The Rundown: Sacramento, New Orleans

Sacto Game: Nugz rely on talent to squeak by. Inspiring philosophy, that.

Everyone on the Nugz squad seems to be friends with Ron Artest. In Melo's more docile moments, I briefly fantasized about trading him for Ron-Ron. Artest is easy to root for. Melo, sometimes, is difficult. But it was a flight of fancy.

N.O. Game: Revenge game. The Nugz played pretty hard. Camby realized that Tyson Chandler outplayed him last time, and hustled all game. Chris Paul is a problem when his jumper/floater game is sharp. I still maintain that his assist numbers are inflated from playing on a squad of jumpshooters. How tough is it to find David West for an 18 footer? That's an A.C. type assist right there.

Melo couldn't get a call all game, so he started rebounding a little harder. It paid off. Never stopped bitching at the refs, though. In the fourth, he kind of 'took over'. Although it was mostly on run-outs, it was nice to see some fire.

Despite that spark, it has become clear that, in the last two weeks, Melo has fully ceded the Alpha position to A.I. Allen didn't even really have to go get it. It was there all year long; Iverson just finally started finishing.

It's interesting to see a little guard on the other side of 30 still figuring it out. He's stopped settling for the jumper at the free throw line; he's taking it deep like he used to. And it's working. It's like he's learning the angles of the game all over again.

PS: Kleiza made the best pass of his career, a one-hander to a Najera under the bucket. L.K.'s not much of a passer. Also, Kenyon's fucking awesome, as always. Nobody defends harder, nobody dunks cleaner.

PIPE DREAM POST SCRIPT:

I don't play fantasy hoops (it's pornographic, perverts the game), but I do like to assemble fantasy squads. What I mean is: realistic combinations of players that I believe could succeed.

HyTop Dream Team 1:
PG: Hinrich
SG: A.I.
SF: Artest
PF: Rasheed
C: Nene (in shape version)
Sixth Man: Kenyon

I know that's blasphemy. But could you swing that, using Melo, Camby, J.R. and L.K. as bait? Just an idle thought. That would be the best defensive team in the league. Nene and Ron-Ron can both defend and score in the post. Rasheed and Hinrich would give the offense ball-movement, shooting and smarts. Also, both can defend like crazy. A.I. would continue to be A.I., and this team would rally around him like nothing you've seen.

Banged up Spurs team next. Actually, forget the 'banged up' part. The Spurs are always playing possum, and it always gets you.