The Global Top 10 is your weekly guide to NBA global news. In this week's edition find out who got traded to the Lakers, who hit a game winner and who registered their first triple-double..
Gasol: Graceland to La-La Land
Pau Gasol is a Laker? The news that the Spanish star would wear purple and gold broke Friday night.
In the deal the Lakers sent
Kwame Brown,
Javaris Crittenton,
Aaron McKie two first-round picks and the draft rights to Marc Gasol (Pau's brother) to Memphis. In return the Grizzlies sent their star, Gasol along with a 2010 second round pick. Fast forward to Tuesday night, the third overall pick of the
2001 Draft made his debut as a Laker in New Jersey. Appearing right at home on his new squad, Gasol registered a double-double with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Despite
Kobe Bryant scoring an uncharacteristic six points, the Lakers defeated the Nets 105-90. Skeptics might be saying, "it is just one game," but Bryant believes the fans will see the Spanish import's impact night in and night out. "Teams can't double that easily no more, When I make a pass and he finishes a couple times, now teams are going to have to reevaluate ," Bryant said to the
L.A. Times.
Video:
Gasol's first game as a Laker
Photo: Gasol in Lakers threads
1. Gasol: Graceland to La-La Land
Pau Gasol is a Laker? The news that the Spanish star would wear purple and gold broke Friday night.
In the deal the Lakers sent
Kwame Brown,
Javaris Crittenton,
Aaron McKie two first-round picks and the draft rights to Marc Gasol (Pau's brother) to Memphis. In return the Grizzlies sent their star, Gasol along with a 2010 second round pick. Fast forward to Tuesday night, the third overall pick of the
2001 Draft made his debut as a Laker in New Jersey. Appearing right at home on his new squad, Gasol registered a double-double with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Despite
Kobe Bryant scoring an uncharacteristic six points, the Lakers defeated the Nets 105-90. Skeptics might be saying, "it is just one game," but Bryant believes the fans will see the Spanish import's impact night in and night out. "Teams can't double that easily no more, When I make a pass and he finishes a couple times, now teams are going to have to reevaluate ," Bryant said to the
L.A. Times.
Video:
Gasol's first game as a Laker
Photo: Gasol in Lakers threads
2. Yao vs Yi: Round II
Yao Ming currently takes a 2-0 lead in matchups with his off-court friend and on-court foe
Yi Jianlian. On Saturday night the two Chinese imports faced off for the second time this season. While all eyes were on Yi and Yao, it was Houston's
Tracy Mcgrady who had the game-high 33 points. As the former Chinese National Team teammates went head-to-head, Yao logged a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds besting Yi who only had six points and seven rebouds. The Rockets claimed a 91-83 road win. Following the game the 7-6 center described the magnitude of the matchup to the
Houston Chronicle. "Yi is not the first Chinese player I matched up with in a (NBA) game, but I can still feel it's special for me. My rookie year I matched up with Wang Zhi Zhi on the court. I still don't feel the power behind it back in China. But this is big. To be honest, I was a little nervous. It was like a playoff game or something."
Photo: Yao against Yi
3. Peja Nails the Game Winner
Ladies and gentlemen, Wednesday night in Phoenix the Suns-Hornets matchup represented how and why people worldwide live for the game of basketball. Whether you’re a fan of either team or not, you were likely at the edge of your seat with your eyes wide open if you watched New Orleans capture a 132-130 victory. While New Orleans found themselves ahead in the final seconds of a second overtime period, with 3.2 seconds left on the clock
Leandro Barbosa nailed a shot from beyond the arc. With the game tied,
Peja Stojakovic put an end to the madness with a buzzer beating 22-footer to lift the Hornets over the Suns. Totaling 26 points on the night, the Serbia-native revealed to the
Times Picayune, "A lucky one," he said of the game winner. "I can't say I knew it was going in."
Photo: Peja's game-winning shot.
