Today's nutshot pic was brought to you by Basketbawful reader Mladen.

Derrick Rose: The rook was turrible both on offense (6 points, 3-for-16) and defense, where fellow rookie D.J. Augustine ate his lunch (29 points, 13-for-13 from the line). The great Poohdini also had six of his shots blocked. Despite that, the Bulls still would have won if not for...

Home cookin': The Bulls were leading by three points with 19 seconds left when Rose "fouled" D.J. Augustine on a three-point attempt. Only, you know, there was less contact on the play than most people make with a homeless person when they drop change into their Styrofoam cup.

Said Rose: "I must have blinked too hard. I didn't even jump. I put my hand up and that's what they called. You cannot call that, especially not at the end of a game. But it is what it is. We lost. He (referee Ely Roe) said I hit him on the arm. It must have been in motion or something." When asked if he'd ever been that upset in a game in his life, Rose replied: "No. Never. Not at all." He then added: "It really got to me. I felt, 'I can't believe it.' I was in awe. I didn't believe you can make a call like that. I guess he did."

Augustine, who flopped like a fish while shooting in order to draw the foul, was asked where Rose hit him. His response: "My elbow. My hand. That's why it was short. The ref called a good call, so I shot the free throws." Uh huh.

Meanwhile, Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro had to choose his words carefully, since Big Brother Stern is a Dark Lord who's ever watchful: ""I didn't think Derrick...we watched the film. I thought Derrick was right on him. I didn't think he hit him. Augustine's legs came out to get the contact. We can't worry about it. We can't put ourselves in that position. No question it was a tough call against us. You move on."

Raja Bell: From Mark L: "He got ejected a little less than 8 minutes into the first quarter against the Bulls, after fouling Ben Gordon. Apparently he used a few too many four-letter words while complaining. I don't blame him for wanting to leave though. The Bobcats were shooting 2-14 at that point with 7 turnovers." Bell was already 0-for-5 when he got tossed. It's worth noting, also, that the ref who gave Bell the bronz boot was Ely Roe...

The Okafor Watch: Emeka had another fantastic game -- 20 points, 13 rebounds, 3 steals, 4 blocked shots -- but he also went another 42 minutes of game time without an assist. Although I'm sad to report he notched 3 assists since the last update. The current Watch numbers are: 26 games, 892 minutes, 224 field goal attempts, 113 free throw attempts, 50 turnovers and 10 assists.

Random statistical note: Basketbawful reader Junokasm sent me the following email: "I saw Drew Gooden foul out. The stat line: 14 points, 9 rebounds. I had just witnessed my first Calvin Murphy! I rejoiced." For those of you who might not remember, we coined the term Calvin Murphy to denote 14/9 games in honor of Murph, who was thought to have had 14 kids with nine different baby mamas. Thanks for the head's up, Junokasm.

The Klahma City Thunder: They committed 20 turnovers and missed 10 free throws in a 10-point home loss to the Clippers. The defeat dropped them to large-crocodile-tear-rolling-down-my-face 2-24. It was their 11th straight loss at home. Said Chris Wilcox: "We need to be better consistently. Right now, anything that we're doing on the road or at home is not working. We've got to come together, keep our heads up and just keep lifting each other up." Man, even their post game comments have that "going through the motions" feel to them.

By the way, has anybody noticed that Zach Randolph is fitting in really well with the Clippers? In point of fact, he's playing a lot better than post-surgery Elton Brand. And the Clips have won three in a row. Who knows? It could turn out that Brand leaving was a good thing for the other L.A. team.

The Enver Nuggets: Okay, okay. I know they've been getting it done on D since Chauncey Billups arrived, but I'm missed the reference. Plus, as Basketbawful reader Tiberious Sparkles pointed out, their defense was a little lacking last night: "The Enver Nuggets didn't record a single block last night against the Rockets. Somewhere, Marcus Camby is crying and eating and eating." The Nuggmeisters also let the Rockets shoot 55 percent from the field and had only 5 steals. Personally, I think the lapse was caused by stories like this one praising the D in Denver...it's like a stat curse.

Steve Francis: Every time I see his name at the end of a Rockets' box score, I think "why?" Then I think "If he were a little crazier, he'd be getting the Marbury treatment." Speaking of which...


Stephon Marbury: He paid his way to watch his sorta-kinda team play the Lakers in L.A. And people were falling all over themselves to interview him, during the game, at halftime, after the game. Here are a few choice quotes: "I didn't create this, this is all their doing. I'm still earning my check by doing nothing. I'm staying in shape. My mind-set is to enjoy my life." And: "I don't even worry about it. They're going to do what they're going to do, and when they're ready, they'll make a decision. All I've got to do is get free. Once I get free, the team I'm going to go to, I think a lot of people will be shocked. All the people that say nobody wants me on their team...I'm all of these different things...Frank Isola said I'm a cancer...I'm doing my thing though." Ah, Starbury. Bringin' the crazy everywhere he goes.

