by Myles Nelson » Wed Aug 30, 2017 1:00 pm
January/All Star Break
We continued our winning streak to start the month, getting up to 12 straight wins before falling to the Clippers at home. It seems as though our offense has lost a small amount of punch, as neither Hill (25%) nor Nelson (31%) shoot as well as Richardson did. The increased depth has made a huge difference though, since now none of the free agent fodder I was forced to pick up has to play extended minutes. Kelvin Cato has been really good for us, as he's shot 57% and has the second best rebounding percentage on the team.
We got hit with a rash of injuries in the middle of January. Stoudemire missed a couple of games, Barbosa out about a week, everyone had nicks and bruises here and there. Luckily, Nash and Marion kept the team running, and we only dropped a few games that we shouldn't have. Once we got back at full strength, we went on another winning streak, taking 12 straight games before getting to the All Star Break.
Eastern All Stars
G Steve Francis - 28.2 ppg, 9.6 apg, 5.6 rpg, 1.5 spg
G Allen Iverson - 30.6 ppg, 9.7 apg, 4.5 rpg, 1.7 spg
F LeBron James - 32.8 ppg, 6.8 apg, 7.3 rpg, 1.5 spg
F Rasheed Wallace - 19.3 ppg, 1.5 apg, 8.0 rpg, 1.5 bpg
C Jermaine O'Neal - 25.3 ppg, 1.5 apg, 9.0 rpg, 2.1 bpg
Stephon Marbury - 22.5 ppg, 9.3 apg, 3.2 rpg, 1.5 spg
Paul Pierce - 23.3 ppg, 4.8 apg, 5.1 rpg, 1.8 spg
Dwyane Wade - 30.7 ppg, 4.1 apg, 4.7 rpg, 1.7 spg
Ben Wallace - 9.9 ppg, 12.3 rpg, 1.5 spg, 2.5 bpg
Antawn Jamison - 19.7 ppg, 1.3 apg, 6.7 rpg
Larry Hughes - 18 ppg, 6.0 apg, 5.1 rpg, 3.2 spg
Ron Artest - 19.7 ppg, 3.9 apg, 5.6 rpg, 1.8 spg
Western All Stars
G Steve Nash - 22 ppg, 11.5 apg, 3.4 rpg
G Kobe Bryant - 22.4 ppg, 7 apg, 6.8 rpg
F Andrei Kirilenko - 21.3 ppg, 4.5 apg, 7.3 rpg, 1.6 spg, 3.8 bpg
F Kevin Garnett - 25.7 ppg, 5.5 apg, 10.9 rpg, 1.7 spg, 1.5 bpg
C Pau Gasol - 23.9 ppg, 2.3 apg, 7.7 rpg, 1.6 bpg
Mike Bibby - 20.2 ppg, 8.1 apg, 3.6 rpg, 1.6 spg
Mehmet Okur - 17.9 ppg, 2.3 apg, 9.2 rpg
Shawn Marion - 16.6 ppg, 1.9 apg, 9.3 rpg, 2.2 spg, 1.3 bpg
Amare Stoudemire - 25.4 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 1.2 spg, 1.9 bpg
Ray Allen - 23.4 ppg, 4.0 apg, 5.1 rpg, 1.0 spg
Tim Duncan - 22.2 ppg, 3.1 apg, 10.1 rpg, 2.3 bpg
Lamar Odom - 23.5 ppg, 2.4 apg, 9.1 rpg
Amazingly, the Lakers have two All Stars despite being one of the worst teams in the league. The rest of their team must really suck.
We are now 42-9, best team in the league and with a 7 game margin over the second best team in the West. The Bulls have the 7th worst record in the league, which is great for the pick of theirs we own (we traded them Deng during the 2004 draft for that pick). Now, as long as we don't do anything stupid like trade this pick for a later pick, and then sell the pick for cash, we should be fine (which is actually what the Suns did... they turned the 7th pick in the 2004 draft aka Luol Deng, for what turned out to be the 21st pick of the 2005 draft (Nate Robinson), and then traded that for the 24th pick in the 2006 draft and sold that to the Celtics, when they took Rajon Rondo).