Insider Special: Good, Bad, & the Kitchen Sink

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The Good, the Bad, the Kitchen Sink

By Terry Brown

Monday, March 24 Updated 1:58 PM EST

With 23 days to go in the regular season, here's hoping the Milwaukee Bucks can beat the Nuggets, Heat twice, Cavs, Bulls, Clippers and Raptors (six teams that have won 28 percent of their games) so that all playoff teams will have at least won half of their games.

The Good

Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs

Week's work: 2-2 record, 27 ppg, 14 rpg, 2.2 apg, 0.5 spg, 3 bpg, 58% shooting

Four regular-season wins over the three-time champs in one season is four regular-season wins over the three-time champs in one season. Unless, of course, you're the reigning MVP or three-time champs.

Peja Stojakovic, Sacramento Kings

Week's work: 3-0 record, 24.3 ppg, 4 rpg, 1.3 apg, 1 spg, 9 triples, 53% shooting

Simmer.

Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks

Week's work: 2-1 record, 29.6 ppg, 10.3 rpg, 3.3 apg, 1 spg, 1.3 bpg, 6 triples, 52% shooting

This could very well be the fourth straight year this blue-eyed, blonde-haired stud increases his points, rebounds and steals per game as the Mavs go from 40 wins to 53 to 57 to a projected 62 this season. Believe it or not, he does even better in the playoffs.

Shawn Marion, Phoenix Suns

Week's work: 2-2 record, 22.7 ppg, 9 rpg, 3.2 apg, 1.7 spg, 1.7 bpg, 11 triples, 51% shooting

Much will be made of Shawn Marion's best season as a professional basketball player thus far in his young career, but even more so if it doesn't end on April 16.

The Bad

Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers

Weak work: 1-2 record, 26 ppg, 8 rpg, 4 apg, 1.2 spg, 0.5 bpg, 40% shooting

Maybe we're spoiled and it's gotten to the point where we want, either, 40 points or triple-doubles. So when Kobe shot 36 percent in the team's two loses last week to Sacramento and San Antonio to go along with a total of three assists and 2 of 11 shooting from three-point range, we were left wondering how it ever got to the point where he's playing, either, Sacramento or San Antonio in the first round.

Bonzi Wells, Portland Blazers

Weak work: 2-1 record, 9 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 2.6 apg, 1 spg 0 bpg, 37% shooting

Do you think Damon Stoudamire might be cramping his style as Bonzi's minutes go from 36.3 per game in January to 29.9 in February to 23.4 in March and Mediocre Mouse goes from 13 to 13.2 to 26.1 in that same time frame?

Walter McCarty, Boston Celtics

Weak work: 0-4 record, 1 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.2 spg, 0.5 bpg, 22% shooting

Heaven forbid we ever confuse Tony Delk with Paul Pierce or Antoine Walker, but with Delk injured, we had no idea it would be that hard to confuse Walter McCarty with Delk as the Celtics lost four in a row to fall four games back of the Atlantic Division lead.

The Ugly

Since trying to stuff a sock down his stats against the Utah Jazz on March 16 for a triple-double, Ricky Davis has averaged a meager nine points per game on 28 percent shooting. Prior to the incident, he was averaging 20 points per game on 40 percent shooting.

The Kitchen Sink

WHO'S HOUSE?

Jerry Stackhouse has made a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Drafted by the Philadelphia Sixers with the third overall pick of the 1995 draft, he went on to average 19.2 points per game as a rookie but still lost out on the ROY award to Damon Stoudamire.

The very next year, the Sixers drafted some kid named Allen Iverson who not only went on to win the Rookie of the Year Award but also Stackhouse's position.

Stack was eventually traded to Detroit, where he played second-fiddle to the 1995 ROY, Grant Hill, which prepared him for his next stop in Washington to play alongside some other guy named Michael Jordan.

Now, almost at the end of seven-year contract that has payed him a meager (by NBA standards) $37 million, he has averaged 24.3 points per game over the last four seasons. This is how he stacks up with other NBA guards who are making more than twice as much as he is at the Max.

Allen Iverson: 29.6 ppg

Kobe Bryant: 26.9 ppg

Vince Carter: 25.2 ppg

Tracy McGrady: 24.5 ppg

Jerry Stackhouse: 24.3 ppg

BORED STIFF

Ben Wallace has grabbed 28 rebounds in a single game twice in his career and if he's able to average 26 over his last two games of the month against the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday and Phoenix Suns on Friday, he'll have averaged a whopping 20 boards per game for the entire month of March.

In fact, in six of the Pistons' last seven games, he's had 20 or more rebounds with 18 in the game he didn't and 19 in the game before the streak started.

As it is, he's already got 208 rebounds in the month of March as the team's second-leading rebounder, Corliss Williamson, has totaled 310 on the season.

ON A ROLE

Perhaps the best player not to be averaging double-digits, besides Ben Wallace, is Sacramento's Doug Christie, who is shooting a career-high 48.6 percent from the field as well as 40 percent from three-point range and 81 percent from the free-throw line. He's also second in the league in steals per game at 2.3 and third on his team in assists at 4.8 to go along with his 9.9 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.

KID STUFF

Jason Kidd is back to his old tricks, handing out 18 assists last week against the Memphis Grizzlies to take over the assist lead from buddy Gary Payton (see numbers below). Should he hold onto the lead, it would be his fourth such seasonal title, tying him with Magic Johnson and putting him two behind Oscar Robertson, four behind Bob Cousy and five behind John Stockton.

J-DIME

After handing out 42 assists in the last three games, Jason Williams, who is averaging 8.19 assists per game, is within fractions of becoming the league's third-leading assist man behind Jason Kidd, 8.69 apg, Gary Payton, 8.4 apg, and Stephon Marbury, 8.2 apg, and is already second in assists to turnovers in the league to Kevin Ollie.

Take away his four worst games of the season in which he had two assists on Nov. 1 and Nov. 15, no assists on Nov. 19 and 1 assist on Dec. 6, and replace them with his average and he'd be at 8.61 assists per game.

TRIPLET TWINS

Kevin Garnett (23.1 ppg, 13.4 rpg, 5.9 apg) and Chris Webber (23 ppg, 10.8 rpg, 5.6 apg) are leading their respective teams in all three major categories. Garnett is also leading the Timberwolves in minutes, steals and is 0.02 behind the Radislov Nesterovic in blocks. Webber also leads his team in minutes and is second in steals to Doug Christie and blocks to Keon Clark.

BIG DEAL

Kenny Anderson, Sonic point guard

Before trade: 6.1 ppg, 3.2 apg, 1 spg, 44% shooting

Kenny Anderson, Hornet point guard

After trade: 6.7 ppg, 3.5 apg, 0.7 spg, 43% shooting

LONE STAR SPECIAL

Houston Rockets (36-33) versus San Antonio Spurs (49-20)

Thursday, March 27, 2003

SBC Center in San Antonio

9:30 pm EST on TNT

Can anyone stop the red-hot Spurs? The Rockets, deadlocked with the Phoenix Suns for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West, certainly hope so.

THE END

"I looked over at Michael Olowokandi's gear and saw how horrible it was. I knew that a guy dressed like that, I don't want a guy like that to beat me." — Shaquille O'Neal on the motivating factors of blue shirts, gray pants and burgundy socks after scoring a season-high 42 points in win over Clippers on Monday.