Photo. Marc MorrisonTwo-thirds of Thursday’s NBA schedule saw superstars trying to carry their teams: one got the job done and one didn’t. In Portland, the game was close until the last couple of minutes of the third quarter, when the Rockets went on an 11-0 run sparked by T-Mac and Bobby Jackson. Having a Sacramento flashback, B-Jax was beating everyone down the floor for layups, sticking threes and hitting McGrady with alley-oops. McGrady scored 14 points in the third and kept it up in the fourth, lighting up every defender — Travis Outlaw, LaMarcus Aldridge, Channing Frye, etc. — that Nate McMillan put on him while Brandon Roy (groin) could only watch from the bench. Mac ended up with 35 points and the Rockets scored their 50th win of the season, yet they’re still only in 5th place in the West … On the last play of the third, Jarrett Jack thought he was fouled in the lane and threw a temper tantrum that would put Kobe to shame. Not only did Jack jump up and down like a kid who didn’t get the Hot Wheels he wanted at the mall, but he also spun in mid-air while he was doing it. Meanwhile, his man (Jackson) was busting it downcourt and getting a wide-open look beyond the arc … Doug Collins said that Shane Battier should be in the running for Defensive Player of the Year. Battier doesn’t get as much credit as guys like Bruce Bowen and Andrei Kirilenko for taking on the toughest defensive assignment every night, and he’s been locking dudes down in big games all year. But DPOY is one of those awards where reputation gets you a lot of votes, so Battier probably doesn’t have a serious shot, especially since his numbers aren’t great (1.0 steals, 1.2 blocks per game) … TNT showed a graphic about Greg Oden that looked weird on a couple different levels. For one, the photo was of Oden wearing a Blazers jersey and it looked like it could have been taken from a game, only he had the same mohawk haircut that he just got about a month or so. Did they use a body shot from the rookie photo shoot and then Photoshop his updated headshot? And it looked like G.O. had some new tats around the chest area, which we don’t remember seeing before. So maybe it was a recent shoot, but what was the point of getting pics of Oden in his jersey right now? … Speaking of Oden, his former school beat UMass to win the NIT championship. Freshman big man Kosta Koufos, who played all year under some unfairly large expectations as Oden’s replacement, put up 23 points for Ohio State, while PG Jamar Butler had 19 points and 8 dimes. According to the ESPN broadcast, Butler is OSU’s all-time winningest player. That doesn’t even sound right, considering that guys like Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek played for the Buckeyes when they were of national title-caliber in the 1960s, and in later years Michael Redd and Jimmy Jackson played for some very good OSU squads … In Cleveland, LeBron put up 33 points but scored just one point in the fourth quarter as back spasms slowed him down. While the rest of the Cavs were able to step up and grab a W in Charlotte the other day when ‘Bron fouled out, this time they couldn’t get it done. Ben Gordon hit his free throws down the stretch and Larry Hughes posted a 25-8-9 stat line against his old team (and had a nasty follow dunk over Anderson Varejao’s head) … The Cavs were down by one in the final seconds when LeBron took it to the rack and ran into Joakim Noah, who forced the miss and didn’t get called for the foul. A rookie getting that kind of treatment from the refs over the biggest superstar in the game? We wouldn’t have believed it if we hadn’t seen it … The only other game on the schedule was Kings/Clippers. Elton Brand came off the bench and got 15 points, 9 boards and 2 blocks in the loss, while Kevin Martin hit for 26 in Sacto’s win … The Kings were honoring local former Olympians, and during a timeout they brought out Kurt Angle. He immediately started talking mess to the Kings’ mascot and ended up kicking him in the stomach. (The whole time it looked like the entire Kings team was watching Kurt instead of whatever Reggie Theus was drawing up.) Can a pro wrestler ever not work a storyline in public? Someone like Hulk Hogan has been in-character for so many years he doesn’t know who he really is anymore … Last night was party night at the office, but this wasn’t just our usual pizza-beer-poker affair. This time we had some guys from the Nike ID studio come down and actually set up shop at Dime headquarters — so in between stuffing our faces, watching ball and playing cards, the Dime crew and some of our industry friends got to design our own custom Nikes. Very cool for everyone involved, and thanks to the ID team for helping us amateur designers come up with some hot kicks … As the Nike ID party was wrapping up, we all sat around and watched the NCAA dunk contest and three-point shootout. La Salle’s Darnell Harris won the three-point contest, beating out a field full of guys you’ve actually heard