The Morning Wood - 11/21/2006

Stud: Steve Nash
The tight-cropped Nash hit a game-winning trey at the end of regulation to propel the Suns to victory at Golden State, 113-110. A huge shot in the context of the game, but even bigger when you consider that it kept the Suns from falling to 3-7 on the year to an improving-but-still-mediocre Warriors squad. This went along w/the Canucks 19 points on 8-14 shooting and 15 assists. Talk about efficiency, eh? We'll overlook the fact that he let Monta Ellis drop 31 on him. That's just the French side of his Canadian ancestry shining through. When reached for comment about his fellow teammate's outstanding performance, Boris Diaw was quoted with a muffled "mmaaaagh" through a mouthful of steak-frites.

Dud: Nate Robsinson
Oh snap, yo! Nate Robinson blocked Yao Ming last night! Frankly, this does nothing for me. Yao didn't even really jump, not that he can, and I'm pretty sure he got hacked. Yes, the 5'9" sprite's jumping ability is impressive, but it's not going to make up for that incredible .89:1 assist-to-turnover ratio. That's horrendous. Oh, and he played 23 minutes last night without scoring a point, a statistic usually reserved for another leaping superstar, Brian Scalabrine. And Nate, I'm still pissed off about that half-hour dunk contest bullshit. If I had my way, you would spend the rest of your existence in basketball purgatory with the Birdman after that fiasco.

Talk Around the Cooler:
So Ryan Howard won the NL MVP award yesterday, beating out Albert Pujols by 41 points. I'm assuming there's going to be a lot of opinion pieces written about how this was shit, that Pujols only struck out 50 times to Howard's 181, had a better batting average, gold glove, etc. I don't want to hear any of it. They're both deserving of the award, and when you look at Howard's gawdy second half numbers that he threw up there when the Phillies needed him most (.355, 30, 78), it's definitely a legitimate vote. There shouldn't be any comparison to the Barkley over Jordan, Nash over Shaq votes, where a league so clearly dominated by one player chose to go in a different direction for the sake of variety. Howard deserves the award, and that's that.

Quick Hits:
Bronson Arroyo made one MVP ballot. That writer should have his writing/thinking/living privelages taken away. What qualifies as "news" these days? I like this move a lot. It's like they resigned Kenny Lofton, only to triple the money. Shrewd move, DiPodesta. The Jazz are 10-1 and the residents of Utah are so happy that they're celebrating by not drinking and having dull sex.