It’s almost playoff time, which means I need to get my random thoughts bullet writing ass back in gear. And since I’m handling weekend duties over at ProBasketballTalk.com, I watched quite a bit of ball this weekend.

• Let’s start with Tyreke Evans. I saw his line last night, and checked STR for the Reke-O-Meter. Evans has been on a rebounding tear, and now needs to average less than his current average in order to clear the mythical 20-5-5.  I’m a little shocked why this race has not gotten more attention. It’s a set of requirements that puts Evans in a group with Robertson, Jordan, and LeBron James, along with Charlie Scott. And Evans is not just within sight of it. He’s got a comfortable lead in assists (but no, really, he’s not a real point guard, yank-yank). Scoring is unlikely to be the issue. And he’s picked up his rebounding. This is something truly phenomenal, and he’s way ahead of his competitors for rookie of the year. I expected Evans to be good. I did not expect him to be this good.
  
• In other stat-related news, guess who’s within range of another 50-40-90 season? Steve Nash, and it’s pretty comfortable. So is Nicolas Batum, but the kid missed too many games for it to be relevant. Nash, though, has been ridiculous . He’ll also be the oldest player to accomplish it since… himself, last year. An absolutely outstanding achievement.
• Speaking of the Suns, anyone caught Amar’e lately? This is the close I’ve seen him look to his “proper self” pre-Shaq since Shaq arrived. If the playoffs started today the Suns would play Dallas, which would be basketball cocaine. Also, I don’t think the Suns are a good matchup for Utah at all. They Jazz are 2-0 versus the Suns, but the Suns’ unstable style of play could cause them fits. However, it should be noted that Utah has a ridiculously easy stretch coming up, with six of their next ten against lottery teams, and the Hornets (probably lottery) and Toronto (possible lottery) thrown in. Their “tough game” from now till April is Boston. Insert joke here.
• Speaking of Boston, loved Freek’s work on the Boston-Cleveland game yesterday:
  
• Paroxi-wife asked me what I thought about Jamison fitting in, and I said I think it’s actually working great, despite his shooting percentages. He’s doing what he needs to do, which is spread the floor and then crash inside. The number of at-rim shots he had lip out yesterday was I think four. If Boston wants to keep leaving him open on the perimeter, that’s not a good idea either.
• On the C’s, when did this team stop closing out on the perimeter? We’re not talking a half-ass effort, we’re talking them being a step behind to where they’re not even trying because they know they can’t get there. It’s a significant problem. The Magic have taught teams that if they make the extra pass, they’re going to get an open three. And that’s a high percentage look for a lot of teams in the playoffs.
• What’s worse for the Celtics is they were barraged for 40 minutes by the other Cavs, and when they finally started to clamp down, James took over and just drove relentlessly, picking up foul after foul. There was nothing they could do. At one point Perkins was trying to check James. PERKINS. AT MID-RANGE. TRYING TO CHECK. LE.BRON. And every time the Celtics would hit a three to pull the lead to ten, there’d go LeBron, right to the rim, feasting on old legs with his fresh ones. He didn’t have to carry that team for 40 minutes, which meant he could for the final eight. Terrifying.
• The Thunder keep blowing my mind with their defense. The offense I expect. Russell Westbrook is capable of 30 and 11. He’s just that good. Durant is a known quantity and the rest of the team is solid-to-good. But the defense? For guys that young to be playing with that kind of dedication? They swarm to the ball on penetration, and recover as fast as any team, because of those fresh legs. They’re rarely caught in mismatches, and they surge so strong, it’s like waves coming over the bow. The inexperience makes them a favorable first-round matchup, but the talent and execution make you think twice.
• I’ve watched four Nets games this week. That’s a lot for one of the “worst” teams in history. I’ve been saying it, and I will continue to say it. They are just not that bad. Incomplete? Definitely. Young? Definitely? Terrible bench? Absolutely. But there is a lot of legit talent on that team, including Courtney Lee, who’s going to be a serviceable starting small guard for years, at a position that’s tough to find talent you can reasonably pay. And Terrence Williams is playing in a relevant, meaningful way for an irrelevant, meaningless team.
• I can’t watch the Raptors anymore. I just can’t do it. Can’t watch that defense any longer. They and the Warriors have gotten me to the point it makes me physically sick to watch them play basketball, which is sad, because I like a lot of their talent.
• It’s really early after a fairly impressive win streak, but I just want to say, I can already see the same late-season cracks in the Utah pavement that I saw last year. They’ve been better this year than they were last year, but I still wanted to get this in writing that I’m seeing some fault lines developing.

