You read that right: Peja Stojakovic. The Hornets are trying to stay competitive without Chris Paul, and Peja’s 25-point, 13-rebound effort led New Orleans to a 110-103 win over the Pacific Division-leading Phoenix Suns. He was 7-11 from 3PT range on the night.

The win is especially impressive given David West’s off night (6p, 4r, 2-11 shooting), but the Hornets had a balanced attack with four other players in double figures.

In his first game back from injury, Jamison posted 31 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and a steal in the Wizards’ 108-91 drubbing of the Cleveland Cavaliers last night. The line and the win are already impressive, but for Jamison to play this well in his first game back makes it doubly so. It’s tough for a player to return from injury and play at a high level since his conditioning and timing usually aren’t there, but Jamison didn’t have a problem last night.

With the win, the (finally) healthy Wizards advance to 3-7 while the Cavs drop to 8-4. Cleveland was without Shaquille O’Neal and Anderson Varejao due to injury.

At some point, I’ll stop writing these “Oklahoma City is surprising” posts, but I have to say that I was surprised when I saw that the Thunder upset the Heat in Miami. A big reason for the win was Kevin Durant, who posted 32 points, nine rebounds, five assists, one steal and one blocked shot. He hit 11-23 shots, including 1-2 from downtown. He made all nine of his free throws.

With the win, the young Thunder are 6-5 and are currently in the 7th spot in the playoffs in the West, although we obviously have a long way to go. It would be fun to see Oklahoma fighting for a playoff spot at the end of the season.

Back in 1998, the Milwaukee Bucks drafted a skinny 20 year-old kid out of Germany named Dirk Nowitzki and immediately traded him to the Dallas Mavericks for Robert “Tractor” Traylor and Pat Garrity. The Bucks never had any intention of keeping Nowitzki; at that point, the Mavs were on the forefront of foreign scouting and were the only ones that were willing to draft him that early. Still, for obvious reasons, Bucks fans cringe whenever they hear Dirk’s name.

Last night, Nowitzki led the Mavs to a 115-113 overtime win over the suddenly hot Bucks in Milwaukee. Dirk had 32 points (on 12-25 shooting), 11 rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block. He also hit the game-winning buzzer-beater in overtime. Here’s a look:

Easily the most surprising score from yesterday’s action is the Rockets’ 101-91 win over the Lakers in Los Angeles. Brooks scored a career-high 33 points (including five three-pointers), while also grabbing six rebounds and dropping four dimes. He said that he was inspired by seeing an NBA championship ring for the first time. (Trevor Ariza received his ring before the game.)

Speaking of Ariza, he posted nine points, eight rebounds, four assists, four steals, two blocked shots and six turnovers. He was statistically outplayed by Ron Artest (22 points, six rebounds, three steals), but his team got the win.

The Rockets advance to 6-4, while the defending champs drop to 7-3 with their second straight loss. The Lakers need Pau Gasol back in a big way.

Are you kidding me? The current frontrunner for the ROY dropped 55 points on the Warriors in a 129-125 win at the Bradley Center. He hit 21-34 from the floor and 7-8 from long range, while also posting five rebounds and five assists on the night. The amazing thing is that he only had 10 points in the first half. He scored 29 in the third quarter, and 16 in the fourth.

He’s really been able to flourish with Michael Redd sidelined. He reminds me of a left-handed Allen Iverson. In fact, he’s one of five rookies to average 20+ points and 5+ assists per game. The other four? Iverson, LeBron, MJ and Oscar Robinson. That’s impressive company (if he can keep it up).

The surprising Bucks are 5-2 on the season, thanks to the rookie and some solid play from Andrew Bogut.

I thought about giving this honor to one of the Nuggets in their rout of the Lakers, but isn’t the young Hawks’ 97-86 win over the Celtics in Boston more impressive? Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, Mike Bibby and Jamal Crawford all played well, but it was Al Horford that held down the middle against Boston’s formidable front line.

Horford posted 12 points (on 6-9 shooting), 13 rebounds, three assists, three steals and a block. On the season, he’s averaging 13.3 points, 10.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks, and his subtle game meshes perfectly with Atlanta’s “stars.” The Hawks are now 7-2 and look like they are ready to take a step forward this season. Horford is a big reason why.

After last week’s home loss to the Bulls sent the Cavs 3-3, it wasn’t clear how this team would respond having to play the next three games on the road. After a win against the Knicks, the Cavs upended the Magic in Orlando, and defeated the Heat, 111-104, last night in Miami. That’s an impressive stretch, for sure.

Mo Williams was the key to the last two wins. He scored 26 points (on 12-20 shooting) against the Magic, and posted 25 points, four rebounds and three assists against the Heat. Over the two games, he hit 9-12 shots from long range.

Williams has to be careful that he’s not deferring too much to Shaq. Mo is the team’s second-best player and needs to stay aggressive. It’s nice to dump it into Shaq from time to time, but he’s not going to score 25-30 on a semi-regular basis and be that complementary scorer that LeBron needs. That is Mo’s job.

The Bucks are 4-2 in no small part to the emergence of rookie Brandon Jennings. Wednesday night, he had a 14-point fourth quarter to help Milwaukee upend the Nuggets, 108-102. On the night, he posted 32 points, nine assists and four rebounds. He shot 11-19 from the floor, and hit both of his 3PT shots and all eight of his free throws, including six in the final minute to put the game away.

It’s early, but with Blake Griffin out, I think Jennings is the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year honors. He’s averaging 20.7 points, 5.2 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game. His shot was a big question mark coming into the NBA, but thus far he has hit almost 46% from the floor and from the 3PT line. Is he a 40%+ three-point shooter? Probably not, but his shoot looks good enough from the perimeter to keep the defense honest.

With Michael Redd out indefinitely, Jennings will have plenty of room to grow.

With the reloaded Wizards in town, D-Wade took over, scoring 41 points on 14-29 shooting. He hit 12-13 from the charity stripe and posted five rebounds, five assists, three steals and a block en route to a 90-76 win over Washington.

Don’t look now, but the Miami Heat are off to a 6-1 start. The team was supposed to be just treading water until they can acquire some help for their superstar, but they’ve played well early in the season. And the main reason is Wade. He’s averaging 29.9 points, 4.9 assists, and 4.1 rebounds per game, and is shooting better than 45% from the field. If the Heat can win 50 games, he’ll be right in the thick of the MVP conversation.