Beaneball

The headline on this article says: " Bush: No pullout from Iraq until 'mission is complete'". Clearly, Mr. Bush misunderstands the nature of the pullout method.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in News at 12:20 | |

• Charlotte lost its second in a row, falling to Dallas despite Emeka Okafor turning in what's turning into a routine performance for him: 22 points, 13 boards, eight blocks. Adam Morrison's poor shooting (3-14) hurt, since everyone else shot the ball pretty well. Dirk is turning into Mr. Consistency, following up a 24 and 13 game last time out with 24 and 14 this time around. The bench shot just 5-19, but that's not unexpected when it's populated with guys like DeSagana Diop, Anthony Johnson (not a bad point, but not a shooter), and Maurice Ager.
• Houston matched up with the Knicks for the second time already. Yao had an enormous game the last time out, but was merely good this time, with 26 points, nine boards, and three blocks. Tracy McGrady scored 24 despite 40% shooting. The key to the game was either Houston's defense or a bad Knicks' offense. Most likely, it was a little of both. Channing Frye, of all people (given his struggles so far), had a good game, scoring 22. But the team's points leader, Jamal Crawford, needed 21 shots to get his 25 points and shot just 1-7 from behind the arc. Q Richardson and Eddy Curry combined to shoot 5-20, and Steph Marbury and Steve Francis took only seven shots, making three. Nate Robinson, despite playing 27 minutes, shot only two times. The really odd lines out of the Knicks' guards so far this year show, more than anything else, that they really don't know what they're doing in Isaiah Thomas's offense. Some might blame this on the four guards. I blame it on Thomas. If you take over as coach and you've got these four guys, one of whom is a good scorer and a great passer, one of whom is a great scorer, and the other two of whom are good scorers, don't you figure out some kind of offense where you don't get the kind of result you had in this game, where the worst of the four players shot more than double the number of times the other three guys had combined? Are Marbury and Francis suddenly not good players? Why does Isaiah need an exotic offense that actually needs thinking to figure out? My favorite outcome for the Knicks is that David Lee has turned into their best player. He scored 15 on 6-10 shooting and had eight offensive rebounds (12 total) in this game, along with four steals.
• Memphis finally won their second game, beating Orlando by nine. Dwight Howard had another ridiculous game with 24 points on just 12 shots and twenty-three rebounds, including eight offensive. Hell, he had more offensive boards than any Grizzly had defensive, and more than all but two Grizz had total (Hakim Warrick with 10, Jake Tsakalidas with 9). This was all for naught, though. The difference in the game was really the secondary guys. The top five scorers for Orlando (the five starters) combined for 74 points. The top five for Memphis (two starters, three benchies) combined for 73. The bottom five for Orlando, though, only managed 12 points, including 0-5 shooting in 18 minutes from Darko (though he did have five boards and three blocks), while Memphis's bottom five scored 22, with everyone contributing at least three. Rudy Gay went back to rookie mediocrity, shooting 2-12 and not really contributing much secondarily (three boards, one assist, two steals).
• Utah beat Toronto to become the first team to ten wins on the year. Six players scored in double digits for the Raptors, and Morris Peterson had nine, but Chris Bosh was the leader at 17, and the team shot just 42%, so what the spread of points indicates is that the sucking was spread around instead of being concentrated in one or two guys. The Jazz got a ridiculous game from Carlos Boozer, who shot 14-16 on his way to 35 points. Paul Milsap continued to put up nice lines off the bench, shooting 8-10 for 20 points and grabbing five offensive boards.
• San Antonio won on the road again, beating Portland by nine. Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobli had 25 apiece for the Spurs, though they combined for just nine rebounds between them. This was partially because both teams shot at least 50%, so there just weren't that many bricks to be gathered. Zach Randolph shot 10-17 but only got three trips to the line, so he scored 23 points instead of the 28-30 that he often puts up when he makes ten or so shots.
• Seattle beat New Jersey by 12 behind Ray Allen's 29 points. Allen took eleven threes, which is kind of a lot. He made four of them, so his percentage is fine, but it's pretty remarkable that only three guys in the game took more total shots than he took threes. Slightly more remarkable is that Antoine Wright, still filling in for Richard Jefferson, was one of those guys, shooting 5-12. He also grabbed eleven rebounds, which led everybody. Vince Carter had a typical line for him: 27 points on 22 shots, three rebounds, three assists, eight turnovers. He's electric, and he's a great athlete, and he can certainly go on remarkable tears, but on average, looking at his point volume probably seriously overstates his value to a team. Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady also have lower shooting percentages than you'd like and don't really rebound, but at least they're playmakers, and Bryant, at least, is a good defender besides. Carter's rejuvenated in Jersey, but I hope no one gets carried away fifteen years down the line and starts talking about the Hall of Fame for him or anything.
• Steve Nash took Phoenix in to meet the NBA's latest run-and-shoot team, Don Nelson's Warriors, and came out with a three-point win, 113-110. Nash himself had 19 points and fifteen assists and almost certainly benefited from not having to chase Baron Davis around the court on the other end (Davis was inactive, it appears). Leandro Barbosa had 21 points and shot 5-7 from three off the bench, and Raja Bell shot 5-11 from three for 22 points. Monta Ellis led all scorers with 31 points, but needed 26 shots to get there. Mickael Pietrus was a little more efficient, scoring 24 on 18 shots and also blocking five Sun attempts. Andre Biedrins (if the box scores are any indication, you'll want to remember the name) shot 6-8 and led everyone with fifteen rebounds. Even Mike Dunleavy contributed 16 points on 7-12 shooting off the bench. It's kind of amazing how Nellie went into Oakland, instituted a relatively simple system (his offense ain't the triangle, that's for sure), and suddenly the Warriors are respectable, with a 7-4 record and completely able to hang with the Suns (the Warriors, in fact, led by five at halftime before losing the third quarter by ten).

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 21:25 | |

• The Lakers beat a struggling Bulls team, improving to 7-3 while Chicago fell to 3-7. The game seems to have been played at Chicago's pace as the final score was just 82-72, but while the Lakers shot just 40%, Chicago managed only 34%, despite Andres Nocioni shooting 11-22 on his way to 30 points. Luol Deng, who's turned into the Bulls' best offensive player (I'm not enamored of Ben Gordon, it should be noted - all he does is shoot, and he's not consistent enough to get away with jump shots being the only aspect of his game) was only 5-16, though he did contribute three steals. Ty Thomas also had an odd line for Chicago, shooting 0-5, but grabbing five boards, four of which were offensive. He also blocked two shots. Isn't that kind of the ultimate "athlete with unrefined skills" line? Kobe dropped off from 31 to just 18 on 5-14 shooting, but Lamar Odom (23 points, ten boards) and Andrew Bynum (12 and 13) picked up the slack, though Odom turned the ball over seven times and Bynum fouled out in just 28 minutes. Kwame Brown had a nice game off the bench as well, grabbing nine boards in just 20 minutes. If Brown can be that kind of weapon off the bench, providing defense and rebounding and letting his offensive skills just develop as they will (remember, he's still only 24), he and Bynum might make a very nice tandem in the middle. Championship quality? Probably not. But playoff quality? Definitely.
• In the only other game of the day, San Antonio bounced back from a loss to Charlotte (which is just embarrassing, really) to beat Sacramento. Manu Ginobli struggled offensively again (4-12), but Tim Duncan had one of those "are we really still talking about who the best player in the game is?" games, with 35 points on 13-17 shooting, fourteen boards (seven offensive), three assists, two steals, and a block, while turning the ball over just twice. Ridiculous. The Kings' top four players scored 96 points together the last time around. This time it was just 76, as Mike Bibby in particular fell off, shooting just 3-12 (though he knocked down 10 free throws). Shareef's 16 points and 12 boards was pretty sweet, especially since he's an undersized guy for the pivot (6'9", 250) playing against a team with three legitimate big men: Duncan, "Oh Boy!" Oberto, and Frankie Elson.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 21:11 | |

