Notes from Last Night- 11/11/09

Four teams played last night.... two games.  Four of the top 6 teams in the league right now.  Brilliant?  Ho-hum...

Did anyone notice what all four of these teams had in common last night?

Let me help you...

L.A. Lakers- Shaq (1996-2004)

Miami Heat- Shaq (2004-2008)

Phoenix Suns- Shaq (2008-2009)

Cleveland- Shaq (2009)

Shaqtastic! 

Let's start in Miami where... who knew?  I thought this guy was in charge of the Bobcats or something?

 

They spent a good deal of time talking about the number 23 last night.  Riley had Jordan's jersey retired to the rafters despite Mike never playing in Miami.  Riley says he did it out of respect for clearly the greatest player to play in this league.  Could this be a trend?  LeBron got caught up in the fanfare and made the announcement he will be changing from 23 to 6 (his Olympic number) out of respect for MJ at season's end. Kudos to LeBron for making that decision on his own.  The question is will the rest of the league follow?  Lots of guys are sporting 23 right now (JRich, Kevin Martin, Toney Douglas come to mind).  Will the league follow suit with the NHL which retired #99 in every arena?

So does this mean we have more clarity on the LeBron free agency saga?  Is he giving us hints?  Boston, Philly, Phoenix, and Sacramento all have #6 retired.  So I guess we can knock them off the short list huh?  Wouldn't it be funny if Cleveland has #6 retired?

The Heat have only 1 number retired... that is 23.

On the court, two guys really stood out last night and one guy didn't stand out at all which is a story in itself.

1. Mo Williams- 25 pts and 5 threes.  He made his presence felt on the offensive end.

2. J.J. Hickson.  WOW.  He showed a ton of versatility working the paint, hitting jumpers and running the floor.  More on him later.

3. This is the guy who didn't stand out.... because he wasn't there... last night or Wednesday... he has missed the road trip because... he missed the flight.  Yeah, DeLonte West.

I will leave this one alone.    Obviously West is extremely fragile right now.

On to LA where even Adam Morrison got into the action!  Phoenix just got worked but I will glad to see Earl Clark get some good minutes.  After all, Earl is not only a Jersey guy but a Union County guy at that!!! Woop, woop.

Last nights WRRRRRYYYY was a tight one.  Bynum really deserves it (Jersey guy!!!) for going off with 26 and 14 and Mo Williams was huge as well but I am giving it to my boy JJ Hickson for stepping up with 18 against Miami.  His stats weren't eye popping but he played some inspired ball last night.

We will get to Byron Scott later....

Happy ball.