Sports 4 Dorks

We’re not saying that the 2007-08 Boston Celtics are on the
same level as the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, though the C’s are on pace for 71
wins.

We’re not saying that the Celtics should be expected to
bounce back from tough losses without their full complement of rotation
players, even though Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and Luc Longley combined to
miss 43 games during Chicago’s
72-win run.

What are we saying?

Not much, we just wanted to point out this lovely little
stat:

In games against teams that the Bulls had lost to in their
prior meeting, Chicago
won by an average of 20.3 points. That’s six games, and an average of 20.3
points in retaliation. Nice.

Boston has a chance to
retaliate against a plucky Washington Wizards squad that had its way with a
gimpy Celtics team in Washington on Saturday night. With Rajon Rondo likely
out again, the Wizards will try to trade the point guard-less C’s into
submission, while continuing to hound the suddenly-ineffective Ray Allen (who
should probably be sitting this one out with a pinched nerve).

Celtics Blog
has a fine preview, worth your time.

Bullets Forever has
a fine preview, worth your time.

The game is worth your time. Don’t expect anyone to win by
20.3 points. Boston
might win by 30, but 20.3 is just ludicrous.

Boston: 30-5, 89 possessions per game (24^th-most
in the NBA), 110.8 points scored per 100 possessions (8^th in the
NBA), 96.8 points allowed per 100 possessions (1^st in the NBA).

Washington: 19-16,
89.6 possessions per game (20^th), 109.6 points scored per 100
possessions (10^th), 107.5 points allowed per 100 (16^th).

Around the league …

*Pickaxe and
Roll (more on this new blog tomorrow) with a Nuggets/Bobcats game preview.

*Blazer’s Edge
with a Trail Blazers/Nets game preview.

*Dave D takes a
deeper look at Brandon Roy.

*Frank from
BrewHoop fills us in on all things Bucksian and previews the Bucks/Jazz.

*Kevin Pelton previews the SuperSonics/Lakers tilt for SuperSonics dot com,
and interviews Lakers
dot com beat man Ty Nowell.

*Chris Bosh, Kobe Bynum Kobe Bryant, named the Players of the Week for
their respective conferences. 

*Andrew Bynun is out for two months with a "subluxation of the left patella" tendon. The patella tendon is that piece of meat in the front of your knee that tends to throb like hell when you’ve played a bit too much basketball, and it appears as if Andrew’s has been knocked out of place a bit. Or is it just the kneecap, itself? Either way, it’s not a ligament tear, so it isn’t the end of the world. Any MDs who like to hang around the comment pages might want to help us out, ‘ere.

Because he’s unable to do much on the knee for a while, Bynum’s "eight weeks" really mean 10-11 weeks until he’s back to where he was last night. He can’t help but fall out of shape. It’s a shame, but it’s also not the end of the world for the Lakers. There’s plenty of time for Andrew to ready his game in time for the playoffs. 

*Alonzo Mourning: "Yes. I’m retired. This is it for me." 

*KD: "Sigh."