• Miami squeaked one out against Atlanta, winning in overtime. The game was clean in terms of turnovers (14 and 11), but it was a brick-fest, with the Hawks having the higher shooting percentage of the teams at 37.1%. Four guys ended up in double digits in rebounds, with Udonis Haslem leading the way with 17 (he also added 21 points, second only to Dwyane Wayne on the team). Josh Smith had a nice line for the Hawks, with 16 points, thirteen boards, four blocks, and two steals. Joe Johnson's poor shooting from the floor can be excused, because no one was exactly pouring it in, but missing six of his eleven free throws really cost the Hawks, it seems.
• Orlando won again, beating Charlotte by fourteen. Forget Adam Morrison, Jameer Nelson, Darko, Grant Hill, Ray Felton. Forget everyone but Emeka Okafor vs. Dwight Howard. Okafor's undersized compared to Howard, which is probably what caused him to lose the rebound battle 21-9 (yes, Dwight Howard had 21 boards), but offensively, you can't complain about 13-15 shooting, especially against a monster inside like Howard, one who has far more defensive skills than offensive at this point. That said, Howard's 7-12 shooting and thirteen trips to the free throw line (leading to 24 points) show that he's learned a lot on the offensive side of the floor. By the way, I know I said forget Darko, but he had a nice all-around game off the bench for Orlando, with 14 points, eight boards, three assists, two steals, and four blocks. Maybe he'll never be a star worth of the #2 pick, but I think he's showing that it was far too early to call him a bust. I can absolutely see him pulling a Mehmet Okur in a few years. (And don't forget where Okur got his start, just like Darko.)
• Washington beat Cleveland, led by a prolific Gilbert Arenas night: 45 points, 7-11 from three, and six assists for good measure. When you shoot that well from three and get to the line twelve times, you can score a lot of points with just 22 shots, which is great for your efficiency rating. LeBron, by contrast, needed twenty shots to get his twenty points, and nobody really picked him up: Big Z was the next-highest scorer, with 16 points.
• Houston lost to Detroit as Yao and Tracy got no help. Those two combined for 57 points, helped by Yao's 20 trips to the foul line (and 16 boards, to boot), but the rest of the team shot 12-35. In addition Yao out-turnover'd the Pistons' entire team by a count of 8-6. Rip Hamilton had 30, eight boards, and seven assists, with just 18 shots, to lead the Pistons.
• Portland beat New Jersey in the swamp by holding the Nets to 68 points, with just eight of those coming in the first quarter. Zach Randolph had 20 and 16, which wasn't dominant enough the other night (higher-scoring game), but was enough this time around, particularly on the boards, where the next-highest rebounder for either team was Antoine Wright with eight. The Nets hit exactly 1/3 of their shots, which is all you need to know.
• Boston beat the Knicks 122-118. That sounds, at first glance, like a fun game until you realize that there were 69 fouls whistled, leading to 113 free throws being shot. The Knicks actually shot under 40%, and Boston didn't crack 43%, so it wasn't like this was some up-and-down-the-court, balls-to-the-wall kind of offensive fun-fest. Instead, you had Wally World, Delonte West, Quentin Richardson, Steve Francis, David Lee, and Nate Robinson all fouling out, and Sebastian Telfair coming close. You had four guys shooting ten or more free throws (Paul Pierce, Ryan Gomes, Francis, and Robinson), with Telfair again coming close. Let's just move on.
• New Orleans beat Minnesota, sending the Wolves to their sixth loss out of nine games. Kevin Garnett seems to be struggling from the floor (9-23 here), though his other game seems to be present, with 17 boards and five assists in this game. Troy Hudson's 4-5 shooting from three, for 20 points, made him the "second banana who's not enough" du jour. Chris Paul poured in 35 points, though is 6-5 assist-to-turnover ratio wasn't scintillating. I guess he can't be perfect every night. We'll have to settle for 85% of the time, I guess.
• Dallas beat Memphis, who lost their eighth game out of nine, despite Rudy Gay having the first good game I remember him having, leading the team with 23 points, grabbing seven boards, and picking up three steals. The guys I named in the last post as the ones who are supposed to lead the team, Mike Miller, Hakim Warrick, and Chucky Atkins, combined to shoot 10-38, with Warrick's 1-13 being especially egregious. Dirk had 24 points and 13 boards, leading the game in both categories. Who needs threes if he's going to shoot 10-10 from the line, I guess?
• Indiana edged Milwaukee by two, evening the Pacers' record at fives. Jermaine O'Neal finally had a strong game with 20 points, 12 boards, eight blocks, and four assists. Mo Williams moved to the starting lineup for the Bucks, and finished one rebound short of a triple double, but it looks like Michael Redd got the ball in good spots, as he took just 14 shots, two fewer than Williams himself. Until / unless Andrew Bogut develops into a real offensive force, the Bucks have to get Redd the ball in places where he can bury that sweet jumper of his if they want to win. Of course, everyone else knows that and just keys in on denying him the ball with their defense. Which means that Redd is going to have to respond with a Rip Hamilton-like array of off-the-ball moves. On the other hand, Hamilton has a couple of very good offensive teammates to draw some heat. Mo Williams and Andrew Bogut (to say nothing of Ersan Ilyasova ... who?) don't generate the same kind of respect.
• Denver beat Toronto in a shootout, with Carmelo Anthony leading the Nuggets. His 34 points were tops in the game, leading the seven players on his team who scored in double digits. TJ Ford had a remarkable 26 points and 18 assists for Toronto, and Chris Bosh had 31, but letting the other team score 117 points negates a lot of offensive highlights. Jorge Garbajosa started for the Raptors instead of Rasho Nesterovic (who played just nine minutes), and had a very nice 17 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists. It's very possible that Rasho just saw his career slip through is fingers. Which is unsurprising, if his fingers are as stiff as the rest of his game.
• Utah won its ninth game, the kind that Jerry Sloan probably hates, beating Phoenix in overtime by a 120-117 count. Four players fouled out in the game, but the Suns felt the brunt of it, losing Boris Diaw, Amare Stoudemire, and Raja Bell, while the Jazz lost only Paul Milsap, who's not even a starter (though he has been very good this year, especially in AK-47's absence, as his 18-point, 10-board performance in this game shows). Deron Williams had 25 points and 14 assists while Carlos Boozer added 22 and 16 boards. Leandro Barbosa had eleven assists, but also seven turnovers and twelve missed shots. Nobody else really had a bad game, which just backs up the fact that team defense is what beat the Suns in this game: letting Utah take ten more shots and make 50% overall is going to hurt.
• Golden State continues to surprise, beating up on hapless Seattle by 12. It looks like Seattle responded to the Warriors' four-guard lineup by going small themselves, starting Earl Watson along with Ray Allen and Luke Ridnour in the backcourt. The Warriors in return, went even smaller, using their usual starting five, but only letting two players get off the bench: swingman Mike Dunleavy (who's tall, but plays small) and 6'2" guard Keith McLeod. All of these machinations aside, it always comes down to the players. Monta Ellis and Ray Allen went toe-to-toe, scoring 31 and 34, respectively. Allen was also doing all the rebounding for his team, with eleven boards. The next-highest player, Rashard Lewis, had seven. Ellis actually had seven boards himself, but that was fourth on his team. The game featured the only Mickael vs. Mickael matchup I've ever seen, with Pietrus for the Warriors and Gelabale (a 6'7" rookie forward from France) for the Sonics. The latter played six minutes, but put up an all-zeroes box score, while Pietrus had nineteen points and twelve rebounds. The lesson? If you have to pick a Mickael on the playground, get the one from Guadeloupe, not the one from mainland France.
• The Clippers beat the Sixers in overtime. Elton Brand had another MVP game, with 33 points, 12 boards, and four steals, overcoming Allen Iverson's 29 points and nine assists. Sam Cassell shot poorly (3-14), but he was matched by Andre Igoudala (4-14).

