But here come the Portland Trail Blazers — the team who had the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, Greg Oden, fall to a season-ending ankle injury — with 13 straight wins, a streak ending New Year's Eve with a loss at Utah.

Roy, the team's second-year point guard, averaged 22.8 points, 6.6 assists, and 4.6 rebounds during their current 13-game winning streak.

They still have much to prove, even though they beat both Utah and Denver twice in that streak, because most of the games were at home. This month they have a brutal Eastern conference trip (yes, such a thing exists) featuring stops in Toronto, New Jersey, Boston, Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, and New Orleans. That 7-game roadie might put them back to .500. but it's amazing they were ever in a position to drop to .500 in the first place.

4. LW Alexander Ovechkin — Hey, you know what would be awesome, NHL? You know how every other cool sport has statistics with splits available for games in the last 7 days? Please get on that right now. It makes weekly columns like this a lot easier to crown a hell of a lot easier. Until then, I just have to go by the subjective views of the NHL's "Stars Of The Week" award. Taking First Star is the Washington Capitals phenom forward.

Ovechkin scored four goals on just five shots in a wild 8-6 win over the Ottawa Senators, but his consistency supersedes even this past week. He has at least one point in 26 of his last 28 games.

But in the last week, Ovechkin has ... well, um, at least four goals. Perhaps more.

5. OT Jonathan Ogden — The Baltimore Ravens' 11-time Pro Bowl left tackle said he'll decide within 30 days whether he'll return or retire. He's had a tough, injury-plagued year, and at 33 he might want to think about his knees so he doesn't have to travel around the city of Baltimore in a scooter for the rest of his life. (It sounds cooler than it really is, I'm told.)

If he does, he'll go out on top. Kinda. Ogden and the Ravens beat the Pittsburgh Steelers (who was one of the few playoff bound teams with actually something to play for in the final week) 27-21 to avoid ending 2007 with an eight-game losing streak.

It's tough to appreciate offensive linemen in the prime of their career, because the eyes are always on the backfield. To boot, the offense for the Ravens was never something to witness during Ogden's tenure. Just imagine how bad it would have been without Ogden, who has started on the Ravens line ever since the old Cleveland Browns began wearing purple. I'm picturing Kyle Boller with urine-soaked pants by the end of the first quarter.