White of the Night: Marco Belinelli

Belinelli breaks out, playing a team high 42 minutes, racking up a career high 27 points, and earning the prestigious White of the Night award.

Nelson had some kinda fit of temporary insanity, starting 3 Whites (Belinelli, Biedrins, Kurz). It looks like someone whispered in his ear right after the game started, though, as Kurz only played 12 minutes...

Chris Andersen lead the team in rebounds and swats 3 shots in his mere 23 minutes. WTF??? Somebody, please, free the Birdman!

For games Friday:


Belinelli: 27p - 6a - 2 stl -- 42 min
Okur: 26p - 12 reb -- 47 min
Nowitzki: 24p - 6 reb - 3a -- 36 min
Scola: 23p - 10 reb (5 off) -- 3 stl -- 30 min
Ilgauskas: 23p (14 shots) - 6 reb -- 27 min
B Miller: 17p (9 shots) - 11reb (5 off) -- 35 min
Nesterovic: 16p - 8 reb -- 35 min
Nocioni: 16p - 6 reb -- 33 min
Bargnani: 16p - 5 reb -- 28 min
Lee: 14p - 14 reb - 36 min
Biedrins: 14p - 15 reb - 6a -- 32 min
P Gasol: 13p - 11 reb -- 34 min
Kirilenko: 12p - 6 reb -- 37 min
Milicic: 11p (5 shots) - 2 blk -- 23 min
Collison: 10p (5 shots) - 9 reb -- 26 min
Carroll: 10p (6 shots) -- 16 min
Andersen: 6p - 10 reb - 3 blk -- 23 min

White of the Night: Jason Kapono

A few surprise starts:
--Jason Kapono, liberated by his new coach in Toronto, blows the lights out, and earns our White of the Night award for his 25 points and 8 boards!
--Adam Morrison for the Bobcats started and played a team high 37 min (but took only 7 shots???).
--Luke Walton was thrown into the starting lineup for the Lakers on Wednesday night after a bunch of DNPs and played well. It has been a real disappointment to see him buried, so here's hoping he continues to get more PT.
--Milicic starts for the Grizz, although he his basically splitting time with Marc Gasol at this point.

Chris Andersen should be getting consideration for defensive player of the year, but his low minutes continue to hamper his stats. In only 23 minutes off the bench, Chris blocked 4 shots, with 2 steals, to go along with his 6 rebounds (4 offensive). Why he is not starting in Martin's absense, I have no idea. Pure travesty.

Games of Extreme Beauty (at least 2 points for every shot): Belinelli, P Gasol, Ginobili, Biedrins, and Vujacic

White Highlights:
P Gasol: 28p (14 shots) - 5 reb - 4a -- 38 min
Ginobili: 27p (12 shots) - 5 reb - 3a -- 28 min
Kapono: 25p (16 shots) - 8 reb -- 38 min
Murphy: 20p (15 shots) - 20 reb - 6a -- 37 min
Biedrins: 18p (9 shots) - game high 14 reb - 4 blk -- 27 min
Stojakovic: 17p (11 shots) - 3 reb -- 26 min
Belinelli: 15p (7 shots) - 3 reb - 2a -- 14 min
Vujacic: 15p (5 shots) - 19 min
Varejao: 15p (12 shots) - 8 reb - 3a -- 33 min
Love: 14p (9 shots) - 14 reb (7 off) - 3a -- 31 min
Ridnour: 13p - 5a -- 26 min
Calderon: 11p - 14a - 5 reb - 3 stl -- 38 min
Foster: 10p (7 shots) - 12 reb (7 off) -- 25 min
Collison: 10p (7 shots) -team high 8 reb -- 33 min
Bogut: 10p - 9 reb -- 28 min
Carroll: 10p -- 25 min

White of the Night: Kevin Love

Kevin Love gets his first start tonight, and makes the coach look like a genius, putting in 20 points (team high) on only 7 shots (with 8-10 FT), and pulling down 8 boards in 30 minutes of play.

Biedrins was a close second, winning his rematch with Marc Gasol: producing game highs in points (27) and rebounds (12), on only 13 shots in his 35 minutes.