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 23:44 | |

• Jersey beat Indiana by 100-91, led, as usual, by the big three (minus RJ, but plus Nenad), with a strong assists from Clifford Robinson's 14 points on 5-6 shooting off the pine. Al Harrington led the Pacers with 18 points and shot over 50%, and Jamaal Tinsley had a solid 16 points and six assists. For some reason, Danny Granger thought it was appropriate to shoot eight threes in the game, but made just two of them. He did redeem himself a little bit with four blocks, but that doesn't quite make up for the damage of missing all those shots. The leading rebounder in the game was Jeff Foster, who comes off the bench for Indiana, and only played 29 minutes. He was the only player in double digits.
• Boston blew out Portland by 28. The Celtics shot 60% from three: Paul Pierce was 4-6 and Wally World threw in a 3-6 effort. As often happens in a blowout, minutes got distributed Marxist-style, with only Pierce playing more than 30 minutes. Delonte West, who normally plays anyway, took the most advantage, scoring seventeen points in his nineteen minutes. Zach Randolph had a good game, with 23 points and 12 boards, but it looks like the Blazers aren't really built to win games (whether against good teams or the Celtics) unless Randolph has a dominant game. Six for fourteen shooting isn't what I'm thinking of as "dominant."
• Cleveland beat Minnesota by 16, which is pretty much what you expect if you think Cleveland is as good as they should be. LeBron scored 37, but (and this says it all) nobody else on the team went past fifteen. Kevin Garnett shot poorly (5-17) and, like the Blazers, the Wolves can't win unless Garnett dominates. He did grab eleven boards and had five steals, but because his 14 points led the team, you know the Wolves got spanked. Randy Foye got to play ten minutes, but missed all four of his shots and didn't have an assist. He did make one free throw. (Woo!)
• Miami continued its lackadaisical early-season play. Shaq or no Shaq, the world champs shouldn't get beat by 24 hosting the Knicks. Dwyane Wade, you're better than that! (Those who watch Mark Jackson on the YES network know what I'm talking about.) Jamal Crawford led the Knicks with 19 off the bench (23 minutes) and Q Richardson overcame poor shooting to contribute in other ways, with eleven boards and six assists. Alonzo Mourning's four blocks were the extent of the good news for Miami, which shot 36% as a team, typified by Antoine Walker's 1-9 (0-4 from three) performance.
• Detroit beat Washington by nine. Multi-skilled swingmen Caron Butler and Tayshaun Prince cancelled each other out, with Butler contributing 24 points and seven boards and Prince scoring 20 and also grabbing seven boards. Rip Hamilton and Gilbert Arenas shot poorly, hitting 11-27 and 7-20 respectively. Rasheed Wallace out-played his "big man with a perimeter game" counterpart, Antawn Jamison, as A-Jam (yes?) shot just 3-12 while 'Sheed contributed 20 points and ten boards. Chauncey and DeShawn Stevenson shot about the same, but Billups had ten dimes to Stevenson's three. (Of course, that's because Billups plays the point while Stevenson is nominally the shooting guard for his team. Nominally because Gilbert does all the shooting.)
• Chicago lost big on the road again, losing by 17 to San Antonio. Tim Duncan shot 10-15, leading the team to a >50% shooting percentage, which is pretty remarkable against the Bulls. Brent Barry shot well off the bench again, scoring 14 points, and Manu Ginobli had four steals, trying to make up for his 1-6 shooting. Ben Gordon led the Bulls in scoring again, despite coming off the bench, but he also had seven turnovers. They call him Little Kobe (or at least some people used to call him that, because facially, he does bear a strong resemblance), but he could do with getting rid of Kobe's turnover proclivities. Ben Wallace did what Ben Wallace is supposed to do to earn his paycheck, grabbing ten boards, blocking four shots, and getting three steals. Thabo Sefolosha put up one of those neat "nothing" lines, where his box score is all zeros (except for one turnover, but I don't count that, because it's not positive) despite playing five minutes.
• Dallas beat Memphis by 12, sending the Grizz to their seventh loss in eight games. All five Mavs starters scored in double digits, with Erick Dampier of all people actually scoring the second-most points on the team (behind Dirk, of course). Big Damp shot 8-11 and hit all six of his free throws. He didn't forget his other duties, either, grabbing fifteen boards, nine on the offensive end. Rudy Gay scored just one point in twelve minutes despite starting for Memphis. It's not really fair to compare him to the scoring that Adam Morrison has been doing, because with the number of shots Morrison's getting, it's clear that he's a focus of the offense. On this team, though, Mike Miller, Hakim Warrick, and even Chucky Atkins (just among the starters) are all likely to get more shots than Gay will, so he's going to have to find other ways to contribute.
• The Lakers beat Toronto by seven. Kobe scored 31 against his favorite team, which is lower than his season average from last year (but that's not really fair, is it?). Kobe's aforementioned turnover proclivities were on display, as he handed the ball over six times, though he did have seven assists and even led the entire game with eleven rebounds (that's right, Kobe outrebounded Lamar Odom and Chris Bosh, undoubtedly two of the better board men in the game). Andrea Bargnani found some way to commit five fouls in just six minutes, which is really hard to do, I have to imagine.
• Phoenix beat Philly with Steve Nash out hurt, led by Amare Stoudemire (now back apparently), who scored 23 and had ten boards, and Leandro Barbosa's 10-15 shooting (remarkable for a point man), 26 points, ten boards (did I say remarkable for a point man already?), and five steals. Allen Iverson had five steals and Willie Green shot 9-18 off the bench for the Sixers. That's pretty much the extent of the good news for them.
• Utah improved to 8-1 in Seattle, led again by Deron Williams (27 points, eight assists), Carlos Boozer (14 points, 13 boards), and Mehmet Okur (15 points, 2-4 from three, eleven boards). Matt Harpring poured in 21 more from the bench. Ray Allen led the effort for Seattle, scoring 32 on just 17 shots, but the uncharacteristic 1-6 shooting from three hurt. The lack of defense hurt more, though. You should never allow a Jerry Sloan team to score 118 points. That's inexcusable. Derek Fisher, by the way (who I'll always love), fouled out in 18 minutes for Utah, which is pretty hard to do as a backcourt player, isn't it? Bargnani with five fouls in six minutes is one thing, because he's seven feet tall, and fouls happen inside. But a guy who's running around the backcourt? What's he doing?

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 23:03 | |

• Houston edged Chicago by one with a balanced attack: T-Mac had 21 points, eleven boards, and seven assists; Yao had 20 points and 12 boards (though he shot worse than he usually does); and Rafer Alston had 19. This overcame Ben Gordon's 37 points off the bench for Chicago. The Rockets sent Gordon to the line 16 times. Ben Wallace continued his mediocre play with just five rebounds and one point, though he did rack up five steals and was probably the force that made Yao miss 12 of his 19 shots.
• Golden State continued its surprising ascendancy, beating Sacramento (a surprise itself) by twelve. Kevin Martin had 26 for the Kings, but Ron Artest and Mike Bibby combined to shoot 0-11 from three and 11-37 overall. Artest had nice supplementary numbers, though, with 12 boards (five offensive), five assists, four steals, and a block. I'm not sure what Ron-Ron is doing taking 22 shots anyway. He's a pretty good offensive player, but with Bibby, Martin, Shareef, and Francisco Garcia coming off the bench, Artest shouldn't be shooting more than twelve to fifteen times per game, and given his size and strength, he shouldn't be wasting his time shooting threes, either, when he's got a post-up matchup against someone like Jason Richardson, Mickael Pietrus, Monta Ellis, or Baron Davis. That's essentially a four-guard lineup for the Warriors, isn't it? Three for sure (Ellis, Richardson, Davis), and then Pietrus is a swingman, but he's only 6'6", so he's probably closer to the guard end of the spectrum. That four-guard lineup led to some eye-popping numbers for the Warriors: Jason Richardson scored 16 and yet was only the fourth-leading scorer; Baron Davis scored 36 and still passed out 18 assists; Andre Biedrins grabbed 16 rebounds (which comes largely because he's the only rebounder in the starting lineup); even Mike Dunleavy got into it, scoring 10 points on 4-5 shooting from the bench. Biedrins blocked four shots, though he also had five fouls and six turnovers. The teams weren't terribly turnover-happy (20 and 19), but there were some great individual numbers: Biedrins' six, Baron Davis with eight, and Kenny Thomas with six of his own in just 17 minutes for the Kings. Also, Jason Hart fouled out in just 21 minutes off the bench for Sacramento. And one more tidbit: after the Warriors won the first quarter by a score of 40-28 (a 40-point quarter is neat enough, but wait for this ...), the last three quarters were scored 25-25, 27-27, and 25-25. That's pretty cool.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 22:49 | |

• Cleveland beat Portland despite sending Zach Randolph to the line twenty times. Lucky for the Cavs, he only hit twelve of those free throws. Further luck that there aren't any other good players on the Trailblazers. The four other starters around Randolph combined for a whopping 14 points. Cleveland got almost that many out of Eric Snow alone, who scored 13. As usual, though, it was the LeBron show: 32 points, seven boards, seven assists. I'm happy that LeBron only took 15 shots, though, and had as many assists as he did - if he can learn that he doesn't need to show 25-30 times a game, he can be a much more fun player to watch.
• Orlando sent Denver to defeat by 108-99. Carmelo scored 34, but the Magic bench was the story, scoring 57 points, led by Keyon Dooling's 25 in just 24 minutes. Grant Hill got tee'd up in the game, which is probably pretty rare. Hill's a mild guy if there ever was one in the NBA.
• Boston finally won again, destroying the Pacers by 26. Jermaine O'Neal has to pick up his scoring: he shot just 3-14 in the game. He did grab 12 boards and block five shots, but Indiana needs someone besides Al Harrington to put the ball in the bucket. Paul Pierce sprung for 32 to lead the Celtics. The only other item of note is that Doc Rivers appears to have gotten his priorities straight for one game: Brian Scalabrine only got five minutes of run, the fewest of any Celt.
• The Hornets edged Detroit by one, sending the Pistons to 3-5. I guess Tyson Chandler is hurt, since Marc Jackson is suddenly on the roster and Hilton Armstrong started at center for the Hornets. Would a guy like Hilton Armstrong ever have dropped 17 points on 7-11 shooting if Ben Wallace were still patrolling the middle for Detroit? Didn't think so. Chris Paul got back to his Chris Paul ways, scoring 20 and dishing 13 assists. The Pistons' team numbers are pretty good in this game: 52% shooting, only eight turnovers. Two keys, though: they only forced seven Hornet turnovers, and New Orleans grabbed nineteen offensive boards, leading to taking 13 more shots than the Pistons managed, negating the field goal percentage advantage. I'll invoke Ben Wallace again: do the Hornets, of all teams, grab nineteen offensive boards two years ago?
• New Jersey beat Milwaukee despite Michael Redd and Mo Williams, the starting backcourt for the Bucks, combining for 51. J-Kidd and Nenad Krstic offset those 51 with 47 of their own, and Vince Carter and Ruben Patterson's 15's wiped each other out. The difference, then, looks like the 23 scored by Clifford Robinson and Antoine Wright. Andrew Bogut did nothing to help match that, shooting 0-4 and missing both of his free throw attempts. Kidd finished two boards shy of a triple double.
• The Knicks beat the Wizards by 20 by holding Gilbert Arenas down (5-19 shooting) and by spreading the scoring around (which they've been doing all year): Quentin Richardson had 17, Eddy Curry 13, Starbuy 16, David Lee 10 (and fifteen boards), Nate Robinson 11, and Renaldo Balkman led the way with 18 (maybe he is good). Steve Francis has to really be worrying Knicks fans, as he had another bad game, scoring just four points on 1-5 shooting.
• Charlotte beat San Antonio in Texas by winning the overtime period 12-9. Adam Morrison shot 12-23, scoring 27 points, leading the way. The Bobcats won despite being outrebounded by 22: three Spurs had double-digit rebounds, including Manu Ginobli's twelve. Ginobli, though, shot just 3-14, which was emblematic of the Spurs' trouble shooting: 37.5% isn't getting it done in the NBA, even if you have a good defense and you're facing a bad team.
• Memphis lost again, going down to Sacramento, 115-111. Rudy Gay started for the Grizz, but scored just six points. Chucky Atkins shot a remarkable 10-11 en route to 27 points, but Memphis didn't have an answer for the Kings' backcourt: Kevin Martin and Mike Bibby combined for 56 points, while Shareef and Ron-Ron added 40 more.
• Philly beat Seattle in a matchup of solidly mediocre teams with aging-but-still-great superstars (AI and Ray-Ray, of course). Iverson scored 28 despite 6-22 shooting, but Ray Allen wasn't much better, hitting nine of 23 for 22 points. Rashard Lewis had one of those games that makes everyone salivate over his talent, with 25 points and fifteen boards. He's a consistent scorer, but he's not necessarily a consistent presence in the other areas of the game. When he's on, though, he's on.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 20:57 | |