4. Dirk Gets His Triple Double
In his 10th year in the league, Germany-native,
Dirk Nowitzki has finally registered a triple-double. With 29 points, 10 rebounds and 12 dimes, the seven footer was able to fully enjoy the feat as his team also defeated the Bucks 107-96 on Wednesday. After logging double-doubles night in and night out throughout his career, the 2007 MVP struggled to pass double-digits in assists. During the Bucks game the power forward realized he might finally get over the hurdle as he explained to the
Star-Telegram, "At halftime I already had five assists so I was kind of thinking this might be the night. It took almost 10 years, which is not good, but at least I got it out of the way."
Photo: Dirk gets his triple double
5. Turkoglu in His Prime
Despite being left off from the East's All-Star squad,
Hedo Turkoglu is proving that he is among the elite NBA players. For the second consecutive week, the Turkey native has deservingly received the
Player of the Week recognition. Going 10-16 from the field Friday night against Indiana, the power forward registered 23 points and eight dishes. Playing against Dallas at home on Monday night, Turkoglu continued his high level of play logging the first triple double of his career with 13 points, 12 boards and 13 dimes. Nonetheless, the game marked the end of a four-game winning streak for the Magic, as they fell to Dallas 107-98.
6. Al Horford Has No Fear
Atlanta Hawks'
Al Horford is making his case for the Rookie of the Year accolade. Battling the Lakers Wednesday night in Atlanta, the former Gator didn’t appear even slightly intimidated by L.A.'s newly acquired
Pau Gasol. Outplaying the Lakers' newest addition, the Dominican-native logged a double-double with 15 points and a career-high 20 boards. The Hawks defeated the Lakers 98-95 and according to Gasol the starting rookie was the reason why. The Spanish import explained to the
AP, "It was pretty tough going against Al Horford on the boards. He did a pretty good job going after us offensively. He was the difference-maker for them tonight."
7. Big Z Posts 21st Double-Double
If
LeBron James is Batman, then
Zydrunas Ilgauskas was his Robin on Feb. 2, 2008 when the Cavs faced the Clippers. While King James paced the team with 28 points, the Lithuania-native dominated the post en route to claiming his 21st double-double of the season with 22 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. The monstrous play of the pair, including the Cavs' center's eight points in the final quarter, helped lead Cleveland to a 98-84 victory. "Sometimes Z is unbelievable. When he wants the ball in the post we give it to him, and when he wants the ball on the perimeter we give it to him," James said to the
AP.
Photo: Seven-footer gets 21st double double
8. Dynamic International Duo
It was not one but two international players that had the Sun shining in Phoenix on Monday night. Despite minor struggles in the first half,
Leandro Barbosa and
Raja Bell lit it up from downtown, with five and seven threes respectively. As they exploited the Bobcats zone defense Barbosa, a Brazil-native totaled a game-high 30 points while Bell who was born in the Virgin Islands, contributed 24 points to the 118-104 victory. Charlotte's guard
Jason Richardson told the
East Valley Tribune, “Once they forced us out of the zone, it was hard to defend them.”
Photo: Barbosa battles Bobcats
9. Nash in a New Jersey
While millions of basketball fans world wide sport Suns jerseys that have the name
Nash stamped on the back, the Canada-native is striving to inspire children through new means. The father of twin girls and former soccer player has invested and become a part owner in a Women's Professional Soccer League that will debut in 2009. Mr. MVP told
Sports Illustrated, "I want to be a big fan and hopefully watch them not only entertain but inspire lots of young girls and kids in general." So while fans across the world wear Nash's jersey, it may be only a matter of time until the six-time All-Star trades in his Phoenix threads to possibly wear a replica of
Wambach's uniform while cheering on his favorite women's soccer team.
10. Villanueva Starts for Bucks
Yi Jianlian sat out of Tuesday night's game when the Bucks made a visit to the
Gasol-less Grizzlies. With the Chinese import out with a shoulder injury, Milwaukee had some extra space in their starting lineup.
Charlie Villanueva stepped up to help the Bucks capture a 102-97 victory. The Dominican-American logged a double-double with 16 points and a season-high 16 boards. After Villanueva's first start of the season, Bucks coach Larry Krystowiak told to the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "He was in around the basket an awful lot ...16 points and 16 boards. He was playing great. It's really encouraging from our point of view to get him as active as he was tonight."
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