11/1 NBA Recap: Erden Alert?

Another slow night in the NBA, as there were only three games going on. Without further ado:

In the night's first game, the Chicago Bulls defeated the Portland Trailblazers 110-98. Luol Deng led the Bulls with a career high 40 points. This team is going to be lethal once Carlos Boozer returns. They have young studs in Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, and Taj Gibson (who will most likely be relegated to 6th man once Boozer does return) along with a solid forward in Deng, proving himself to be a formidable scorer after last night's performance. I already predicted this team to easily take the Central, but they could be a force down the stretch barring injuries.

In the second game, the Sacremento Kings manhandled Andrea Bargnani's Raptors. Yeah, the Raptors are now Bargnani's team. The good news about that: he put up 28 points last night, pushing his ppg so far this season to 23.7. The bad news? He averages only 3 rebounds per game, and I'm pretty sure he's the center. This was Bargnani's main concern going into the league; he was too soft, and couldn't hold his own in the paint. While his ppg numbers are very good, he needs to improve his career 4.8 rpg in order to give this Raptors team a chance after Chris Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu's departure.


In the final game the Clippers... lost.....again.They're now 0-4. At least they lost to a good team in the San Antonio Spurs. Young guns Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon continue to impress me, with Griffin getting 17 points and 8 rebounds and Gordon getting 23 points and 11 assists. This team has no chance of making any splashes because they have no depth. Their starters combined for 81 of the team's 88 points. Granted, starters play more minutes which ultimately leads to more points, but the three bench players who had over ten minutes of playing time only combined for 7 points. Yeah, don't expect the Clippers to do anything good anytime soon, regardless of how Griffin and Gordon perform.

And former BC alum and three-point master Jared Dudley recieved a four year, 17-millions dollar extension from the Phoenix Suns. Great for the Suns. Not only do they get one of the best three-point shooters in the game for four more years, but they also get a great defender, on a team that lacks defensive discipline. Congratulations to the former BC alum on making a solid NBA career for himself, maybe the best basketball player to come from the school. Has anyone seen Sean Williams or Troy Bell?

Finally, Shaq will most likely miss tonight's game against the semi-Bizzaro Celtics. This means Jermaine O'Neal will be starting. Great. Hopefully he doesn't foul out in 12 minutes again, because we actually need him this time. Does this mean a Semih Erden or Luke Harangody sighting? Only if we have the lead, please. But if I were a fantasy owner, I'd start Glen Davis today. With the way he's been playing thus far and Shaq's injury, expect good numbers and more minutes.

MVP of the Night: I think we all know it's Luol Deng, but I'm going to go with the Kings rookie DeMarcus Cousins. I don't understand how the Nets passed up Cousins for Favors in the previous draft. In a few years, Cousins is going to be an offensive monster if his attitude is in check, while Favors has a ceiling of being maybe a poor-man's Antonio McDysse. Plus, Cousins had the best chance of making an immediate impact on a team, while Favors and Wesley Johnson had more "upside." I'll take immediate impact, please. Cousins put up 16 points last night, but if he continues to improve, he could easily be a 20/10 guy any night, as long as he improves his maturity.