NBA Around The League 11/8: Aaron Brooks, Pau Gasol and More

News

• Houston’s Aaron Brooks will be off the floor for two weeks with an ankle injury.

• There’s been nothing new reported on Vince Carter’s health status.  Carter left Saturday night’s game versus the Bobcats after slipping on a wet spot on the floor. While there have been no updates, the injury does not appear to be serious.

• Stephen Jackson was fined $50,000 by the NBA for “verbal abuse of game officials.” Is anyone surprised by this? Anyone?

• Anthony Randolph’s action remains limited with the Knicks, as he only played 12 minutes last night, but it’s nice to see him back on the court.

Game Notes

• Elton Brand and Jrue Holiday continue to tear it up for Philadelphia. Brand and Holiday could not be at more opposite points in their careers. With 20 and 19 points respectively last night, they’ve been performing very nicely. If you have Brand, this might be a great time to sell him. His value will never be higher than it currently is. The opposite may be true for Holiday. The more he keeps this up, the more people will believe in him and the more owners you’ll be bidding against.

• Monta Ellis has been the breakout story of the year thus far. He scored 24 points last night and shows no signs of slowing down.

• Kevin Love got 30 minutes last night! One step closer to freedom! A 16-16 night should get the warden (Kurt Rambis) more on his side of the issue. At this point in the season, Rambis brings back memories of youth league basketball when the coach tried to give everyone equal playing time. Oh yeah, I forgot that doesn’t even happen in youth league. He’s the only coach in history who simply doesn’t want to play his most impactful player as much as possible.

• Luis Scola: See “Ellis, Monta.”

• The Hawks’ Al Horford had his best game of the season last night, going 30-10-5 against the Suns. Horford is a very good player, but this stat line may be due to Phoenix’s lack of bigs more than anything else. 

• Joe Johnson also joined in the fun with 34 points—his best total all of the year. 

• The Suns got the last laugh, though, with a 118-114 victory. The moral of the story: You will score some points on the Suns, but they will score more…until the playoffs.

• Rajon Rondo only had 10 assists Sunday night against the Thunder—only 10. The Celtics’ box score reads like you might expect any of their box scores to read. Don’t waste your time.

• Kevin Durant had a great game in a loss to the Celtics, scoring 34 points. Durant scoring 30+ is obviously not shocking news. Still, it deserves being reported this time because he played well enough to win. Hopefully, a shout out on a website he has heard/never will hear of means as much to him as a win.

• Pau Gasol had a triple double (20-14-10) in a rout of the Trail Blazers. Lamar Odom also had a good game, going 21-12. The Laker bench continues to make a lot of their playing time, as Matt Barnes and Shannon Brown combined for 28 points in only 39 minutes total. 

• The Trail Blazers played a fairly forgettable game and probably hope we all do just that.