Line of the Night: Carlos Boozer (5.2). The peripheral stats aren’t great for Boozer, but all one needs to know is 41 points off 15-19 shooting from the field and 11-13 from the line. Let me channel my inner Dan Patrick… Boozer was EN FUEGO!
Sorry. You are now welcome to punch me in the face, repeatedly.
Honorable Mentions: 24 points and 4 steals for Danny Granger (4.8); Antawn Jamison (4.8) had 36 and 11 with 5 threes (nice to get 5 threes from your PF); Ron Artest (4.7) went for 26 points, 9 rebounds and 5 steals; Andre Miller (4.6) had 32/5/7 and shot 11-14 from the field and 10-11 from the line; and Corey Maggette (4.5) scored 34 while hitting 6 threes.
Waiver Wire Line of the Night: Gordan Giricek (4.4). Wait a second, this guy is on the Suns now? When did that happen? Anyway, it was season high 23 points for Gordan, who added 5 boards, 5 assists , 4 threes and a couple steals in 33 minutes. He actually got more play than both Barbosa (surprising) and Diaw (not so much) as Grant Hill sat out the second half to rest his sprained wrist (not so much).
Rise with Us: Yesterday was a good day for waiver wire players to step it up. Josh Boone (4.2) had 21 and 13 in 37 minutes for the Nets (Nenad Krstic is out again with an upper respiratory infection); and how about Memphis? Our good friend Juan Carlos Navarro (3.7) is back, hitting 3 threes on his way to 20 points; everyone has or has thought about picking up Hakim Warrick (3.7) at some point in the season, right? Well, if you haven’t, he had 23 and 7 with 3 steals and a block; and Kyle Lowry (3.6) only scored 12 points with 5 assists, but he also had 5 steals.
The Biggest Loser: Andrei Kirilenko (1.6). Hopefully you sold high on AK sometime in 2007 because he has cooled off significantly in the past couple months. Yesterday, Kirilenko finished with 2 points off 1-4 shooting, adding 2 rebounds and 3 assists in just 22 minutes. You could blame his night on early foul trouble, except that it has been happening pretty much every other game.
AWK-ward Moment of the Night: Devin, I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that look on your face.
