Friday meant the final day of the preseason, which means there are no more chances to prove why fringe players are worthy of making a 15-man roster. There are about three dozen guys or so around the league keeping their cell phones charged and nearby in the next 24 hours. Stressful? Yeah, we’d say so. … Well one of the guys who isn’t in danger of being cut who impressed us the most was Michael Beasley. Given a national TV spotlight, Super Cool Beas was looking smooth with his J and the green light that accompanied it. According to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic, coach Alvin Gentry mentioned before the game that he wouldn’t mind if Beasley shot 20 times in 30 minutes a night. Challenge accepted. Beasley hoisted his 20th shot a minute under that deadline and had 29 points to go with 10 boards. He pulled up twice in a row in the second quarter on threes from the left corner of the arc and buried them, the last with a hand right in his face because the pass wasn’t crisp getting to him. We’ve all been down this road where we want to say this is Beasley’s year, and we end up getting burned, so let’s hold off. Two guys who definitely are on the rise are Kenneth Faried (12 points, six boards, a couple oops) and Jordan Hamilton (15 points) of Denver, who look like steals of the 2011 Draft at Nos. 22 and 26. They both play a lot of minutes already and can toggle their production to George Karl‘s needs. The Suns still ending up winning, 88-72. … Eddy Curry, welcome to Dallas — now start. Curry came out of nowhere to be San Antonio’s most interesting training camp storyline between Pop interviews and Matt Bonner and Stephen Jackson press conferences with the media asking about Bonner’s New Balance supply running out. When Curry was cut three days ago, the Mavs snapped up the 10-year-vet. He had 11 points and seven boards in the Mavericks’ 99-82 victory over Charlotte. … Speaking of the Spurs, they had to overcome a Wizards team Friday night at home that was incredibly lifelike. The Wiz were moving the ball at will against San Antonio’s starters through most the first half, and Tim Duncan (16 points, 13 boards) was the only Spur making plays in long stretches. The Spurs put Tony Parker back and were able to dial in a home win. You know you’re going to get that closing effort from the Spurs, but it was nice to see a reason to get excited about the Wizards’ start. A.J. Price played really well, too, with 13 points and and only two turnovers in 25 minutes. … The Orlando defense was not a thing of beauty once Dwight Howard got hurt last year because they had Big Baby manning the middle. It isn’t much better now and the Magic let Houston drop dimes on 16 of its first 20 hoops in the Rockets’ 108-92 win over Orlando. Jeremy Lin looked much better, swerving around screens and pulling up on Js without hesitation. He had 13 points. Houston couldn’t buy a damn rebound, though, outside of Omer Asik‘s dozen. Terrence Jones has been sensational in preseason but he had a weird night with four points, a bucket and an assist in 19 minutes. … Read on to hear about who Minnesota is having replace Kevin Love …
What’s a Timberwolves fan to do without Ricky Rubio or Kevin Love for at least a month and a half? Put their trust in Rick Adelman‘s running system and hope the offseason acquisitions can mix and match enough early that they can wear teams down with fatigue. That’s what they did against Milwaukee with a 100-76 win. The rotating cast put Andrei Kirilenko at the four spot, and Chase Budinger at the three, and even though Luke Ridnour was gone from the team the backup guards helped get the Wolves up to 26 dimes on the night. Impressive? Even for preseason, yep. The caveat is that it’s impressive for one night and that we think Kirilenko succeeding at the four for an extended period is awfully wishful thinking. Budinger put up 20 and Kirilenko went for 10 boards, eight points, six steals and four dimes. … Marreese Speights turned out the lights on Toronto rookie Jonas Valanciunas on Friday night. Wow. In the Raptors’ 120-106 win where the Grizz rested Rudy Gay, Mike Conley, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol at home, Speights’ dunk was easily the highlight of the entire game. … After Kirk Hinrich got hurt, the Bulls now have a backcourt that’s slightly deeper than a kiddie pool, but Nate Robinson showed he’s got some game left when the Bulls beat Indiana 97-90 at Notre Dame’s gym. Nate Rob had 21 points and eight dimes and only one turnover. Those eight assists were part of a Bulls attack that, sans superstar, was crazy balanced. All five starters were in double figures, with Luol Deng adding 17 points … Gerald Green threw down an alley-oop tossed from midcourt in a set play, but then again when isn’t he doing something like that these days? You can set your watch to it. … Andre Drummond held his own against Josh Smith and Al Horford and the Pistons were having nothing of what Atlanta was serving in the 104-88 win at the Palace. Drummond had a double-double with 13 points and 10 boards, and combined with Greg Monroe (16 points and 11 boards) to look like they have a chance of being as good as Utah’s young frontline … The Hornets won the game against the Heat, 96-89, but no one cared about the score. It was all about whether Austin Rivers will be OK after turning his ankle again four days after hopping off the court in Dallas. He was able to walk off the court (he didn’t return) but he bent back so awkwardly at the moment he twisted it that fans were out of their seats with wide-eyed looks plastered on their faces. Later in the game LeBron got popped in the face by Robin Lopez‘s foot when they tangled for a rebound. That face is the subject of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of advertising, Robin, be careful now. … We’re out like Rivers, again.
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