L.O.N.

As seen on SLAMOnline:

Line Of The Night:

LeBron James — 47 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block

The Takover.  This performance made it 28.6 to 28.4, LeBron over D-Wade, in the scoring title race.  But with the Cavs taking an L, maybe he tones this back a little in the next few games.

Near Triple-Double Of The Night:

Tim Duncan — 27 points, 9 boards, 8 assists, 4 blocks

Ask Brook, he don’t want it with Dunc, noooooooooooooooo.  The Spurs went to Dirty Jers and issued a typically metronomic beat down on the Nets.  Can the Red Rocket drop 20 in a playoff game though?  Can the Lakers survive not one, but two, red-headed wonders in the Playoffs?

Near Beast Of The Night:

Lamar Odom — 18 boards, 12 points, 2 steals, 1 assist, 1 block

Odom is definitely back on his grizzly with Andrew Bynum sidelined.  It could easily be argued that the Lakers will only go as far as L-Eezy can take them, at this point.

Shades Of Gray Of The Night:

Everybody wants to make Denver’s resurgence a black-and-white, Chauncey vs. A.I. issue, but can we spread the credit around a little bit?  Nene’s career year cannot be undersold.  His presence has at the least replaced Marcus Camby, and perhaps his style is an even better fit.  Also in the post, while K-Mart’s stats are virtually identical to last year, he looks way more athletic and energized this year.  And don’t forget, A.I.’s talent so flummoxed Coach Karl that he was in full on hibernation mode right up until Billups arrived in Denver.

Slot Machine Of The Night:

Javaris Crittenton — 7 points, 7 assists, 7 boards, 1 steal

Nice little game from the young man, but still off the bench, and still in another depressing 20+ point loss for the Wiz, this time to the Hawks.  What happened to that team?  And really, why not let young Crittenton run wild?  It’s really that important to have Mike James starting?

A League Of Their Own Of The Night:

Did Antonio McDyess set a hard screen on Derrick Rose or did he steal his Gummi Bears?  That was a Glen Davis level bawling performance from Rose, on the bench.  Then on NBA TV, Chris Webber was absolutely merciless on the young fella!  Comparing him to cowardly lion?  Wow.  We need a YouTube montage.

Mo Williams finally is named to the East All-Star squad after Chris Bosh bowed out due to a minor knee injury.  Can everyone stop with the whining now?  Just because your TEAM is good, Cleveland, does not automatically mean you deserve a 2nd All-Star…  Forget the LeBron/Granger foul madness.  T. J. FORD.  Thank you… Birdman, please do not be seriously hurt.  The Birdman is fly in any weather!… Well, it was fun while it lasted, Minnesota… The Pistons are a sad, sad shell for their former selves… Hey, Rodney — NEVER.  FOUL.  THE.  THREE.  POINT.  SHOOTER.  That is all… Any team with a bad record should be forced to run.  Maybe the team in the lottery with the most possessions per game gets the number 1 pick?  That G-State/Knicks game was that deal… First with the super hero-like call of Dwwwyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaane Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaade after every home make, and now the Captain America face bandage?… Was MJ wearing a pool table felt at Johnny Kerr’s ceremony?…  J.R. Smith to replace Rudy Gay in dunk contest.  If you’re like us and can’t get enough of young Earl Smith, III, feast your eyes on this Top 100 Dunks…

It was official Clinton Sparks/SmashTime night in the NBA on Friday, with 5 out of the 9 games ending in 20+ point blowouts.  But at least the late night jawns were “burn-barners” as the Chuckster might say.

Line Of The Night:

Kevin Durant — 46 points, 15 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 block

We are not completely on Gary Payton’s side (that would probably be difficult anyway, considering it was unclear exactly what his point was for much of his Thursday night All-Star discourse), but at least for this night, we are going with individual performance over winning.  Eric Gordon put up 41 for the winning Clip Joint, but score was essentially all he did.  Durant added the boards, AND went 24-26 from the free throw line!  If it’s not this year, his double-digit All-Star streak will start soon enough.

Near Triple-Double Of The Night:

Rafer Alston — 17 points, 8 boards, 8 assists

With Yao tweaking his knee early in the game, not even this all-around effort from Skip was enough for the Rockets to win in Indiana.

LeBron James — 32 points, 9 boards, 8 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks

And the buzzer-beater to silence the rowdy Oakland fans.

Stephen Jackson — 24 points, 8 boards, 8 assists, 2 blocks

This game was hard to watch for the first three quarters.  There were a ton of fouls and not much flow.  The the 4th quarter happened.   Tight game, up-and-down, and in the final minute the King and the Captain went shot for shot.  LeBron got the last shot though, spoiling Monta Ellis’ return.

Contraction Club Of The Night:

Phoenix Suns — 76 points vs. Charlotte

This is the type of game that makes the average sports fan hate the NBA.  A lot of Charlotte fans probably came to this game or watched on TV, excited to see guys like Shaq, Amar’e, Nash, etc. and then the entire Suns roster simply rolled over (we’d mention the Bucks/Hawks blowout, but we’re guessing ATLiens were not fired up to see if Joe Alexander could register on ‘Nique’s Dunk-O-Meter).  Not even Jason Richardson could get inspired to play against his old team.  Of course, as bad as this game was, it was probably more interesting than whatever you want to call what Jake Delhomme did a couple of weeks back.  The Bobcats took advantage, for sure, and it was never a contest.  They are now creepin’ on a playoff come up.

Warning Sign Of The Night:

Ricky Davis — 11 assists, 4 boards, 2 steals, 1 block, 1 point

1 point and 11 assists for Ricky Davis?  We are honestly worried about Ricky’s mental state now.

All-Star Starters Of The Night:

East:

Allen Iverson
Dwyane Wade
LeBron James
Kevin Garnett
Dwight Howard

West:

Chris Paul
Kobe Bryant
Tim Duncan
Amare Stoudemire
Yao Ming

All-in-all, we think the fans got it pretty much right, this year.  Hard to come up with strong arguments against any of these selections.  Would have been interesting to see if David Stern would have allowed the Yi Jianlian and Bruce Bowen selections, though.

What Is Gary Payton Talking About Of The Night:

Tim Duncan — 30 points, 15 boards, 5 assists, 4 blocks

Really?  Not an All-Star starter, GP?

Has Dwight Howard been watching the Shawn Kemp post-shot celebration how-to video?  You know, the Cleveland years, when Kemp would add a little flourish to even the simplest of plays?  Howard is borrowing heavily from Shaq as well, for the specifics.  He’s giving the post-dunk crouch-face, the hand stare after a shot… Maybe Dr. Ruth taught him… Now that Alonzo Mourning retired, can we also retire those annoying Gatorade ads in which he brags about his golf game?… Must see tv:  C-Webb and GP talk Nene wedding plans… We think we like this year’s all-star unis.  Or our expectations so low now anything would have impressed us?  And the Mailroom Supervisor tells us not to buy in to this “improves your vertical by 4%” nonsense…

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?…