• Milwaukee edged Atlanta by two, getting contributions from all five starters: Charlie Villanueva brought up the rear with twelve points, and he didn't see a shot not fall all night: 3-3 shooting (1-1 from three) and 5-5 from the free-throw line. That's neat. Michael Redd scored his regular 30, leading all scorers. Joe Johnson was second-best, leading the Hawks with 29, tied with Tyronn Lue, who did his work off the bench, but played starter's minutes (39 of them). Josh Childress added 21 from the bench. If Josh Smith didn't have an awful game (1-12 shooting, fouled out), the Hawks might've won. Shelden Williams, who I alternate between calling "Spike," "Angelus," and "Turok-Han," grabbed fifteen boards. If he's lucky, he can grow up to be Emeka Okafor.
• Miami lost another one at home, this time to Denver, by a 112-105 count. Carmelo scored 33 points and Andre Miller had a really nice game, with 29 points, 10 assists, and three steals. Dwyane Wade is making a living just shooting free throws at this point: he scored 37 despite shooting 9-21, as he got to the line seventeen times and made sixteen of them. Perhaps a lower shooting percentage is inherent in getting to the line a lot for a player like Wade: he gets to the line by driving the ball inside and taking whatever shot he can possibly get, hoping for the foul. When he gets the foul, great, he'll get the two points. When he doesn't, the shot misses. This is, of course, rank speculation, because I just don't see Wade play that often. This, by the way, was the first game that Shaq missed because of injury. Alonzo didn't exactly light it up as a fill-in, scoring nine points in 29 minutes.
• Charlotte lost its sixth game out of seven as the Hornets took them down, 94-85. Peja Stojakovic did all the scoring, pouring in 42 points on 15-22 shooting. The other offensive suspects were absent: Chris Paul missed all eight of his shots (ten assists, though); Tyson Chandler was 1-5 (but 15 boards); David West is apparently hurt. Adam Morrison, starting again, scored 21 on 9-18 shooting, but Emeka Okafor was again the star for the Bobcats with 25 points (11-14 shooting - that's positive Yao-like), 16 boards, and seven blocks. Did I say Elton Brand? Forget Elton Brand. Emeka's his own man, and quite a man he's turning out to be.
• Minnesota beat Portland 101-89. The Zach Randolph - Kevin Garnett matchup didn't really live up to what it should have been, as Garnett didn't shoot very well, just 6-15, resulting in 20 points. Garnett also fouled out, though he did have thirteen boards, seven assists, three steals, and five blocks. Bill Simmons' recent piece on Garnett is great: he's essentially leading the "Free Kevin Garnett" brigade, and with more fervor than any "Free Erubiel Durazo" movement ever had. Please, can we see what Garnett might do on a team that can actually use his skills for good? The Lakers have been mentioned as a possible destination, but at this point, this goes beyond a rooting interest for my team and just purely agreeing with Simmons: let's put him somewhere relevant before it's too late! (Even though it might already be too late - he is thirty, after all, and has twelve years played in the NBA, which is a lifetime.)
• The score in the Dallas-Chicago game was 111-99. Just saying that score, you can probably tell who won (Dallas). This isn't to say that the Mavs have one of these Phoenix-style offenses (anymore), but Chicago's an extreme grind-it-out kind of team, so when the final score is over 200, you have to figure the game didn't go the way they wanted it to go. Dirk Nowitzki seems to be alive again, as he scored 31 and grabbed ten boards in the game. He only took two threes in the game (and missed both). I'm actually a little disappointed in the kind of player that Avery Johnson has turned Dirk into. It probably helps the team if he's willing to go bang inside (ten boards) and drive the lane instead of just pulling up with jump shots (eleven free throws). That said, his jump shot is so beautiful to watch when he's on that it's unfortunate that he's much less likely, under the current style, to have a crazy game where he's really hot and hits 7-10 from three en route to 45-55 points. Ben Gordon, who might be the most overrated guard in the game, shot 6-18 on the way to 17 points for the Bulls, leaving Luol Deng to be the star for Chicago: 10-13, 24 points, ten boards, four assists.
• San Antonio improved to 6-1 by beating Houston 92-84. The Rockets were up 13 at the half, lost nine points off the lead in the third, then got beat 21-9 in the final quarter to lose the game. That's the second single-digit fourth-quarter I've noticed this year, which is pretty atrocious. Consider that it's not uncommon for a good scorer to have a 10-15 point quarter by himself. The Spurs' stars, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, weren't great, combining for 11-29 shooting (27 points), but the rest of the guys made up the slack: 25-45 shooting, including 7-12 from three. That's without the help of Brent Barry, by the way, who shot 0-2 in six minutes. Houston, conversely, shot 38% as a team: Yao and Tracy shot 17-46 (though McGrady was 4-7 from three), and the rest of the team shot 15-38. Basically, no offensive good came out of this game for the Rockets, and it wasn't much better on the glass, either, as San Antonio out-rebounded Houston by fifteen.
• Utah blew out the Clippers by 22 despite Kirilenko being hurt again. Ronnie Brewer started in his place and had an efficient offensive game, scoring twelve on seven shots, while Paul Milsap filled the defensive half of AK-47's game, grabbing six boards and blocking four shots off the bench. Matt Harpring scored 22 points as a reserve, trailing only Mehmet Okur's 27 (including 1-2 from three). Carlos Boozer had his usual nice game, with 16 points, 15 boards, and even seven assists. All of this was too much for L.A., who had no 20-point scorers and no double-digit rebounders. Even Elton Brand had just six boards and sixteen points. Chris Kaman earned his salary by fouling out in 19 minutes, and Shaun Livingston continued to live up to the hype by shooting 0-4 and dishing three assists in 22 minutes.
• Finally, Golden State sent Toronto to another loss, beating them by 11, overcoming a 41-28 second quarter by winning the fourth by a 34-19 count. Mike Dunleavy had the best scoring game for the Warriors, putting in 22, tied with Baron Davis for the team lead. Dunleavy needed seven fewer shots than Davis to get his points, though. Chris Bosh had 23 points and a remarkable 22 rebounds for the Raptors. His lines are reminding me again and again of Kevin Garnett. Let's hope that with the management up there, as well as Andrea Bargnani waiting in the wings and what's likely to be another high pick coming this summer, he'll have a better shot at NBA relevance than Garnett's gotten.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 19:30 | |