of: Drew Neitzel, Chris Lofton, A.J. Graves (Butler), Brian Roberts (Dayton), Jaycee Carroll (Utah State), Derrick Low and Shan Foster. With the skills Harris showed yesterday (plus the nine games during the season where he hit 5 or more triples) and considering he’s from Baltimore, don’t be surprised to see him get a summer-league look with the Nuggets. You know ‘Melo likes to look out for his peoples … In the dunk contest, the big-name guys again fell short. As the odds-on favorite, Deron Washington in particular was a HUGE disappointment. We’ve all seen Deron dunking on people, and our lifestyle editor Christian has been talking the kid up for like two years now. Washington’s first dunk was dope (two-hand 360 where he tapped the backboard with the ball during the spin). But he flopped on the second one, missing it about five times and barely getting to the rim on the final two tries. Patrick Ewing Jr. also failed to advance, although it wasn’t really his fault. Pat’s second dunk was FIRE, a J.R. Smith-like behind-the-back cram that he threw down with the left hand after passing it behind his body extra low and with extra hangtime. But Ewing’s first dunk fell victim to a bad alley-oop toss from one of the girls who was in the women’s three-point shootout. AJ Bowman (Augusta State) and J.R. Giddens (New Mexico) had some nice dunks, but the finals came down to Will Bullard (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) and Sonny Weems (Arkansas). While Bullard went with the Skywalker strategy and kept jumping over an increasing number of people — finally botching the last one when he tried to hurdle three guys (all taller than him, we’ll give him that) and ended up giving all of them a teabag and sitting on one dude’s shoulders — Weems won the whole thing with a between-the-legs backwards flush that looked a lot like Jason Richardson’s NBA contest-winning dunk from 2003 … Side note: Looking up Augusta State’s roster to find out more about AJ Bowman, we found out that his real first name is Tyrekus, he has a brother named Jarekus, he lists one of his free-time activities as “sleeping,” and his favorite movie is Eurotrip. He must not get to the theater often … We’re out like Deron …
April 4th, 2008 at 3:33 am
knoc says:
roy should just sit the rest of the season off. just a few more worthless games
April 4th, 2008 at 3:47 am
bill says:
2 like durant
April 4th, 2008 at 4:31 am
Boyez says:
go lakers!!!!
April 4th, 2008 at 7:43 am
Brown says:
Pretty slow night for ball. Cleveland looked completely disinterested in the 4th quarter. They can’t do shit when Lebron isn’t carrying them. They’ll get past the first round, but after that, there’s no way they beat the Pistons or the Celtics.
April 4th, 2008 at 7:48 am
GEE...DIM?...OWWOOPH OWWOOPH OWWOOPH! says:
Fiddy!
Houston up!
Yea how bout 50 Wins for them Rockets. Impressive for a team with two of the most injured and delicate stars in the game.
Kobe drops 36 on Portland and Mac drops 35 if someone goes and drops 34 on them next that will be kinda messed up.
Nice things tonight San-An and Utah clash and the Lakers and Dallas I think. Houston has Sea-town so hopefully on this back to back the Rockets can keep that mojo going and any other West team that takes an L is always good.
Finally got that half dolla!
That last shot LeBron took looked like it was more block that foul so it was a great no call to me. Nice play by Noah and great instincts. How long will people all over the world keep saying LeBron needs help, before Clev. gets him some.
Kinda messed up but true…if you are not playing against a playoff team or not in the running, most not even trying to talk about your squad or even see your games.
Tonight, go Utah and go Dallas!
Neither will prolly win…wait if Utah is at home they might.
April 4th, 2008 at 7:52 am
GEE...DIMERS! What is your occupation?...OWWOOPH OWWOOPH OWWOOPH! says:
Oh yea also the West is so tight, it’s kinda messed up that no team can really rest their star players cause they are all trying to get a good seed. This is when the stars need a little break too.
Meanwhile out East Boston and Detroit can basically send their stars on vacation for a minute.
I think they should switch to the best 16 teams overall instead of 8 in each conference during the playoffs.
April 4th, 2008 at 7:59 am
sans says:
Kosta can shoot. Hustles. And is five seconds away from being called the “euro” bird. Or would they call him the next drazen, dirk, or “flop” Bargnani? All white people look a like from the cheap seats anyway.
April 4th, 2008 at 8:15 am
jz_smoove says:
props to elton brand for coming back for a lost season. dude is one of the more underrated PF in this era. he just gets the job done. some people might argue he been on pretty bad teams but to me that is not his fault he was put on mediocre squads with no playoff aspirations. he will likely end up a michael finley -type career where he latches on a contender late in his career and not the primary option.
