Your Attention Please - 01/13/2010
BY Matt Stroup A little before 10 p.m. on Tuesday, it was looking like the first thing I was going to talk about in this column would be either Stephen Jackson's career-high 43 points, Baron Davis' triple-double or Chris Kaman's back injury.
Then something rather unexpected happened.
With 47.8 seconds left in the third quarter of Clippers-Grizzlies and the aforementioned Boom Dizzle at the free throw line, flashing lights suddenly became visible in the background at FedEx Forum.
"We had a fire alarm here or something and the fans are headed for the exit," said Clippers TV play-by-play man Ralph Lawler.
"Well, I'm just looking at everybody in the building getting up! and leaving," chimed in analyst Mike Smith.
Lawler then read an announcement that had also been put up on the big screen in red letters: "May I have your attention please! An emergency has been reported. Leave the building by the nearest exit. Do not use the elevators."
"Does that mean us too?" Lawler asked.
"I would think so," Smith responded.
Lawler added, "We're supposed to get out of here, folks."
Then, silence.
I really can't remember watching a sports broadcast of any kind during which the commentators literally took off their headsets and evacuated, though I can recall many instances in which the commentators no doubt wanted to.
Turns out the emergency was due to a broken water main (those are painful - had one myself back in '82), and they were back playing again about 30 minutes later.
My primarily lin! gering question here in all of this: Why was the announcement on the b ig screen made in the first person, and who is this omnipotent "I" who was asking for our attention? Was it a panicked P.R. employee who had little time to write and inadvertently used the singular "I" rather than the plural "we"? Was it a fire safety director with an inflated sense of self-importance? Or was it, perhaps, a Gollum-like creature who lives in the bowels of FedEx Forum and refers to old pulled pork sandwiches salvaged from the trash as "The precious"?
Some things, unfortunately, we may never know.
WHAT WE DO KNOW
As I was planning to point out before the brief water main diversion, Chris Kaman hurt his lower back. According to the Clippers' TV crew, he's not expected to play on Wednesday and is headed for an MRI on Thursday. None of that is encouraging given Kaman's injury history, and it's time to add DeAndre Jordan if you're in need of boards, blocks, incredibly raw upside and horrendously awful free throw shooting (more on Jordan in a few minutes).
Some good news on the injury front: Kevin Martin is now targeting a return to action on Friday, which means its time to start mentally preparing ourselves for Omri Casspi's value to take a hit. There is a chance he'll continue to be worth owning after Martin returns, but that, as a wise man once said, is in the hands of Paul Westphal. Don't do anything rash like dropping Casspi until we see how this shakes out.
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CAPTAIN JACK WILL GET YOU POINTS TONIGHT
Stephen Jackson went ballistic for a career-high 43 on Tuesday, but some might argue that S-Jax's outburst was only the second-most important Bobcats occurrence of the night. The first? The resurgent Boris Diaw notching just his second double-figure scoring game since Dec. 11, finishing with 19 points, seven rebounds, six assists, a steal and three blocks. The previously slumping forward has now hit for exactly six assists in five straight games and has averaged 12.7 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 6.0 apg, 1.3 bpg and 1.3 threes in his last three.
In other Bobcats news, Raymond Felton struggled to 2-for-7 shooting, but had four assists, a steal and a block and made some big plays down the stretch. Gerald Wallace also shot an ugly 2-for-10, but had eight rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block.
For Houston, the red-hot Aaron Brooks caught wretched shooting fever as well (3-for-14), but at least all three of his makes were threes. Luis Scola had 18 points and 14 boards (not a huge surprise), adding four assists and a block (pleasantly surprising). Trevor Ariza filled up the stat sheet with 19 points, six rebou! nds, four assists, two steals and two threes, while Carl Landry had an off game with 10 points and three rebounds, but at least added two steals and a block.
YEEEEAAAAAHHHH FOYEEEEEEEEEE
It's not every day that Randy Foye gets a shoutout from Flavor Flav around these parts, but the new Wizards PG earned it with 20 points, five rebounds, 10 assists, two threes, a steal and a block. I thought Earl Boykins was going to have some value with Gilbert Arenas out of the picture, but Foye is currently rendering Boykins borderline useless - Mr. Duffle had just eight points and one assist on Tuesday.
Antawn Jamison had 31 and 10, but the more interesting subplot in Washington involves Caron Butler, who had just 14 points, four rebounds and two assists and still isn't fully rolling in the absence of Arenas. I'm beginning to think that Flip Saunders' offense just isn't Caron-friendly, but I still expect Tough Juice to up his value as we go forward. Stick with him for now.