• Orlando sent the Celtics to their sixth loss in seven games (hi Doc!), led by Jameer Nelson's 24 points and seven assists. I thought Nelson wasn't supposed to be that good a pro? That he was just a college star? Dwight Howard had his usual 17 points, 15 boards, and three blocks. He only shot the ball eight times. That's ridiculous. Paul Pierce had 21 points to lead Boston, but nobody else had more than 14 (Wally), as Boston was outshot 53.5% to 38.3%. You won't win many games that way.
• New Jersey, fresh off their overtime win, lost at home to Seattle in a shootout, 119-113. The problem looks like rebounding: no Net had more than six boards (and that was the point guard), while four different Sonics had at least that many. The total team-rebound gap was only 12, but the Sonics grabbed ten more offensive boards than the Nets, which is key when both teams are shooting well (48% and 51%, Nets ahead), getting to the line (29 and 27 times, Sonics ahead), and not turning the ball over (12 and 10, Nets with fewer). Four different Seattle players scored over 20, led by Luke Ridnour's ridiculous (for him) 32. He added seven assists to that total, helping Rashard Lewis, Ray Allen, and Chris Wilcox (what!) get their points. Vince had 38 more for the Nets and Krstic and Kidd added 21 and 20, with Kidd dishing 12 assists.
• Cleveland beat the woeful Knicks by six, which is a closer margin than you'd like to see out of a supposed championship contender (though maybe it's not fair to place the Cavs on that mantle, considering the utter lack of supporting cast on this team). In any case, LeBron had his usual 29, and Damon Jones finally had a good game for Cleveland, scoring 29 on 7-10 shooting from behind the arc in just 28 minutes off the bench. Six different players scored in double digits for the Knicks, but the leader, Nate Robinson, had just nineteen. That came on 9-10 shooting, which is pretty impressive for a guy who's well under six feet tall. You don't see backcourt players hitting 90% of their shots very often, particularly when they're small enough that they really have to work to get their shots off. Amazingly, of those six scorers, none were named "Francis" or "Marbury." Those two scored three and two points respectively, shooting a combined 1-10. Marbury contributed seven assists and three steals, though, which is why he's a vastly better player than Francis, who's not contributing if he's not scoring. Channing Frye finally had a not-terrible game, with seventeen points and nine boards, but he had to take 18 shots to get his points, so that's not ideal.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 19:14 | |

Obviously, considering I'm like ten days behind on this, I do this more for me than for the two readers out there. It amuses me. So if you are a reader, feel free to skip anything you see that says "NBA" on it. It's not going to be very interesting.

• The Clippers went to 5-1 with a 16-point win over the Hornets. Elton Brand did his usual damage, shooting 8-12 for 22 points and grabbing ten boards. He was the only Clipper to shoot over 50%, actually, which is pretty "impressive" for a team that won going away. Brand also added three steals and two blocks. The man's a monster. Chris Paul shot well, at 9-13, but only had three assists compared to six turnovers. Tyson Chandler had thirteen boards and came out a lot better than Chris Kaman, who continued his struggling ways after signing a big contract this offseason. Kaman didn't make a shot and grabbed six boards in 27 minutes.
• You don't see too many 12-point wins in overtime, but that's what the Nets hung on the Wizards, outscoring them 18-6 in the extra period. Minus Richard Jefferson, Nenad Krstic stepped up to be the third member of the New Jersey Big Three: Krstic scored 22 and grabbed ten boards; Vince Carter scored 34, hitting five of his eight threes, and dished seven assists; and Jason Kidd had another triple double despite shooting poorly, with 15 points, eleven rebounds, and a whopping eighteen assists. Kidd and Carter also combined for seven steals in the game. Even Bostjan Nachbar got into the action for Jersey, scoring 15 points on 6-8 shooting. Gilbert Arenas scored 25, but shot just 6-23. Combine that with Antawn Jamison's awful 3-16 night (nine points), and you have to consider it a miracle Washington even got to overtime.
• Denver sent Charlotte to its fifth loss in six games, winning by seven in North Carolina. Carmelo Scored 36, but he wasn't the only guy for the Nugs: Marcus Camby had 12 points and 11 boards; JR Smith shot 4-10 from threes, leading to 17 points; Andre Miller had seventeen points and eleven dimes; and Reggie Evans shot 6-10 from the free throw line in just 20 minutes off the bench, ending up with twelve points. Charlotte had three guys score twenty points (Gerald Wallace, Emeka Okafor, Brevin Knight), but 29 turnovers (to 16 for Denver) killed the Bobcats. Okafor, by the way, is starting to remind me a lot of Elton Brand when I read these box scores. Emeka shot a very efficient 9-14, got to the line nine times (though he only hit four free throws), and pulled down fifteen rebounds, including an incredible nine on the offensive end. He also blocked three shots. That's the kind of all-around big-man game that's very valuable in an era when it's hard to find a decent big man.
• Houston blew out Miami, winning by 22 in Florida. This was before Shaq's injury, so the Heat had their full complement of players. Those players just got outplayed by the Rockets. Shaq vs. Yao? Try 15-10 for Big Daddy against 34-14 for the Beast from the East. Battier vs. Walker was a wash, as was McGrady vs. Wade (D-Dub doubled up T-Mac's point total, but he needed 22 shots to get 24 points and had five turnovers, so I'll take McGrady's eight dimes and two turnovers, despite poor shooting and no trips to the free throw line). Houston's three quality bench players (Head, Howard, Snyder) outscored the Heat's two quality bench players (Mourning, Posey) 22-6. Miami actually went to halftime with a three-point lead before losing the third quarter by seven and the fourth by eighteen. That's an ugly second half for a defending champion at home, innit?
• Dallas finally won game #2, beating Portland by seven behind Dirk and J-Terry's combined 50 points. Jarrett Jack had a nice game for Portland with 20 points, ten assists, and four steals, as well as a perfect 12-12 performance from the line, but it wasn't enough, as Dallas slowed Zach Randolph down. Zach had to have a mediocre game at some point, right? Eight for twenty-two for 20 points, nine rebounds, and five turnovers aren't the kinds of numbers we've come to expect from the first six games of the year.
• Sacramento beat Toronto by fifteen. Kevin Martin, as usual, led the team in scoring with 26 points. It was a balanced offensive attack for Sacramento, though, as Ron Artest, Mike Bibby, Martin, and Shareef Abdour-Rahim had 17, 16, 14, and 14 shots respectively. Only Shareef scored fewer than 20 points. John Salmons, who I've always liked but who hasn't lived up to my expectations, had a nice eight-rebound, six-assist game off the bench for Sacramento. Nobody scored twenty for the Raptors, though Morris Peterson was certainly trying: he took eleven threes in the game, making four. He shot 1-5 inside the arc. Fred Jones joined in the action, shooting 0-5 from behind the arc, though he was 3-4 on two-point shots. The Raptors are a hard team to look at, box score wise. I can't imagine they're much more fun to watch in person.
• The Lakers improved to 5-3 with a ten-point win over the still Pau-less Grizzlies. Mike Miller scored 21 by shooting 6-10 from three, and had 13 rebounds (again, his rebounding this year has been ridiculous), but his only real help came from Damon Stoudamire, who scored 16 points off the bench. L.A. got 21 from Kobe, twenty from Lamar Odom (along with sixteen rebounds and seven assists) and enough minor contributions from other players to pull out the win. By the way, it appears that my worries about an over-crowded roster are over. Chris Mihm, we found out a little while back, will be out for quite some time after surgery, so he won't need to push anybody off the roster anytime soon. I'm guessing Aaron McKie's a "stashed on the IL" guy, so we don't have to worry about him. Kwame's already back (and Andrew Bynum hasn't ceded his starting spot, nor really slowed down his play, since the return). As of this date, it was Shammond Williams who lost his spot on the active roster, which is not a real loss anyway, since he was hardly playing.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 17:25 | |

