10/28 NBA Recap: "Rootforability"

It was a relatively slow night for the NBA last night, as only two games were showing, and both games were never really close.

The first game had the Orlando Magic vs. Washington Wizards, notable for being John Wall's first career NBA game. Wall put up fourteen points and nine assists, not a bad performance. However, I noticed he looked lost on defense at times, which he'll definitely have to improve on, though that may be attributed to first-game jitters. Also, his team lost by nearly thirty points (actually twenty-nine points), which can be somewhat blamed on Gilbert Arenas' ankle injury, but mostly due to poor play all-around from the team. Wall was picked to lead this team; can he get over rookie nerves to take the reigns and lead this team to meaningful victories?


In the night's second game, Phoenix defeated Utah 110-94, in a game that was never close. Steve Nash and Phoenix controlled the pace most of the game. My favorite part of the game was seeing Gordon Hayward play. Though his box-score stats are nothing to write home about, he leads the league in a new stat (invented by yours truly) called "rootforability."

Rootforability is pretty self-explanatory, as it measures how "root-forable" a player is. It is measured on a scale of 1 to 10. For example, the Miami Heat's rootforability right now is a 1, while Hayward is a solid 10, mostly due to his Cinderella-story last year and the fact that he is a mid-sized white guy trying to make it in the NBA. The major difference between rootforability and likability can be explained like this; Dwight Howard is, by all accounts, a likable guy. However, because of his team's recent success, his rootforability at this moment is around a 3 or 4, whereas his likability is probably an 8 or 9.

Speaking of Hayward, I noticed that half of the participants in the Suns/Jazz game could be models for Lord of the Rings characters. Seriously, with AK-47's new haircut, he could pass as an elf or something, along with Hayward and Steve Nash. And can't you just see Robin Lopez being a villain giant, swinging an enormous mace and yelling at people with his incredibly deep voice? Am I alone on this?

Anyway, back to basketball, last night's MVP:

10/28 MVP: Steve Nash (18 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds)
Main reason: Controlled the tempo of the game, allowing Phoenix to easily down Utah.