Tuesday..

There were eight games tonight, but I'm going to start with something I missed last night during the Laker/Sonic game. Chris Wilcox returned to the Sonics' lineup after a a brief absence of games. He came off the bench to score 12 pts and grab 9 boards, which is pretty much along his averages of 13 and 8, but he did it in only 16 minutes. It's probably safe to say that he'll be back in the starting lineup in their next game on Wednesday in New Orleans so play him like you normally would and expect for him to get his minutes. There was also news about Nene's absence from the Nuggets, which was not immediately released. Apparently, he had to get a testicular tumor removed. At this point it's unclear whether or not the tumor was cancerous, but it's understood that the tumor was found early so everything sounds good for Nene right now, as good as a tumor could sound anyways. Hopefully he's doing fine though and his luck changes. At this point in the his career, he has not had very good luck with his health and injuries, but hopefully this incident marks a turn for him

- Kirk Hinrich missed the Bulls game in Orlando tonight due to back spasms. It was a game-time decision so you couldn't really have expected it at all. He didn't miss much though except his team getting completely dominated. The Magic only led by 5 at the half, but once the Bulls scored only 10 pts in the 3rd quarter, the game might as well have been over. Ironically enough, Joakim Noah, the rookie Bull who was suspended by his own teammates had the best stats in this game with 12 pts and 11 rebs, albeit some was in garbage time in the fourth quarter. The Magic continue to start Mo Evans, but Keith Bogans is playing almost the same number of minutes (24 for Mo, 22 for Keith) while having better production in this game (Mo's 9 pts compared with 15 for Keith). This battle will be interesting to keep an eye on, but it's starting to look like a platoon situation at the 2-guard for Orlando and I own Mo, the starter, but I wouldn't be confident owning either depending on how the situation looks in the near future.

- Denver visited the southeast tonight to meet a half-empty gym in Atlanta. Honestly, Seattle and New Orleans have attendance and property issues, but Atlanta's gotta be in that top five for teams that need to switch cities (Memphis is probably in there as well). Anyways, in the game Atlanta actually played very well, basically keeping the lead for the whole game until the fourth when Denver threatened for a while. The final score was 104-93. I mentioned Nene before and there's obviously no foreseeable timetable for his return to the court as his condition is not completely clear yet. Joe Johnson and Carmelo Anthony were on fire in the 1st half. Joe had 17 at the half, but finished with only 22, while Melo kept his hot shooting throughout, finishing with 36 pts and 11 rebs.

- New York is starting to show some life after their unexpected blowout of the Pistons. They won again at home tonight (and MSG is barely a home court for NY considering how many boos are heard throughout games) against a solid Wizards team. Antonio Daniels sat out this game with Roger Mason Jr. starting in his stead. Daniels missed this game due to knee soreness, which was the same injury that kept him out in December so keep an eye on his condition because this is a sign that he may not be 100%. He's considered day-to-day so it's difficult to say whether or not you should start him, but the more important thing is to make sure he's healthy because he's got a great situation starting at PG with Arenas potentially out for the rest of the season. Mason had 20 pts on 8-14 shooting. For the Knicks, Fred Jones has been starting at the point since Stephon Marbury had been sidelined with an ankle injury. It's unsure whether or not Marbury will require surgery, but if that is the case he would miss an extended period of time and it's time to drop him. I would drop him even if he opts out of surgery, although that would make no sense considering the Knicks' standing right now, because of Nate Robinson's emergence in the offense and the fact that just about no Knick is ownable for an extended period of time without frustration.

- As I suspected, the Pistons would play strong at home after an eye-opened in New York. They beat Toronto handily at home by 14 pts although it wasn't the freight-train like performance I was expecting. Andrea Bargnani was held scoreless in this one, as I will continue to note his struggles. He had great expectations coming into this season after a great finish to his rookie campaign. It doesn't make any sense, but his performance thus far would define a "sophomore slump". Meanwhile, Rip had 39 pts in this one to lead Detroit to the win.

- Houston played tonight... You would think that would begin a section about the Sixer@Rocket game, but no. It's my way of introducing the Cavs in Memphis, which was a thrilling OT game that involved Lebron and Juan Carlos Navarro at the end of regulation. Lebron put the Cavs up 3 pts toward the end of regulation before Navarro sent the game to extras with a long range bomb. Lebron James scored 42 pts in regulation and finished the game with half a hundo. He took over the game down the stretch and had the sick line to show for it - 50 pts, 8 rebs, 9 asts, 6 treys, 3 stls and all those pts on 18-28 from the field. No other player in the NBA is capable of those numbers on a given night but Lebron, he's in the company of one when it comes to filling a stat sheet. Navarro had 26 off the bench and Rudy Gay had 30 (all in regulation) to lead the Grizzlies. The final score was 132-124 OT.

- The home team, Golden State, won in Minnesota tonight in rather unspectacular fashion. Games in Minnesota are generally just that though. Ryan Gomes was my most recent hot pickup. He had 15 pts and 5 rebs in this one, while Antoine Walker got a shot from the past, scoring 26 pts and grabbing 10 rebs off the bench. It wasn't enough though, as Golden State got the win with captain Jack and Baron leading the way. Baron had 22 pts, 9 asts and 5 stls, while Jack added 21 pts.

- Philly visited the Rockets tonight, which was actually a good game in its own right, although it wasn't really close until the fourth. Houston doesn't seem to be holding leads too well recently, losing in the fourth to New Orleans, and getting outscored 37-22 in this one. Houston fans believe that trading Tracy McGrady would be better for the team, but that clearly would not be the case. These games would be finished by a player who can dominate like McGrady and once he returns, the Rockets will be a better team. The Rockets really should have won this game. All the starters played well, except for Chuck Hayes, who got less minutes than Luis Scola and Scola was in the game at the end (17 mins to 22 mins). Yao led the way with 25 pts on 8-11 shooting. The Sixers were led by Andre Miller, who the Rockets didn't have an answer for in the fourth. He finished with 26 pts, 5 rebs, 6 assts.

- In LA, the other Hollywood team was in command for most of the night. They kept Steve Nash and Phoenix at bay, while scoring efficiently themselves. Cassell had a game that made him look 28, instead of 38 (even though literally he probably looked the same, the guy doesn't age, and that is not a compliment). He finished the game with 32 pts, 6 rebs, 7 assts on 15-21 shooting. On the Suns' side, most eyes should have been on Boris Diaw, who's been horrendous overall this season, but had a great game in his 2nd start in place of Grant Hill, who will be out another 2-3 weeks still. Diaw was pretty quiet tonight however (7 pts, 6 assts in 37 minutes), burning owners who picked him up speculating his value for the next 10 games or so. I personally don't trust Boris Diaw. Even though the word around the league is that this guy's got good character, I just don't think he plays well with Amare in there at center or has the mental/physical toughness/athleticism to play at the level he did in that contract season.