LINE OF THE WEAK: Andre Iguodala, Denver at Minnesota, Dec. 14: 35 minutes, 1-9 FGs, 0-2 3-pointers, 0-0 FTs, five rebounds, seven assists, one block, one steal, two fouls, five turnovers, two points in a 108-105 loss. The All-Star swingman makes his second straight appearance in this space with an awful offensive performance in a high-scoring affair.
TRILLION WATCH: Hornets teammates Lance Thomas and Darius Miller ruined perfectly good trillions this week. Thomas wrecked a 7 trillion with a turnover Tuesday vs. Washington and Miller undid a fabulous 10 trillion with a foul Friday vs. Minnesota. That left the 3 trillions by Indiana rookie Orlando Johnson vs. Cleveland on Wednesday and Philadelphia guard Royal Ivey on Sunday as the best non-efforts of the week.
GAME OF THE WEEK: San Antonio at Oklahoma City, Dec. 17. Forget Linsanity. Turn on your League Pass and watch the two best teams in the West resume their rivalry. In its season opener, OKC was thunderstruck by Tony Parker’s buzzer-beating jumper that gave the Spurs an 86-84 home win. Kevin Durant and Co. quickly got over it, winning 19 of 22 since, including 10 in a row.
GAME OF THE WEAK: Washington at Detroit, Dec. 21. The Mayans say the world is supposed to end on this day. If they are right, we will be spared this gem and the rematch in Washington 24 hours later.
TWO MINUTES: One of the longest streaks in NBA history ended Friday when Dallas shot 0-of-13 from the arc in a loss at Toronto. It marked the first time in 1,108 games that the Mavericks did not make at least one 3-pointer. Early in the fourth quarter, Derek Fisher was credited with a 3-pointer that was changed to a 2 after review. The last time Dallas did not make a 3-pointer was February 26, 1999 at Utah, when it was 0-of-8 in an 80-65 loss. That was Dirk Nowitzki’s first month in the NBA; Jazz players included Karl Malone, John Stockton and Jacque Vaughn, who is now Orlando’s coach. … Speaking of the Raptors, that was the second time this week they held a foe without a 3-pointer. On Monday, Portland was 0-of-20 from the arc – an NBA record for most attempts without a make – and still beat Toronto by 18 points. … Spurs guard Gary Neal was playing Pop-A-Shot at Houston on Monday. He made 11-of-18 from the floor, including 7-of-10 threes, with no free throws, rebounds or assists. … Picked by many to contend for a top-four seed, the Nuggets may look like they are muddling along at an underachieving 13-12. But that record is 
deceiving because they already have played 18 road games, going 7-11. They have had three three-game trips and a five-game trek. “It’s the worst stretch of travel I’ve been associated with,” coach George Karl said. “All we do is travel, play a game, and get in at 3 in the morning. Then we do it all over again.” Four of Denver’s remaining seven games this month are on the road before things dramatically change with the new year. Starting in January, Denver plays 15 of its next 18 games at the Pepsi Center, where it is 6-1. … Carmelo Anthony’s 22-point eruption in the first quarter of Thursday’s win over the Lakers merely continued a historic trend for the superstar forward of the Knicks, who is atop our MVP rankings. Anthony now has the top three first quarters this season and is averaging 10.3 points in the opening period, the best of anyone in the last 15 seasons, according to Elias. … The last time the Clippers won nine straight games was early in the 1974-75 season, when they were the Buffalo Braves and were being led by Bob McAdoo, who was on his way to a scoring title and an MVP award. The Clippers have won by an average of 15.3 points during the streak. … Hornets coach Monty Williams may have cost his team a chance at a victory Sunday night in Portland. After Damian Lillard’s apparent buzzer-beating 3-pointer gave the Blazers a 95-92 lead, 0.3 seconds were put back on the clock. According to NBA rules, that is enough time for a catch-and-shoot, and the Hornets have a pretty good catcher-and-shooter in Ryan Anderson. But Williams may not have known the rule, drawing up a lob play to have his young team practice execution. “According to the rules you need 0.4 to get a shot off,” he said afterward. “It was a situation where we worked on something we would need in the future.” Williams needs to familiarize himself with the rule, because he has his players believing the same thing. “I don’t even know if we could have got a shot off in time,” said Anderson, who was 7-of-10 from the arc. “Coach was saying you need 0.4 to get set and get a shot off.” … Spurs guard Tony Parker, who has averaged a measly 3.0 rebounds over his 829 career games, explained his first career triple-double of 27 points, 12 assists and 12 boards Monday vs. Houston this way: “Timmy (Duncan) was in foul trouble so I figured I’d pick up the slack on the boards.” … Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant appears to still have questions about the team’s commitment to new 
