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.
If you're not a close follower of the NBA, then just six games or so into the season, we can't necessarily hold it against you if the name Tyreke Evans doesn't ring a bell. Besides being a rookie, Evans plays for the Sacramento Kings, a team that won just 17 games a season ago, and figured to be about as bad this year with stud scorer Kevin Martin sidelined indefinitely with an injury.
But after what Evans did to Deron Williams in leading his undermanned team to a road win in Utah on Saturday, he won't remain anonymous to basketball fans for much longer.
Atlanta's trade acquisition of Jamal Crawford was seen either as a questionable ploy to correct the Hawks' most deafening weakness (bench guard play), or a quiet coup bound to boost the team to solid ground. Atlanta coach Mike Woodson -- a fundamental-focused, stoic defensive mind -- figured into the argument of the former. Crawford is a mysterious player, not conducive to Woodson's dependency on consistency (Josh Smith aside).
But the latter has actually been true: Woodson seems to really understand what Crawford offers, and Jam has rewarded the coach with stellar play through five games. Atlanta is sitting pretty at 4-1 after a successful 2-1 road swing. And Crawford is having the best season of his career so far.
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.
It's not every day that we get to see a player hit for 40 points or more in an NBA game. So on Sunday, when we had three different players meet or surpass the mark, it's definitely something worth discussing.
Especially when two of them did it in the same game.
Shame on the NBA owners for being greedy, trying to milk their teams for an unbelievable eight exhibition games on top of an already marathon regular season and a taxing playoff march.
Eight is too many. Just ask Los Angeles Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy, who now may be without his star rookie prize Blake Griffin in Tuesday's much-anticipated opener against the cross-arena Lakers.
Griffin hurt his left knee Friday night in exhibition No. 8, a game that never should have been played if the league had listened to players, coaches, trainers and even nonsensical sports writers who have said for years that there is no need for so many meaningless games.
Joe Johnson wants to believe that his Atlanta Hawks are on the verge of being contenders in the Eastern Conference. They should be getting close.
But going into the start of the NBA's regular season next week, Johnson isn't so sure anymore.
"Sometimes, I can't tell if we really want it,'' Johnson told FanHouse after his Hawks were embarrassed by a 37-point loss Friday night in their final exhibition game by the Orlando Magic. "It's discouraging. Sometimes, you never know what you're going to get from this team. And that won't work.''
The Atlanta Hawks are almost always identified by the always overused phrase, "upside." Well, that and passing on Chris Paul way back when they had a chance to become an elite franchise and egged by taking Marvin Williams (I'm sorry -- I'm not even a Hawks fan and I can't write about the Hawks without getting angry over that whole thing).
Since arriving in Atlanta in 2005, Joe Johnson has been the resident star of the Hawks. Josh Smith draws the oohs and aahs with the highlight reel dunks and eye-popping stat lines, but Johnson has been the only player to really approach greatness, his finest moment coming in the 2007 playoffs, which we mentioned a few days ago.
It's long been expected that Johnson would sign an extension within the last few weeks, to lock him up with the Hawks for the forseeable future, without any question of him going elsewhere in the summer of 2010.
Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?
Training camps are opening, so here are five coaches likely to start feeling the heat if their teams don't get off to good starts.
Mike Dunleavy, L.A. Clippers: The Clippers head into the season with expectations, which might not be the best news for Dunleavy. He's got to figure out a way to reconfigure his relationship with Baron Davis so that the veteran point guard once again can thrive. If Dunleavy and Davis aren't on the same page, there's no hope in L.A.
Wally Szczerbiak would appear to be the top NBA free agent left standing. Then again, maybe not.
With the Denver Nuggets having lost out on free-agent shooting guard Flip Murray to the Charlotte Bobcats on Thursday, sources told FanHouse the Nuggets are now looking strongly at small forward Ime Udoka.
Meanwhile, Szczerbiak, who had been linked earlier in the summer to Denver, is still looking for a job.
"Yes, the economy has affected the market, there's no question about it,'' Szczerbiak said in an interview Thursday with FanHouse. "I just have to take my time.''
The word is out in the NBA. Oklahoma City might be hiring.
In this tough economy, any job for a player these days is a good one. And there is talk the Thunder, with 14 guaranteed contracts and no worries about the luxury tax, might be a rare team that has no problem with a 15-man roster.
That's why veteran forwards Michael Ruffin and Ryan Bowen will be heading to the Thunder camp on nonguaranteed contracts, looking to earn a job.
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.
Atlanta's trade acquisition of 
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. 
Shame on the NBA owners for being greedy, trying to milk their teams for an unbelievable eight exhibition games on top of an already marathon regular season and a taxing playoff march.
Joe Johnson wants to believe that his 
Since arriving in Atlanta in 2005, 
Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?
The word is out in the NBA. Oklahoma City might be hiring.
