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Rule #1

Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:

"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"

"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"

"He/she is just delusional"

"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"

"I'm going to take a moment to point and / laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"

"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.

We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.

Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.

That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.

A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.

There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.

Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.

In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.

Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.

If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!

All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.

Rule #2

If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.

The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.

The right places to do so are:

A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.

B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.

If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.

Rule #3

If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.

When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.

B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.

To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!

Rule #4

Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

Rule #5

When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.

An example:

If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star

Rule #6

We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.

The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

Rule #7

Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

Rule #8

We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

Rule #9

Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.

Rule #10

We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.

Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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03-29-2004

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  • #1

    03-29-2004

    Pietrus, Daniels making late charges

    By Chad Ford
    Monday, March 29

    Of all the amazing things that have happened this season, nothing has been quite as special as the rookie class of 2003.

    From LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony to less-heralded rookies like Dwyane Wade, Kirk Hinrich and Chris Bosh, this year's rookie class is arguably the best since 1999, when Elton Brand, Steve Francis, Baron Davis, Lamar Odom, Wally Szczerbiak, Richard Hamilton, Andre Miller, Shawn Marion, Jason Terry and Ron Artest all posted impressive rookie seasons.

    This year's class has been just as deep. In addition to All-Star caliber performances from James and Anthony and stellar debuts by Wade, Hinrich and Bosh, this year's class has had its share of less-heralded, but just as effective, support players.

    T.J. Ford has been special in Milwaukee. I don't think any of us realized how good he really was until he went down with a spinal cord injury, and the Bucks promptly went into the tank.

    Washington's Jarvis Hayes has been inconsistent, but when he's hot, he can really light it up.

    The Mavs' Josh Howard has proved to be the steal of the first round. Taken with the last pick in the round, he's turned in a lottery-caliber rookie season. Don't let his so-so stats fool you. Howard is putting up 8.6 ppg and 5.6 rpg on one of the deepest teams in the league. Had he been drafted by a "normal" lottery team, I expect his scoring numbers would be probably double what they are.

    Clippers center Chris Kaman has proved that he could turn into a decent center in the league. Big men usually progress much more slowly than guards, but Kaman's solid rebounding numbers and his ability to score in the post should pay off in the long run for L.A.

    Players like the Suns' Leandro Barbosa, the Jazz's Aleksandar Pavlovic, the Heat's Udonis Haslem and the Wizards' Steve Blake also have shown real promise at times this year.

    Now, in the last month of the season, several more rookies are making late runs at greatness. Here are five more guys, all having a great March, whom you need to keep an eye on.

    Mickael Pietrus, SG, Warriors: Coach Eric Musselman already is calling Pietrus the best defender in the league. That's high praise for a rookie, but it's quickly becoming deserved. Pietrus plays with the same physical intensity of Ron Artest. The difference is Pietrus is more athletic and possesses greater lateral quickness. That's allowed Musselman to sic Pietrus on opposing teams' point guards.

    It isn't a coincidence the Warriors went on a seven-game winning streak when Musselman decided to play Pietrus more than 20 minutes a game. It's also not a coincidence the Warriors, one of the worst defensive teams in the league, have held opponents under 90 ppg during the streak. In those games he hounded Steve Francis into 6-for-16 shooting and seven turnovers, and he held Tracy McGrady to 18 points on 5-for-14 shooting.

    To top it off, Pietrus also is beginning to find his stroke offensively. Pietrus has struggled with his perimeter shooting most of the season, but lately he's been on fire, shooting 62 percent from 3-point range (13-for-21) over the last seven games. He dropped 20 points on the Rockets, 18 on the Bucks and 17 on the Clippers in that stretch. At this rate, he's quickly making Jason Richardson expendable at the two next season.

    Marquis Daniels, PG, Mavericks: Howard may have been the steal of the first round, but Daniels has to be the steal of the draft -- sort of. Daniels (amazingly) went undrafted last June despite playing well in workouts and at the Chicago pre-draft camp. Just hours after the draft, the Mavericks, who traded their second-round pick to Denver, talked Daniels into playing on their summer league team. They loved him and signed him to deal before the summer was over. It was the smartest move they made all summer.

    Daniels has been a revelation. He's a big guard with a good enough handle to step in and take over the point when Steve Nash needs a rest. Lately, he's been the best player on the team, period. Friday, Daniels had 31 points, nine boards and four assists against the Heat while shooting a sizzling 15-for-23 from the field. He followed that on Sunday with a 20-point, seven-assist, five-rebound performance against the Magic. In the five games Daniels has started, he's averaging 14.2 ppg.

