On Friday night the Timberwolves beat the Mavericks, the Wizards beat the Magic, and the Nets took the Celtics deep into the fourth quarter before succumbing.  Yup, we're deep in the dog days of the season.

If you look closer into all of those games, it was the thirty-something players that had poor efforts to keep the lesser team in it.  In the Mavs game, Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Marion were a combined 10-for-28 from the field.  For the Magic, Vince Carter was 5-for-17.  For the Celtics, Kevin Garnett was held to 10 points and seven boards.

Then, on the flip side, check out the big performers of the night: David Lee 32 points/15 boards (age 26), Josh Smith 18 points/14 boards/10 assists/2 steals/block (age 24), Dwight Howard 20 points/18 boards/4 assists/3 blocks/2 steals (age 24). 

Any one night is just a snap shot, but at this time of year you are much more likely to see the big performances from the early/mid-twenty-somethings than their older counterparts.  In general, the older impact players are coasting at this time of year.  The aches and pains take longer to heal, especially on back-to-back games (Charles Barkley kept hammering that point home on Thursday night) and unless their teams are struggling the vets have learned to pace themselves through the middle two months then try to pick it up entering the playoffs (Kevin Mchale made that point earlier this week). 

Meanwhile, the young guys are balling right now.  As my dad used to say, "new meat heals fast", so on most given nights they can go full-speed for big minutes and take advantage when facing the older guys (like LaMarcus Aldridge giving Tim Duncan 28 and 13 on Thursday).  Plus, the young guys are starving since the last few titles have all been won by vets and/or young guys may still be fighting to get that first huge contract. 

Moral to the story: if you can still trade an old guy (like a Tim Duncan) for a young guy of similar caliber (like a Chris Bosh) it could be a good move in the short term.  Presumably the old guys will pick it up down the stretch (when the key factor then becomes players competing for the playoffs as opposed to age), but in the meantime youth could be the way to go.