Believe it or not, Tyreke Evans doesn’t clamor for this kind of attention.

In fact, all the attention of the rally for Evans to be Rookie of the Year tonight had Evans feeling a bit embarrassed.

That’s right: Embarrassed.

“A little bit,” Evans conceded. “They had the NBA All Stars up there (on the jumbotron) talking about my game. I was trying not to let it get to me.”

Evans, of course, turned in a 19 point, 10 rebound, 10 assist effort on a night in which so much attention was devoted to him. He kept the game ball, too.

It would seem easy for one to be a bit conceited with 5,000 cutouts of his face throughout the stands.

But that’s not Evans’ personality. And he was ready for the ribbing he took from his teammates.

“It looked pretty ugly,” said forward Carl Landry with a laugh.

via Kings Blog and Q&A: Postgame reaction: Evans doesn’t bask in attention.

Evans’ triple-double is going to get overturned most likely within the next 24 hours, which is both fair once I saw the replay, and sad, because as Ziller pointed out in a FanHouse thread, he would have snagged it most likely anyway. I mean, it is the Raps we’re talking about.

I’m still having a hard time finding any way you can argue that any other player is rookie of the year. Curry’s a nice player. He’ll be having hot offensive nights while Golden State wins 30 games a year for the next half-decade.  But Evans has a unique ability to not only generate ridiculous numbers, but to have those numbers be critical to the team. That, however, is probably a subjective assessment that would shift depending on if you’re on Team Reke or Team ThinnySkins.

I can’t help but feel the Kings are on the right path, even with as few wins as they have. There are teams whose rosters are so disparagingly flawed that even wins feel like losses. The Indiana Pacers and Philadelphia Sixers come to mind. And there are teams that can legitimately look at their roster and say they’re getting better, and that they have the pieces together to improve each year. The Kings are like that. Evans’ rookie season matters, because he’s going to matter in the NBA context over the next five years. Curry? Curry’s going to continue to barrage from the arc, and make passes in an offense-happy system, and play hard and impressively and probably not learn anything he needs to about defense. That’s not his fault, that’s just who drafted him.

But Evans’ season feels like the chapter of something important, with gravitas, while Curry’s is like a well-formed poem in a student literary magazine. There’s talent there, but it’s still going to end up in the attic.

(Now Curry will drop 50 on the Blazers tonight or something. Book it.)

If anybody should be complemented, though, it’s Hasheem Thabeet. In his second game after returning from the D-League (he DNP-CD’d in the first), Thabeet was practically the Grizzlies 6th man. He saw 26 minutes of court time and, even though his counting stats weren’t impressive, had a +25 for the game for a reason. ‘Our Favorite Mistake” was playing solid defense and offense, using his length to change shots and tip boards.

via What Fight?: Grizzlies Hammer Boston Celtics – Straight Outta Vancouver.

I don’t know what happened in Dakota, but it sure as hell worked.

Hasheem Thabeet, who I have (un)lovingly referred to on a consistent basis as “The Pogostick” was an infinitely better player last night than I’ve seen him be the entire season. And it has nothing to do with the 3-5 shooting for seven points and 6 boards.

Thabeet, for the first time I’ve seen this season, looked like he knew where he should be. His spacing was right. His hands were ready. Marc Gasol murdered the Celtics with the extra pass to Thabeet on several possessions. He was in position for rebounds.

HE CUT OFF THE BASELINE.

It’s these little things that make me jump out of my chair,  now. And seeing Thabeet smartly slide to the edge and deter the Celtics’ penetration, forcing a reset was a big moment. Because before, Thabeet was waiting to make sure he didn’t lose his man, and arriving too late ,then picking up a foul.

His weakside defense, his man-post defense, the whole shebang. The only thing he didn’t do was follow Sheed out to the arc. And I don’t care about that because Sheed’s more than welcome to bomb it away as long as the Grizzlies have a better than 1.5:1 rebound ratio advantage.

I didn’t think there was anything Thabeet could pick up in a week and a half in the D-League. But whatever it was he did while it was down there, it resulted in the best game I’ve seen from him as a professional. Unworthy of a second overall pick? Surely. But a phenomenally solid effort for a defensive cog.