Weekend Wake Up: Ginobili, Wade, Lee, Dudley Highlight Night of Nutty NBA Stats

Can Do Manu. If the San Antonio Spurs do defy the growing consensus that their dynasty is crumbling this spring, count on Manu Ginobili being the catalyst. Ginobili went for 43 points in a 112-100 defeat of the Orlando Magic Friday night, and in his last four games, he’s averaged just under 30 points a game, leading the Spurs to wins over the Cavs, Celtics, and Magic. If the Spurs can dodge the Lakers in the first round of the Western Conference Playoffs, Ginobili is capable of carrying this aging team to a series win.

D-Wade Heating Up. And if the Miami Heat want to win a playoff series, it’s probably going to take brilliance like Dwyane Wade displayed Friday night. His 43 points carried the Heat past the Pacers in overtime, and he filled the rest of the box score, too, with nine rebounds, six assists, and three each of blocks and steals. Of course, Wade needed to step up, as the Heat were without Jermaine O’Neal and got just 12 points from Michael Beasley. But we’ve seen what happens when Dwyane Wade gets hot -- and gets calls -- in the playoffs.

Lee’s Trippy Triple. David Lee and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar can now be mentioned in the same sentence. That’s because Lee had an insane 37-20-10 line in a loss to the Warriors, becoming the first NBAer to have 35-20-10 since Kareem did it in 1976. That’s partly thanks to the Warriors’ crippling allergy to defense, and partly due to the game’s pace, which was fast enough to allow Anthony Morrow to score 35 (and tally zero assists) on the other side of the ledger.

Dudley Rains, Reigns. The strangest stat of the night, though, belongs to Jared Dudley. The Suns forward had a career high 20 points as the Suns dropped the Pistons, but did so by making six of seven threes, including three in a four-minute span in the fourth quarter. That led to this highly entertaining TwitVid, in which Grant Hill plays reporter, the Curse of the Sports Guy is debunked, and Dudley says he gave the crowd the same shrug Michael Jordan once made while torching the Trail Blazers.

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