Wednesday's Starting Five

1. Potential Perjurers. Today is another day when ESPNews and C-Span may look eerily similar. Roger Clemens, Brian McNamee will sit down with some of our elected officials this afternoon. And, no matter what happens or how little you care at this point, you'll be hearing all about it. I would think the only interesting thing that could happen is if Clemens - knowing what is happening to Bonds - recants all of his denials and just admits to everything. Other than that, this will be just he said/he said.

2. Chris Paul. His line for the night reads 1 win, 25 points and 14 assists. He is the next-coming of Isiah Thomas, in a good way, and I hope that he can keep his team running all the way through the second half of the season. The Hornets are the reason to go out and get NBA TV (or buy tickets for when the come to the Garden in March).

3. Uno. This adorable little beagle won Best in Show at the Westminster Dog Show.

4. Bill Belichick. With all the attention on Clemens today, not enough people are talking about the Spy-gate sit-down between Roger Goodel and Sen. Arlen Specter that is also taking place today.

5. Chauncy Billups. He scored 12 in the fourth to cap off what had been a pedestrian game and lead the Pistons to their ninth straight win over the Hawks, who played well throughout but at the end just couldn't come through. Probably because they are the Hawks.

Benched. The Kentucky Wildcats. There were shades of the November Knicks game against the Celtics here. The once-feared Wildcats lost by 41 to Vanderbilt last night, 52-93.

"Ain't No Party Like a Z-Bo Party"

Randolph's Still Got It, At Least in Portland

"It" being a penchant for ending up in situations involving the police and threats of gunfire. During the team's recent West Coast swing, Randolph was either throwing or attending (depending on who you ask) a party at a club or restaurant (depending on who you ask) where the cops were called going on 2:30 in the AM because of a fight involving our man. A bouncer called the coppers after hearing threats about guns and caps and the busting of the aforementioned caps with the help of those very same guns.

The basketball-angle here is that this took place the night before the game. Obviously it would be best for the team's winning percentage if Herb Williams was doing bed-checks at 11:00 PM every night, but since that is not an option it doesn't really bother me too much that Zach was out on the town. After all, he used to live there. And, he had a double-double the next night.

Eschewing the high-road, the two things I take away from this story are:

1. Does this make Randolph harder or easier to trade, from internal and external perspectives?

2. This line from the Portland Tribune's coverage of the story pretty much sums up why Zach is no longer a Blazer: "The only thing surprising about all this? The party didn’t occur at the strip joint Exotica, one of Randolph’s haunts of choice while living in our fair city."