I’m going to start this Saturday wrap-up giving congratulations to Butler and West Virginia for making the Final Four. To tell you the truth though, I’m really only doing it because I was rooting for them to beat KSU and UK. Now that we have the college games out of the way, let’s get to the real deal – the NBA! Only five games on the schedule, let’s gooo!

Lakers 109, Rockets 101

Field goal shooting. Seems like an important stat, one that is pretty obvious when it comes down to the outcome of a game. Well, I’ll tell you this, that was no exception on Saturday in Houston, as the Lakers dominated the Rockets in shooting the basketball.

The Lakers shot 57% from the floor while the Rockets only shot 43%. Also, the Lake Show was considerably better than the Rock Show from three-point land. What else helped LA win the game? How about a 20-0 run in the last six minutes of the second quarter. Yeah, that’ll just about do it. Not to mention, Kobe had 17 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.

Bulls 106, Nets 83

The final 10 games of the Nets season comes down to one goal: win one game. Currently tied with the 1972-73 Sixers with nine wins, the Nets need one more win to avoid tying history. Their first chance came on Saturday night in Chicago, but there was really no shot of grabbing a W.

New Jersey looked sluggish after two straight wins at home, but it was big games by a couple of role players that put the Bulls in charge. Jannero Pargo dropped 27 points and Taj Gibson picked up 22 points and 13 rebounds. Somehow, I am still embarrassed of this loss as a Nets fan. Chicago lost by 29 at home to Miami two days ago, and the Nets should be feeling decent about themselves after showing they are a real team of sorts. Oh well, nine more to go.

Blazers 112, Hornets 101

Not that there was really much chance anyway, but the Hornets are now officially eliminated from playoff contention. What stands out to me in this game though is two incredible shooting nights. Brandon Roy made 11 of his first 12 buckets on his way to 28 points. Darren Collison shot a perfect 10 of 10 for 22 points. The Blazers are hitting their stride as they approach the playoffs, but their definitely hoping to make the 7-seed and avoid the Lakers. They are currently tied with San Antonio, but without the tiebreaker, for the seventh seed.

Jazz 103, Wizards 87

Without any time to think about their poor loss to the Pacers on Friday, the Jazz came out and knocked off the Wizards on the road on Saturday. Mehmet Okur highlighted throwback night in DC with 22 points and 11 boards. It was a heck of a night for individual nights, in addition to Okur’s night. Deron Williams had 20 points/12 assists and Carlos Boozer had 22 points/10 rebounds. Utah now has 10 March wins and Washington has 0 March wins.

Mavs/Warriors

The final score of this game is meaningless. I was going to wait until it ended to post this wrap-up, but I saw the Mavs were up by over 20 at halftime. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the Mavs won…

-Shooter