Salmons is this weeks pickup...

The NBA season is long – 82 games to be exact.

Teams are expected to lose. More than a few games. The '95-'96 Chicago Bulls won a record 72 games during their regular season en route to another NBA championship. Even they had bad games.

But they didn't have many bad weeks with that record and certainly not any bad months.

This week was not kind to some of the NBA's best and worst teams.

The San Antonio Spurs went 1-2 dropping games to Detroit and an overtime heart breaker to Golden State; the Pistons lost at Dallas and to Boston; even the Celtics, the league's best home team, lost a game in the Garden to the Charlotte Bobcats (only their second home loss all season).

And then there’s the pit of the league, Miami. The Heat has failed in 10 straight, including their loss at Minnesota where the league's two worst teams squared off. Clearly they miss Shaquille O’Neal, who continues to miss contests to a hip injury and was forced to fly to Los Angeles for a second opinion. When a coach decides he doesn’t want to watch his team play anymore, then you know the wheels have fallen off the bus.

Philadelphia has dropped in the standings after losing six in a row, including failings against the Bulls (the '07-'08 team, not the '95-'96 one) and to
Milwaukee. Andre Iguodala (18.9 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 4.5 APG) has continued hold serve to his average through the drought, but the team can't muster any victories.

Those are some of the worst of the week. Now let's take a look at the top performers, in order, from last weeks action.

1. Shawn Marion (16.4 PPG, 10.2 RPG, 2.1 APG)

2. Chris Paul (21.9 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 10.2 APG): who would have thought
Paul would be scoring 22 points per game?

3. Jose Calderon (11.6 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 8.3 APG): has quietly had a
successful season, and an even nicer week. Calderon came within two assists of averaging a double-double -- scoring 16 points per contest while dishing out 9.7 assists. He shot a solid 56 percent from the field and was perfect from the free throw line. He also added 2.0 steals while turning the ball over just 1.3 times per game.

4. Allen Iverson (27.1 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 6.8 APG): at 34.3 points per game this past week has single handedly carried the Nuggets’ offense.

5. Marcus Camby (9.0 PPG, 14.0 RPG, 3.1 APG): um… 5.7 blocks per game this week!

6. Dirk Nowitzki (22.3 PPG, 8.6 RPG, 3.7 APG)

7. LeBron James (29.1 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 7.5 APG): too bad he plays for Cleveland.

8. Mo Williams (16.8 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 6.9 APG): has very quietly taken over in Milwaukee. In teammate Michael Redd's absence, Williams has stepped up his game dropping 21.5 points, grabbing 3.0 steals and shooting 46 percent from the field.

9. Rasheed Wallace (13.1 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 1.9 APG): a great week, finally. He averaged 17 and 10 this week while shooting 51% from the field – only slightly better than his season average of 43 percent.

Other highlights of the week:

Jason Kidd (11.6 PPG, 8.7 RPG, 10.7 APG) became the second active player (Grant Hill, Pistons) to record three triple-doubles in three straight games.

Pau Gasol (18.1 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 2.6 APG) put up a 43-spot against Golden State Friday night and takes the cake (er, flan), as the week's high-scorer.

Pickup of the week: If he's still available, goes to John Salmons (17.2
PPG, 5.1 RPG, 3.4 APG). A true go-to guy, Salmons has asserted himself in Sacramento as a true scorer. He can dribble; drive and he can shoot (51 percent on the year).

Now that this article is complete, go get Salmons!