Grant Hill was one of the stars on Tuesday night.

In Heroes and Goats, the Mavs lost to the Grizzlies at home Tuesday. Vancouver hadn't won on the road in 30 games! Our Goat of the day and month is Don Nelson, without a doubt. ... Chris Mills, John Starks, Mookie Blaylock -- the definition of Iron Unkind (combined nine-for-43 shooting). ... and what's wrong with Juwan Howard? Here's some more. Enjoy.

Heroes ...
Shareef Abdur-Rahim Grizzlies Another great effort (26 and 15) but finally a road win	Grant Hill Pistons 31 and 12 assists in win over Bucks	Jason Kidd Suns 29 and 11 assists vs. Magic's Armstrong

... and Goats
Chris Mills Warriors Shot 4-for-20 against Knicks, 4 turnovers	Juwan Howard Wizards His 3-for-17 effort is starting to become the norm	Scottie Pippen Blazers Not exactly carrying his team (4-of-12 FG, 0 assists)

While we can't defend the Sixers for the trade (and many other trades, by the way -- remember the Brad Daugherty one?), we can report that The City of Brotherly Love missed the Chuckwagon and will show it Wednesday night in what may be Barkley's final visit.

The 76ers will be presenting a gift to Charles and Barkley says he might even get emotional. "It's always been a special place to me," Barkley said. "It is sentimental. I always kept a house in Philadelphia, and I always will. They treat me very well there. They treat me better now than when I was there."

Barkley has been selected to 11 All-Star Games, went to the Finals with the Phoenix Suns in the 1992-93 season, became the shortest player in modern history to win a rebounding title with the Sixers in the 1986-87 season, has been named among the top 50 players in NBA history and has won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S. Dream Team.

The Sixers, who flew Barkley's mother, Charcey Glenn, and grandmother, Johnnie Mickens, in from Alabama for the game, will give away a special limited-edition poster to the first 10,000 fans to enter the First Union Center.

"Hopefully, we'll eventually retire his number," said Allen Lumpkin, former Sixers team equipment manager and current director for travel and team services. "Ideally, I'd like for us to be winning big, then [the Rockets] take him out of the game, and the crowd gets up and gives him a standing ovation. He deserves that much."

Kings of the hill?
The Kings are off to a great start, but, as we've pointed out a number of times, the schedule has been a bit kind. They have one win over a team that had more wins than losses when they played them (Utah was 3-2 when the Kings beat them). Thus, Wednesday's home game with the Lakers, a team No. 1 in our Power Rankings, is kinda big.

The Kings certainly would have liked to enter the big game on a roll, but thanks to a bad effort in New Jersey, they finished their East road trip with three losses. Were they looking ahead? Possibly, and even if the Kings knock off the Lakers we're still not going to make them the best team in the league, but it's important for a team looking for more legitimacy than just having a flashy point guard, an MVP candidate at the four and a deep group of reserves called the Bench Mob. And it's not just the Lakers this week -- Sacramento plays Miami on Friday and Portland the next night.

"We'll satisfy people one way or the other," coach Rick Adelman said of meeting three of the NBA's powerhouses. "But five of the best records belong to teams in our division. We're going to play them sooner or later. I think you'd certainly like to win these games, but it won't be the end of the world if we don't.

"These games will show you where you're at, and I'll be more interested to see what level we play at. We can play pretty well and still lose."

UNBEARA-BULLS

Shaq gets a bye week of sorts from his "Shaq Line Follies" so we can highlight just how bad the Chicago Bulls are. Will they win 10 games this season? Dunno. We can report that Toni Kukoc went on the injured list Tuesday, three weeks after he stopped playing. Here's today's Bulls stat of the day to help prove why they've won but one game so far. Bulls rebounds leaders: Elton Brand: 8.9 Dickey Simpkins: 4.8 Will Perdue: 4.7 Fred Hoiberg: 4.2 Still wondering why they are so bad?

Embarrassment in Dallas
What's so disturbing about the Mavericks is that Michael Finley is likely an All-Star and Dirk Nowitzki is having a breakout season, actually making Don Nelson look smart -- and they still stink. We're having trouble finding any other moves that Nellie has made that look good, and it shows.

(By the way, can reporters on TV and in newspapers please stop saying that Nelson drafted Leon Smith. The Spurs drafted him and dealt him to Dallas, which, frankly, makes it worse. It should be noted the Spurs would not have taken the high schooler otherwise, but facts are facts -- the Mavs did not draft him.)

Dallas lost to Vancouver at home on Tuesday. This is a Grizzlies team that hadn't won on the road since early last season. In fact, in the glorious history of the Grizz, the team is now 18-138 on the road. That's no misprint -- 18 wins in four seasons and a month.

Dallas can score points -- only five teams are scoring more. No team allows more points (and that's with a major shotblocker in the middle). Finley and Nowitzki are a nice one-two punch. Even Cedric Ceballos has his moments and Erick Strickland wasn't half-bad before he got hurt. Robert Pack has numbers, but just returned from missing eight games due to injury. Steve Nash is still out, but what was he bringing to the table? Shawn Bradley, well, if you read this column regularly you know how we feel about him. Let's kindly say he fills a role, sometimes.

Nelson appears to be playing out the string until retirement. We could look at what Nelson has accomplished in his coaching career -- he has had some moments -- but every time his team is getting killed and the camera shows him with his head in his hands you wonder why he's still here. It's not like the Mavs are close to being a playoff team.

Especially after Tuesday night.

Quote of the Night
"Maybe on paper we've got all this talent, but we have to go out and perform, and we're not doing that now."
-- Portland's Greg Anthony

Quote of the Night, Part II
"If he keeps developing the midrange jumper, the sky's the limit."
-- Shawn Kemp on Vince Carter