Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford, the runner-up for the 2007-08 T-Mobile Rookie of the Year award, was the only unanimous selection on the 2007-08 T-Mobile NBA All-Rookie Team, the league announced today. Horford received 58 votes, while Seattle’s Kevin Durant, winner of the 2007-08 T-Mobile Rookie of the Year award, received a total of 57 votes.
InsideHoops has to ask: How could a voter not have picked Durant as one of the top five rookies?
Rounding out the NBA All-Rookie First Team are Houston’s Luis Scola (53 points), the Los Angeles Clippers’ Al Thornton (48 points) and Seattle’s Jeff Green (43 points).
The T-Mobile NBA All-Rookie Second Team consists of former D-League player, Jamario Moon of the Toronto Raptors (38), Memphis’ Juan Carlos
Navarro (24), Philadelphia’s Thaddeus Young, (23), Detroit’s Rodney Stuckey (22) and Houston’s Carl Landry (18).
The voting panel consisted of the NBA’s 30 head coaches, who were asked to select five players for the first team and five players for the second team, regardless of position. Â Coaches were not permitted to vote for players on their own team. Two points were awarded for first team votes and one for second team votes.
76ers fans don’t even go to playoff games
The Boston Globe (Peter May) reports on the Pistons-76ers Game 6 in the first round of the playoffs: All those red seats at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia for Game 6 were not because the Pistons took control early and made the game a runaway. It was because only 14,130 bothered to show up for what turned out to be an elimination game, well shy of the arena’s 20,444 capacity. In fact, none of the three Philadelphia home playoff games sold out; the first two drew more than 18,000. Then again, those who did show up for Game 6 saw the second-biggest loss in franchise history in an elimination game and the worst at home. The biggest: the Celtics’ 120-87 thumping in Boston in Game 5 of the first round in 2002.
The AP reports: The Philadelphia 76ers got the Detroit Pistons’ attention. Then they got steamrolled. The Pistons powered into the second round of the playoffs by crushing Philadelphia 100-77 on Thursday night, winning the series 4-2 and again demonstrating how good they are when they feel they need to be. Detroit convincingly won the last two games of a series that wasn’t expected to last this long. The Pistons will host the Orlando Magic, who eliminated Toronto in five games, on Saturday in the opener of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The teams split four meetings this season… Richard Hamilton hit his first five shots during Detroit’s overpowering start and finished with 24 points, 13 in the decisive first quarter when he outscored the 76ers by himself. Chauncey Billups added 20 points and Tayshaun Prince had 12 for the Pistons, who reached the second round for the seventh straight season… Andre Iguodala scored 16 points and Andre Miller had another quiet game with 11 for the Sixers, who outplayed the heavily favored Pistons for the first 3 1/2 games of the series but never really had a chance after that… Fans booed as the Sixers walked off the court trailing 79-51 after three, but this should go down as a good season for a team that was widely expected to finish at the bottom of the Atlantic Division.
InsideHoops.com Stat Notes: The Pistons shot 58.2%, the Sixers just 33.8%. The Pistons nailed 9-of-16 threes, the Sixers just 3-of-13. The Sixers drew hoards of fouls and got 36 free throws, but they only hit 24; the Pistons hti 13-of-16. Rebounding was fairly close, but Detroit dished 28 assists, Philly just 12. The Sixers did get 11 steals, but only 4 for the Pistons. Andre Miller shot just 4-of-16 in the loss.


