5. rashard lewis - in his first return to seattle since signing with orlando, rashard lewis drained 3 of 19 field goal attempts and helped his new team beat his old team 110-94 instead of by a larger margin. lewis' contributions, however, go far beyond the box score because his endless misfiring shifted the spotlight to dwight howard. and in his first game back after failing to reach double digit points for the first time this season, howard responded with a career-high 39 points on 12 of 17 shooting to go along with 16 rebounds and five blocks. it was the fifth time this season that he blocked at least as many shots as he missed. in these games, the magic are undefeated. if stan van gundy was smart, the only shots he'd allow dwight howard to take would be put-back dunks off of rashard lewis' missed field goals. foolproof.
4. the metric system - i'm not sure how beno udrih counted time in yugoslavia, but in this country, when the golden state warriors are up two and grab a rebound with 30 seconds left in the game, there will be at least six seconds left for you to tie or take the lead if you just get a stop. but apparently something got lost in translation because instead of eating hamburgers and watching "according to jim" like an american, beno fouled monta ellis and a two-point deficit doubled for no particular reason. though that's not to say udrih was the only king at fault for their 103-96 loss to the resurgent warriors. because in the fourth quarter of last night's game, various sacramento players combined to go 2-23 from the field, which in any number system is fairly poor. maybe the kings would have had better success had they played this game in europe, the baskets are only like 3 meters tall over there. that's so short!
3. military intelligence - the virginia military institute defeated columbia union college by a score of 74-38. then the second half started. even though the pioneers managed an impressive 53 points in the second stanza, vmi went on to win by a final score of 156-91, setting school records for most points and margin of victory. this was 99 points more than vmi scored in it's previous game, a loss at ohio state. chavis holmes was one of seven keydets in double digits and led the way with 27 points. his twin brother travis holmes and reggie williams also topped 25, and each averaged over one point per minute. vmi led this game in nearly every statistical category. they made 20 threes, had 30 offensive rebounds compared to columbia's 26 defensive rebounds, and forced the pioneers into a mind-numbing 44 turnovers, led by tim turner with 13. to give you an idea of the talent disparity between the two teams, i had to go to the school's website to find out turner's first name, because espn only has player cards for two of columbia's players. and their website spelled "lose" wrong. i'm assuming the pioneers warm up to the "benny hill show" theme song.2. cleveland's options 2 through 15 - after two quarters in the pistons-cavaliers game last night, detroit was modestly ahead 48-43. and because lebron james sprained his finger late in the second quarter which put an early end to his night, cleveland's other players finally got the chance to prove their worth in the second half. and prove it they did, as they were handily outscored, 61-31. hopefully this is the evidence that finally convinces danny ferry to make a move to improve this anemic supporting cast. and if not, hopefully he'll let the supporting cast play while wearing supporting casts.
1. stevie franchise - before last nights game against the suns, houston's steve francis had played a total of 51 minutes. he played more than half of his season total to that point with 27 quality minutes last night and contributed in a huge way to the Rockets 100 - 94 victory. francis filled up the stat sheet with 9 points, 7 assists, 3 boards, 2 steals and 2 blocks and at some times made quick moves to the basket that reminded viewers of his previous tour of duty with the rockets. as much as we laud dunks, and ill-advised threes on this blog, there still is a special place in every basketball fan's heart for an ankle popping crossover and steve francis was a tenured professor in crossoverology. in fact steve executed my favorite crossover of all time when he crossed over derek anderson 3 times in the same play (30 seconds in), passing up open shots/drives twice just to prove the point that if he wanted to he could embarrass derek anderson for the remainder of the 24 second shot clock. however, just to let rockets fans know, this new incarnation of steve francis has these rebirths from time to time, but based on his stint as a knick last year he is bound to return to his out of shape, slow, careless form just as quickly as he seemed to turned the light switch on last night.
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