Can’t believe I just used “natch” in the headline. Lemon Face for me.

What’s a “Lemon Face”? Break it down for ‘em, Ben.

Lion Face – Underdogs

Except for the Nets and Wiz — who are two teams simply beyond help at this point — every underdog that played last night won. The Suns destroyed the Lakers, the Dubs held on against the Celtics, the Kings edged out the Nuggs, and the Sixers smacked around the Blazers. Even the Bobcats beat the Bucks, which while maybe not as unexpected was notable since the lower-profile party had their way with America’s darling — sorta like me and your sister after she won that Idol contest thing.

Lemon Face – KG Fading Away

After resting on the bench for quite some time, KG entered the game in the fourth quarter with about 6 minutes to go and his team down by 5. About three possessions later, he found himself with the ball being guarded by Monta Ellis. To be completely fair, he didn’t have a ton of time left on shotclock, but that does not forgive the terrible, awkward, off-balance fadeaway he opted to take over a 6’3″ guy who weighs less than the sandwich Big Baby ate during half-time. Then, on the next trip down the floor, Garnett again found himself with the ball in the midrange and, again, had himself a nice mismatch, this time over Corey Maggette. What did KG do? He took and badly missed another off-balance fadeaway. Rajon Rondo was able to score the next 6 points for Boston and keep them within a few missed Ray Allen threes from coming back to steal the win on the road, but it’s inexcusable for the Big Ticket to ruin two key fourth quarter possessions — especially when Paul Pierce isn’t playing, Rondo is reluctantly not completely taking over and Ray Allen is shooting like Marquis Daniels. That’s just not a winning formula for the Celtics. In fact, I actually have the formula that proves it.

Lion Face – The Suns Offense and the Best Dudley Since Chris

The Suns straight up murdered the Lakers last night on the strength of good passing (25 of their 43 total FGs were assisted), good shooting (55.7% eFG) and 12 treys (3 of which were made by one Jared Dudley). In hitting 3 of his 4 attempts from behind the arc, Dudley played the able finisher role last night for Phoenix on his way to 19 points on 10 shots, 7 boards (2 offensive) and 3 assists. He also led the roster with a +21 and has generally become a big spark for Alvin Gentry off the bench, something evidenced by the 8 double-figure scoring nights he’s put up in his last 11 games. That “swing forward who can play bigger than he is” role has always been a key to Nash’s uptempo success and Dudley gets it done on both ends while giving them a much different look than any of Amar’e, Channing Frye or Robin Lopez. His emergence has been key to the Suns success and he definitely looks like a guy who will be playing at a high-level for a long time in this league. Imagine if he ever got in shape.

Lemon Face – The Bucks Offense and the Worst Redd Since Mountain Dew Code

The Bucks put up a decent effort in the second half to almost make a game of it against Charlotte last night. Too bad they put up a laughable 34 first-half points. The whole team was gross, shooting 38.5% for the game (and 6/25 or 24% from three), but Michael Redd managed to be the most useless of all. He was 0/4 with 0 rebounds, 0 assists and 1 turnover in 17 minutes, during which he helped his team by recording a -15. In his defense, however, he did also spend those 17 minutes sorta looking like Kanye West. So there’s that.

Lion Face – Durantula vs. Chinese Guy

I don’t care that New Jersey didn’t win. They actually looked good for major portions of the game last night — aside from the last 6 minutes or so when, ya know, you kind of want teams to look their best. No matter, however. Yi unleashed a shocking 29-point, 7-rebound outburst, and Devin Harris’ 11-point, 11-assist tally was actually even more impressive than it sounds since a few of the buckets were on sweet drives. I’m burying the lede here though. Durant was on another level and had a very nice 22-point first half and 18-point second half distribution while scoring his 40 points on 22 shots. Yup, the future scoring champ dropped 40 on 15/22 and did it without even making a single three-pointer (something aided by his 10/12 from the line). We have ourselves a really special one here. Meanwhile, the Thunder now have Eric Maynor to back up Russell Westbrook and, hopefully, even push him over to the SG at times so we can see a Maynor/Westbrook/Green/Durant/Whoever lineup crack some skulls. Good times in OKC.

Lemon Face – The Wizards … The God-Awful, Unwatchable Wizards

So … lemme get this right. Gilbert goes for 30, Jamison drops 24 and Tough Juice puts up 24, and you guys still can’t beat Memphis? Have a fun season.

Lion Face – Z-Bo Always Makes My List

I think Zach Randolph has gotten a Lion Face every time I’ve done this column so far this year. Dude just loves to go off when I’m paying attention to the Grizz. Last night, it was 23 and 19, and even though it wasn’t the most efficient of outings (7/17) he did a ton of good stuff to help Memphis win this one. Still, this is funny.

Lion Face – Sacramento Hard-Hat Wearers

Nene was the only real bright spot for the Nuggs as they lost to a Tyrekeless Kings squad, which had some great performances from their hard-hat-wearing role players that helped overcome the Brazilian’s 25-point evening (in addition to Melo’s pretty weak 34-points-on-35-shots outing). Jon Brockman (who I really hope is not seriously being called “The Brock-ness Monster” by Sacto announcers as they joked about last night) was a revelation with his 10 boards in 16 minutes and really sparked the team off the bench with some qualtiy crunch-time minutes. Andres Nocioni dropped 21 points on 7 shots while also drawing my unwavering hatred and infinite scorn. Omri Casspi further proved why he might be my favorite player in the league with a HUGE three that gave the Kings the lead back with 2 minutes left, just as the game looked like it might slip away. He grabbed a few boards late, too. Love this team. Love these role players. (No, that doesn’t include you, Nocioni. Go back to whatever circle of Hell you came from.)

Lion Face – Presuming He Deserves This

I actually completely forgot this game was on and watched nary a second. But The Answer dropped 19 points on 7/11 shooting (and a notable 0/0 from three) to go along with 5 dimes, 4 boards and only 2 TOs. Me likey.

Lemon Face – I Know He Deserves This

Jerryd Bayless went 0/7 in 15 minutes. I don’t need to watch to know that sucks. Also, I didn’t manage to mention James Harden’s 0/10 earlier because I didn’t want to ruin what was otherwise a nice paragraph about the Thunderous ones. But, yeah, he was awful, too. Let’s not take it too hard on the guy, though. That beard isn’t gonna manicure itself, so he was probably just tired from all the hedge trimming.