[Izulde]

Joakim Noah is still hobbled by his sprained ankle by our first game, but Allen Iverson is ready to go. George Karl's lineup is a stunner:

PG Ben Gordon
SG Allen Iverson
SF Leroy Wright
PF Kenyon Martin
C Shaquille O'Neal
6th Chauncey Billups

He's putting the ignitor of our offense on the bench?! If our owner wasn't such an ass about money, I'd have fired him on the spot.

We have a doubleheader to open April and win 132-110 in the first game over the Grizzlies. Allen Iverson makes a triumphant debut of 46 points to go with Shaquille O'Neal's 13 points and 13 rebounds and 13 and 10 reserve points respectively from Chauncey Billups and Peter John Ramos. Game two is an infuriating 126-122 loss to the Hornets despite 25 points and 10 assists from Ben Gordon and 20 bench points from Chauncey Billups.

Another back-to-back kicks off a couple nights later and we drop the front end 116-100 to the Timberwolves in a game with major playoff implications. 10 rebounds from sub Peter John Ramos, who is quietly playing his way to consideration for another contract. We bounce back to win the back end 132-123 over the Sonics, however, Allen Iverson scoring 43, Ben Gordon with 30 points and Chauncey Billups lighting things up with 25 points from the bench.

If nothing else, we're a high-powered offensive team right now, even though our defense is really suffering, some of which I suspect is due to Joakim Noah's injury.

Allen Iverson is otherworldly with 46 points, 6 assists, 7 rebounds and 5 steals in a 113-97 victory over Golden State next game and Chauncey Billups has 11 bench points, but I'm noticing that Ben Gordon's committing a lot of turnovers and really looks uncomfortable running the point. In my opinion, it's disrupting the quality of our team play and is another point in the column of not retaining AI after this year.

Joakim Noah finally comes back, but the Hornets still sting us 107-97. Leroy Wright scored 10 with the reserves, but by and large, we just didn't have it tonight and Ben Gordon really looks like he's struggling out there.

We need one victory in our remaining four games, which are two back-to-backs, to clinch the division and we'll probably need more than that to get the #2 seed in the playoffs, because the Suns are just a game behind us in that category.

The division clincher comes with an easy 111-78 victory over the Grizzlies. A balanced offense, including 15 second unit points from Chauncey Billups does it. More importantly, we sweep the first doubleheader by knocking out the Rockets 107-97. Allen Iverson does it almost singlehandedly, scoring 45.

Unfortunately, we lose both games in the final doubleheader, 108-96 to Phoenix and 93-82 to our archrivals, the Trailblazers. Allen Iverson scored 31 in the Suns game, Leroy Wright with 10 reserve rebounds. Chauncey Billups was the lone Portland highlight with 14 points off the bench.

We finish 51-31 on the other year, capturing the Northwest Division title and locking up at least the #3 seed.

Playoff Teams - West (In Order of Wins)
San Antonio Spurs - 64-18
Dallas Mavericks - 52-30
Denver Nuggets - 51-31
Houston Rockets -51-31
Phoenix Suns - 50-32
Los Angeles Lakers - 49-33
Minnesota Timberwolves - 48-34
Sacramento Kings - 45-37

No Portland (43-39)! Hooray!!!!

Playoff Teams - East (In Order of Wins)
Toronto Raptors - 65-17
Boston Celtics - 60-22
Charlotte Bobcats - 53-29
Philadelphia 76ers - 49-33
Milwaukee Bucks - 48-34
Cleveland Cavaliers - 43-39
Miami Heat - 43-39
Washing Wizards -39-43

Lebron James wins the scoring title with 33.5 points a game, though Allen Iversonwas just behind at 33.1. Ben Gordon finished 8th at 25.9.

Chris Paul took the assists with 10.6, although Baron Davis (10.1) and Dwayne Wade (10) also averaged double-digits. Chauncey Billups dropped to 9.2 after the asinine demotion and finished 6th.

Greg Oden was the top rebounder, a 14.1 per game average, Yao Ming second with 13.3, but most importantly Andrei Kirilenko fought back and finished with 4 blocks a game even.

Allen Iverson stole the steals average title with 2.5, Gerald Wallace the only other above two with 2.1.

YES! The Pacers bring back Mateen Yeaton and he blows away everyone else in the rookie scoring title with 17 points on average. Jonte Jones and Mike Vines averaged 10.8 points, #1 pick Jeremy Lemons the final in double-digits with 10.2. I still have a hard time believing the Magic took Lemons, who isn't that good. Leroy Wright was 10th, averaging 7.8 points and probably won't make an All-Rookie team.

Brian Metcalfe averaged 6.3 assists, Mateen Yeaton second with 4.6. Paulinho Buboltz was third at 2.5 assists a game. Jonte Jones led in rookie rebounding with 9.4 boards, the only first-year above 9, while Leroy Wright finished 5th in the class with 6.3 rebounds a game.

Kyle Jordan was tops in blocks with 2.1, Mateen Yeaton 2nd with 1.6. (Yeaton was also 7th in rebounds, incidentally). Mateen Yeaton also took the rookie steals crown with 1.3 average, Jeremy Lemons the only other first-year to get more than a steal with 1.2 on average.

Playoff seeding is announced a few days later.

Playoffs 1st Round
East
(1) Toronto vs (8) Washington
(4) Milwaukee vs (5) Philadelphia
(3) Charlotte vs (6) Miami
(2) Boston vs (7) Cleveland
West
(1) San Antonio vs (8) Sacramento
(4) Phoenix vs (5) Houston
(3) Denver vs (6) L.A. Lakers
(2) Dallas vs (7) Minnesota