NBA Lines of the Night: November 1, 2010

Bronze Award: Lost in the fanfare that accompanied the Bulls roster renovations this past summer is the fact that they already might have the best point guard in the league in Derrick Martell Rose.

He quarterbacked another Bulls victory last night with 16 points and 13 assists, adding five rebounds and a steal to boot.

Silver Award: With Joel Pryzbilla out of the the lineup and Greg Oden yet to make his 2010 debut, Lamarcus Aldridge was sharing the Blazers front court with the likes of Fabricio Oberto and Dante Cunningham on Monday night, so it should come as no surprise that Aldridge assumed beast mode status for the Blazers, getting 33 points and nine rebounds against Chicago (and more impressively, with Joakim Noah sticking him for most of the evening).

Gold Award: One of my favorite pieces of hindsight from over the last few years in the NBA was the Chicago Bulls refusing to include Luol Deng in any Kobe Bryant trade negotiations four summers ago, eventually killing the deal altogether.

At the time, Deng was considered one of the brightest young stars in the league but has failed to live up to expectations since then, despite having a very solid career.

Well, let's all remember November 1st, 2010 as the evening that the Bulls looked like geniuses. Deng went off against Portland for 40 points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Oh, and the Bulls won, too.

Kobe Who?

Honorable Mention:

Reggie Evans of the Toronto Raptors had a very Reggie Evans-ish stat line on Monday against the Kings: six points, 19 rebounds, two assists, four shots that nearly shattered the backboard and I'm pretty sure he grabbed Omri Casspi's junk at one point in the third.

Tyreke Evans (no relation to Reggie) had a jam packed stat line of 23 points, seven rebounds, five dimes and two swipes for the Kings on the other side of that game.