Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.With Yao Ming the runaway leader in All-Star voting at center for the West, two big men each made their case last night to be named his backup. Al Jefferson came through with the most impressive line of the night (by any player, at any position) scoring 38 with 16 boards while leading the Timberwolves over the Grizzlies.
Ordinarily, that'd be enough to garner Jefferson top Doing Lines billing ... but tonight, he shares the honor, as Shaquille O'Neal proved he can still be a No. 1 option when needed, picking up the slack for an injured Steve Nash and a foul-happy Amare Stoudemire by scoring 28 (on just 12 shots!) with 12 boards.
If you're picking the All-Star team, who do you go with -- the new school stud or the old school veteran? As my colleague Brett Pollakoff argued over email, the fact that Shaq is second in voting and the game is being played at his home arena in Phoenix likely gives him the edge.
It sounds about right ... but it's still a crying shame. Only four Western Conference players average more points than Jefferson (22.7 per game) and only three average more rebounds (10.2 per game) -- he's quietly emerged as one of the most dominating forces in the league every night.
Trigger happy: Speaking of big men, Dwight Howard went 18 and 18 for the Magic, but he wasn't the one who's line stuck out the most. That would be Rashard Lewis, who padded his lead over the rest of the league in three-point attempts by going 6-for-12 from beyond the arc. Considering he went 1-for-5 from "two-point land," it's a wonder why he bothered going inside the arc at all.
Now do it again: Jose Calderon (21 points and 16 dimes) and Derrick Rose (21 and 13) had better numbers, but Kyle Lowry (14 and 12) deserves dap for the most "where did that comes from?" performance by any point guard Monday night. Truth be told, he's actually been sneaky good lately, averaging 11 points and 8.6 assists in his last three.
