Line Of The Night — 01/14/2009
As seen on SLAMOnline:
Line Of The Night:
Chris Paul — 33 points, 11 assists, 10 boards, 7 steals
He one-man-showed this game. Despite Jason Kidd going slot machine (7pts/7asts/7rebs), CP3, with little to no help, took the road win. But when we found out LeBron (triple-double last night) is playing Paul on Friday, on ESPN, it all started to feel like a big conspiracy.
Beast Of The Night:
Brad Mizzle — 30 points, 22 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block
A ridiculous effort in an absurd marathon of a game. Nobody wanted to win, as Sacramento and G-State missed shot after shot, opportunity after opportunity in 3 overtimes! Free basketball, playas and playettes. Despite J-Creezy playing a full 5 quarters worth of action (60 minutes), the Warriors could not put this one away to fully complete their 4th quarter comeback. After they lost 3 starters due to foul outs to Sactown’s 0, they just got out-manned. This was the bottom-feeder Yin to the Lakers/Spurs Western Conference supremacy Yang, for sure.
Contraction Club Of The Night:
Portland Trailblazers — 79 points vs. Illadelph
Freeway actually wrote more verses last night than Portland scored points. FREE MIX!
Near Larry Bird Of The Night:
Tim Duncan — 20 points, 10 boards, 8 assists, 2 blocks, 1 steal
Every time there’s “best player” in the league talk, there should at least be an obligatory throw in of “and don’t forget that old dog Tim Duncan, he’s still getting it done”, or something to that affect. Although often a bogus award, when a guy whens the MVP two years running, he is generally in the mix for the “best player in the world” crown. Duncan did that at his peak, producing these numbers:
01-02: 25.5 pts, 12.7 rebs, 3.7 asts, 2.5 blks in 40.6 mins
02-03: 23.3 pts, 12.9 rebs, 3.9 asts, 2.9 blks in 39.3 mins
Now check this year:
08-09: 20.4 pts, 10.1 rebs, 3.5 asts, 1.8 blks in 35.4 mins
Wow. That is not much fall off. Give him 5 more minutes a game, and it is even closer. Is playing big minutes part of being the best player? Yes. Is there some decline? For sure. But should the boy get more love? Definitely. Just ask Kobe (Roger Mason… FOR THE WIN!!!).
Near Beast Of The Night:
Marcus Camby — 18 boards, 12 points, 4 blocks, 2 steals
It will never happen in a million years, but shouldn’t the Lakers trade Andrew Bynum for Marcus Camby? Don’t the Lakers dream that Bynum might be half the player Camby is right now? Last night Bynum snatched THREE rebounds in 35 minutes. As your boy Ta-Nehisi Coates would say, weaksauce!
Warriors fans = awesome, in stark contrast to the simultaneously catacombesque Staples Center, which hosted the Clip Joint/Atlanta game last night… The Pistons with back-to-back MISSED buzzer-beaters. A.I. on Tuesday, Rip on Wednesday. So close… Looks like the Ceatles are back on track now, winning three in a row, including a little 32-point serving of smash time to Dirty Jers, last night… Nick Young = pure, raw, unadulterated, uncut, pristine, unblemished sugar cane offense… Anthony Randolph — get on the floor, young fella!… Anthony Parker needs to be on a contender. That vicious fall-away baseline J needs to have an impact in the playoffs… Il Mago balling (career-high 31 points), T-Dot still losing. What happens when Jermaine O’Neal comes back?…