Insider Special: Good, Bad, & the Kitchen Sink

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The Good, the Bad, the Kitchen Sink

By Terry Brown

Monday, February 3 Updated 11:59 AM EST

On Dec. 1, 2002, Vince Carter scored a 14-game-best 27 points against the Memphis Grizzlies, which was below his season average of 27.6 in 2001.

Here's hoping his season high doesn't come this weekend after averaging 16.2 per game during warm-ups last week of what we like to call the regular season .

The Good

Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers

Week's work: 3-0 record, 40 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 4.3 apg, 1.6 spg, 1 bpg, 5 triples, 49% shooting

LeBron can keep the Hummer. But vengeance is Kobe's.

Stephon Marbury, Phoenix Suns

Week's work: 2-2 record, 28.2 ppg, 4 rpg, 10 apg, 2.7 spg, 6 triples, 47% shooting

Only Gary Payton has more assists in the entire league. Only Stevie Francis scores more per game than Marbury at the point. And neither has been in nearly as many music videos. The best point guard in the league may have already left New Jersey.

Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks

Week's work: 3-0 record, 28.6 ppg, 7 rpg, 4.6 apg, 1 spg, 1.6 bpg, 6 triples, 59% shooting

Numbers would have been even better had the Nuggets put up a fight last week and required Dirk to play more than 2 1/2 quarters. Especially since he was averaging only one missed shot per quarter in front of the three-point line.

Chauncey Billups, Detroit Pistons

Week's work: 3-0 record, 22.3 ppg, 5 rpg, 3.3 apg, 12 triples, 51% shooting

I know he's supposed to be a point guard. I know he didn't have single steal this week. And I know he didn't have a single block this week. But the Pistons not only beat Boston twice in that time frame but handed them their worst loss in franchise history by 52 points and then smacked around their main conference rival New Jersey by 22 points. Look no further than the guy with the funny name and 11.6 career average for the reason why.

The Bad

Courtney Alexander, New Orleans Hornets

Weak work: 1-2 record, 8.3 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 0.6 apg, 0 spg, 0 bpg, 37% shooting

Strained right groin or not, Alexander has gone from being Michael Jordan's ball boy last season to Robert Pack's this year since Baron Davis went down and out on Jan. 24. He hasn't had a steal since Jan. 3 or a block since Dec. 29 or shot 50 percent from the field in a Hornet win since Dec. 13. He's already playing for his third NBA team in three years. Do I hear four?

Clifford Robinson, Detroit Pistons

Weak work: 3-0 record, 8.6 ppg, 3 rpg, 3.6 apg, 0 spg, 0 bpg, 34% shooting

The drop in points we can live with. Even the slight decline in rebounds. But this once defensive bulwark on a team dependent on it hasn't had a block or steal in five games. Need we remind him that free agency is only 36 regular-season games away.

Predrag Drobnjak, Seattle Sonics

Weak work: 2-1 record, 3 ppg, 1.3 rpg, 0.6 apg, 0.3 spg, 0 bpg, 18% shooting

On Jan. 19, this NBA starting center scored 19 points in an upset win over the Dallas Mavericks. Since then, he's scored a total of 17 points in six games, last week attempting two three-pointers while grabbing zero offensive rebounds. There should be a rule about that.

Samaki Walker, Los Angeles Lakers

Weak work: 3-0 record, 3 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 0 apg, 0 spg, 1.3 bpg, 50% shooting

Little more than a salary slot at this point and that's sugar-coating it considering he's at league minimum and still starting.

The Ugly

With 2:46 left in Friday night's game between Detroit and Boston, rookie forward Tayshaun Prince hit a jump shot to put the Pistons up by 60 points, 118-58. The Celtics, however, rallied to score the game's final eight points to make it respectable!?!

The Kitchen Sink

RAGE ON, RASHEED

Would it make you feel better if I told you that Rasheed Wallace was wrong?

Because he wasn't.

If the object of the game is to actually win, then the Portland Trail Blazers are 3-0 since and including the game that Wallace was whistled for a technical foul and later got into a post-game argument with a referee that led to a seven-game suspension.

In that same span, he's averaged 31.6 points, 8 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.6 blocks on 70 percent shooting from the field, 55 percent shooting from long range and 76 percent shooting from the line.

Forget the All-Star Game this weekend. Those are MVP numbers.

Remember the season in which he set the NBA record for technical fouls and ejections? Well, he scored a career-high 16.4 points per game and grabbed a career-high seven rebounds per game. They were the biggest statistical jumps of his career. The year after that, he set a new NBA record for technical fouls and set a new career-high in scoring at 19.2 and rebounding at 7.8 and was named to his first All-Star Game.

Later that year, he bounced a towel off Arvydas Sabonis' head during a time out because he could no longer tolerate a season in which the Blazers would finish 50-32 as the seventh seed in the Western Conference.

