Insider Special: Good, Bad, and the Kitchen Sink

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The Good, the Bad, the Kitchen Sink

By Terry Brown

Monday, December 23 Updated 11:49 AM EST

Here's hoping Mark Cuban or Robert Johnson has you on his Christmas list . . .

The Good

Jason Kidd, New Jersey Nets

Week's work: 2-1 record, 31 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 10.3 apg, 3.3 spg, 5 triples, 53% shooting

Imagine what he'll do next year if we don't give him the MVP award this year after what he did last year.

Chris Webber, Sacramento Kings

Week's work: 2-2 record, 24.7 ppg, 12.7 rpg, 6.7 apg, 2 spg, 2.2 bpg, 46% shooting

Tim Duncan, Stephon Marbury twice and Antawn Jamison were the easy part last week. Convincing a judge that the NBA playoffs were more important than our judicial system, well, that took real effort.

Bonzi Wells, Portland Trail Blazers

Week's work: 3-0 record, 29.3 ppg, 6 rpg, 3.6 apg, 1.6 spg, 4 triples, 54% shooting

How do you spell T-R-A-D-E B-A-I-T. Before this week's rampage, Bonzi played more than 35 minutes only four times all season. In his last four games, he's averaged 41 every contest. By the way, the Blazers have also won their last five games as the hottest team in the league.

Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs

Week's work: 22.7 ppg, 12.7 rpg, 4.7 apg, 2.2 bpg, 51% shooting

Why does it still feel like he's punching a timecard . . .

The Bad

Jamaal Tinsley, Indiana Pacers

Weak work: 1-3 record, 4.7 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 7.7 apg, 2.2 spg, 23% shooting

Spend the money and hire a shooting coach. Or optometrist. Saturday's debacle marked the third time this year that Tinsley has gone 0-fer, making it 0-for-15 in that stretch. He's also got four games in which he's gone 1-fer, making it 4-for-21 in that stretch. His 0-for-12 mark from three-point range this week extends it to 0-for-16 in the last six games. If it reaches seven, he should petition the league for a cane. Or an assistant coaching position.

Hedo Turkoglu, Sacramento Kings

Weak work: 2-1 record, 3.6 ppg, 1.3 rbg, 0.3 apg, 0 spg, 0 bpg, 50% shooting

They were right, after all, about his all-around game. He was just as bad at everything this week.

Darvin Ham, Atlanta Hawks

Weak work: 1-2 record, 2 ppg, 0.6 rpg, 0 apg, 0 spg, 0 bpg, 33% shooting

Who'd this guy [censored] off? In October, he averaged 19.5 minutes per game. In November, he averaged 13.1. In the last three games in December, the guy who has made it this far on sheer sweat alone, has averaged only 7.3 minutes per game.

Latrell Sprewell, New York Knicks

Weak work: 1-2 record, 13 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 4.6 apg, 0 spg, 9 bpg, 33% shooting

It took him 122 minutes of game time and 45 shots to score 39 points this week. And it wasn't like he was doing anything else on the court to distract him. I don't think this is what New Yorkers were holding their breath for.

The Ugly

On Nov. 27 of this season, Denver Nugget leading scorer Juwan Howard finished the game against the San Antonio Spurs with zero points in 28 minutes. Chris Whitney, the team's second-leading scorer, went scoreless on Dec. 16 AND Dec. 18. Rodney White, the team's fourth-leading scorer has also gone scoreless on two different occasions this season while Donnell Harvey, the team's fifth-leading scorer, has turned the trick five times. Now that James Posey has been traded to the Rockets, the only remaining Nugget in the team's Top 5 in scoring who hasn't put up a donut this year is rookie Nene Hilario, the team's third-leading scorer, who is averaging only 7.9 ppg. And to think that they were already the league's lowest scoring team at 80.2 before losing Posey's 14.1 in trade for Art Long's 2.1 and Mark Bryant's 1.1.

But not to worry. Posey has gone scoreless in his first two games with Houston.

The Kitchen Sink

RAIN, SNOW, SLEET AND BAD SHOOTING NIGHTS

It's always the last 3,252 points that get you.

