We are occasionally prone to taking dissenting views (Jon Scheyer, John Hollinger, and Chad Johnson) and we feel that while blowing out the candle and the Superman cape made for great theater, Dwight Howard’s opening slam – the one where, starting from out of bounds behind the basket, he threw the ball off the backboard, caught it, and all in one swooping motion, like a Transformer coming to life, ducked his head under the basket and dunked the basketball – was the most impressive jam from Saturday night. A distant second – Gerald Green’s shoeless immitation of Vince Carter. (Aside: Outside of tattoos on the head, Green may have one of the silliest choices we’ve seen – the Boston skyline on his forearm. You can see some of it here. Green is from Texas. He was drafted by the Celtics, and presumably, thought of himself as a franchise player, the type that would never leave voluntarily, or get traded. After two unproductive years, he was dealt to Minnesota. Does he have the Twin Cities skyline on his right forearm? Hope not – his agent recently said that Green wants to be traded. Looks like the tattoo says HOUSTON and not BOSTON. Makes sense!)

How much of a letdown was Rudy Gay?

Tomorrow in NBA talk: the second half, and the ghost of Keith Van Horn!