Today's Best - 03.06.08

5. the utah jazz - last night the mavs hosted the red hot rockets without the services of the reigning mvp dirk nowitzki. dirk was handed a suspension for a flagrant foul against andrei kirilenko in monday night's game against the jazz. the rockets ultimately won their 17th straight game and now the mavs fall to seventh place in the conference. just as jerry sloan drew it up. anyways, people will be quick to point out that since acquiring jason kidd, dallas is a pedestrian 4-5. but each of those losses have been to the five top teams in the conference, four of which were on the road. of course, maybe the reason those five teams have reached the top of the conference is because they've been able to beat the mavericks. so it's really a chicken or the egg situation, in that the mavericks have egg on their face.

4. the spurs - a few weeks ago, i remember reading an article that argued that it was in the realm of possibility that the spurs could miss the playoffs. well article, san antonio is now the western conference's top team after a 108-97 win over the pacers. they've also quietly won 11 consecutive games and now look like the unstoppable force that we've been accustomed to seeing in previous seasons. anyways, last night was an intersting game in that tim duncan scored fewer points than kurt thomas, bruce bowen, and matt bonner. now that the spurs have proven they don't even need the league's best center to win games, their western conference opponents should be worried. now if only the spurs could prove they can also win with the league's best center.

3. tripp isenhour - isenhour is a professional golfer who has recently come under fire for killing a protected/endangered hawk. during a taping of a tv show, the departed was allegedly making noise which caused the 39-year old grown man to fire golf shots at it. unfortunately, golfers are clearly way too good at their craft because one of tripp's shots struck and killed the bird. if i ever tried to hit a bird with a golf ball, i'd have a better chance of killing myself than the bird. anyways, isenhour was charged yesterday with cruelty to animals and killing a migratory bird. who knows if there'll be any more developments, but right now my favorite part of this whole story is that apparently "the bird was buried at the golf course and later dug up by florida investigators." i don't know what's funnier to imagine, isenhour dumping a body in the sand trap hoping no one would find it or investigators exhuming a bird's grave.

2. the brothers lopez - in yesterday's biggest college basketball game, 3rd ranked ucla topped 7th ranked stanford 77-67 in overtime. the win clinched the pac-10 regular season title for ucla while also providing the lopez twins, brook and robin, a chance to demonstrate what they can do against the highest level of competition. brook led the cardinal with a team-high 18 points and 13 rebounds while robin led the cardinal players who weren't related to him with 14 points. unfortunately, i think they left a lot to be desired. brook and robin? what kind of names for twins are those? twins' names should be much more interesting, like brook and brobin or rockin' and robin or by brook and by crook or batman and robin. i guess it's too late now. i just hope the lopezes are better than stanford's last twin duo, jason and jaron collins. and since brook and robin both have fingers, i like their chances.

1. florida's oh-fours - last night in a 107-96 win over the division rival cavaliers, the bulls' joakim noah grabbed 20 rebounds and scored 13 points. this makes noah the third florida rookie from the back-to-back ncaa champions to collect at least 18 rebounds in a game. corey brewer was the first, grabbing 18 boards in only the third start of his career, and al horford has had two games where he pulled down 19 and 20 rebounds. i'm curious to see whether taurean green and chris richard will also join the club. or if lee humphrey joins any club. anyways, i'm no elias or his sports bureau, so i can't confirm whether this is the first time three rookies from the same college team have each gotten at least 18 rebounds in a game in their first season. i can confirm though that joakim noah is the loudest rookie to have ever gotten a rebound.