Sunday's NCAA action features four key matchups involving potential NBA players. Jordan Schultz breaks it down.
Evan Turner (Ohio State) vs. Georgia Tech. Turner has skyrocketed up NBA draft charts with his wondrous and multi-faceted high level of play. His bevy of skills extend themselves beautifully at both ends of the floor, where he is a relentless driver and unstoppable scorer, and on the defensive end, where he is both physical and extremely quick. His array of skills has the Buckeyes in striking distance of the Final Four but as we mentioned earlier, Georgia Tech has plenty of pro-level talent, namely center Derrick Favors and power forward Gani Lawal.
Nolan Smith (Duke) vs. Jerome Randle (Cal). The Pac 10 POY is a tireless (played 40 minutes against Louisville) point who really likes to shoot the three and put pressure on the defense with his driving ability. Smith is a much improved player for Duke, particularly at the offensive end where his mid-range jump shot has developed into a consistent weapon, and his drives have really opened up the floor for both Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer, as well as 7-footer Brian Zoubek. This is another terrific guard match-up out of the South region.
Denver coach George Karl, undergoing chemotherapy and radiation for a form of throat cancer, missed his sixth game out of the last seven in Saturday night's 102-97 loss to Milwaukee at the Pepsi Center. But there was one major difference this time.
Dantley didn't even talk with Karl on Saturday. And a Nuggets official said the ailing Karl is not expected to be with the team for any games during a pivotal upcoming five-game trip, meaning Karl will have missed 11 of 12 at a time the Nuggets are trying to hold off Dallas for the No. 2 seed in the West and Utah for the Northwest Division crown.
"He's going through treatment and was down so I didn't talk to him,'' Dantley, an assistant and the acting head coach said of Saturday, when the Nuggets lost just their sixth home game of the season to a team that had played a double-overtime game the night before at Sacramento while Denver rested.
But the Bucks are a playoff outfit. Yes, Dantley is 5-2 filling in for Karl during his absences over the past month, but Milwaukee is the first likely playoff-bound team he has faced.
Now, it's just going to get tougher for Dantley. The Nuggets (47-23) start their five-game trip Tuesday at New York, but then it really gets rigorous. The last four games are at Boston, Toronto, Orlando and Dallas, three playoff bound and the Raptors likely getting there.
PHOENIX -- The Suns have been playing some of their best basketball of the season recently, and a big reason why is the improved play they're getting from Amar'e Stoudemire. Over his last five games, in a stretch that began on March 6th, Stoudemire has been unstoppable, averaging 32.8 points and nine rebounds per game.
Besides his bumped-up scoring and rebounding averages, here are some other impressive stats (courtesy of the awesome folks in the Suns' PR department) that show just how much Stoudemire has upped his game as of late:
- Amar'e posted a personal season high of 44 points on Friday against the Jazz, which was the second time he's gone over the 40-point mark this season. The first time was less than three weeks ago against the Spurs; it's the fewest number of days (20) he's gone between 40-point efforts since the 2004-05 season.
- Stoudemire has eight 30-point-plus performances since the All-Star break, which has him tied for the league lead in that category with Kevin Durant.
- Stoudemire is currently on a career-best streak of scoring 19 or more points in 22 consecutive games. It doesn't sound that impressive initially, until you realize he's just two games away from tying the Suns' franchise record of 24 straight games, set by Tom Chambers back in 1990.
ShareIf you ask Stoudemire what the change has been, he'll tell you that he always takes his game up a notch after the All-Star break, and that's simply what he's doing again this season. But there might be another reason for the statistical improvement -- it might be the new shoes.
The Lakers toyed with the Timberwolves on the way to a win on Friday, but they lost starting center Andrew Bynum for an unknown period of time in the process.
Bynum limped off the floor and headed to the locker room early in the third quarter, after feeling a "sharp" pain in his left Achilles' tendon. He was seen leaving Staples Center in a plastic walking boot, and is expected to be re-evalutaed on Saturday. Phil Jackson doesn't know the extent of the injury yet, but was admittedly worried after the game.
"We're concerned about Andrew," Jackson said. "He'll probably miss a little while."
Bynum himself described the injury like this:
"I felt a really sharp, really quick pain," Bynum said. "[It was] maybe one, two seconds of sharp pain."
The early diagnosis is a strain, but until the MRI is performed, it's really just guesswork. While it's true that this Lakers team is experienced in playing without Bynum for long stretches (even in the playoffs), the fact remains that without him, their chances of repeating as champions are significantly diminished.
With Bynum out, Lamar Odom typically is the one who would move into the starting lineup as his replacement. But that leaves a pretty large hole to fill in the second unit -- one that the likes of Josh Powell and D.J. Mbenga aren't likely to be able to compensate for.
We'll go ahead and wait for the official prognosis before pushing the panic button and jumping to unfounded conclusions. But if nothing else, this puts yet another blemish on Bynum's injury record, while planting one more seed of doubt in the minds of Lakers fans who were hoping for a repeat of last year's championship season.
UPDATE: Bynum had an MRI on Saturday, which confirmed a strain to his left Achilles', but showed no tear. He's expected to miss at least the team's next six games, according to a report in the L.A. Times.
Tyreke Evans was forced to leave Friday night's close game against the Bucks, after catching an inadvertent elbow from Milwaukee's Ersan Ilyasova. It didn't appear to be that bad at first glance, but with Evans suffering a concussion, a cut to his gum, and a chipped tooth on the play, it was clearly worse than it looked.
Sunday's NCAA action features four key matchups involving potential 
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