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Kyle Soppe is the newest contributor at Hickory-High. You can find more of his basketball writing at Pickin’ Splinters and follow him on Twitter.

Every Thursday and Saturday morning, I will be resurrecting the Last Night’s Numbers series, taking the time to acknowledge the best stat lines (individual and team) from the previous night. Feel free to weigh in via twitter (@unSOPable23) on my picks and what you feel the numbers mean.

Player: Drew Gooden vs Cleveland Cavs

Grade: A+

Standout Stats: 13 assists (11 inside 10 feet), 76.5 AR, 66.7 FG% inside 23 feet

Notes:  

• No, there isn’t another Drew Gooden. The power forward handed out 13 dimes last night, matching a career high. In fact, Gooden’s only other 13 assists game (his only other triple double for that matter) came against the same Cavs only 13 months ago.
• His 76.5 assist rate more than doubled his rate in any game in which he logged at least 15 minutes this season.
• Gooden has extended his range of late, but is still most effective from inside the three point line, where he is 22/37 over his last three games.
• The Bucks have won four straight, all of which Gooden has tallied at least 6 rebounds and 5 assists. The four game streak represents 10.8% of Milwaukee’s season, and Gooden has recorded 34.5% of his seasons assist total over that span.
• Rookie of the year candidate Kyrie Irving produced 39 points (points scored + points resulting from his assists) while the much less hyped Gooden produced 43 points. A truly unique and great game from Drew Gooden makes him my player of the night.

Player: Jarrett Jack vs LA Lakers

Grade: A

Standout Stats: 10/14 from 15 feet or closer, 65.9 TS%, 32.7 PC, 6:0 assist to turnover, team high 2 blocked shots.

Notes:

• Jack helped the Hornets dominate the perimeter while the Lakers bigs patrolled the paint. His ability to penetrate off of the bounce collapsed the shot blockers, and resulted in his three assists at the rim. When Bynum and Gasol backed off of the pesky guard, he rose up and buried a mid range jumper.
• His 30 points were a season high, but the Hornets dropped to 0-5 in games in which he scores at least 25 points. He has stepped into the scoring role of injured star Eric Gordon, recording double digit point totals in 12 of 13 games.
• This was the first time the point guard recorded 0 turnovers in a game this year; combine that with his greatest PC in two months, and you’ve got yourself a perfect point guard performance.
• Often the shortest player on the court, Jack even found a way to block a team high two shots.
• The Hornets are probably 25 points less talented than the Lakers, but the solid play of Jack pushed this game to overtime.

Player: Channing Frye vs Utah Jazz

Grade: A-

Standout Stats: 5 3PM, 4 blocked shots, 69.4 eFG%, 90 %AST, game high +25 +/- ratio

Note:

• Frye delivered the type of stat line Suns fans have been waiting for. They don’t need a player who can create his own shot (as long as they have Steve Nash anyway), they need someone who can knock down open looks. Nash’s creative pick and roll play left Frye with wide open looks from the top of the key, and he made the most of it, draining 5/10 three pointers. But Frye displayed great discipline, as he buried 5/8 shots from inside the arc.
• The knock on Frye is his tendency to settle from three pointers, but he used his 6’11″ body to bang (by his standards) inside the paint with the tough front line of the Jazz. He snatched nine rebounds, for a game high 28.2 DRR, and blocked more shots than Utah did as a team.
• Not only were the Jazz a combined -38 when Jefferson and/or Milsap were on the court, the Suns were -16 without Frye on the court. There simply aren’t many nights in which you can say that Phoenix won due to the inside/outside game of Frye, but on Wednesday night, they did just that.

Player: Gerald Green vs Toronto Raptors

Grade: B

Standout Stats: 37.7 USG, 76.7 TS%, +17 +/- ratio, game high 6 steals + blocks

Note:

• Green has stepped on the scene in a big way of late, giving the Nets some promise as they prepare to move to Brooklyn. The 26 year old has scored 63 points in the last five days after scoring 61 points in his previous 15 games, dating back to March of 2009.
• The Nets (missing Deron Williams) decided to run their offense through Green, and it resulted in more than 98 points for the third time in four games.
• His 5.6 TOR rewarded the Nets for trusting him with the reigns.
• His 6’8″ frame and athleticism provides match-up problems for just about every team, as he can strip the ball from a smaller guard (3 steals) like Jerryd Bayless or swat a 7-footer (3 blocked shots) like Andrea Bargnani.
• Green hurt the Raptors from a variety of places on the court, as he shot at least 50% from every distance.

Lineups of the Night

New York Knicks back court backups – Iman Shumpert, JR Smith, and Steve Novak.

The lesser paid and lesser appreciated knicks fueled their lopsided victory over the Portland Trailblazers in the first game of the Mike Woodson era. The trio shot 19/36 from the field, with 15 of those makes coming from behind the three point line. For a team that tends to turn the ball over, it was crucial that these three committed only one combined. When totaling their plus/minus ratios, you get +79 (yes: that’s as many points as the Blazers scored all night).

Indiana Pacers post players – Roy Hibbert, David West, and Danny Granger.

This big front court gave the 76ers’ defense fits all night, especially inside the paint. The trio shot 76.9% from inside of 10 feet, and totaled 52 points. Their 69.6 TS% indicates just how dominant they were against the athletic, but at times undersized, 76ers. The trio recorded 6 offensive rebounds, one more than Philadelphia grabbed as a team. Stopping the Pacer bigs isn’t as simple as double teaming, as these three combined for 10 assists. They also turned away 5 shots, a big reason why the Pacers outscored the 76ers by 22 in the games final 36 minutes.