Today's Non-Super Bowl Best - 02.03.08

5. brad miller - for some reason the kings have won seven of their last nine games, including the last four in a row, when by all accounts they should have been losing to improve their draft position. it appears sacramento fans have brad miller to thank. in the last three games, miller has scored 22 points in each and also contributed two games of 20 or more rebounds. anyways, as adorable as this recent stretch has been, the kings still have a long hill to climb to join the top 10 west teams as they currently sit 4.5 games behind the rockets. interestingly, they're seven games ahead of the 12th ranked clippers which means they also have a long hill to fall down to join the group of bad teams. hopefully this convinces the kings to finally trade ron artest and mike bibby for jack and jill.

4. the knicks - this weekend the knicks lost to the blazers and the sonics, two games they were leading late in the fourth. new york has now lost five straight, but have been competitive in each game. or at least competitive enough to convince david stern they haven't started tanking yet. anyways, more important than almost winning to me is elbowing sahsa vujacic in the face, which renaldo balkman accomplished in their game against the lakers last week. balkmen was retroactively assessed a flagrant foul and suspended a game. then he was sent numerous pieces of fan mail from me.

3. tiger woods - tiger woods birdied five of the last seven holes in the dubai desert classic to erase ernie els' four shot lead coming into the final round. tiger's won his first two events this year and is looks poised to win the rest of his events for the rest of the years. i'd say something more insightful about this, but unfortunately i've only seen highlights. plus i waited over an hour through super bowl coverage before sportscenter showed these highlights. and then when they finally did, for some reason emmitt smith and sean salisbury were talking over them, saying things like "tiger woooods!" and "solid striker of the golf ball". it was the single worst thing that's ever happened in the world.

2. gasol-less grizzlies - when the pau gasol trade was first announced, i couldn't decide whether the grizzlies were real smart or real dumb. on one hand, this trade means they're smartly building their franchise around rudy gay. on the other hand, this trade means kwame brown is now on their roster. how bad were the other offers for gasol that memphis took one where kwame brown was involved? every other proposal must have centered around 2nd round draft picks and ebola virii. thankfully though, kwame's contract expires at the end of the year and by then, memphis is likely to have the inside track on the 1st pick in the draft which will almost certainly be used on michael beasley. and once the grizzlies pair rudy and beasley in the same frontcourt, the world will end. or more likely continue, with rudy gay and beasley dunking all over the place.

1. gasol-less lakers - since acquiring pau gasol the lakers have won the last two games against the raptors and wizards by an average of sixteen points. kobe has been unstoppable while the newly acquired gasol has been very stoppable, mainly because he hasn't yet suited up for a game. pau is expected to make his laker debut this tuesday in new jersey. i'm curious to see how long it will take the lakers to get accustomed to playing with gasol. but i'm equally as curious to see how long it takes for the lakers to get accustomed to playing without kwame brown. specifically how they adjust to not having to chase after long rebounds from missed dunks or having to tie their starting center's shoes because he doesn't know how to tie them himself.