Today's Best - 12.02.07

5. the san diego padres - lost amid the johan santana trade speculations was jake peavy's contract situation. throughout the season last year, there were persistent rumblings that the padres were not going to be able to afford to re-sign jake peavy given his market worth and the padres' fiscal responsibilities. peavy even spoke out publicly that he didn't think the padres would re-sign him which led to a few inane trade rumors. it appears though, that communism was a red herring as reports have surfaced that the padres and jake peavy are close to a contract extension. this is obviously good news for the padres because it seems obvious to me that when you have one of the top 5 pitchers in the league you should keep him. of course, if you don't keep him, be sure to entertain trades from the yankees and the red sox, because if there's anything we don't hear enough about it's the yankees and red sox getting more baseball players. anyways, the extension would keep the reigning national league cy young winner in san diego tan and navy blue, or sometimes san diego camoflauge or brown or yellow until 2012. hopefully by then, they'll have more reasonable uniform colors.

4. bo outlaw - when the magic traded trevor ariza for maurice evans and brian cook, bo outlaw became an unfortunate roster casualty. but the joke's on orlando, because for the second time in three games, bo outlaw was the portland trailblazers' best player according to yahoo! sports. last night against the spurs, outlaw scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while against the pacers a few days earlier he scored a season-high 26 points. even more impressively, bo outlaw doesn't even play for the blazers. travis outlaw does, however, and it seems like this is a simple mix up over at the yahoo! headquarters. so i guess the joke's on bo outlaw.

3. three quarters of the minnesota timberwolves - on friday the minnesota timberwovles played the defending champion spurs. they played valiantly and even held a 80-66 lead in the third quarter before san antonio erased it like the ups guy on those white board commercials. and considering that long-haired know-it-all is probably a terrible basketball player, minnesota should be worried. especially since that one guy finished the game on a 40-11 run against five different timberwolves and won the game 106-91. the news isn't all bad though, because in minnesota's next game they lost 109-80 and got a front row seat to rudy gay's numerous dunks.

2. texas - last night, the longhorns walked out of pauley pavilion with an upset victory over top-ranked ucla. damion james and dj augustin each scored 19 points as they overcame the fact that ucla's alfred aboya was allowed to play in 3-d glasses for much of the contest. the game was back and forth for much of the second half after texas relenquished a 16-point lead and was ultimately decided when james dunked with 8 seconds left in the game. the bruins tried to answer but luc richard mbah a moute missed a three at the buzzer. he had this to say about the final shot, "i shot the ball knowing it was going to go in, it just didn't go in." yes, luc richard mbah a moute, it isn't your fault that your attempt missed since you knew it was going in. it's the ball's fault for not just going in. if the bruins want to reclaim the number 1 spot, they have some serious growing up to do.

1. caron butler's three point shooting - sure, fellow wizard nick young may be grabbing all the headlines after narrowly missing a three pointer at the buzzer against the sixers on friday that would have won the game, but it's caron butler's stellar play in the absence of gilbert arenas that is being overlooked. most impressive is his newest weapon, the three point shot. last year he made only a quarter of his threes. this year he's made well over half of his long distance attempts. over the last six games caron has made 19 threes at an insane 73 percent clip. and this doesn't even include old fashioned three point plays. of course, it's unreasonable for us wizards fans to expect caron to keep up his torrid pace. he'll likely fall back down to a more reasonable percentage and this will likely be around the time nick young starts making 150 percent of his threes.