Garden Partygoers Highlight the Week On Paper

Boxed Out: A weekly look at statistical oddities around the NBA

Indeed, it's the rare Ricky Nelson reference that kicks off this week's Boxed Out.  This time around, however, the visitors to Madison Square Garden were rather more successful (and oddly, more well received by the fans) than the singer was back in October 1971.

The Guru, who was in attendance at the original Garden Party, is still peeved about that disaster of a concert.  He seemed a bit happier when the league's three best teams handed the hated Knicks losses this past Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  We'll get to the two major individual protagonists on those nights as we crunch our numbers this week...

Kobe Bryant, Monday at New York: 19-for-31 from the field, 20-for-20 foul shooting, 61 points, 0 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 turnovers, plus-19

Garden Party, Part I.

Brandon Roy, Monday at New Orleans: 2-for-10 from the field, 6 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 turnovers, plus-6

Amazing how a Chris Paul injury can turn a game.  The Blazers ran the Hornets out of their own building with a 38-15 fourth quarter with CP3 out of the game en route to a 97-89 win.

Sacramento Kings, Monday at Phoenix: 13 assists, 26 turnovers

That's a good way to run right into a 129-81 whacking.  Amare Stoudemire managed to go plus-49 in this game.

Kurt Thomas, Monday at Golden State: 27 minutes, 15 rebounds (7 offensive), plus-21

Big performance off the bench in an overtime win.

Stephen Jackson, Monday versus San Antonio: 53 minutes, 13-for-25 from the field, 33 points, 11 assists, 5 rebounds, 4 turnovers, 4 steals

Played every minute of a hard-fought overtime loss, and he did a heckuva job trying to prevent that outcome.

Andrea Bargnani, Anthony Parker, Jose Calderon, Tuesday at Cleveland: 5-for-27 from the field, 17 points

That's how this team shot less than 40 percent for the game even with Chris Bosh and Jermaine O'Neal going 20-for-34 between them.

Kevin Love, Monday at Indiana: 23 minutes, 5-for-8 from the field, 15 points, 11 rebounds, plus-9

This particular neophyte just keeps popping up around here of late.

Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Tuesday at Denver: did not play

That Gregg Popovich, he's a different sort of critter.  This led to 21 field-goal attempts for Roger Mason in a Spurs loss.

Malik Hairston, Tuesday at Denver: 20 minutes, 6-for-8 from the field, 12 points, 5 rebounds (4 offensive), minus-11

Tied career highs in free throws made (zero) and blocks (one) and set a career high in every other statistical category besides assists.  That's what happens when it's your third career game, and that Popovich fella sits his three best players.

Anthony Johnson, Wednesday versus LA Clippers: 9-for-11 from the field, 6-for-8 on threes, 25 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 0 turnovers, plus-21

Jameer who?  The Magic also got a 9-for-10 effort off the bench from Courtney Lee (plus-31) in this game.

Joey Graham, Wednesday versus LA Lakers: 11-for-19 from the field, 24 points

Atta way to thank the coaching staff for showing some faith in giving the guy a start.

Antawn Jamison, Wednesday versus New Jersey: 4-for-20 from the field, 10 points, minus-24

What a year it's been in DC.

LeBron James, Wednesday at New York: 17-for-33 from the field, 16-for-19 foul shooting, 52 points, 9 rebounds, 11 assists

Garden Party, Part II.  Not a triple-double after review by the NBA, but he'll live.

Al Harrington, Wednesday versus Cleveland: 16-for-24 from the field, 39 points, 13 rebounds

Seems like this might have gotten lost in the shuffle while his team was getting victimized for 52 and a near triple-double by the best player in the game.

O.J. Mayo, Wednesday versus Houston: 13-for-22 from the field, 4-for-7 on threes, 32 points, 4 assists, 1 turnover

After the Grizz knocked off the Rockets by 11, my pal Tom Martin over at The Dream Shake e-mailed me the following: "If you throw up 100 shots blindfolded 82 times per year, on one given day, you might make a lot of them.  That's what happened.  Memphis went off, and while our defense wasn't the best it's ever been, many of those shots were contested.  UGH."

The Houston confusion continues.

Ryan Gomes and Sebastian Telfair, Wednesday versus Atlanta: 1-for-19 from the field, 3 points

Refresh me, what did Danny Ainge manage to get for those two guys, a couple of expiring deals?  Some second-rounders in 2023?

Since I still love Gomes, it bears noting that he was responsible for the made basket between these two.  Bassy went 0-for-9.

