The Dallas Mavericks had a 75-72 lead on the New York Knicks when the fourth quarter of today's game started. That's when Steve Novak started hitting jumpers.

The former Marquette forward scored all 14 of his points in the fourth quarter as the Jeremy Lin saga continued and the Knicks rallied to defeat the Mavericks, 104-97. Novak hit on 4 of his 5 three point attempts in the game and chipped in two rebounds and a steal.

Oh, I almost forgot. He also busted out the Discount Double Check.

(via our SB Nation Overlords)

It's bordering on weird to see folks like Saturday Night Live head writer Seth Meyers and NFL great Warren Sapp tweeting about Steve Novak. This is the world we live in now, kids. Might as well get used to it.

Wesley Matthews makes his first appearance on the NBA All-Star Game ballot this year, joining perennial All-Star and fellow former Golden Eagle Dwyane Wade. Matthews' 15.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per game have helped propel the Portland Trailblazers to a 6-2 start, their best since 1999-2000. He's also shooting over 40% on three point attempts on the season.

Wade is searching for his 8th All-Star Game appearance, which includes an MVP performance in 2010. His averages of 18.8 points and 6.5 assists per game through 6 games with the Miami Heat will go a long way towards convincing voters to put him on the Eastern Conference roster.

You can vote online through NBA.com or by texting "MATTHEWS" or "WADE" to 69622.

Here at Anonymous Eagle, we're incredibly proud of the current team's accomplishments on the court. But we are lucky enough to have had four players who have had enough success at Marquette to currently be contracted to play for an NBA team and one who picked up an invite to training camp. So we're going to keep tabs on our five guys and their paths through the NBA season in a regular feature that I've initially named Professional Warriors. If you've got a better name for this feature, please post it in the comments. If we get a bunch of good ones, we'll open it up to a poll next week!

We'll start things off with the former Golden Eagle to make news most recently, Lazar Hayward. Ever since Lazar ended up with the Minnesota Timberwolves coming out of the 2010 NBA Draft, I've been a big proponent of using the #FREELAZAR hashtag on Twitter any time I saw their general manager David Kahn making some kind of ridiculous move. So when news came rumbling across Twitter last night that the TWolves had traded Lazar to the Oklahoma City Thunder, I was THRILLED. The Thunder and their GM, Sam Presti, have a reputation as one of the smartest and best run organizations in basketball, and they want MY GUY! on their team. AWESOME.

Here's a quote from Presti on the trade:

"We are excited to be able to add Lazar to our organization. Lazar is someone who we followed closely through the draft process and identified as a potential fit for the culture and identity that we are continuing to build in Oklahoma City. His toughness, length and shooting are attributes that will add depth to our roster, while his professionalism and competitiveness embody the intangibles that we value as an organization."

Standard GM speak stuff there, of course, but when a professionally run outfit talks about how a guy fits your culture, you have to feel pretty good about the whole deal. Hayward's under his rookie contract for the next two seasons and has a team option for 2013-14. You can follow the Lazar and the Thunder through our SBN partner blog, Welcome to Loud City.

In other recent NBA news, former Marquette guard Dwight Buycks was invited to join the Phoenix Suns for training camp, along with VOLUME SHOOTER Jeremy Hazell. Buycks had started all 6 of the Tulsa 66ers' games in the NBA D-League before getting the call to join the Suns. The Suns will be streaming an intra-team scrimmage tonight at 7:30pm Central time on Suns.com. You can keep an eye on Buycks' progress with the Suns through their SB Nation blog, Bright Side Of The Sun.

Let's hit the jump and check in with Jimmy Butler, Wesley Matthews, and Dwyane Wade!

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