The Los Angeles Lakers: Yes, I know they won, and they're 21-3 which should be good enough, right? Well, their lackadaisical approach to defense -- which has been a growing problem lately -- was on full display last night. It sure seemed to me like they were indifferent on defense because they knew the Knicks weren't going to stop them on offense. And some of their post-game quotes seem to bear that out. Said Lamar Odom: "We know we can score. It doesn't matter what team you put in front of us, we can score. We've got 12 guys who can hit shots. We can do it offensively. We just have to focus on defense." Added Andrew Bynum: "We're still 21-3. We're going to be able to go out there and execute the defense later on as we build together as a unit. I think everybody in here is pretty happy."

You know who else is pretty happy? The Celtics and Cavaliers, who sure don't have to worry about developing the necessary defensive attitude "later"...whenever Bynum thinks that is.

Lamar Odom, bravery machine: He played through his flu-like symptoms to finish with 17 points, 12 rebounds and 4 assists. Which even I could probably do against the Knicks "defense," but still. And after the game, L.O. got a little dramatic. "I think I have the flu. Who knows? Pau was out and I kind of willed myself to do it. Football mentality. Luke (Walton) was sick, Trevor and Josh (Powell), Pau. Like kindergarten." I love this guy. I really do.

The Sacramento Kings: From Basketbawful reader Eric G: "The Kings lost by 32 last night despite the fact that the Blazers only shot 41.4 percent and 4-for-15 from three. Why? Because the Kings were 13-for-61 (21.3%) from the field in quarters 2-4. At one point they went on a 7-47 stretch from the field. That's not even acceptable in the WNBA!" Well, Eric, I agree with everything except the "not even acceptable in the WNBA" part. The Kings finished 24-for-76 (31 percent).

So the dead coach bounce lasted only one game, huh? And that game was against the Timberwolves. Yikes. Interim coach Kenny Natt said: "Guys started hanging their heads and feeling sorry for themselves. My job is to try to keep these guys motivated and try to encourage them as much as possible. Unfortunately this was one of (the Blazers') nights where they played their best." Sure, Kenny. It was just the Blazers playing awesome. Whatever you say.

Kobe Bryant: Mamba kept interrupting his teammates during the morning shootaround to quote long sections from various Harry Potter novels, and he insisted on making finger quotes the entire time.

False attributions (Updated): Several readers informed me that the The BS Report "introduced" the Club Trillion blog that we mentioned last month. The interview with Mark Titus, the blog founder, starts around 42:40. Now, Bill Simmons seems to think that Titus invented the trillion, and Mark, for his part, claims that he and his friends "devised" the trillion. Which is funny, considering that I've been using the term for years on this very blog. However, I did not coin it. The word was, in fact, invented by Scott Hastings...way back in 1990: "Scott Hastings, little-used Piston forward, who claims to lead the NBA in a category that he calls the 'trillion': 'That's when the box score reads one minute played followed by 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0 0 0.'"

This was further expounded on in, of all things, a 2006-07 NBA Media Guide: "Some years back ex-player Scott Hastings devised the Trillion Club. To become a member you must play in an NBA game (no minimum time) and do absolutely nothing since 15 zeros follow the minute column. (A commitee voted to allow a player to join the club if he only had a personal foul.)" So yeah: Hastings had a Trillion Club waaaay before their was a Club Trillion.

The term was also explained in a 1999 Sports Illustrated article called Garbage Time. It says: "Avoid the dread 'trillion.' In other words, if for some reason you can't get off a shot, do something. In garbage-time lingo, trillion is the line in the box score a player gets when his minutes-played stat is followed by zeros in the nine other categories. 'A trillion means you played, but you didn't do anything,' says Vancouver Grizzlies assistant Lionel Hollins, who was an NBA guard for 10 seasons. 'No shots attempted or made, no assists, no rebounds, no fouls, nothing.' If he still has a trillion in the final seconds, the experienced garbage-time player will commit misdemeanor assault to break up his zeros with a '1' in the personal foul column." For the record, Henry Abbott -- who emailed me about this article -- remembers hearing references to the trillion back in the 80s.

Anyway, I'm glad their blog -- which is pretty funny -- is getting attention and that guys like Simmons are finally aware of it. But c'mon. The trillion is not a new thing. You won't hear be going around claiming I invented the question mark, you know? (Unless, of course, I'm 5+ pints of Guiness into my night. Then all bets are off.)

Labels: Charlotte Bobcats, Chicago Bulls, Denver Nuggets, home cooking, Houston Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Sacramento Kings, Steve Francis, Worst of the Night