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.Another loss during this downturn would have hurt Boston, no matter how much fans deny worry. Orlando lurks, pressing for the No. 2 seed in the East; the Magic desperately, I assume, want to avoid the Pistons ... which makes the Celtics pray the Magic meet the Pistons. (Sorry, playoff fever.) So a loss to Miami hurts. A loss to Miami with Dwyane Wade sitting out? Pain ain't the word.
But Boston narrowly avoided embarrassment, thanks to Paul Pierce. The Truth tallied a sterling 36 points on 27 total shooting possessions, adding five assists and 11 rebounds. Pierce's performance (combined with solid work from Rajon Rondo) helped offset a balance Miami effort in Wade's stead, and got Boston the overtime win at home. Whew.
Big Boy Pants: It's not every day a small forward not named LeBron puts up a line that reads 35 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks, zero assists, zero steals. Danny Granger, stop acting like a center. Jeff Foster needs to keep his job.
Bizarro Pistons: Yao Ming went nuts in double overtime -- 31 points, 15 rebounds, four blocks -- against what must be the oddest Pistons line-up in five, six years. Arron Afflalo and Kwame Brown each played more than 40 minutes. Also, Ron Artest played exactly two minutes, 32 seconds more than Shane Battier. Artest took 23 more FGAs than Battier. Figure that out.