April 4th, 2008 at 8:45 am
TJ says:
The Jamar Butler thing kind of makes sense. OSU was shitty during Redd’s first year. Lucas and Hondo played back when there were way fewer games. I’m guessing they mean Jamar won the most games, not best percentage.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:38 am
right... says:
Let’s see your ID’s…
April 4th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Jim says:
Butler won more games than Lucas and Hondo for the same reason Kevin Love is by far the best Freshman center UCLA has ever had. That’s right, I said it! Kevin Love is the best Freshman center UCLA has ever put on the floor!
April 4th, 2008 at 10:33 am
garbageman33 says:
I don’t know about that, Jim. I’m sure Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton were pretty dominant in their freshman games. But yes, Kevin Love is the best freshman they’ve ever had who suited up for the varsity.
April 4th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Jim says:
Ok, garbageman, you got me. I wonder what Lew’s freshman games looked like. Comedy, I’m sure.
April 4th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Jim says:
Also, have you seen this?
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/football/nfl/04/03/bc.fbn.browns.arrest.ap/index.html
Doesn’t give you much confidence for the Brown’s secondary if they are getting tracked by cops.
April 4th, 2008 at 10:59 am
GEE...Kimbo Slice is the new Mike Tyson says:
Kevin love is overrated to me. I think he is going to get worked in the L. Unless he either plays similar to Carlos Boozer.
Got to agree with Knoc that Roy should just pack it in for the season.
Brand gets props for coming back but he should have just packed it in too.
DIME I can’t get into that NIKEId site, can you custom shoes there or is RBKcustoms the only site that you can get down like that on?
April 4th, 2008 at 11:10 am
IGP says:
“All white people look alike from the cheap seats anyway?” What the fuck are you talking about? This site has pretty fucking stupid and ignorant people writing on it. Come on man are you for real? And even if you are joking, go fuck yourself you stupid fucking idiot. Racism is so pointless you piece of shit.
April 4th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Austin Burton says:
Gee, if the link doesn’t work just put “Nike ID” into Google. Once you’re in, you can custom shoes (basketball, AF1’s, even football and baseball cleats) and other apparel.
April 4th, 2008 at 11:26 am
word says:
joakim noah had a clean block from what i saw so it was a good job by the refs.
damn whats funny is how marion is out for the season, so now he can just fuck miami hoes and enjoy the life out there, its funny how players over exaggerate injuries (and lack there of) b/c they don’t want to play on their shitty ass team. But I guess if your team is miami there is no motivation to try.
April 4th, 2008 at 11:56 am
GEE...Kimbo Slice is the new Mike Tyson says:
AB that’s what up. Thanks. Man you remember when you all put up the RBKcustoms deal. How bout I was really feeling that, so I went right away and customized me some joints, ordered them and was all excited. Mind you, you all linked that site some time on or before March 11. How bout their web-site said you will get your shoes (sneakers lol) 10-14 buisness days I think. I AM STILL WAITING ON MY SHOES PIMPIN! LOL.
Course I called and wrote e-mails about how unprofessional they were and all, and they credited me some (a lil) cash. Still I hope no one else has to go through that.
I am hoping Nike will be better.
Thanks again.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Austin Burton says:
No problem. When we did the ID’s last night they said we’d get them in a month, and afterwards I talked to a regular Nike ID customer and he said they usually get to you in about three weeks. I’m feeling my Franklin High School-inspired green/black/white Zoom BB II’s. Can’t wait until they show up.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Marcus says:
i agree with right…
yall gotta put up your custom shoes up on the site so all of us can rate the best shoe
April 4th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
K Dizzle says:
Yo Dime
Anyway you can dig up dirt from your sources on why Andre Allen got suspended from the final four?
word
what’s even funnier is how dude was feelin all underappreciated in Phoenix now nobody’s talkin about him and he gets to watch J-Smoove, Tayshaun etc get into the PLAYOFFS and steal his shine as most versatile off/ def small forwards
April 4th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
K Dizzle says:
Interestin read on the top 10 centers of all time
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/marty_burns/04/04/center.rankings/index.html?eref=mostpop
April 4th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
GEE...Kimbo Slice is the new Mike Tyson says:
K Dizz thanks!
Love the list and agree 90 percent. I am sorry I just can’t feel Bill Walton.
Y’all have a great weekend!
1
or 51
Houston up!
April 4th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
isotope says:
sorry Hakeem should be higher.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
doc says:
I was watching some Ucla shit on HBO and Kareem and the freshman team used to blow UCLA out all the time on campus and they were ranked #1 at the time.
April 5th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
grungedave says:
Battier *is* defensive player of the year. And for those that need statistics or empirical evidence… here ya go!
http://thedreamshake.blogspot.com/2008/04/shane-battier-is-dpoy-heres-proof.html