coach Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo system, which doesn’t appear to be the best fit for an aging roster. “I’m one of the fastest guys on the team – and I’m like 50. What does that tell you?” he said. However, the Lakers may have turned a corner this weekend with consecutive wins for the first time since Nov. 18 and 20. … On Saturday vs. Cleveland, Knicks guard Jason Kidd attempted 13 3-pointers. On the same night, the Bulls shot 10, the Clippers and Grizzlies tried 11, the Bobcats fired 12 and the Pistons attempted 13. … Last week, we warned you to avoid Monday’s Wizards-Hornets affair matching the worst teams in each conference. Despite managing just 11 points on 4-of-18 shooting with six turnovers in the first quarter, Washington escaped with a 77-70 win – its first on the road this season – primarily because New Orleans was 4-of-22 with five turnovers in the fourth quarter. “That first quarter, I thought I was getting my teeth pulled at the dentist without any Novacaine,” cracked Wizards coach Randy Wittman. “It was pretty painful.”
Trivia Answer: Marcus Camby with 44. … Happy 53rd Birthday, Albert King, the pride of Brooklyn’s Fort Hamilton High. … Who are the 64,266 idiots who gave Amar’e Stoudemire an All-Star vote?
Chris Bernucca is the deputy editor of SheridanHoops.com. His columns appear Monday during the season. You can follow him on Twitter.
bernucca suck a dick you fag
MAJOR FAIL!!!
False advertising… Sheriden Hoops
“A better basketball site
For intelligent readers, from veteran writers”
Intelligent readers may be true but you’re a rookie writer.
Don’t open your mouth to speak so hastily because it might just get shut up just as quickly.
Hard to read such a vengeful article. How many games has Lin played as opposed to the years of playing the others mentioned have? The difference can be measured in years. Outside of high draft pick Lillard, these others had similar numbers at the very beginning of their careers, some, not as good. Lins first step is as good as anyone in the league and he knows he needs to finish his drives better – but to say his 15 minutes are up when he starts for one of the suprise teams is outrageous.
He just Slapped your face so hard.
Bennuca,
do you have a personal issue with J-Lin? or do you just not know how to write?
anyway after his performance at the garden please keep your mouth shut, at least for the rest of the season
Bernucca points out what an idiot he is. First of all, he’s comparing Lin to guards who have been in the league for years except for the one rookie who is having an awesome year, Lillard. Lin’s rookie year (because that is really what this year is) compares favorable to such loosers as Jason Kidd. Will Lin ever achieve half of what Kidd has? Who knows – its his first full year for cripes sakes. Let’s give him a break.
One other thing, for such a t-shirt he definitely made the eastern conference’s best team look pretty bad tonight…he also made the guard who replaced him and badly wanted to show him up look sub-par as well. My favorite play was when Chander gave him that cheap foul on a drive to the basket and he just laughed. It pretty much summed up the game.
So Bernucca, put your hate down for one moment and give Lin another 2-3 years before you foam at the mouth and decide that he is nothing more than a scrub.
sorry to dash your hopes, chris bernucca, but linsanity never disappeared, as proven by his 38 point dominance against the spurs.
espn puts it to you nicely:
“But look what happens to Lin’s numbers in the 106 minutes he has played when Harden hits the bench: 19.7 points, 7.5 assists, 5.1 rebounds with an above-average 55.4 TS% and a 17.7 PER.
That’s pretty darn good. If those numbers look familiar, there’s a reason for it. Check out Lin’s per-36 minute stat line in New York last season: 19.6 points, 8.3 assists and 4.1 rebounds. 55.2 TS% and a 19.9 PER.”