By Sam Rubenstein

Honorable mention to Vince Carter, who picked up a triple double in a game that brings the Nets closer to stealing the 6th seed. Too bad it was against the Knicks, and when Jersey and NY play, they might as well not even bother. I remember watching a game when Kidd threw 5 alley-oops in the first quarter to Richard Jefferson and the Knicks were totally over-matched. That was a whole year before I started working here. Can a triple double exist, if the game isn’t even a contest? Nice work Vince, but not nice enough.

The Phoenix Suns have nothing to play for, so they are going all out with a short rotation, playing hard. I love Mike D’Antoni and his backwards thinking. Since that was the case, Phoenix-Houston qualifies as a real game. Yao’s numbers were 34 and 9. T-Mac had 39-11-9. Today, teammates share the Player of the D.A.Y.

One more to give out tomorrow, and then Thursday the player of the Y.E.A.R.

Big game between Dallas and Golden State tonight. Do the Mavs go hard to keep the Warriors out of the playoffs? Can they actually beat Golden State? Phoenix might be ready to take it easy, especially on the second half of a back to back, so the Clippers can get a W. Four of the six games tonight will have some say in the playoff picture, so I can’t just quit on the Player of the D.A.Y. yet. Even if I already went ahead and did my year in the D.A.Y.