Court Awareness: The Celtics' Slide, the Lone Granger, and the Rest of Wednesday

Amare Stoudemire had 23 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Suns in both categories.

O’Neal sat out with a sore back. The Suns are now 2-4 in the six games this season without Shaq in the lineup.

Don’t look now, but Shaq is quietly making his case for inclusion as a reserve on the Western Conference All-Star team. Over his last eight games he’s averaging 21 points and 10 rebounds—increasing his season averages to 17 and nine per game.

While Shaq has no chance at passing Yao in the fan vote, there is a good chance that Shaq could be voted in by the coaches. His main competition should come from the Warriors’ Andris Biedrins and the Denver’s Nene.

With Kobe Bryant all-but-guaranteed a starting spot and Phil Jackson comfortably on pace to be the team’s head coach, there’s a good chance that Kobe, Shaq, and Phil could be reunited in Phoenix.

All-Star reserves are voted on the by the head coaches in the respective conferences. There are bound to be a number of coaches who are either convinced that Shaq is still an All-Star, or who just have a sense of humor and want to see the three of them together again.

Speaking of Kobe and Phil…

The Los Angeles Lakers bounced back from Tuesday night’s loss to the Hornets in beating the Golden State Warriors, 114-106 in Oakland on Wednesday.

Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, who combined to score only 17 points on Tuesday, tripled their total with 51 points and 29 rebounds against the Warriors.

The Lakers improved their record this season on the second night of back-to-back games to a very impressive 7-1. Surprisingly though, is that four of the Lakers five losses on the season have come in the first night of back-to-backs.

The Warriors were without co-captain Stephen Jackson. Jamal Crawford led the Warriors with 25 points on 26 shots and Andris Biedrins helped his case for the All-Star team with a near triple-double, picking up 12 points, 17 rebounds, and eight assists.



Finally, A Win Without Devin the Dude

The Nets got their first win in five games this season without Devin Harris in their 100-89 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies. Vince Carter had 25 points and 12 assists in a game the Nets led from start to finish.

Yi Jianlian, currently third among forwards in Eastern Conference All-Star balloting, did his best to quiet the critics for a night with 20 points, six rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block.

Yi and Tracy McGrady have both benefited tremendously from the All-Star votes they're getting in China. According to the most recent results released by the NBA, McGrady is currently about 100,000 votes ahead of Chris Paul for the second starting-guard spot.

McGrady has already missed ten games this season, and his 15 points per game average is his lowest since his third season in the league.

Yi is at least a quarter of a million votes ahead of more deserving players like Chris Bosh, Paul Pierce, and Danny Granger, despite averaging under 10 points and about six rebounds per game.

Is it time for the NBA to reassess the current rules and decide if it’s worth giving China a disproportionate amount of power in deciding the All-Star starters?

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