Keeping up: Ohio State Buckeyes in the NBA, week of 12/18-12/24

While Boston plays at noon and Houston plays at 8 PM, your best chance to see a Ohio State shootyhooper will be the late game at 10:30 PM as Kosta Koufos and Denver take on the Clippers. Whether you catch any of the games today or not, I just hope that everybody has a very merry Christmas.

Mike Conley - PG - Memphis Grizzlies: Last week showed some improvement in Conley's play over recent weeks as Memphis got back to their winning ways. While Friday night's game might have not yielded great shooting from Conley, he more than made up for it with 11 assists and 4 steals. In the other 2 Grizzlies games during the week Conley shot at least 50% from the field. The Grizzlies were riding a 4-game winning streak before they visited Houston on Saturday and were blown out. Before the 4-game winning streak, Memphis had lost 4 of 6 games. On the season Memphis is 18-7 and currently sit 4th in the Western Conference.

Daequan Cook - SG - Houston Rockets: The Rockets only had 2 games last week and Cook actually appeared in both of them. (PROGRESS!). While Cook only played about 8 minutes in those 2 games, he did score his first basket since December 7th. Hopefully going forward into the New Year Daequan gets some more playing time in Houston, but the trends so far this season haven't shown any evidence to make me think that'll happen.

Kosta Koufos - F/C - Denver Nuggets: Koufos notched a couple season-highs last week, giving the Nuggets a couple early Christmas gifts. On Tuesday Kosta grabbed a season-high 14 rebounds as the Nuggets downed the Spurs. Saturday night's win against Charlotte yielded 16 points for Koufos on 8-10 shooting from the field. One of the biggest improvements in Koufos' game compared with past years is he is blocking more shots. Last week over 3 games, Kosta blocked 11 shots, and his average sits at 1.9 blocks/game on the season.

Byron Mullens - F/C - Charlotte Bobcats: The Bobcats have now lost 15 games in a row after dropping 4 games last week. In a heartbreaking 1-point loss to the Lakers to start the week, Mullens put up 13 points, 17 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 blocks. That wasn't the only double-double Mullens put up last week, contributing 16 points and 14 boards in a loss to the Nuggets on Saturday. Mullens left Saturday's game late with a severe left ankle sprain, having to be carried off the court by teammates. It sounds like Mullens might have to miss some time, but a timeframe of how long he'll be out hasn't been announced yet.

Evan Turner - G/F - Philadelphia 76ers: The last 2 weeks have seen the 76ers in the middle of a slide where they have lost 6 of 7. In Wednesday's game against the Rockets, Turner failed to hit double digits in scoring for the first time since 11/14. The reason for this was that Evan left the game because of a ankle inury. Don't be too concerned about that though since Turner returned to play 40+ minutes in his final 2 games of the week. Take out Wednesday's game and the rest of the week saw Turner hit right around his averages in points, rebounding, and assists.

Jared Sullinger - PF - Boston Celtics: Last week was another quiet week for Sullinger, seeing his minutes hold steady about 15 minutes/game over the 3 games the Celtics played. Nothing really is standing out about the stats Sullinger is putting up in his first NBA season, but he is mainly relied on to give the Celtics some tough minutes off the bench, pick up some rebounds, and play some good defense. Sullinger is less than 30 games into his NBA career so he has plenty of time to grow.