White of the Night: Rudy Fernandez

Rudy explodes! Scoring 25 on only 11 shots (8-8 FT), throwing in 3 reb, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block just for good measure.

Notable events from tonight and yesterday:

Rookie Koufos plays strong, after riding the pine all year, starting for the second time in Okur's absense: 12 points (7 shots), in 21 minutes.

Swift is definitely on the rise: playing a full 18 minutes, gathering up 7 rebounds and blocking 2 shots.

Steven Hill gets his first NBA minutes for OKC as well, pulling 3 boards in 2 minutes of play.

Top two scorers for the Kings last night: 19 from Hawes and 18 from Udrih.

Quinn looks like he is working his way back into the rotation in Miami, playing almost 30 minutes, scoring 10 on 7 shots and dishing 5 assists.

Pachulia starts again for the second night in a row, but played only 25 and 22 minutes, scoring 12p (6 shots) and 9p (5 shots), with solid rebounding as usual. How good can you play, and still not start in this league?

Other solid games by whites the last couple nights:

Udrih: 30p (20 shots) - 7 a - 5 reb - 2 stl -- 38 min
Jeff Foster: 16p (8 shots) - 7 reb (4 offensive) - 2 blk - 2 steals -- starting PF
Brad Miller: 16p (10 shots) - 11 reb - 8 a -- 40 min
Pau: 22p (15 shots) - 11 reb (5 off) -- 35 min
Varejao: 13p (5 shots) - 10 reb - 2 blk -- 22 min
Morrison: 16p (11 shots) -- 28 min
Kirilenko: 16p (8 shots) - 8 reb -- 32 min
Bargnani: 15p (11 shots) - 5 reb -- 26 min
Aaron Gray: team high 10 reb (5 offensive) in his mere 17 minutes.
Lee: 15p (9 shots) - 9 boards -- 30 min
Bogut: 10p - 17 reb (7 offensive)
Biedrins: 13p - 15 reb -- 43 min
Pryzbilla: 7 p (4 shots) - 10 reb -- 22 min
Marc Gasol: 16p (11 shots) -- 28 minutes

On the WTF list: Reddick buried; Belinelli still getting only 4 minutes a game, like clockwork; Herman again disappears, Lee's minutes dropping game by game, not even starting anymore....

Steven Hill picked up by OKC Thunder

The Thunder has signed Steven Hill, a 7-foot center out of Arkansas. Hill averaged 4.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots as a senior and was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year his junior season. Undrafted, Hill was one of Portland’s final cuts.

"We worked him out twice in the summer,” Carlesimo said. "He’s not threatening to get in the rotation. We’re still trying to get Robert (Swift) and Mo (Sene) in the rotation. But he’s healthy, he can defend and block shots. As quick as he can learn (our system) he’s a guy we’ll evaluate and figure out whether he can help us.”

Hill, from Branson, Mo., was in Fayetteville, Ark., when he got a call late Sunday night.

"I knew a few teams were interested,” Hill said. "Obviously when you’re the final cut you’re disappointed. But I took a lot away from my first NBA experience. Now I’m elated. It will be a mental thing to learn the offense and defense as quickly as possible.”

Steven Hill cut

Steven Hill, the wild haired defensive specialist from Arkansas, was cut today by the Portland Trailblazers. Not really a surprise, as he saw just about zero PT during the preseason.