    Willie Green, SG, 76ers: He's been great replacing Allen Iverson at two guard. Like Iverson, Green is an undersized two who gives his team instant offense. He's averaging 16.3 ppg when he plays 20 or more minutes for the Sixers, who have been much better without Iverson and Glenn Robinson in the lineup. Green and second-year guard John Salmons have been a big part of that.

    Mike Sweetney, PF, Knicks: Sweetney sat on the bench for most of the season, but with the Knicks suffering a myriad of injuries, the No. 9 pick in the draft finally is getting minutes, and he's making the most of it. While Sweetney isn't really scoring at a great clip, he is averaging 6.6 rpg in just 17 mpg in March. That's one of the top rebounding rates in the league. While it's doubtful Sweetney will ever turn into an all-star, he's showing he can be a big-time rebounder in the league.

    Maciej Lampe, C, Suns: He's still not playing big minutes, but when Lampe does get into the game, good things usually happen. Suns sources claim a fight with Amare Stoudemire in practice has changed the season for Lampe. The kid is cocky and has never met a shot he doesn't like, but the Suns are starting to see a few returns from the first pick in the second round.

    He had 12 points and six boards in 29 minutes at San Antonio on Sunday. He played 26 minutes against the Bucks and scored 17 points and grabbed seven boards. He played 18 minutes recently against the Clippers and scored eight points on 4-for-5 shooting. Those numbers aren't blowing anyone away, but for an 18-year-old big man? The Suns will take it.

    Around the League

    Big Improvements: Six teams already have surpassed their win totals from last season. The most impressive has been the Nuggets, who went from a league-worst 17 wins last season to 38 wins this year. The 21-win difference is due, in large part, to the influence of Carmelo Anthony and the offseason additions of Andre Miller, Voshon Lenard and a healthy Marcus Camby. In the rough and tumble Western Conference, that's pretty impressive.

    The Cavs aren't too far behind. The addition of LeBron has given them 14 more wins that last year's 17-win team.

    The most surprising upsurge? The Memphis Grizzlies. The team won just 28 games last season. This year, the Grizzlies already have won 47 and are on pace to win 52. That would give them plus-24 wins for the season, one of the most impressive turnarounds in NBA history.

    What's amazing about the Grizzlies is they've made the improvement without adding a superstar or getting one back from injury.

    The team with the biggest improvement in history, the 1997-98 Spurs, improved by 36 wins over their previous season. But that team added the first pick in the draft, Tim Duncan, and their starting center, David Robinson, who had missed the previous season with an injury.

    The Grizzlies' biggest additions? James Posey, Bo Outlaw, Bonzi Wells and Jake Tsakalidis.

    Shouldn't that be enough to get either Grizzlies coach Hubie Brown and/or their team president Jerry West a postseason award?

    While the sentiment all season for coach of the year has been with the Jazz's Jerry Sloan (who's done an amazing job in Utah), Brown's ability to turn a bad lottery team into an elite team (not just a playoff team) in a short time span is unbelievable.

    And though West didn't make a big deal or hit a home run for the draft, he did something last summer that only the best executives know how to do. He supported his coach by giving Hubie the pieces he needed to play his style of basketball. Brown's 10-man rotation has forced players to play Brown's way or sit at the end of the bench. Without credible replacements for everyone in the starting five, Brown's threats would've rung hollow. West's ability to give Brown a legit alternative at every position has everyone on the same page.

    Yao for MVP? If people are going to seriously argue that LeBron James, the first pick in the 2003 draft, should be in the mix for the league's MVP Award this year . . . I've got someone who should be ahead of him in line -- Yao Ming. Like LeBron, Yao has taken a lottery team on his back and turned it into a playoff team this year. Unlike LeBron, Yao has done it without the benefit of having the ball in his hands every time down the stretch.

    Yao has been amazing for the Rockets down the stretch. He's averaging 21.6 ppg, 10.3 rpg and 2.5 bpg on 52 percent shooting in March and seems to be heating up with each and every game. Yao has been the key to the Rockets' success all season. When the Rockets lose, Yao is averaging just 10.9 shots a game. When they win? Yao gets 13.5 shots per game. Those 2.6 shots per game make a big difference. The inverse is true for the Rockets' second best player, Steve Francis. In wins he's averaging 1.1 more apg and 1.5 fewer shots a game.