• The Sonics beat the Hawks, sending Atlanta to its second loss, by winning the overtime period 12-11. The Sonics did what they usually do, with Ray Allen scoring 33 (though he shot just 1-6 for threes), Rashard Lewis adding 23, and Chris Wilcox grabbing 15 rebounds. Joe Johnson scored 28, Josh Smith 24, and Josh Childress added 17 off the bench on 5-6 shooting. Additionally, Zaza Pachulia contributed 21 points from the center position, which is the first time I remember noticing him making a real contribution this year. So how'd the Hawks lose? Try eighteen missed threes by Johnson and Smith. Two or three more makes and this game doesn't get to overtime.
• Cleveland beat Boston, sending the Celtics to 1-5. LeBron scored 38 on the strength of 19-23 free-throw shooting while everyone else took the night off. Sasha Pavlovic had 14 off the bench, but he was the only other player in double digits. The team outside of James shot 37% and had one steal (LeBron had three). But the key, given the absence of Wally Szczerbiak, was keeping Paul Pierce down. Pauly Knifeholes shot just 6-21 and had only one assist. Sebastian Telfair came back from his shortness-of-breath scare of the night before, but shot only 5-16. Finally, Brian Scalabrine played as many minutes as Rajon Rondo. We love you, Doc Rivers.
• Orlando beat the T-Wolves by 11 in Minnesota, led by Jameer Nelson, Dwight Howard, and the bench, in the absence of Grant Hill, who was apparently put on the injured list, bringing Travis Diener back onto the roster. Nelson led the team with 23 points, but Howard was the star with 21 points and 22 rebounds. The bench looked great, though, with four players scoring in double digits, led by Darko's fifteen. Milicic did commit five fouls in just 24 minutes, though, which is the kind of thing that prevents you from the staying on the floor even if you're playing well on the offensive end. Kevin Garnett went to the free-throw line 13 times on the way to 28 points, grabbed eleven boards, and dished five assists, but his supporting cast just didn't shoot well enough. Ricky Davis and Mike James each shot 5-13 and combined for just two rebounds. Davis did have eight assists, though. This, by the way, is what Troy Hudson has fallen to: ten minutes, no shots, one rebound, one block.
• The Spurs did what they're supposed to do against the Knicks, beating them by eight. Tim Duncan was horrible from the free-throw line, shooting 4-12, but he scored 24 anyway and grabbed 16 rebounds besides. He also blocked three shots, which is three more than the entire Knicks team. I can't remember the last time I saw a team with zero blocks in a game. Tony Parker led the Spurs with 33 points and also added six assists while turning the ball over just twice. The Knicks committed a lot of fouls, which might be a good strategy against a team that's going to shoot 55% from the free-throw line and 51% from the field. Channing Frye, Eddy Curry, Jamal Crawford, and Malik Rose all had five fouls (Rose in just 19 minutes, Frye in fourteen), and David Lee fouled out (in 23 minutes). Curry tossed five turnovers in with his five fouls, making absolutely certain to do enough bad to cancel out his fifteen points. Q-Rich was the Knicks' top player with 21 points and eleven rebounds.
• The Bulls evened their record at 3-3, beating Indiana on the strength of a 30-14 final quarter. Chicago shot terribly (38%), "led" by Ben Gordon's 1-8 performance, assisted ably by Kirk Hinrich (7-19), Ben Wallace (4-11), and Andres Nocioni (3-10). Gordon, for good measure, committed five fouls in just 21 minutes. In spite of all of this, though, the Bulls won, largely due to rebounding: they won that battle by a 51-28 count, and grabbed 24 offensive boards (to just four for Indiana). Ben Wallace had ten offensive boards and eighteen overall, and Luol Deng added six boards on each end. Al Harrington and Danny Granger were again the Pacers' top two players, with nineteen and eighteen respectively (Granger shot 5-6 from behind the arc). When your top two score that few points, though, you're probably in trouble, as Indiana was here. Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson stumbled again, scoring just twelve and ten and committing eight turnovers between them.
• Utah won again, improving to 6-1, by beating Milwaukee. The Bucks scored 42 points in the final period but still managed to fall by two. Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams were big scorers again, with 32 and 27 points. Boozer added ten rebounds, including five offensive, and Williams had fifteen assists and five steals. Mehmet Okur shot just 1-9, but Matt Harpring and Paul Milsap each shot 6-9 in 27 minutes off the bench to pick up the slack. All of this was just enough to overcome a great game from Michael Redd, who scored 57 points, hitting 6-12 three-pointers and 15-17 from the free-throw line. Ruben Patterson backed Redd up with 8-9 shooting, but Mo Williams struggled again, shooting just 2-12. Charlie Villanueva, who had been playing very well over the first couple games, was hardly present, shooting 1-6 and grabbing four rebounds. Terrible news for people who like exciting defensive players: Andrei Kirilenko severely sprained his ankle in the game, which is why he played just ten minutes. AK-47 has been limited by injury each of the last three years, and it's getting to the point where you worry about the label "injury prone" wrecking his career.
• Phoenix finally won its second game, beating Memphis, which was similarly gunning for win #2. This game wins "Best Second Half" awards, where by "best," I mean "craziest." The Suns won the third quarter 35-15, giving them a 31-point lead going into the final quarter. Phoenix proceeded to win by just nine, though, as they were outscored 29-7 in the final quarter. The Phoenix Suns were held to seven points in a quarter. Seven. Yes, it was the reserves, but still, seven points is crazy. Amare Stoudemire had a "welcome back" game, scoring 25 points on 10-14 shooting and adding 15 rebounds despite playing just 25 minutes (probably due more to his five fouls than to the blowout). Leandro Barbosa and Steve Nash shot poorly (9-25 combined) but had 21 assists to just four turnovers. Jalen Rose's debut for the Suns was mixed: 3-9 shooting, but 3-6 from behind the arc. Chucky Atkins led the Grizz with 20 points off the bench, as no starter scored more than 12 (that was Hakim Warrick). Damon Stoudamire, of all people, led Memphis with three offensive rebounds.
• Golden State destroyed the Pistons, winning 111-79, which is a score you usually associate with a Detroit win over a team like the Warriors. Lindsey Hunter was the leading scorer for Detroit, which is bad on multiple counts: first, that it's Hunter; second, that it was just 14 points; third, that he shot 5-13. The Warriors shot well over 50%, including 12-21 from three-point range, with only Troy Murphy contributing a bad shooting game (3-9). Mike Dunleavy shot 4-8 and added six boards and eight assists off the bench, which is how he has to contribute, if he's going to.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 15:26 | |

