On a 12-game Wednesday night which featured such options as Orlando at San Antonio and Miami at Chicago, I initially elected to tune in for Cleveland at Milwaukee in hopes of seeing the Buck debut of Monta Ellis. I quickly realized Monta was wearing a suit, but I chose to stick around anyway. I’m glad I did.
Why? Well, first of all, Drew Gooden had a triple-double, and I like Drew Gooden. It seems that I’m in the minority there. As soon as Goods got his 10th board (he actually had the assists taken care of before the final rebound) my Twitter timeline became flooded with jokes and mockeries. It was as if his 15 points, 10 rebounds, and 13 assists made up some sort of outlandish statistical outlier. Time to get with the program, NBA fans. While Drew Gooden still does some things that’ll leave you scratching your head, he’s been a triple-double waiting to happen lately. He’s basically averaging a double-double for the months of February and March, and he’s had no fewer than 5 assists in each of his last four games. Not only that, this wasn’t even his first career triple dip. That was last season, also against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Drew Gooden is ballin’ right now. I’m talking 20 points, 10 rebounds, or both in 9 of his last 10. While he was injured for the majority of last season and he’s set to tie up about six million bucks worth of cap space over each of the next three years… that shouldn’t take away from what he’s doing at the moment. He’s playing out of position and doing so effectively, making up for a lack of size with a varying set of skills. Now that he’s put together almost two months of impressive basketball I think it’s time we take him seriously. So, I propose that it’s no longer cool to dislike Drew Gooden on the basis that he’s now both entertaining and productive!
That takes care of the triple-double. Now for the highlights. By the time the end of the third quarter rolled around I’d realized that this game could probably provide enough plays to fill up at least half of a top-10 countdown… except I didn’t expect to catch any of what I’d seen on Sports Center (not that I watch Sports Center, because I don’t). Nobody was dunking on anybody… the highlights were more subtle, yet still spectacular, if that makes any sense. For instance, one of Gooden’s 13 dimes was a perfectly placed bounce pass that had to travel 30, 40, maybe even 50 feet before it reached it’s target. It came directly after a diving Brandon Jennings steal, and it was threaded between a couple of Cavaliers before hitting a finisher in stride for a layup. A beautiful play indeed, but the kind that tends to fly under the radar.
My two favorites out of the game’s many aesthetically-pleasing plays came from Brandon Jennings and Kyrie Irving. I went back and recorded those for you. Watch Young Money shake Anthony Parker out his damn socks, then observe Kyrie Irving’s rendition of the J-Will/Boom Dizzle…
I kinda like how Kyrie didn’t catch his wrap-around dribble with the same hand he whipped it with. While that technically makes it different from what Jason and Baron used to do, it’s clear that it was a fake pass, not a regular behind-the-back dribble. Kyrie simply caught it with the other hand and threw in a bit of a crossover at the end. An original twist to a million-dollar move… which, unfortunately, resulted in a ten-cent shot.
Now for my thoughts..er..thought. Larry Sanders is blocking a lot of shots lately. This dude had been in the game for about three trips up and down the floor and he’d already swatted two attempts. He looks like he’s about 11 feet tall when he’s doing it… probably because his wingspan is f@cking 7’5.75″. That’s basically the same as Bismack Biyombo, who I’m saying will be the league’s next premier defender of the rim, and three inches longer than Dwight Howard. Speaking of Biyombo and Howard, Sanders is blocking shots more frequently than either one of them in the month of March. In just 9.5 minutes Larry is rejecting 2 shots per game over his last seven. Basically, he swats somebody once every five (or so) minutes.
In summation, I didn’t get to see Wisconsin’s new backcourt, but it’s all good. Kyrie Irving took it to the streets, Brandon Jennings made Anthony Parker look silly, Drew Gooden got a triple-double, and Larry Sanders blocked some shots. If you don’t like that you don’t like NBA basketball!
Oops, I just realized something. That’s eight paragraphs about a game and I didn’t even tell you the final score. How about 115-105, Bucks.