    With that said, there's no question, to me, that Kevin Garnett should win MVP this year. Second in my book is the Kings' Peja Stojakovic. Third is Tim Duncan. Fourth is Jermaine O'Neal. Fifth? Split it between Yao and Shaq.

    Most Improved? While we're on the subject of postseason awards, the Most Improved Award is the closest race in recent history. I can make a credible case for 10 players . . . with none having a huge edge over the other.

    I've always hated to vote for a guy in his second year in the league. Players are supposed to improve from year one to year two so . . . I'm going to disqualify two guys -- Yao Ming (who should be the favorite) and Carlos Boozer -- from the get go. I'm putting Philly's Samuel Dalembert in this group as well, considering that this is the first year he's gotten any playing time.

    I'm also going to disqualify a player who just so happens to be having a career year during a contract year. What Erick Dampier has done for the Warriors this year has been impressive, but I think we all know the reason behind the big improvement. While I'm disqualifying, I'm also going to kick out Ron Artest. Artest is having a great year, a career year, but really he'd be getting this award for behaving off the court. I don't think that's why you win it.

    That leaves six credible candidates for the award: Michael Redd, Andrei Kirilenko, Zach Randolph, Joe Johnson, Richard Jefferson and Mark Blount. All six are deserving. Of the six, I'm leaning toward Redd right now. He's had the biggest improvement and the biggest impact on a winning team. I also like the fact that he was a second-round pick who clearly had to work on his flawed game to get him to the level of all-star this season.

    Randolph, statistically, has put up the best numbers. Blount has been the biggest surprise of the group. He's come out of nowhere to be legit center in the league. Kirilenko, Jefferson and Johnson have been great . . . but I'm not sure their improvements have been dramatically better. If you ask me, Kirilenko and Jefferson were just underrated last season. We should've seen this coming. Johnson didn't start putting up those numbers until Phoenix gutted their backcourt.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: 03-29-2004

    Pietrus plays with the same physical intensity of Ron Artest. The difference is Pietrus is more athletic and possesses greater lateral quickness.
    Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: 03-29-2004

      The Good, the Bad, the Kitchen Sink

      Terry Brown
      Monday, March 29
      Updated: March 29
      12:30 PM ET

      With a little more than two weeks to go, the defending champion San Antonio Spurs are two wins away from possibly winning their division and three losses from possibly facing the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round as the sixth seed in the West.

      The Good
      Ron Artest, Indiana Pacers
      Week's work: 4-0 record, 22 ppg, 8 rpg, 4.5 apg, 4.5 spg, 1.2 bpg, 36.6% shooting

      Artest
      Go ahead. Stare at that shooting percentage and realize that this is the one Pacer player who can win ugly. He started Sunday night's win over the streaking Heat with a left hand heavily bandaged because of a busted thumb. He finished it with a one-way ticket to the doctor's office with a busted nose. In between, he shot 3-for-16 in a game that featured 49 fouls, four technicals and two flagrants. Oh yeah, he also had 18 points, 12 boards and six steals in 41 minutes.

      Stromile Swift, Memphis Grizzlies
      Week's work: 4-0 record, 18 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 0.2 apg, 1.7 spg, 1.7 bpg, 54.9% shooting
      You aren't going to lose many games when you're getting this kind of production from the guy with the 10th-most minutes on your team. In fact, the Grizzlies are 15-3 when Stro scores 14 or more points in a contest and 12-4 when he grabs seven or more rebounds.

      Ray Allen, Seattle SuperSonics
      Week's work: 2-1 record, 28.3 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1 spg, 10 triples, 57.8% shooting
      If Hey Zeus goes 6-for-8 from 3-point range and the Sonics still lose to halt a seven-game win streak, then there wasn't much that anyone could have done.

      Lamar Odom, Miami Heat
      Week's work: 2-1 record, 18 ppg, 12.3 rpg, 2 apg, 1 spg, 1.3 bpg, 57.1% shooting
      This whole Heat streak started when Odom tallied 46 points, 26 rebounds and 20 assists against the Bucks and Kings within 36 hours of each other in early March. The 10-2 run ended when his knee swelled to twice its size midway through Sunday night's game against the Pacers. In between, the Heat passed up the Sixers, Celtics, Raptors, Cavs, Boston and Knicks and are within one game of having the right to not have to play the Pacers, Nets or Pistons in the first round of the playoffs.