After scoring 35,135 points in his 16-season NBA career, Karl Malone finds himself more than two seasons away from breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time scoring mark of 38,387.

During his 17 years in the league, he had averaged 2,041 points per season coming into this contract season with the Utah Jazz. That made it easy. Tally another 2K, sign for one more victory parade of a season to pick up the last few points and start writing that Hall of Fame speech.

But somebody forgot to tell the Seattle Sonics, who held the Mailman to zero points on 0 of 7 shooting on Nov. 3. He was then held to single digits on Nov. 30 against the San Antonio Spurs, going 1-for-16 for seven points. After averaging 25.5 points over 1,378 games, Malone hasn't reached the 20-point mark in seven games.

He is averaging a career-low 17.8 points per game and is on pace to score 1,460 if he doesn't miss a contest this season. Do the math, figure in the salary cap, carry over the aching back and realize that if Malone is going to break this record, he's going to have to swallow some pride.

Two more seasons could very well mean a minimum salary and less room service in the offense.

But how do you tell that to a guy who has won two MVP awards, played in 13 All-Star Games and was named as one of the 50 Greatest of All Time while leading his team to three consecutive victories in his latest three games to push the Jazz to 14-12?

If the season ended now, they would qualify for their 20th consecutive postseason in which the Mailman has scored an additional 4,421 points.

But it's a good thing they don't count those points because Jabbar has 5,762 of them, himself.

NET GAINS

The New Jersey Nets aren't going to scare you with their 18-9 record or their 97.2 points they score on a nightly basis but you may want to know that in the games that they've won this year, they scored 99.6 points per game while giving up only 84.1 to their opponents for a whopping 15.5 point margin of victory in their victories.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATE

Which Clipper do you think had six steals and five three-pointers in their last game?

Who do you think led the Clippers in scoring for the last two games?

Who do you think has led them in assists in three of their last five games?

Andre Miller? Elton Brand? Michael Olowokandi? Quentin Richardson? Corey Maggette? Lamar Odom?

None of the above.

His name is Marko Jaric from Yugoslavia.

He is a 6-foot-7 point guard, shooting guard, small forward and built-in excuse for Donald Sterling to not pay a dime for any of the above-mentioned players in the very near future when they become free agents.

ROAD BUMP

After winning five road games in a row this season (which pushed them to 14-2 on the season at that time), the Pacers haven't won one in regulation in almost a month. They've gone 2-6 away from Conseco Fieldhouse since beating the Clippers on Dec. 1 in Staples Center. In that span, they lost to the Bulls. They even lost to the Nuggets. In fact, the only two games that they won, versus the Bucks and Sonics, had to be finished in overtime. Too bad they don't get paid by the hour because five of their next six games after tonight's matchup with the Hawks are also on the road.

REBOUNDS

Heat shooting guard Eddie Jones once scored a total of 12 points in three consecutive games this month before going off for 187 in the latest seven contests for an average of 26.7 points per game in that stretch to boost his season average to 17.7 . . . Kobe Bryant has gone from shooting 75 percent from the foul line in October to 78 percent in November to 88 percent in December (61-69) . . . After totaling 45 assists in the first two weeks of December (6.4 apg), Jason Williams of the Memphis Grizzlies has handed out 46 in the last four games (11.5 apg) . . .

BULLIES

Scottie Pippen, arguably, at one time, the second-best player in the league

Career: 16.4 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 5.3 apg, 1.9 spg, 47% from the field

Michael Jordan, arguably, at one time, the second-best player on his team

This year: 17.3 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 2.8 apg, 1.5 spg, 45% from the field

WOULDA, COULDA, SHOULDA SPECIAL

Sacramento Kings (22-8) versus Los Angeles Lakers (11-18)

Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2002 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California

Open some presents, visit grandma, watch the game and try to determine which team won the last three consecutive titles.

THE END

"We're an 11th-place team. We have to face that reality. That's exactly what we are." — Phil Jackson hoping aloud that Jeanie Buss hasn't already spent the $1 million bonus he gets after every Laker championship.