see him grab more than five rebounds. I guess Chris Bosh was hogging them all, as he had 16.
• Charlotte scored 59 points, including 10 in the third quarter. They were under 20 in each quarter. DJ Augustin had a -30 plus/minus off the bench. Gerald Wallace was at -33. Stephen Graham, who I've never heard of, was the starting small forward for Charlotte.
• The Knicks lost, but Danilo "Big Cock" Gallinari shot 7-14 overall and 7-13 from three. That's an awesome shooting line from a guy who's 6'10". I feel like Gallinari is showing us what would have happened if Mike D. had been let loose with Dirk Nowitzki.
• The Heat, beating the Knicks, had three guys over 20 points, including Jermaine O'Neal, who has apparently decided he's not dead after all. The "why" is debatable. Beach life warmed him up? Or contract year?
• New Jersey got edged by Minnesota, but Brook Lopez had 27/15 with five blocks. That's, let's say, very solid numbers.
• Minnesota got exactly three assists from their revamped point guard rotation: Johnny Flynn had two and Ramon Sessions had one.
• The Spurs didn't need anyone to go over 20 en route to 113 points against New Orleans. DeJuan Blair had 14 points in 23 minutes off the bench. Oh, those San Antonio second-round picks.
• Omri Casspi, the first Israeli in the league, had fifteen points off the bench for Sacramento, but Oklahoma City has a lot of talent: Jeff Green (24/8), Kevin Durant (25/11, vintage Texas numbers), Nenad Krstic (20/7), and Russell Westbrook (14/7/13) just overwhelmed the Kings. Green, who's technically the power forward, hit four of his five three-point attempts. That team could really be trouble, although their bench looks pretty barren.
• I love the Memphis starting-five: Z-Bo, Rudy Gay, Marc Gasol, O.J. Mayo, and eventually Allen Iverson, although last night it was Mike Conley. And you've got Hasheem Thabeet and Hamed Haddadi on the bench, don't forget. This could be tons of (disasteriffic) fun. Last night? Lost to Detroit by 22. Marc Gasol could have been confused for his brother, though: 21/15 with three blocks and just nine field goals attempted. The big difference? No assists. But when you've got Z-Bo and Gay and Mayo on the floor with you, would you pass the rock once you got it? Hell, no. You're not getting it back if you give it up.
• The Utah-Denver box score (Denver won by 9) is relatively unremarkable (Carmelo scored 30 and Ty Lawson had an inefficient 17 in his debut), so I'll just note that I like Andrei Kirilenko's new, much more adult hair-style.
• Trevor Ariza is taking his role as the Ron Artest replacement very seriously: he led the Rockets to a narrow win over Golden State by taking the most shots on the team (21), launching nine threes (he did hit four of them), and turning the ball over six times.
• Jason Richardson supposedly got a DNP-CD last night against the Clippers, while Leandro Barbosa started alongside Steve Nash. That can't be right. And, no, Google says it isn't, it's a team suspension for a reckless driving arrest.

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