Empty the Bench

By: Zachariah Blott

Derrick Rose nearly doubles his 3-pointers for the season in one game: This past Saturday, Chicago dismantled the 76ers 98-84, and Derrick Rose got back into the swing of things with 23 points and 5 assists. What’s noteworthy about Rose’s output is that 12 of his points came off of 4 triples in 6 attempts. For the season, the second-year player has been the least effective long-range shooter of every starting PG in the league. Through his first 64 games of 2009-10, Rose hit 6 threes out of 27 attempts (22%), even less impressive than his rookie campaign, when he hit only 16 out of 72 (22%).

Rose had missed the previous four-and-a-half games with a sprained wrist, but he came back in a big—albeit quite unexpected—way. Traveling to Philly to take on the already-done Sixers, Chicago got back on track after being 0-for-March by outscoring the home team in each of the first three quarters, thanks in part to Philly’s atrocious 3-point defense. They’ve surrendered a league-worst 40% of all long-distance bombs, way worse than the NBA average of 35%. Leave it to the Sixers to make a non-shooter look like Jimmy Chitwood. Rose sank 2 more on Monday (in 7 attempts), officially doubling his yearly total in two days.

Derrick Rose photo credit: Icon SMI

Josh McRoberts comes up big, not so much for Washington: Indiana’s Josh McRoberts started in place of the injured Roy Hibbert (jaw) on Wednesday, and the third-year big man had a career night to help the Pacers crush what’s left of the Wizards. In 30 minutes, McRoberts scored 14 points, grabbed 12 rebounds (including a game-high 5 offensive), dished out 2 assists to 0 turnovers, and blocked 2 shots. His only other 20 minute-plus games in March were a 9 and 4 night against Boston in 22 minutes, 15 and 4 against the Lake Show in 23 minutes and 10-4-4-2 (that’s points, boards, assists, and steals) in 22 minutes in Denver. This youngster may finally be getting it.

On the flipside, four of Washington’s five starters combined for 15 points on 7-28 shooting. The lone holdout, Andray Blatche with 21 points, may actually be the team’s biggest problem at this point. After they don’t get any of the big-name free agents this summer that they dumped the whole team for, I’m real curious why anyone would follow the Wizards next year. Any sports fans living in the beltway should jump on the Capitals bandwagon right now. They’re hella good, score 50% more goals than almost everyone else, and Alex Ovechkin is the big bully/much better highlights version of Sidney Crosby.

Utah spreads the love, cruises on all cylinders: Utah gave it to Toronto on Wednesday night, embarrassing the Raptors on their own floor 113-87. The Jazz exemplified The Jazz Way by spreading around all the glory. All five starters shot between 10 and 15 times and registered between 12 and 18 points. Four of them also grabbed between 8 and 11 rebounds. Off the bench, Kyle Korver and Paul Millsap split 15 shots and put up 12 and 13 points, making for one of the most well-rounded team box scores you can hope to see. It makes sense this balanced effort came from Utah considering their top five scorers average between 12 and 19 per, with three more in the 7 to 10 range.

Zachariah Blott cannot recommend Rick Telander’s “Heaven Is A Playground” enough.

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