Kobe Does New York; Danilo Does The League

http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=290202018
News Flash: Kobe Bryant, in the Mecca of Basketball, The Legendary M.S.G., puts up... zero rebounds! I love this guy! His first O-fer of the season, incidentally, on the heels of a one board night against Memphis. On the actually impressive end of the spectrum, he went 20 for 20 from the charity stripe. He's already a quarter of the way to the late FT streak of Jose Calderon, in only one night.

This gem of a box score has two nuggets that excite me more than Kobe's night, though:

1. This will blow your mind, and the impressiveness of my detective work will get me hired by Ball Don't Lie. First, we have Net +- League Leaders. No surprise here. LeBron at #1 with +24.2, Chris Paul at #2 with +22.5, then a precipitous dropoff to the rest of the NBA's elite, with Ray Allen coming in 3rd with 17. Now, take a gander at THIS (scroll down to the bottom, find "Net points per 100 possessions, which is the same stat referenced above): Danilo Gallinari has an absurd +26.6, and is only not listed on the league leaders because injuries have given him a late start to the season! That's right folks; Danilo Gallinari is more important to the Knicks than any other player is to his team, including LeBron and Chris Paul. Incredible. I was sent off on this hunt by noticing that Gallinari was +10 when the rest of his team was in the minus, and recalling similar lines over the past couple weeks.

2. Sun Yue, aka The Monkey King (which is seriously his preferred nickname), puts down a stunning +- of -8 in only 2 minutes of action. Good on ya, Sun!

And finally a little bonus for you. Against the Bobcats, the Jazz started two guys named Ronnie! This is hilarious to me. And as great as it is, it pales in comparison--is practically invisible--to the Kings preseason roster which saw them playing THREE men named Bobby!!! If those two facts aren't funny to you, you might as well never come back to this blog.