Sonics guard Shammond Williams went retro with his new hairdo.

Philly ultimately won because Larry Hughes was the only player in the game who showed any semblance of an offensive game. The Sixers shot .387 from the field, made only half of their 28 freebies, committed five more turnovers than assists and had only one player score more than 11 points. And they won.

Anyway, let's cut right to the chase: Here's the Wednesday version of Around The Rim, summing up the action from Monday and Tuesday. Any comments, click here and e-mail us.

Before the Heroes and Goats, take a look at Shammond Williams in the photo above. No, it wasn't '70s night in Seattle. By the way, Shammond's hair earned him playing time. He entered the game with 33 minutes in seven games, and played 15 against the Lakers, a career high. However, he missed all five of his shots and both free throws. And there's no truth to the rumor that his extra five inches, due to the hair, allowed him to cover Shaq better. Maybe Horace Grant should try it.

In real Heroes and Goats mode, Nick Anderson made a free throw! The most amazing thing about this is not that Anderson had yet to hit one all season, but that he had played in every game and only gone to the line three times. Now that's amazing. ... You can't win a championship with Isaiah Rider, but you can enjoy his nice all-around game and the fact he admitted in a TV interview Tuesday night that "he has baggage," but it was OK, since he also has game. ... Charlie Ward goes from career game to career lame in 24 hours. ... Here are the rest. Enjoy.

Heroes ...
Nick Anderson Kings 18, 11 and 5 vs. old team	Isaiah Rider Hawks 23, 8 and 6 in Raptor rout	Joe Smith Wolves Great complement to KG; 26 and 9 vs. Nugs

... and Goats
Cedric Ceballos Mavs 6-for-30 shooting the last two nights. Ouch!	Jerry Stackhouse Pistons When he's bad, he's bad; 2-for-10 vs. Spurs	Charlie Ward Knicks 0 points, 1 assist, 4 fouls vs. Philly

Exposed?
The Kings and SuperSonics are good teams, but we've tried to stress that without being properly tested in the first few weeks of the season, it's impossible to know if they are as good as the Blazers, Spurs or Lakers, and in the long haul, the Jazz and Suns as well. Of course, many of you disagree, but winning games over the Warriors and Rockets really proves nothing.

So it was when the Kings went to Miami on Monday and got spanked. The backcourt couldn't shoot and the miracle bench was not nearly good enough. We'll give the Kings their props, but the rest of this road trip will also prove nothing (Atlanta, Washington and New Jersey). The Kings can really earn their high marks next week against the Lakers, Heat and Blazers.

The Sonics, who got our No. 5 ranking (one ahead of Sacramento), were thrashed at home by the Lakers on Tuesday. How good are the Sonics? Gary Payton comes to play every night, and Vin Baker is proving that last season really was a fluke. Ruben Patterson has been great. Horace Grant and Brent Barry are in their proper roles. When Vernon Maxwell is on, they're tough. But there may be too many ifs. Put 'em in the East and they're top three.

Homecoming King
We've been pretty mean to Nick Anderson in the past few weeks, so it's only fair we recognize his best game of what has been an ugly season. Maybe Nick just needed to go home again, to the only team he had ever played for, Orlando. Anderson looked rejuvenated even before the game when the fans showered him with applause.

Then Anderson went out and nailed five three-pointers, grabbed 11 rebounds, dished out five assists and only one turnover, had three steals and made his first free throw of the season when the Magic intentionally fouled him in the closing minute. It was a pretty good night overall.

"This was like old times tonight," Anderson said. "I came here to win, so, yeah, it was special, real special. I marked this game on my calendar a long time ago. I did what I thought I needed to do."

Now he just needs to start doing it every night.

Empty Net
Surprise! The Nets, who led by 15 points late in the third quarter, lost again on Tuesday. This time, against another bad team in the Wizards, the Nets went the final 5:54 with only a free throw and lost 85-78.

But again, the topic of conversation here is Stephon Marbury. This time, his mother is not involved. According to the Newark Star-Ledger, Marbury took the court an hour before the game with the message "All Alone 33" scrawled on the athletic tape he used to wrap both of his ankles. By game time, after the tape was noticed both by team president Michael Rowe and by coach Don Casey, the tape was gone.

If you're wondering what the message means, well, it's pretty clear. Marbury doesn't sit with teammates on flights -- instead, he sits with the team's coaches on team flights and eats with them as well. He even did that at the team's Thanksgiving meal last week in Los Angeles. Steph believes he is all by himself on the worst Eastern team this side of Chicago. Sorry, Steph, you're not alone. Your whole team is playing brutally.

For the record, Marbury didn't play that badly in the loss. He only took 12 shots -- making half -- and finished with 14 points and 12 assists. He did have seven turnovers.

"There's only so much I can do. If I could go out and win the game by myself every night, I'd do it every night. But it's so hard in the NBA. It's so hard to win and so easy to lose."

Quote of the Night
"It would have been more fun to go down to Nordstrom and protest than to play this game. That was a pretty bad performance."
-- Seattle coach Paul Westphal on the loss to the Lakers.