      The Bad
      Brad Miller, Sacramento Kings
      Weak work: 1-2 record, 6.6 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 3.6 apg, 1.3 spg, 0.6 bpg, 41.1% shooting

      Miller
      Let's make this as simple as possible. The Kings are paying him $9.7 million a year for the next seven seasons for one reason. Help stop Shaq. Not stop him by himself. Not score against him by himself. Just get in the way here and there while popping a few jumpers to pull Shaq out of the key followed by a few nifty passes. Six extra fouls, right? Well, the last time he played the Lakers, Brad tallied two points on 1-for-5 shooting while helping hold Shaq to 16 rebounds (while he, Vlade Divac and Chris Webber combined for 13), to boost his season averages against Los Angeles to 5.5 points per game on 27 percent shooting in 68 minutes. So does it really matter what he does against the rest of the league?

      Elton Brand, Los Angeles Clippers
      Weak work: 0-5 record, 15.2 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 2.8 apg, 1 spg, 1 bpg, 39.6% shooting
      In the Clippers' only two wins this month, Brand put up 48 points, 23 rebounds and six blocks on 52 percent shooting. It looks like he'll have to repeat that performance in one night for the Clippers to get win No. 3.

      Donyell Marshall, Toronto Raptors
      Weak work: 0-4 record, 11.2 ppg, 11 rpg, 0.7 apg, 1.7 spg, 0.7 bpg, 39% shooting
      For his career, he's shot two 3-pointers per game. On the season, he's taken 3.8 3-pointers per game. While with the Raptors, he's gone off for 4.3 3-pointers per game. Well, last week it caught up with him, and the normally reliable power forward who needs very few plays run for him to remain effective took an uncalled for 22 triples in four games and made only five. Worse even is the fact that when not launching from long range, he went 14-for-26 from the field for 53.8 percent.

      Eddy Curry, Chicago Bulls
      Weak work: 0-4 record, 8.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 1 apg, 0 spg, 1.2 bpg, 28.2% shooting
      Now, he's blaming the fact that during the offseason, a buddy of his threw a pager at him that whacked him in the eye and hampered his training regimen. But he promises to do better next time. No, really, he does.

      The Ugly
      In the first half of a must-win game between the Denver Nuggets and the Utah Jazz, Carmelo Anthony scored 20 points. The rest of the starters scored a grand total of five points as the Nuggets went on to lose, 85-83, on a last-second shot to drop them from eighth to 10th place in the Western Conference.

      Let me repeat that. Five points. That's Andre Miller shooting 0-for-6, Jon Barry going 0-for-3, Marcus Camby 0-for-3 and Nene Hilario 1-for-4. In all, that's 1-for-16 for 6.2 percent.

      The Kitchen Sink
      FAB CAV
      In November, Carlos Boozer averaged 12 points per game. By December, he was up to 13.9. In January, he boosted that number to 16 and then 17.2 in February. Now, it is March and the 6-foot-9 power forward of the Cleveland Cavaliers is averaging 17.5 points per game. April? May? You almost hope the Cavs squeeze into the playoffs just to see how good this guy can get this year.


      Carlos Boozer
      Power Forward
      Cleveland Cavaliers
      Profile


      2003-2004 SEASON STATISTICS
      GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%
      65 15.4 11.5 2.0 .521 .771

      And don't think for a second it's just because he's getting more minutes. Head coach Paul Silas played this guy for 37.5 minutes a game in December. He averaged 36.5 in February and is now at 35.2 for the year. Even more amazing is the fact in December, he took 170 shots and made 88 of them for 51.8 percent. So far in March, he's also taken 170 shots and made 92 of them for 54.1 percent. On the season, he's shooting 52.1 percent for seventh best in the league while also averaging 11.5 rebounds per game bolstered by his 12.4 this month.

      Need more proof?

      On the NBA Web site, they have this efficiency formula that is supposed to measure a player's overall performance. Based on a 48-minute basis, Boozer is the sixth-highest ranked player in the league behind only Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal, Elton Brand and Yao Ming and ahead of Kobe Bryant.

