Just Saturday

I'm not going to lie, I didn't watch any games tonight or during day (for NFL playoffs). Thus, I'm just going to note some things I saw that were noteworthy in box scores.

I'm going to start with football since this going to be one of three football days (or nights, however you want to look at it) left for the "2007 NFL season".

- If you're a Packer fan, which seems to be America's team right with Brett Favre, who might be the most loved quarterback of this generation, life is good. Even though Ryan Grant lost two fumbles, he finished with the Packer postseason record of 201 rushing yards and also had 3 TD's. The Packers dominated the Seahawks 42-20. I don't think Green Bay has anything to worry about with Favre leaning towards a return and their future ground game based around Grant, who's poised to become a stud.

- New England didn't cover the spread, Randy Moss had only one catch and it wasn't even a touchdown. Those are about the only negative things you could say about the Pats tonight. They won convincingly by 11 and Brady threw 3 touchdowns while extending his undefeated home record to 7-0 in the playoffs. The AFC is shaping up the way everyone thought... Indy @ New England in the Super Bowl, wait, AFC championship game. Who actually gives the NFC a chance?

Now onto basketball. There were 8 games tonight and LOTS of implications in those games.

- Boston lost another game and lost it in the fourth quarter, scoring only 13 pts in the frame. Rajon Rondo left Friday's game early, which somehow I missed, and missed this game entirely. He's not certain to return for the C's next game on Monday.

- Detroit pulled out a tight one in OT, while Charlotte lost its second consecutive heartbreaker. They've been awfully competitive lately even without Raymond Felton, who sprained his ankle the night before against the Cavs. Jeff McInnis also missed this game due to injury so the Bobcats were basically left without a PG. Matt Carroll and Jason Richardson started at the guard spots with Jared Dudley, the rookie out of Boston College, getting a start at the other forward spot opposite Gerald Wallace. I don't know how the Cats stuck with the Pistons, but some of it had to be because of Nazr Mohammed's continuing tear, as he put in 19 pts and 13 rebs with 3 blks.

- San Antonio dominated Minnesota and there's not much else to be said except for the Wolves continued lack of consistent rotations. Rashad McCants has been re-inserted into the starting lineup as he's been hot lately. Ryan Gomes and Al Jefferson were the forwards while Michael Doleac started at center for the Wolves. It's an interesting look as coach Randy Wittman looks to be experimenting a big lineup. I doubt it'll stick as the Wolves continue to lose and will keep losing all season. They really don't have an answer, so don't trust anyone in the lineup for fantasy outside of Jefferson since none of the players really have much security in terms of PT.

- Utah got a boost at home with Andrei Kirilenko returning to the starting lineup after missing a couple of games. He helped the Jazz beat the Magic at home, going for 16 pts, 7 rebs, 8 assts. The Jazz have proven they can score, but they allowed 115 pts in regulation. I'm sure Sloan isn't completely happy with his squad yet.

- Phoenix got a couple of starters on their way to beating Milwaukee at home. Shawn Marion and Steve Nash both returned in the win. Marion was a bit under the radar in this one, but Nash looked as though he hadn't missed a step en route to 35 pts, but only 7 assts. I suspected the Bucks would score a ton in this game so I made a spot start with Charlie Bell, who had 18 pts, 7 assts in 34 minutes. Mo Williams had a surprising struggling game in this one with only 7 pts in 30 minutes. This could be a bit of fatigue though. He's played over 40 minutes in each of his previous 4 games. Don't think too much about it and keep him in your lineup.

- Exciting news in the Kings loss at home against the visiting Pacers. Even though they lost the game, they got back some help with Kevin Martin. He looked good too, playing 28+ minutes while scoring 25 pts, 7-9 from the field. The Kings are expecting Mike Bibby within the next week likewise so they're getting healthy, which is bad for Beno Udrih, John Salmons and Francisco Garcia owners. Bibby has been the target of trade talks for the past 2 seasons, but he's still in Sac-town so until it's official, I don't want Udrih on my team. As for Martin, it's uncertain whose starting spot he'll be taking yet, whether it be Garcia or Salmons, but both players' owners will be less than pleased with Martin's return. He'll be taking on a lot of the scoring load from here on out.


- With players coming back, others will miss games. Josh Howard was one of those eye-openers tonight. He missed an exciting one between the Mavs and the Clips. This one came down to the last shot and Jerry Stackhouse provided the role of hero (or villain depending on which side you're one, but there can't honestly be that many Clipper fans out there) with a last second three to win the contest for the Mavericks. Tim Thomas was inserted back into the starting lineup for LA as he'd been coming off the bench recently after returning from injury. Thomas played well, scoring 21 pts on 10-17 shooting and dishing out 6 assists. An interesting and odd statistic in this game was that this proved the first game of the season in which the Clippers shot over 50% from the field out of 33 games, shooting 52% in this one.