The following year, when he failed to set a new NBA record for technical fouls or ejections, his points and rebounds leveled off as the Blazers finished 49-33. This year, prior to the blow up, a sedated Wallace sans the technicals and ejections averaged 16.7 points and eight rebounds per game.

If there is, as they say, a thin line between genius and lunacy, then Wallace is at his basketball best jumping back and forth over it, dribbling right, faking inside, turning around and throwing that dagger from 10 feet out on the baseline.

Nothing scares like the unknown, the indefensible, the unquantifiable.

How else are you going to motivate a group of over-paid, statistically juiced athletes with scattered criminal records?

I'm not condoning his behavior. I'm saying that Shaq ain't never gonna shoot above 60 percent from the line. Iverson ain't gonna lead the league in assists. Payton ain't gonna stop talking about your momma, teammate or opponent, up and down the court.

He is who he is.

And the Blazers are 30-16, the fourth seed in the Western Conference, only a game and a half from the second, and have no idea what Rasheed is going to do next.

CROSSING THE LINE

Piston shooting guard Richard Hamilton is averaging 20.3 points per game this season despite making only 17 three-pointers, meaning that only five percent of his scoring comes from long range.

Antoine Walker (the league's leader in 3 FGM) of the Boston Celtics, on the other hand, is averaging 21.4 points per game as 354 of his 920 points are from long range. More than 38 percent of his scoring comes from behind the arc.

But that ain't nothing.

New Jersey Net Richard Jefferson has scored 692 points this season (15.4 ppg) while making only 15 three-pointers, or two percent of his scoring, while Memphis Grizzly Wesley Person (the league's leader in 3 FG%) has scored 295 points (9.5 ppg) of which 150 sre from distance for more than 50 percent of his total.

THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKING

It's a good thing San Antonio point guard Tony Parker made the bus trip.

He not only led the Spurs in scoring in their narrow two-point victory over the Miami Heat on Saturday night but tallied 48 points and 20 assists on 60 percent shooting in their two previous games, including an even narrower one-point victory over the Magic on Friday.

The Spurs stand at 3-1 with five more games to go on their current nine-game, six-state, 21-day road trip that could actually mean more good news for Parker. In the nine games that he has led the Spurs in scoring this season, six of them have come on the road where he is actually averaging more points per game than at home.

OF BUCKS, YENS AND DEUTCHMARKS

The Milwaukee Bucks' looks may be deceiving after winning 10 of their last 13 games and moving into the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference with a 24-22 record.

Of those 10 victories, only three of them have come against winning teams while the overall win percentage of the group is 38 percent (190-300) or the equivalent of the Atlanta Hawks.

SIXTY-CENT

Shaq may have had his worst night from the free throw line against the Jazz on Saturday, going 1-for-6, but he's still shooting a career-high 59.8 percent and could miss his next 39 in a row before falling to his career average of 53.6 percent.

ROAD KILL

Currently, there are only four teams in the entire league with winning records on the road: Dallas (16-6), Sacramento (15-11), Portland (15-10) and Detroit (14-10). Last year, there were nine at the close of the regular season.

Overall, the 29 teams in the NBA are 251-425 on the road so far for 37 percent.

AIR UPDATE

After hanging 45 points on the New Orleans Hornets, Michael Jordan upped his scoring average to 18.7 points per game on the season but still dropped his career scoring average to 30.4 points per game after 1,038 games.

He is still the overall leader in the category, ahead of Wilt Chamberlain, who averaged 30.1 points per game after 1,045 games.

But with 37 games left on the Wizards' schedule, MJ would have to average 24.7 points per game to finish his career ahead of Wilt.

Currently, there are only five players this season who are averaging more than that: Tracy McGrady (30.4), Kobe (28), Allen Iverson (26.9), Shaq (26.5) and Paul Pierce (26.5).

THE BUCK STOPS HERE?

Glenn Robinson, former Milwaukee scapegoat

Current Numbers: 21.1 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 2.9 apg, 1.3 spg, 0.4 bpg, 43% shooting

Ray Allen, current Milwaukee savior

Current Numbers: 21.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 3.3 apg, 1.2 spg, 0.2 bpg, 43% shooting

WEBB-LESS SPECIAL

Sacramento Kings (33-16) versus Dallas Mavericks (37-9)

Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2003 at American Airlines Center in Dallas

8:30 p.m. EST

The last time these two teams met, Chris Webber torched the league-leading Mavericks for 29 points as the Kings defeated Dallas, 123-94. In fact, the last four times these teams have met (including the final three games of last year's semifinals), Webber has averaged 30.2 points per game and Sacramento has won all four. But this time, Webber is out with a tweaked ankle and the Kings have lost four of six while the Mavs have won three in a row.

THE END

"If you want to fight, then let's fight." — Reading Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan's lips shortly after referee Courtney Kirkland ejected him from Tuesday's game versus the Kings, perhaps not fully aware of his impending seven-game suspension but downright sure of how to handle the current decline in NBA officiating.