• The Pacers beat Orlando by 10 despite shooting under 40%. Al Harrington was too much for the Magic, scoring 32. He got good help from young forward Danny Granger, who added 18. These performances were huge because the big names for Indiana, Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson, combined to shoot 6-25. The bench for Indiana made just four shots, though White Hustle Guy ™ Jeff Foster grabbed eight boards (four offensive - I told you he was a White Hustle Guy ™), blocked three shots, and picked up two steals. I asked someone the other day where Trevor Ariza was hanging out these days. Turns out he's on the Magic bench. He didn't do much in this game, but I saw his name, so I thought I'd mention it, if for no other reason than to show that even if drafting is Zeke Thomas's strength, he's not necessarily that good at it. Dwight Howard had an odd game for the Magic: he scored 17, grabbed 14 boards, and blocked three shots, all of which are good, and about what you expect from Howard; problem is that he also turned the ball over eight times, which is unacceptable, particularly for a center. How did Howard have the ball often enough to turn it over that many times?
• Denver got its first win by taking down the 76ers. Nobody had a "jump out at you" game for the Nuggets, which turned out to be a good thing, as it pretty much looks like everyone did their jobs: Carmelo scored 31, Eduardo Najera grabbed five offensive boards, Marcus Camby had eleven rebounds, three steals, and a block, and Andre Miller had 18 points and nine assists. The bench didn't shoot well, hitting just eight of 25 shots. Allen Iverson's 6-20 shooting undermined good games from a variety of other guys: Chris Webber (8-16), Sam Dalembert (7-8), and Kyle Korver (9-16 for a team-leading 23 points). One problem for the Sixers is that they seem to be playing only three or four guys who are threats offensively. Andre Igoudala took just two shots in 29 minutes (though he did have seven assists and five turnovers, so the ball was in his hands); Kevin Ollie shot twice in 16 minutes; and Steven Hunter shot once in 19 minutes. I guess when you've got Mean Willie Green gunning 14 shots in 29 minutes, it gets hard for other guys to find shots.
• Washington won what looks like it was a wild game over Milwaukee. The final score was 116-111, but the third quarter scores were 34-17 and 40-26, with Milwaukee winning the third and Washington the fourth. Eleven players scored in double digits between the teams, led by (who else?) Gilbert Arenas, with 29. Michael Redd had 28 to lead the Bucks. The teams' shooting percentages were separated by just 0.3%, and though Milwaukee managed 12 additional shots, the differences came on foul shots and three-pointers: Washington shot thirteen more free throws (making twelve more), and Washington made five more threes, though the teams each shot the trey eighteen times. The individual difference in threes can be explained this way: Mo Williams missed all six of his attempts for Milwaukee, while Antawn Jamison hit 4-6 for the Wiz.
• Atlanta won again, going to 4-1 by beating Toronto. Joe Johnson had yet another big game, scoring 34, and was backed up by Josh Smith, who poured in 29. Johnson and Smith also contributed in other ways, combining for ten assists, fifteen boards, and just four turnovers. Swingman #3, Josh Childress, scored 16 off the bench for the Hawks. Chris Bosh had 19 points, 17 boards, and six assists for Toronto. Is Bosh reminding anyone of Kevin Garnett (very good inside/outside big man playing in a city out of the way of any major media market and without the surrounding parts to make the team a threat to do much at all)?
• Seattle sent Bobcats fans home unhappy, riding a 35-19 third quarter to a 14-point win. Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis combined for 47 points on 29 shots, and Nick Collison was tremendous off the bench, scoring ten points and grabbing fifteen boards in 27 minutes. All of this overshadowed Adam Morrison's first pro start. Morrison didn't help things by shooting just 3-12, though he did manage three steals. Emeka Okafor had the best game for Charlotte, scoring twenty and grabbing fifteen boards himself. A forward by the name of Walter Herrmann got into the game for Charlotte. I wanted to note this because I'm pretty sure his name means "Mr. Man" in German. Babelfish confirms this. I am hereby a fan of Walter Mr. Man.
• Utah improved to 5-1 and sent Boston to their fourth loss, winning 107-100. The Jazz shot 53% for the game, including 6-14 behind the arc, and there were a number of excellent individual performances: Carlos Boozer had 24 points (9-13) and 14 rebounds; Mehmet Okur had 23 points and hit 4-5 from behind the arc (he's the center!); Deron Williams had 26 points on 10-15 shooting and dished 14 assists; Andrei Kirilenko blocked five shots. I don't know who Kirilenko was guarding, but Wally Szczerbiak shot just 5-15 from the field. Paul Pierce got his 30, and three different players scored in double digits off the bench, led by Rajon Rondo's 13 in 25 minutes. Bassy Telfair played just seven minutes, despite starting, which smells like an injury. Indeed, the recap notes that he left the game with "shortness of breath" and was later diagnosed with "bronchospasm." WebMD says that a bronchospasm is a narrowing of the airways, and a search for the word turns up a bunch of results about asthma.
• Miami beat New Jersey by seven, though I'm sure the 113-106 final score wasn't so much to Pat Riley's liking. The five Miami starters played 77.5% of the team's minutes (compare that to 66.25% for the Nets), essentially playing a six-man rotation, with James Posey the sixth guy, playing 28 minutes. Dwyane Wade scored 34 points with ten assists and turned the ball over just once. In fact, only Alonzo Mourning, with three turnovers in just seven minutes, turned the ball over more than once for Miami, which is pretty remarkable. The surprise performance, though, came from Udonis Haslem, who generally plays the "banger" role (and occasionally the "thrower of mouthpieces" role). Haslem shot 10-14 in this one, though, and went to the line eleven times, resulting in 28 points. Jason Kidd just missed another triple double, finishing with 12 points, nine boards, and nine assists. Vince Carter led the Nets with 33 points, but also turned the ball over five times. Meanwhile, Marcus "Dude, It's a Dell" Williams missed all five of his three attempts off the bench, and also turned the ball over three times.
• Jeff Van Gundy welcomed his old team to Houston by beating them 103-94. Yao was the story, as he has been many times early this year, scoring 35, grabbing seventeen boards, and blocking seven shots. He did turn the ball over eight times (the Knicks only turned it over nine times overall), but you'll come close to forgiving that given the rest of his contributions. Remember, a lot of people worried about Yao's ability to rebound and block shots given his relative lack of mobility and athleticism. He still doesn't move from one side of the basket to the other as well as, say, Ben Wallace, but it looks like (I say this both from his numbers and from watching him a few times this year) he's a little more active, and has also learned how to use his unmatched length while also avoiding fouls for reaching in and going over the backs of his opponents. The Knicks' box scores this year are broken records: Channing Frye plays poorly in few minutes, despite starting; Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, and Stephon Marbury take most of the shots; and David Lee provides great White Guy Hustle ™ off the bench. The variation comes from how well the guards shoot and how well Eddy Curry and Q Richardson play, and that variation explains why the Knicks lost this game: Crawford and Robinson shot 7-20 and 3-9, respectively (though Marbuy missed just three of his eleven shots), and Curry shot 2-11 and grabbed only five rebounds in 22 minutes (it looks like foul trouble kept him down, as he finished with four). Richardson played pretty well, shooting 5-10 and adding five assists, but the Knicks needed to transfer six to eight shots from Crawford and Curry to Richardson to win this game.
• Portland beat the Hornets by one despite being down after the first quarter by 25 points. Zach Randolph did his usual business, scoring 31, mostly by getting to the line sixteen times, and grabbing twelve boards. Brandon Roy started for Portland but played just seven minutes due to a recurrence of a heel injury. Tyson Chandler was ejected for the Hornets, who got 21 points from Peja Stojakovic, but uncharacteristic shooting from Chris Paul (6-17) and David West (6-16), who grabbed thirteen boards, but ended up fouling out.
• Detroit killed the Lakers. I watched the game, and it wasn't pretty. Kobe was the high scorer for L.A. with just 19. Tayshaun Prince destroyed the Lakers. Prince gets to play at home (he grew up in L.A.) twice a year, and he made the most of this trip, scoring 31 points. Lamar Odom, who was having a decent all-around game (16 points, eight boards, seven dimes) was tossed after his second technical. I'm not entirely sure he deserved the second one, though Bill Walton was adamant about it. After a foul called against him (as I recall), he took off both of his wrist bands and tossed them. That sounds bad, but there are two caveats: first, he tossed them off the court, in the general vicinity of the Laker bench; second, he did this forlornly, not demonstratively, and I'd bet that 17,500 out of the 19,000 fans in attendance didn't even notice. I'm all for teeing guys up if they want to do what became endemic over the last few years: running around the court, arms outstretched, yelling every time a foul was called. But some of the things I've seen techs issued for this year go far beyond the necessary boundaries of a crackdown, and I think "taking off your armbands" fits into that category. Again, it's not like Lamar tossed them to the crowd or threw them on the court. It's similar to the tech Rudy Gay got on Wednesday the fifteenth. He got hit going to the basket, got the foul, and slammed the basketball down, not in relation to a call (which was, of course, for him) but because he got hit and it apparently hurt. Had he bounced the ball straight down, so that it bounced up into the air, I'd guess nothing would have come of this. Instead, though, the angle was a little different, and the ball bounced into the crowd underneath the basket. I, personally, don't think that's deserving of a technical foul.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 13:17 | |

Baseball Reference now has splits, box scores, and game logs! The site is now clearly the best website on the entire internets. How many times have I wanted some split or other, but could only get it on ESPN, and that only for the last three to five years or so? Want to know how Barry Bonds hit "late and close" in 1993? Try .368/.438/.868. It's right there. Now, a caveat is that these aren't exact, apparently, because there are a few plays missing here and there from the play-by-play files. That said, as long as the split you're looking at is a meaningful sample of plate appearances anyway, a few missing PA's isn't going to kill your analysis. In other words, so long as you're not trying to decide how Bonds is going to hit in extra innings this year by looking at his numbers in overtime in 1993, you're in good shape. The reason I was on the site in the first place was to look at how Barry Bonds hit last year. The A's are apparently heavy in the race to sign him, particularly now that Frank Thomas is gone. Keith Law noted on ESPN that Bonds won't come nearly as cheap as Thomas did. That's true, but there are a number of other considerations. First, Thomas wasn't as cheap as the $500,000 or whatever was announced before the year anyway, since he presumably earned pretty much every incentive he could, pushing the contract to its max value (which, as I recall, was something in the range of $2-3 million). Now, granted, Bonds isn't going to come for even that little, but it's still good to keep in mind that Thomas wasn't making rookie money last year. Second, with Barry Zito out the door, that's nearly eight million dollars coming off the payroll. That kind of analysis is always a little superficial, but there is some effect. Third, the A's played four home playoff games last year, with the extra revenue that entails. That's got to make Lew Wolff happy and also hopefully have him salivating for more. The failure of Dan Johnson to emerge (85 OPS+) and Daric Barton's injury troubles (just 45 games played last year) mean that the A's need a DH, and none is going to be forthcoming from within the organization. Barry Bonds, even in the age of strict drug testing, even at 41, even coming off a year in which he played just 14 games, hit 270/454/545 last year. Amusingly enough, Thomas also hit .270 and slugged .545. The difference is that Thomas's OBP was "just" .381. In other words, yes, Bonds will cost more than Thomas did this year. On the other hand, it's not obvious that Bonds will cost more than Thomas is making with Toronto ($18 million over two years, with $9 million of it coming as a signing bonus; there's also a $10 million vesting option for 2009, based on plate appearances). Further, Bonds is less of a liability on the bases (he managed three steals last year), is probably less likely to have his injury recur in a major way, and could certainly still play the outfield if he had to (though the defensive drop off from any of the A's outfielders to Bonds would be enormous). What it really comes down to is whether Bonds is asking for $15 million or $10 million. If it's the former, I don't think the A's pay. If it's the latter, I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Oakland A's at 12:31 | |

• Cleveland beat the Bulls (can we still call them the Baby Bulls? I guess with P.J. Brown in the starting lineup, it just wouldn't be right) by 19 as LeBron played playmaker, shooting 13 times and dishing a dozen dimes. It must've worked, because Drew Gooden shot 10-13, Sasha Pavlovic hit 6-9 off the bench, Donyell Marshall shot 5-7, and even Anderson Varejao (Energetic Brazilian Guy) hit 6-7. Maybe this'll be LeBron's indication that he should really use his all-around game and court vision instead of jacking up all those 22-foot fadeaways. Unlikely. He's got shoe sales to make. Ben Gordon did his best to sink the Bulls, hitting just 1-10, but given that the team shot 44% despite that, and turned the ball over just eight times, the culprit looks to be rebounding: Cleveland won that battle by 17. That's inexcusable for a team with P.J. and B-Wall starting in the front court.
• Golden State beat the Hornets by 121-116, which is the kind of score that makes you wish you saw the game. Baron Davis had 36, shooting as many free throws (17) as he did field goals. He managed nine assists on top of that. Troy Murphy and Monta Ellis also scored over 20, and Mickael Pietrus got close with 18. Mike Dunleavy moved to the bench and scored 13 in 32 minutes. Chris Paul scored 34 and had ten assists, but also had an uncharacteristic six turnovers. David West shot 8-10 as well, but had five turnovers himself. In fact, the turnover margin of seven (with a points-off margin of 20) looks to have doomed the Hornets here.
• Dallas finally won a game, beating the Suns in Phoenix, 119-112. The firepower for both sides just went at it: 35 for Dirk (12-12 free-throws, just two three-point attempts); 30 for Jason Terry (4-6 from the arc); 23 for Stack; 30 for Barbosa (5-8 from the arc); 21 for Marion; 20 for Nash (3-4 from trey). The two keys: Phoenix only committed one more foul than Dallas, but the Mavs shot 15 more free-throws; and Dallas actually committed one more turnover than Phoenix's 18, but Steve Nash had a ridiculous ten of them. That's completely out of character. If he has a moderately bad game (say five or six) instead of a horrendous one, this game comes out the other way and Dallas is still winless.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski in Basketball at 23:27 | |

