FanHouse RasualButler

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Blake Griffin, the first overall draft pick, is staying strong after suffering a knee injury during a preseason game. In this FanHouse exclusive, he gives he gives us an update on his injury.

We also talk boxing with Griffin's teammates, as Marcus Camby, Rasual Butler and DeAndre Jordan make their picks in the upcoming Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto fight.

Check out the video after the jump.

On the eve of yet another rebuilding season, the Los Angeles Clippers revealed on Monday night that Blake Griffin's knee injury was far more serious than initially feared: he's been diagnosed with a stress fracture in his left kneecap (the patella, to be precise) and could be sidelined up to six weeks. He suffered the injury in the team's final preseason game.

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

A season ago, the Clippers began the year with a renewed sense of optimism. After losing team staples Elton Brand and Corey Maggette to free agency, the club didn't stand pat -- they went out and got some pieces they hoped would make them better.

Well, things didn't exactly work put as planed. Injuries derailed things fairly quickly, and instead of Baron Davis being the one to revive the franchise, he was merely a bystander who watched the team post its worst won-loss record in nine years.

There was a bright side to last year's debacle, however, as it landed the Clippers the number one overall pick in the draft, which they used to select Blake Griffin. With a healthy group to start the season, and some smart tweaks to the roster, L.A. once again has reason to be cautiously optimistic.

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This is precisely what New Orleans general manager Jeff Bower was not going to be able to do: drop salary in the tighest NBA climate in decades. But lo! the Hornets are actually on the precipice of slipping under the luxury tax threshold. On Wednesday, the team traded Rasual Butler to the Clippers for practically nothing; L.A. used part of its Zach Randolph trade exception.

While the Clips get an able back-up wing that, yes, New Orleans could have used, the Hornets sit $4 million closer to the tax line. For every dollar over the threshold a team sits come June 30, said team must pay $1, which is then spread among the teams under the line. Before trading Tyson Chandler for Emeka Okafor and Butler for squat, New Orleans was some $10 million over the tax line. Now the team is less than $4 million away from escaping the tax.

At halftime of the Hornets' playoff-clinching victory over the Heat, you wouldn't have thought that this game was going to turn into anything special. New Orleans led by 10 at 40-30, and the teams put together an ugly second quarter where they managed to score just 24 points combined.

But Miami came back strong in the second half, and as you might expect, Dwyane Wade was prominently involved. But he left the door open for the Hornets when he missed a free throw with 10 seconds left in regulation, and Rasual Butler made him pay by hitting this crazy, game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer.

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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.

Late in the first half of the Hornets' game against the Spurs, Chris Paul broke an NBA record by grabbing a steal in his 106th consecutive game. It happened on a play where he and Rasual Butler trapped Tony Parker, and when the ball was knocked loose, Butler made sure that Paul would be the one to grab it, and thus, the record that had been held by Alvin Robertson since 1986 was broken.

The crowd immediately knew what had happened, and rose to their feet to deliver a standing ovation that lasted well into the next possession, even before they were notified of the feat by the arena's announcer.

If you're thinking that a consecutive steals record isn't really that big of an accomplishment, well, you need to think again. Besides the fact that Paul broke a record that had stood for almost 22 years, all you have to do is look at the next closest active player on the list to see just how ridiculous it really is. That player would be Rajon Rondo, who has recorded steals in a whopping ... 22 consecutive games. Which means he'd have to go more than an entire 82-game season with a steal in every single game just to get to where Paul is now. And by the looks of things, there's no indication that CP3 will be stopping at 106.

B-Ball, B-Fast is a week-daily look at what happened last night in the NBA from a fantasy basketball perspective. Visit early (9:00 a.m.) and often, or just save yourself the trouble and bookmark it.

Cup of Coffee
It was reasonably safe to pencil in an uptick in Morris Peterson's statistics once Peja Stojakovic got hurt. We all knew it was coming. Now, it's a reality. The problem? MoPete wasn't there to collect. Instead, it was Rasual Butler filling in at the two guard and taking 11 shots. He didn't do much with them, scoring seven points but he did hit a three, grab six boards and rip two steals. Exciting, I know. But Peterson and Peja are both day-to-day with back problems, which means at best they see minimal time this week, when the Hornets play at Denver (102.1 ppg allowed), at Dallas (100.1) and at home against Phoenix (104.4). It's a little bit of a gamble, but starting Butler in a weekly league as a fourth forward could pan out well, and given his long range and scoring prowess, picking him up for daily leagues is absolutely advised.

Hot Cakes
Chris Bosh returned to the court for the first time in five games and posted a casual 21 and 10 with four blocks. He dominated the post too, as evidenced by Yao Ming's very scant six rebounds. If you were using Joey Graham for any reason, well, you may now stop. It is nice to see that Jamario Moon continued to start though - Bosh should obviously be activated immediately and Moon should remain a lower end forward.

Chris Quinn got the starting nod at the point for the Heat in Jason Williams' absence. El Chocolate Blanco shouldn't miss too much time, but with a Monday game against Phoenix, Quinn is a very nice play in daily leagues. He'll have some value if Williams remains injured, but Dwyane Wade put up 10 dimes from the two last night; that's a pretty good indication of how the ball handling will go in the future too.

Sweet mercy, what has happened to Al Thornton? Not that he has a ton of background to really expect any sort of production, but considering he's the Chris Weinke of the NBA (age/school), I at least expected him to see some run in the post for the Clipjoint. I'm not even surprised by Corey Maggette averaging 20 points a game; it's the whole can't-beat-out-Tim-Thomas-for-a-starting-gig thing that really bugs me.

I don't need to mention that the Travis Outlaw Watch continues to garner votes all over the country, right? 20 points, five boards, a block and a steal in 29 minutes off the bench. 14 of 16 from the stripe is just gravy.

We all know that NBA players love jewelry. So you'd think they'd be more careful with their chains and earrings, or at least have their people be more careful with them. From The Times-Picayune:

Hornets forward Rasual Butler and local authorities are trying to determine who took $268,250 of his jewelry from his personal assistant's suitcase during a flight from Oklahoma City on Saturday, according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office incident report.

Butler's assistant, Kyle White, 29, said he last saw the jewelry when it was packed into a bag that he checked at the Continental Airlines ticket counter at Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City ...But when White opened the bag in New Orleans on Saturday night, the jewelry was gone. The take included an $80,000 Breitling Bentley watch and a $130,000 diamond necklace, according to the incident report.

Funny, I thought New Orleans was supposed to be the unsafe city unable to accommodate the needs of an NBA franchise. I can't think of anything more central to hosting a team than watching out for players' luxury items. If OKC really wants those Sonics, they'd better show they're up to the law enforcement challenges posed by a professional sports franchise.