Marc Gasol had a statistically good night, scoring 8 on 4 shots, with 6 rebounds, but he only played 17 minutes because of foul trouble.

More good news from that game: Belinelli played for almost 10 minutes.

Other solid white gamers tonight:

Kaman: 23p (18 shots) - 11 reb (5 off) - 2 blk - 2 stl -- 42 min. The Caveman needs to stay mentally sharp and do this every game, it is that simple.

Brad Miller looks solid in his first game this season, sending Hawes back to the bench, although they played about the same minutes, and both put up solid games.
B-Miller: 11p (6 shots) - 10 reb - 2 blk -- 26 min
Hawes: 13p (9 shots) - 8 reb - 1 blk -- 21 min
Udrih also shows up strong for the Kings: 15p (11 shots) -- 32 min

Mike Miller does well for himself, scoring 16 with 6 rebounds.

Peja goes for team leading 20 points and a team leading 7 rebounds for the Hornets.
And STOP THE PRESSES!!! Matt Carroll gets off the bench for 27 minutes! Holy cow, what is going on? Larry Browns figures he might want to play his best shooter? Wow, what a concept! Matt goes a modest 3-8 for 7p - 4 reb - 3 a. Low and behold, Charlotte wins! Adam Morrison jacks up 9 shots in his 15 minutes, scoring 9 points, and hey, that is how you get it done.

Klieza scores 14 (on 10 shots) in less than 15 minutes!

Chris Quinn finally gets some minutes in Miami, pouring in 15 points on 9 shots in his 17 minutes.

Robin Lopez goes off for 14 points on 6-9 shooting in his first start as a Sun, to go with his team high 7 rebs and 2 blks, in his 30 minutes of play. Amundson has also earned some nice time for the Suns, playing 23 minutes off the bench, punching in 7 points, hauling 4 rebs and 1 blk.

Hinrich and Aaron Gray picked up the start for Chicago, but played on 16 and 15 minutes each. Weird. Kirk still picks off an insane 5 steals in that short time.

Okur and Kirilenko both pick up 16 points on 9 shots for Utah tonight in their 36 and 31 respective minutes. AK-47 also rips down team highs with 12 rebounds and 2 blocks.
Korver scores 13 on only 7 shots in his 23 minutes off the bench.

David Lee scores 13 on his 10 shots in almost 27 minutes, but only 1 rebound? What's up with that, D-Lee?

Varejao, very nice! 18p (12 shots) - 8 reb (3 off) - 3 stl -- 30 min
Szczerbiac goes off for 11 points on only 4 shots in his 26 minutes.
Ilgauskas scores 17 on his 9 shots, very efficient as usual in his 29 minues.

Scola: 14p (10 shots) - 7 reb -- 18 min

Barry: 2 shots in 29 minutes??? WTF

Matt Carroll we miss you

Matt Carroll (6'6 212 SG, 6th year) is without a doubt, the biggest disappointment of the season so far.

In the last two seasons, Matt has become a well-established killer marksman, hitting an incredible 43% of his 3 pointers, logging significant minutes for him team, around 25 mpg. Two years ago he averaged 12.1 points, and last year, 9.0 ppg.

So far, this preseason, in which the Bobcats have failed to win a game, has been a total disaster for Matt. Typically getting less than 10 minutes per game, Matt is attempting only 3.6 shots a game, and averaging a paltry 2.9 points.

Leave it to Larry Brown, without a doubt the worst coach in basketball, to put a struggling young team in reverse, making them even worse than the year before, and to turn his best shooter into a scrub.

As reported in Charlotte:

The most common theme to these exhibitions is them trying too hard to please Brown. “We're playing too uptight,'' said Carroll. “He told us to play uptight on defense and loose on offense. Either we're doing the opposite, or just playing uptight at both ends. It's still the preseason, and we're trying to play the way he wants. Maybe we're trying too hard to do it, but that's not a bad thing right now.”

It's always funny to hear players lie to the reporters, trying to keep the happy face on.

Poor Matt. We miss you, buddy, and hope you can get a better coach soon.