The eighth of the month saw the Lakers in the second game of a back-to-back, traveling to Portland. They shot well (47.1%), but that's about the extent of the good news. The Blazers out-rebounded L.A. (36-28), out-stole them (13-4), out-foul-shot them (33-23), and out-shot them (51.5%). That last number is especially damning. It's the rare team that can win in this league when you let the other team shoot over 50%. Zach Randolph, as you might have heard, had the monster night (again - he's been doing this repeatedly, and looks juvenated, maybe the point of early MVP talk) with 36 points, 10 boards, three steals, and even a three-pointer. Nobody else on the team shot more than nine times (that was Martell Webster, who jacked up six threes but made just one), which implies that Portland was just dumping the ball down low every time and waiting until the Lakers could stop it. Which they apparently couldn't. Andrew Bynum, showing that, as exciting as he's been, he's still a rookie, fouled out in just 21 minutes. Remember that the Lakers don't have anyone backing him up at this point. Ronny Turiaf committed four fouls in 18 minutes, implying that he was also on Randolph. And if anyone else had to guard Zach (Lamar? Brian Cook? Vlad wince Radmanovic?), you just have to shake your head. Kobe Bryant was 12-19 for 32 points, but he continued to be turnover prone, losing six balls. Lamar Odom also had six turnovers, but didn't make up for it with the points, scoring just 11. Luke Walton was the other bright spot, scoring 22 points on 8-16 shooting and adding four assists, two steals, and a block. He also didn't turn the ball over. I'm telling you, Phil, just put the ball in Cool's hands. Ten other games:

• Orlando and Seattle went to the final quarter tied and the Magic wound up winning by one. Hedo Turkoglu hit a "lucky" (according to him) fadeaway at the buzzer to win the game, giving him his 17th and 18th points (for the team lead, tied with Jameer Nelson). Dwight Howard had his usual ten boards, and Grant Hill has apparently turned into a jump-shooter who doesn't get the ball that much: 6-11 shooting, 12 points, 0-2 from the free throw line. Ray Allen had 21 for the Sonics, and Chris Wilcox managed five steals, but it's tough to win when you lose the shooting battle 54% to 41.6%. Only by taking fourteen more shots did Seattle manage to stay close (+9 in the o-board battle and +4 in turnovers will do that). When you have numbers like that, you end up saying that the winning team got a little lucky no matter who it is: either you gave up a ton more shots and thus shouldn't have won, or else you got ridiculously out-percentaged and thus shouldn't have won. But somebody has to win.
• Washington was a no-doubter over Indiana, finishing the game up 26. Gilbert Arenas poured in 40 on 14-20 shooting, and the rest of the guys lived up to Crazy Gilbert's example, helping the Bullets to shoot 51.8%, compared to just 38.6% for the Pacers. Jermaine O'Neal was out with an ankle, so Al Harrington led the team in scoring with 23, but Stephen Jackson has to do more: 2-9 for five points doesn't cut it.
• Toronto beat Philly by two, with Chris Bosh hitting a three with six seconds left as the deciding points. Bosh hit two treys in the game. This reportedly represents a new dimension for him, which is kind of scary: he scored 29 in the game and added fourteen rebounds. He has to be that good for the Raptors to win, because he's really got nothing around him. The team as a whole shot just over 40%, and nobody else had more than six rebounds. They did take care of the ball, though, with just ten turnovers. Allen Iverson scored 35 in a losing effort, and added ten assists. It's a tough game for Philly to lose, because they outshot the Raptors by nearly 10% and got a bunch of good performances: Willie Green going 5-7, Steven Hunter shooting 4-4 with three swats, Chris Webber with 13 boards and six dimes, and Samuel Dalembert with eighteen boards and five blocks (before fouling out). Iverson missing six threes and Webber shooting just 7-19 are the only offensive negatives that really jump out.
• The Celtics won by two in overtime, overcoming Emeka Okafor's 28-point, 18-rebound game for Charlotte. In a game this close, you look for the guys who missed shots, and that's Adam Morrison this time around: he got to the line eleven times, making eight, but shot just 2-11 from the field. Paul Pierce and Wally World were the entire team for Boston, scoring 35 apiece, with both guys getting to the line (10-12, 9-10), and Wally getting it done from behind the arc (4-7). Pierce had a really fun triple-double: 35 points, 13 rebounds (again, when did he turn into a board monster?), and 12 turnovers. I've never seen that before. Fantastically, Ryan Gomes had an actual triple-double for the Celts, with a Jason Kidd-like 10 points, 12 boards, and 10 dimes. Gomes didn't turn the ball over once.
• New Jersey beat Utah by seven, which remains the Jazz's only loss of the year. The three stars got it done, as Richard Jefferson scored 23 on 5-11 shooting (oh that free throw line), Vince Carter scored 30 despite shooting 10-24, and Jason Kidd added 15 (though he had a very un-Kidd-like two dimes). Andrei Kirilenko is looking more and more like Ben Wallace in the box scores: eight rebounds, four assists, three blocks, but 2-10 shooting for just six points. Six guys went in double digits for Utah, but none had more than 15 points. Carlos Boozer had seven assists from the power-forward spot, which isn't something you see every day.
• Houston won again, beating Milwaukee despite the Bucks winning the fourth quarter by 13. Tracy McGrady had the big game for the Rockets, scoring 32. Yao took a ton more shots than he usually does, 24 of them, but made just ten (he's normally a very high percentage shooter), and he didn't really get to the line, so he finished with "only" 23. Michael Redd scored 34, and Charlie Bell added 22 off the bench, but no one else scored more than nine for Milwaukee. The Bucks also got out-rebounded by ten, as only Dan Gadzuric (12 off the bench) had more than five.
• The Spurs beat Phoenix, but it took an overtime period to do so. Amare Stoudemire started for the Suns, and shot a very nice 8-11, but played just fifteen minutes before fouling out, so he didn't have nearly the effect the Suns would like him to have. Steve Nash had his usual 20 and 11, and Shawn Marion grabbed 16 boards, but Marion's offensive game was off, as he hit just four shots, was 0-5 behind the arc, and didn't get to the free-throw line. Fabricio Oberto had a remarkable game for the winners, shooting 11-11 and grabbing ten boards. He also didn't make it to the line, but does it matter if you shoot 100%? Tim Duncan had 26 and 14 and Tony Parker had 29, with six dimes and four steals. Ho hum. The Spurs, very uncharacteristically, shot 22-25 from the free-throw line. Only Duncan missed from the stripe.
• The Knicks won in Denver by outscoring the Nuggets by 12 in the final period. Jamal Crawford and 'Melo squared off in this one, with Jamal scoring 35 points and adding seven assists and six rebounds (but turning the ball over seven times), while 'Melo had 37 points (18 trips to the line), with eight assists, six rebounds, and three steals. Channing Frye had another awful game, shooting 2-11. The bench was the difference for the Knicks: they shot 14-22 and grabbed 22 boards. Energetic White Guy (TM) David Lee had ten of those rebounds in 23 minutes.
• The Clippers beat Dallas by 18 in L.A. Dallas is off to a horrible start. Dirk grabbed 12 rebounds, but shot just 7-20, and only Jason Terry had his back, with a 9-18 night. Stack? 5-12. Devin Harris? 2-7, five dimes. The bench? 18 points. And who's going to stop Cat Mobley? 10-15 for 28 points, and four steals. Beyond Cat, only E.T. Cassell shot well (8-15) for the Clippers, but it didn't matter, with Dallas shooting under 40% and forcing just nine L.A. turnovers in the game.
• Do the Pistons miss Ben Wallace? Sacramento scored 99 on them, winning by 13 in Cali. Kevin Martin went off again, shooting 10-16 for 30 points, and he and Mike Bibby got to the line a combined 19 times. That implies that they weren't afraid to go inside against Rasheed Wallace and Nazr Mohammed. It didn't help Detroit that Tayshaun Prince (3-13) and Rip (5-12) weren't that good offensively.

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski at 22:41 | |