Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.
The Kings spoil the debut of Allen Iverson by outscoring the Griz 17-6 in overtime, on their way to winning 127-116. Kevin Martin scored 48 points and Spencer Hawes chipped in by almost posting a triple-double off the bench -- 21 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists. The Kings bench outscored the starters 67-60.
Iverson came off the bench to score 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting with just one assist. Underwhelming, but it was just one game. I refused to draft Iverson this year and probably won't get excited about him as we move forward, so keep that in mind.
FanHouse previews a player to watch from each NBA team in advance of the 2009-10 season.
If you're attempting to put together a competing team without a superstar, you need a lynchpin. A guy who can do several things well, if no one thing brilliantly. Some opt for a point guard, some opt for a traditional big man. Larry Brown opted for Boris Diaw.
Since being traded to Charlotte last season, Diaw went from being the gap filler in Phoenix who could never quite fill the tank completely, to the lynchpin in Charlotte. The Bobcats came on strong at the end of the year, narrowly mising an oppotunity to lose to the Celtics in fewer games than the Bulls did. And if they're going to build on that success, Diaw is going to have to maintain his role on the Cats.
The Bobcats are a playoff contender. I know it sounds weird. If you need to take a few minutes to repeat that to yourself in order to suspend belief in pursuit of finishing this column, feel free. I'll wait.
...
Ready? Okay, let's begin. The Bobcats are a playoff contender, and have been since Larry Brown decided to dump his best player (Jason Richardson) to Phoenix for jack-of-all-trades-master-of-awkward-spacing Boris Diaw and older than dirt Raja Bell. When that trade occurred, there was universal questioning of what in the carolina blue blazes Larry Brown was thinking. You don't ditch your best player!
After two putrid drafts, the NBA returned to form in 2001 -- but not right away. This draft will forever be known as the day Michael Jordan transformed from the greatest player on Earth to a below average general manager. With the No. 1 overall pick, Jordan held the fate of the Washington Wizards in the same hands that dunked on many of opponent, and he had a rich variety of players for which to don the savior of the franchise.
And he chose Kwame Brown. It really wasn't Kwame's fault. He was the victim of an amazing workout that impressed Jordan so much -- was this thing on video? -- that Air was convinced Brown would emerge as an All-Star. The brutal truth is that this prep player from Georgia faded into one of the biggest busts in draft history, hanging out in the same club as LaRue Martin, Joe Barry Carroll and Michael Olowokandi.
As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.
"Love bravely, live bravely, be courageous, there's really nothing to lose." -Jewel
And really, what says "Charlotte Bobcats" like Jewel?
The Lottery is littered with teams that failed to meet expectations. Their hopes broken, their efforts for naught, they're left with nothing but frustration and depression. They limp towards the offseason with hope for nothing more than pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.
The Charlotte Bobcats have widely been considered a joke over the last five years for several reasons. Kind of a silly name. Already lost one franchise to New Orleans. Michael Jordan and a passion for North Carolina players.
Today they've got a huge opportunity to shake off that reputation versus a former Eastern Conference title contender, pull within 1.5 of that team, and further the notion that this franchise has turned a corner. Or they can lose their third straight to playoff teams and confirm their skeptics' worst criticism: They're just not that good.
Let's talk a little bit about Charlotte versus Detroit, tonight at 6PM EST.
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.
David West took a bad step in the second quarter. A really bad step -- he could barely jog through the second half, limping heavily. Like it mattered.
West played nearly the entire second half on one leg, scoring 19 points in that span to finish with 40 on the game. He added nine rebounds and six assists, helping New Orleans remain in position to beat Sacramento, which it did on a Rasual Butler three at the buzzer. On the game-winner with the Hornets down two, West managed to screen off two Kings in the paint. An unbelievable performance from West at a time when his team (missing Tyson Chandler and Peja Stojakovic) couldn't possibly survive another injury.
The NBA features an 82 game season. As such, some weird stuff is going to happen. The Clippers will beat the Celtics. The Kings will beat the Suns. And often times, they're simply the result of back-to-backs, injuries, or that most crucial of variables: a bad shooting night.
But tonight was kind of different. As Robin Williams once said (yeah, I'm quoting Robin Williams, you got a problem with that?), "It's not the end of civilization, but you can see it from there."
Okay, two lottery (most likely) teams beat two perennial contenders. Your average bizarro night. But there were things in these wins that forecast the future.
If you were of the opinion that the league was somehow cracking down on flagrant fouls this season, then the events of the past week or so might go a long way to change your mind.
Andrew Bynum, as you may recall, partially collapsed Gerald Wallace's lung during the Lakers' loss to the Bobcats, and received neither a fine nor a suspension for the flagrant foul that caused the damage. Although the injury sustained by Wallace was a serious one, most thought that Bynum's play was reckless, but not intentionally meant to hurt anybody.
It doesn't seem that long ago that the Southeast was an afterthought. I'm aware that sounds stupid as this division attempts to rise to serious L-bound prominence, but it's true -- before Dwight Howard and before Dwyane Wade and before Josh Smith and before Jeff McInnis ... what was there?
It doesn't particularly matter now; the division is still only an erstwhile powerhouse; you would never see a prediction coming that any one of these teams can contend for the NBA title right now, and that's what matters in these sort of things.
Of course, Orlando is a different story of sorts. Maybe. At least we have to wonder: Does Hedo Turkoglu Still Have the Special Sauce?
Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective. 
FanHouse previews a 
FanHouse 
As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, 
The Charlotte Bobcats have widely been considered a joke over the last five years for several reasons. Kind of a silly name. Already lost one franchise to New Orleans. 
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." 
The NBA features an 82 game season. As such, some weird stuff is going to happen. The Clippers will beat the Celtics. The Kings will beat the Suns. And often times, they're simply the result of back-to-backs, injuries, or that most crucial of variables: a bad shooting night. 
If you were of the opinion that the league was somehow cracking down on flagrant fouls this season, then the events of the past week or so might go a long way to change your mind. 