Meanwhile, Mike Miller sat out due to his recurring calf injury and reportedly could miss another week. Unfortunately, his replacement, Nick Young, is inconsistent (eight points, four assists, two threes on 2-for-9 shooting), but still worth owning in deeper leagues (think 12! or more teams).
Did I mention that the Wizards actually lost to the Pistons, who ended their 13-game losing streak? Charlie Villanueva led the way with 23 points (his most since Dec. 12) and a season-high five threes, while Jonas Jerebko (13 points, seven rebounds, a three and a block) is looking like a nice deep-league option once again. Ben Gordon sat out due to his groin injury, and there's no word yet on his availability for Friday.
AFTER THE FIRE (ALARM)
Memphis came back from 18 down to beat the Clippers behind matching 24's from Rudy Gay (who rolled his left ankle late but had no trouble continuing to play t! hrough it) and Marc Gasol. Of the two, Gasol's line was considerably more formidable, featuring 15 boards, two steals and two blocks. Zach Randolph couldn't get anything done early against Marcus Camby, but then finished with 20, eight and four after Camby left due to a stomach virus. Mike Conley returned from a one-game absence and was solid with 13 points, five assists, two threes and a block.
For the Clippers, Davis nearly recorded a triple-double in the first half and finished with a 27-12-12 line, adding five steals and a block. DeAndre Jordan matched his career-high wi th 23 points, seven rebounds and three blocks and will be an intriguing option for as long as Kaman is out. Eric Gordon had 18 points and an encouraging six assists after having averaged just 1.0 assists in his last three games.
BAD TIMES AT THE LAKE
Not surprisingly, Lamar Odom (10 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, two steals, two blocks) and Andrew Bynum (23 points, eight boards, two blocks) had big games with Pau Gasol sidelined. Also not that surprising, the Lakers lost for the third time in four games sans Pau.
Updating FingerWatch '09-10, Kobe Bryant actually shot well (7-for-10), but only played 32 minutes in the 20-point loss and was seen hobbling off late after struggling through back spasms. Kobe sounds confident that he'll be able to play on Wednesday, but his status hadn't been fully determined as of Wednesday morning and owners should check back during the day for updates.
In other finger-related news, Ron Artest (13 points, eight rebounds) is considered questionable for Wednesday due to a sprained right index finger. The guess here is that he pops about 11 ibuprofen and plays through it, but this is another check back during the day situation.
For the Spurs, Tim Duncan posted a beastly line of 25 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, ! two steals and four blocks, while George Hill was formidable off the bench with 13 points, six rebounds and four assists but is still not an option outside of extremely deep leagues.
WHO TURNED OUT THE LIGHTS?
It wasn't exactly a water main breaking, but the Kings staged an old-fashioned power outage of their own on Tuesday night, shooting just 4-for-22 in the fourth quarter to turn a two-point game into a 21-point blowout loss. Most of the Kings' lines ended up being fairly ugly, with Tyreke Evans' 18 points (on 5-for-16 shooting), Omri Casspi's 11, 11 and five and Beno Udrih's 15 points being the best of a rotten collection. Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes did very little against Dwight Howard, which shouldn't come as a big surprise.
Speaking of Howard, he demolished the undersized Sacramento frontcourt with a season-high 30 points to go with 16 rebounds, five assists, three steals and three blocks. It has been a disappointing season from a scoring standpoint for Howard, but unfortunately I don't think one game against a lightweight frontline has solved his problems getting easy looks.
Mickael Pietrus was big off the bench with 18 points and 10 rebounds, but is still too inconsistent to trust. Meanwhile, the Orlando TV anno! uncers commented that Jameer Nelson was notably in pain due to his surgically-repaired knee, but he actually looked solid en route to 10 points, four rebounds, three assists and two threes in just 25 minutes. Those numbers would have looked better had he not sat out the entire fourth quarter after the Magic blew the game open.
In an interesting injury-related subplot, Orlando moved to 5-1 on the season without Vince Carter, who could return on Friday but may or may not have a spot in the starting lineup when he does.
TONIGHT
Eleven games are on the schedule, but much of fantasy-land is focused on one injury: that pesky wrist belonging to Dwyane Wade. His status was uncertain as of Wednesday morning, so keep checking back through! out the day. The smart money (which is not my money, but belongs to someone much smarter than me) says that he'll play, because few scoring-prone human beings in their right minds opt to sit out a matchup against Golden State. |