      THE BIG BOARD
      The Los Angeles Lakers are 15-0 when Shaquille O'Neal grabs 15 or more rebounds in a game this season and 20-2 when he grabs 14 or more boards. On the season, he is averaging 11.6 per game. On the Lakers' current eight-game win streak, Shaq is averaging 16.6.

      THE SIXTH MAVERICK
      Antoine Walker leads the Mavericks in rebounding and is second in assists. But he's also shooting a miserable 42 percent from the field as a power forward, 26 percent from long range as a 3-point specialist and a career-low 54 percent from the free-throw line.

      And, as of last Friday, he became the fifth-leading scorer on the Dallas Mavericks at a career-low 14.2 per game after a March in which he put up only 9.5 points per game as the Mavs have gone 7-8 and fallen to sixth in the Western Conference playoff race. He was passed by Antawn Jamison, who is now averaging 14.5 off the bench. In fact, in 2,123 minutes so far this season, Jamison has scored 1,055 points on 52 percent shooting from the field and 73 percent from the line. Walker, on the other hand, has played 2,578 minutes and scored 1,040 points as the starter.

      Jamison could very well finish with the Sixthman of the Year Award but only because if the two offseason acquisitions swapped places, Walker would be doing even worse. On the season, when Walker plays less than 29 minutes per game (the amount that Jamison has averaged on the season), he's averaged only 8.6 points per game.

      THE QUESTION
      Believe it or not, the Sixers are 19-29 with Allen Iverson in the lineup and 12-14 without him. Stretch those percentages out and Philadelphia, at a 46.1 winning percentage, would be the seventh-seeded team in the East now.

      JASON RETURNS
      After averaging 2.81 turnovers per game in five NBA seasons, Memphis Grizzlies point guard Jason Williams is down to 1.84 this year and 1.5 this month. Meanwhile, his assist per game, 6.7 on the year and seven on his career, and minutes per game, 29.5 this year and 32.4 over his career, haven't changed much. And as a whole, the Grizzlies are committing only 14.9 turnovers per game to their opponents' 17.2. Last year, they committed 15.4 to their opponent's 14.8.

      HITTING THE GREAT WALL
      Yao Ming is currently fifth in the league in field goal percentage at 53 percent, but he's showing signs of fatigue. During the month of January, the 7-foot-6 center shot 57 percent from the field. In February, he was down to 53 percent. This month, he's at 52 percent, and in his last six games, including Sunday night's, he's fallen to 45.5 percent from the field. Now, that isn't too bad at all except when you consider that in the Rockets' 42 wins this year, he's shot 55 percent, and in their 30 losses, he's shot 49 percent.

      ATLANTIC WOES
      The Washington Wizards may play in the absolute worst division in the NBA, but that hasn't helped them the least bit. Despite the fact that there is only one team in the seven-team Atlantic Division with a winning record, the Wizards have gone 1-19 against those teams. A 10-10 record against those teams would put them at 32-41 and a single game out of the playoffs. Instead, they are 23-50 and four games from having the worst record in the NBA.

      FOREIGN EXCHANGE
      Nikiloz Tskitishvili, No. 5 pick of 2002 draft by Denver Nuggets
      This year: 2.6 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 0.3 apg, 0.1 spg, 0.2 bpg, 33% shooting in 7.5 mpg

      Darko Milicic, No. 2 pick of 2003 draft by Detroit Pistons
      This year: 1.3 ppg, 1.1 rpg, 0.2 apg, 0.2 spg, 0.4 bpg, 25% shooting in 4.4 mpg

      FINAL FOUR SPECIAL
      Indiana Pacers (54-19) versus Detroit Pistons (47-27)
      Sunday, April 4 at the Palace at Auburn Hills at 1 p.m. EST on ABC

      San Antonio Spurs (48-25) versus Los Angeles Lakers (50-23)
      Sunday, April 4 at the Staples Center at 3:30 p.m. EST on ABC

      With apologies to the Kings and Timberwolves, we bring you the best the NBA has to offer in between the NCAA Final Four and Championship games featuring Jermaine O'Neal, Ben Wallace, Kobe Bryant and four of the Spurs' top 5 scorers (Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Hedo Turkoglu and Rasho Nesterovic), none of whom ever played Division I ball.

      The End
      "Stu Jackson is running the NBA rules committee the same way he ran the Knicks and the Grizzlies, inconsistently."

      Shaq insulting New York, Memphis and Vancouver fans everywhere.
      Mickael Pietrus Le site officiel

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