Pleasant Surprises for Rockets, Bucks

Others,

- Nice win by Raptors, but Chris Bosh just had a lackluster performance. On the other hand, Marion seems to be enjoying his time in Toronto (at least for now). Playing 44 mins with 16 pts, 15 rebs, 5 asts, and 1 stl. Can't complain, right?

- I said earlier in this blog that missing T Mac at worst a neutral news for Rockets. I guess we can be almost sure that Rockets plays better ball without an half-injured T Mac. He is great when he is healthy, no doubts about that. Just not when he is hobbling.

- By the way, Yao is playing more minutes that usual in recent two games - link. Let's keep watching. It could be a short-term push for results, but may not be ideal for the play-off.

- Without Redd made Charlie Villanueva, and Ramon Sessions have more minutes. Villanueva proved that he could be a scoring machine in earlier seasons if he played enough time, but Sessions is definitely a surprise for the Bucks. They recently really beat some good teams, including Nuggets today. (A Big Thank You)

- "Lamar has been asked more than anybody to make sacrifices that guys of his caliber normally aren't asked to make," Fisher said, referring to Odom coming off the bench for 45 of the team's first 46 games. "Now that he's back in the starting lineup, he's letting the game come to him and his talent speaks for itself." - I am nodding my head, can't agree more. I said in pre-season that Odom and AK have a lot of similarities in their games. They are both very talented and versatile player.

Heat-Raptors Deal

Others,

- Marion, Banks for Jermaine O'Neal, Moon. Well, if you read this blog for a while, you would definitely know I don't like to talk about release salary cap, etc...I focus on the immediate impact, and that's obvious to me, Heat is becoming a more dangerous team. They have a more solid defender in the Centre position, and Jermaine O'Neal is playing really well this year. Moon made everyone a bit excited about his prospect last year. Although he does not play as impressive as last year, he is still a solid contributor to Heat, and I don't think he is a lot worse when compared to Marion.