What an entertaining night in the Association! Atlanta beat the Phoenix Suns. They’ve beaten the Mavs and Suns and barely lost to the Nets and Pistons in their first four games. It’s early, but they are looking really good. Plus, they are starting and playing two rookies 25 minutes per game! The reason they are winning? Pure hustle! Look at last night’s game.
They outrebounded the Suns by 16 (7 more offensive boards), they had 6 more steals and actually beat them in assists as well. They had 4 players with double doubles (Marvin, Josh Smith, Josh Childress, and Joe Johnson with 10 assists). The Hawks are young, hungry and talented.
Horford looks like a beast on the boards and a legit NBA allstar in the making, grabbing 15 boards last night. He’s averaging 10.8 rebounds through his FIRST four games. That’s incredible. Zaza is expected to come back Friday, but I hope they keep Horford in the starting lineup and give him his minutes, he’s earned it. Acie still has some work to do, but I do like his confidence.
Marvin is having a nice start going under most people’s radar. He had 20, 12 and 3 assists last night. The question is can he bring that effort every night? Childress also had a very nice night, posting 19, 10, 2 assists and 2 steals.
Joe is Joe. He is really demonstrating his leadership early on by allowing the young guys in Marvin and Josh Smith shine.
All this is nice, but the guy i really want to discuss is JOSH FREAKING SMITH!!!! Here’s his line from last night:
22 points, 10 boards (4 offensive), 4 assists, 4 steals, 5 blocks with 47% shooting
AMAZING! He’s currently averaging 3.5 steals and 4 blocks per game! He was guarding Steve Nash down the stretch and stole the ball from in twice in the final minutes of the game! Yes, 6’9” Josh Smith straight up ripped the ball from 6’3” Steve “2-time MVP” Nash. It was sweet, unless you’re a Suns fan. Now yes, it’s only 4 games and we shouldn’t get too excited, BUT he has always started slow and still ended up as a top 25 fantasy player (higher depending on your league), so imagine where he will end up this year with a start like this!
To celebrate his most spectacular night, I’ll post the following picture of Lucy Pinder!
Other notable performances from last night:
Chris Kaman continues to dominate on the glass by pulling down 22 rebounds against the Pacers. He chipped in 15 points with 3 assits, one steal and 2 blocks.
Hedio Turkoglu grabbed 15 boards with 6 assits, 24 points a steal and block while shooting 50% from three! He’s been on fire! Don’t expect these totals, but he should be nice play all year in Orlando’s new system.
Chris Bosh finally showed up last night posting 26 & 10. Nice to see. We’ll get more and more of these. I would like his assists to rise more, though. He’s an excellent passer. I wish Sam Mitchell would utilize that more.
You love having KG, Pierce or Ray Allen on you team, but you also hate it, because if this trend keeps up, they’ll only average 30 – 35 minutes per game becaue they are killing everyone they see! KG would have had a triple double if he played the 38-40 minutes, no doubt. Still, he’s the best in the land.
Two of my favorite young players balled last night…. Rudy Gay and Darko Milicic (yes, I’m back onthe Milicic bandwagon. I rode it for 4 years and jumped off for two weeks, so I think he’ll allow me to drag my sorry ass back on to enjoy the ride). Gay had 25 points, 10 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 3 blocks! He has all the talent in the world and was born to play the Game. I’m betting on him having a very nice breakout year! Darko had 15 points, 10 boards (4 offensive) with an assist, steal and 2 blocks. The most impressive stat is only 2 turnovers, as he has been a TO machine in his career. Keep it up Darko!
We’ll end with the Cavs vs Jazz game last night! What a game!!! LeBron had a triple double in the third quarter and ended up with 32, 15, 13, 3 steals and 2 blocks! He’s averaged 2 blocks per game so far, incredible! Yet, his heroic three point shot with seconds left in the game was not enough to win, as Utah quickly inbounded the ball without calling a timeout (more teams need to do this) and Deron raced down the court and hit the game winning layup! Yes, he went baseline to baseline and hit a layup with 6 seconds left on the clock when the game was tied! STOP CELEBRATING CLEVELAND AND PLAY SOME FREAKING DEFENSE!!!!!!!!
Paul Millsap had another very good game with 24 points (7-8 shooting) 5 boards and 5 steals. I love me some Millsap! He’s a beast! All he needs is close to 30 minutes a night and he is this year’s version of David Lee.
AK47 put up 8 points, 3 boards, 5 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks. This is the performance you should expect out of Andrei on a night in night out basis. Don’t get caught up in the AK47 is back hype! Nice stat line, but nothing like the Kirilenko of old.
Boozer and Deron will give you double doubles all year. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Tonight we have Mavs vs Warriors, which should be entertaining. I expect the Mavs to get some pretty good revenge since the Warriors are without Jason Richardson and Stephen Jackson.
Washington vs New Jersey. Is Gilbert healthy???? Damn, I hope so. He’s killing one of my teams right now!
Detroit vs Chicago. Chicago is 0-4 and I think they’ll get their first win tonight.
Enjoy the games.
Just Give Me The Stats!! 