Heels in the League 03/28/09 (NBA)
03/28/09
A pretty decent sized schedule last night in the National Basketball Association, with eight games in all. Of those only three involved ex Carolina players, but one of those game is a head to head match up of old school players (aka players who spent their time at UNC under the tuteledge of Dean Smith). As we all know, be it one, two, three or all of them, if there is a touch of carolina blue in the schedule here at The Fifth Corner I do the daily post called “Heels in the League”. As we all know it’s the ex players from Chapel Hill that are now at the next level, be it basketball, football, baseball, soccer, lacrosse or other sports. After I have looked at the NBA games I will also check NBDL.
The first game of the night has the New York Knicks (4th in the Atlantic Division) going south to face the Charlotte Bobcats (4th in the Southeast Division). Once again, even if the Bobcats have a duo of ex Heels, Raymond Felton and Sean May, it’s only Felton who gets to see the floor as May is once again “DNP – Coach’s Decision”. The ex Heel got 34 minutes on the floor, where he scored just six points, while adding just as many assists and just as many turnovers as well. Felton also had two rebounds while playing in front of the home crowd at Time Warner Cable Arena. Even without Felton have a great game Charlotte (33-40, 21-17 home) was able to beat New York (29-44, 10-25 away) by the final of 96 to 85. The `Cats are ninth in the race for the playoffs, but with less than 10 games to go they are 2.5 games back of the Pistons.
The second game of the night with a touch of carolina blue has the Golden State Warriors (3rd in the Pacific Division) going to the mile high city to take on the Denver Nuggets (1st in the Northwest Division). For the visiting team we should have seen Brandan Wright getting some playing time, but the ex Heel was a “DNP – Left Shoulder” and didn’t get a chance to play at the Pepsi Center. As far as the game was concerned it was Denver (48-26, 28-8 home) winning this one over Golden State (25-48, 6-32 away) by a double digit margin, with the final tally being 129 to 116. The Warriors have long been out of the playoff picture, this loss just slides them further away from it.
The last game is the head to head match up I was talking about before. With the Detroit Pistons (3rd in the Central Division) going to the nation’s capitol to face the Washington Wizards (last in the Southeast Division). For the visiting squad it was supposed to be Rasheed Wallace being the man in the middle, but he is still out with his left calf injury. On the other side, for the Wizs, it’s Antawn Jamison taking the court for 42 minutes and getting 21 points (9 for 15) to go along with five rebounds and two steals. In what was the welcoming back of both Gilbert Arenas and Rip Hamilton, Detroit (35-37, 17-18 away) beat a depleted Washington (17-57, 12-26 home) by 2, 98 to 96. One of those that could not play because of injury was ex Heel Brendan Haywood, who blogger “Truth About It” said of the situation going on with the ex UNC big man: “Brendan Haywood is evidently practicing at full speed…but I’m skeptical if he’ll return to the court this season.” He also linked me to a post he did about the Wizs’ center.
In the Development League we see that Jawad Williams led his Rio Grande Vipers (19-25) team with 23 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals in beating Bakersfield Jam (25-20) by the score of 114 to 101. While David Noel also led his Reno Stamped squad with a double double consisting of 24 points (10 for 15) and 11 assists. The ex Heel came very close to a triple double as he also had 9 boards, as well as two assists. Unfortunately Reno (20-24) was beaten by Idaho (28-17) 108 to 104.
Shortlink:
