The (Preseason) Daily Fix: The Second-To-Last Quiet Monday, Featuring Sebastian Telfair

After nine stops with eight NBA teams, Sebastian Telfair couldn’t even land a preseason gig and is off to China. (Flickr.com photo/Wendy)

Just think of it as being four games closer to the season. Oh, and Sebastian Telfair is going to China (his life has turned out more Requiem for a Dream than He Got Game; actually, probably not):

Brooklyn Nets 127, Philadelphia 76ers 97

Quick Hits: Chris Johnson and Mirza Teletovic both scored 21 points to lead the Nets over the depressing 76ers … Shaun Livingston added 17 points, eight assists and nine rebounds, which is amazing because a few years ago his entire body snapped over his knee cap … Philadelphia was led by Evan Turner, who scored 23 points, dished out four assists and grabbed five boards. He’s going to be a great fantasy option; a new-school Andre Iguodala (for fantasy, not real life) … Royce White posted a beautiful 7:6 personal foul/turnover-to-point ratio… What’s a better name: Vander Blue or Khalif Wyatt?

Orlando Magic 102, Dallas Mavericks 94

Quick Hits: All of Orlando’s veterans sat out and hopefully that becomes a trend (not that I want them to get hurt; they should just be playing on other teams this season) … Maurice Harkless led the Magic with 16 points on 5-for-8 shooting, but did turn the ball over six times … Victor Oladipo shot a humble 4-for-7 in 26 minutes, scoring 12 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Oly’s going tear it up this year … Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 24 points in 25 minutes. Over or under 20 points per game for Dirk this season? I say over (17.3 last year).

The Daily Rant: I was watching Perks of Being a Wallflower Monday (I watched it with my mom, which makes it less or more pathetic, but I’m not sure which one), and Hermione said, “Welcome to the island of misfit toys” in it: the Mavericks are the island of misfit toys. I mean, for God’s sakes, they even have Renaldo Balkman. Old Vince Carter. Aging but still awesome Dirk. Samuel “Goofy” Dalembert (I dare someone to give me an NBA player who resembles Goofy more than Dalembert). Devin Ebanks. Bernard James and Jae Crowder (they belong coupled because they’re both 2012 second-round picks). Gal Mekel. Ricky Ledo. And then, to top it all off, my favorite player, Jose Calderon, finishes it off. Only Mark Cuban could do this for us. They’re going to turn into the Redskins.

Denver Nuggets 98, San Antonio Spurs 94

Quick Hits: Once again, the Spurs box score is just out-of-this-world boring … Cory Joseph scored 13 and grabbed four rebounds … Kawhi Leonard scored 13 points, grabbed 12 boards and dished out four assists. Leonard looked confident with the ball and aggressive; let’s see if that continues when Tony Parker and Tim Duncan get back on the floor … Kenneth Faried led the Nuggets with 22 points and nine rebounds off the bench … J.J. Hickson, who started at the 4, scored 15 and pulled down five rebounds … JaVale McGee had a saucy 1:1 PF/turnover-to-points ratio, which is what advanced statistics nerds use in the preseason to predict which big men are going to get cut (I made that up, but someone, somewhere had to have a crazy theory about preseason turnovers and/or fouls having some correlation to a player being cut, right? Maybe that was a stretch).

Sacramento Kings 99,  Los Angeles Clippers 88

Quick Hits: Darren Collison started in place of CP3 and dropped 20 points and 10 assists (he was a bargain) … Jamal Crawford scored 25 points on 9-for-14 shooting, including 4-for-6 from distance … DeMarcus Cousins scored 31 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Kings. Anything that can be twisted as positive for Sac-Town should be twisted as positive, so Cousins’ preseason success should get people excited … Ben McLemore scored just seven points in half of a game today … John Salmons looks like he’s once again going to be starting for the Kings, and scored just 10 points on 10 shots.

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