Kevin Durant, Wednesday versus Denver: 10-for-19 from the field, 3-for-5 on threes, 8-for-10 foul shooting, 31 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 turnovers

Just another one of those "I'm Kevin Durant, and I'm going to be really good for a long time" games that seem to be piling up recently.

Brandon Bass, Wednesday versus Portland: 9-for-11 from the field, 19 points

Efficient.

Monta Ellis, Wednesday versus Phoenix: 0-for-7 from the field, 2 points, plus-6

And the Warriors still beat the Suns by 12 in the first half of a home-and-home, which might have been largely thanks to...

...Stephen Jackson, Wednesday versus Phoenix: 30 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists

Nice week for him.

Samuel Dalembert, Thursday versus Indiana: 18 points, 20 rebounds

Impressive work, Sam.  I wonder how many times the Philly announcers yelled "Lunch pail!" in this game.

Kevin Garnett, Thursday versus LA Lakers: 6 personal fouls

His second disqualification of the season.  Can't quite put my finger on what it is with this one, but it just seemed worth a mention.

Deron Williams, Thursday versus Dallas: 11-for-20 from the field, 5-for-8 on threes, 7-for-7 foul shooting, 34 points, 12 assists, 5 turnovers, 5 rebounds, plus-20

Good to see you on your game, Deron.

Marvin Williams, Friday at Charlotte, 18-for-20 foul shooting, 29 points

Too bad I didn't watch this game.  It would be wonderful to know how Marvin wound up at the stripe 20 times.

J.J. Redick, Friday at Indiana: 25 minutes, 4-for-7 from the field, 3-for-5 on threes, 6-for-6 foul shooting, 17 points

That's a shooter for ya.

Boston Celtics, Friday at New York: 110 points scored, 100 points allowed, 1 win

Garden Party, Part III, balanced team-style.

Zach Randolph, Friday at Memphis: 13-for-19 from the field, 4-for-5 on threes, 5-for-11 foul shooting, 35 points, 10 rebounds, plus-28

It always pains me to point this sort of thing out, but it's only fair.

Ricky Davis, Friday at Memphis: 9-for-14 from the field, 6-for-10 on threes, 24 points, plus-18

Get buckets!

James Posey, Friday versus Toronto: 33 minutes, 6-for-11 from the field, 4-for-8 on threes, 17 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 0 turnovers, plus-23

Love him.

Al Thornton, Saturday at Atlanta: 13-for-22 from the field, 31 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists

Good all-around game from the young fella.

Denver Nuggets, Saturday at New Jersey: 70 points scored, 114 points allowed, 1 loss

From loyal Babble reader Slick: "I didn't think I'd ever see a George Karl-coached team at 70 or less, much less one with Carmelo Anthony."

Andrea Bargnani, Jermaine O'Neal and Anthony Parker, Saturday at Memphis: 5-for-30 from the field, 18 points

How many awful-shooting games can the starters on this game have in one week?  No bailout from the rest of the lineup either; the Raps didn't even reach 30 percent as a team this time.

Dirk Nowitzki, Saturday versus Chicago: 16-for-34 from the field, 11-for-11 foul shooting, 44 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks

Yup, he's pretty good.

Al Jefferson, Saturday at Houston: 16-for-30 from the field, 36 points, 22 rebounds

Danny Ainge must have gotten somebody pretty good for that guy.  Ah, right.  He did. 

Still great to see Al lighting up the scoreboard and wiping the glass.

Ramon Sessions, Saturday versus Detroit: 13-for-18 from the field, 18-for-21 foul shooting, 44 points, 12 assists, 5 rebounds, 4 turnovers, minus-9

Quite a performance despite the fact that it came in a losing cause.

Richard Hamilton, Saturday at Milwaukee: 15-for-25 from the field, 38 points, plus-12

Good to see the unfortunately benched masked man is still alive (despite the uniform he wears, he has always been a personal favorite).  Especially good for Pistons fans who weren't thrilled with watching the starting backcourt go 7-for-27 from the field for the game.

Lots of outlandish scoring performances, three Knicks losses and a couple of Celtics wins, including a heart-stopper in the City of Brotherly Love.  Painful losses to the purple and gold and then black and silver notwithstanding, the past week certainly could have been worse.

Shout out your favorite stat lines or the ones we missed in the comments.  You'll be shocked to know that we're back this afternoon with the Babble.  Catch ya on the flip side of the meridian.