Line of the Night: Kobe Bryant (5.45) pulls out the best line of the night even with the 11 turnovers, and not only that, but he moves up to the Number 2 spot on NBA.com’s FSPI player rater for The 2007-08 Season. I’m not sure if it was the 39 points, the 10 rebounds, or the 13-15 from the line (or maybe even the 5 assists, 2 steals, and block)… most likely a combination of all of the above. Also, does this mean he’s now the front runner for Real World MVP?
Honorable Mentions: Dirk Nowitzki (5.42) put together a game that was fairly comparable to Kobe’s. A few less point, but an extra rebound and assist, and Dirk didn’t miss any free throws. Maybe if he’d taken 5 more he would have missed 2 of them.
Holy Crap Larry Hughes of the Night: Larry Hughes (5.10) had 28 points on 10-21 (same as Dirk), with 4 threes, and was also perfect from the line (on only 4 attempts, though). 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals! Larry Hughes!
Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Well, since I’ve already let the Larry Hughes out of the bag, let us go with Jeff Green of Seattle (3.52). Greenie had 17 points on 8-8 shooting, and as Patrick would tell you (for the second day in a row), if someone gets WWLotN by shooting over 70%, there’s a 70% chance it’s a fluke. But guess what, there’s a 100% chance it’s Friday, and a 93% chance that I don’t feel like looking at any more lines to see if there’s someone else out there to pick. Especially when the next 2 guys I looked at were James Posey (3.43), who shot 3-9, so I’m not sure how he got rated that high at all, and Damon Jones (3.41) who made 5 shots, all of which were three-pointers.
The Biggest Loser: Tony Allen (1.02) just barely cleared a rating of 1, with his 1 assist and 1 turnover last night. Most of the minutes he should have had were taken up by James Posey’s awesome performance. Eddie House and Kendrick Perkins were also near the bottom of the ratings… Good thing for the Celtics Ray Allen was back to help them take out the Mavericks. I’m telling you, though, as soon as Ray Ray goes down again, Tony Allen is money.
Leandro Barbosa (1.73) had a pretty awful night, and the expectation are a bit higher for him than for Tony Allen. Barbosa was 2-10 with 2 rebounds and 3 assists. He’s still at #54 on the GMTR Player Rater, though he’s slipped to #89 on NBA.com’s ratings for the past 10 days.
Happy Friday.
Happy Super Sunday.
Happy All-Star announcement day for Brandon Roy.

Blazer Dancer Melissa in honor of Brandon Roy




