Is there anyone in the League who owns another team as badly as Tony Parker owns Phoenix?
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Our weekly NBA power ranking, this time starting at the top…

1. Los Angeles Lakers (35-9) — Andrew Bynum is starting to earn what almost every great big man has to earn: entire fan bases who hate him for throwing his weight around. Cleveland still hasn’t forgotten when AB popped LeBron in the face on MLK Day. And now Charlotte fans will never forget what he did to Gerald Wallace. Meanwhile, the whole “Kobe’s supporting cast is great” argument took a hit when L.A. completely fell apart the moment Kobe walked off the floor in the Bobcats game.

2. Boston Celtics (38-9) — Eddie House, already a first team All-Garbage Time selection, is making a strong campaign for a Three-Point Shootout invitation. He knocked down eight threes against the Kings, dropped seven on the Mavs, and another seven on Miami in the last week. Meanwhile, his team has won nine in a row.

3. Orlando Magic (35-10) — For everyone who’s already printing the t-shirts for a Celts/Cavs Eastern Conference Finals, slow down: Remember that Orlando has won seven of its last nine games against LeBron’s team, and if these two meet in the second round, it’s anybody’s series. Read More »

Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis — especially Rashard — had to know that people would be questioning their validity as All-Stars going into last night’s Magic/Cavs game. With the ’09 ASG reserves having been announced about an hour before tip-off, the stage was set for Nelson and Lewis to either prove the haters right, or make their fans look like geniuses. They both went for option “B.” In what ended up being a thorough domination of LeBron‘s squad, Jameer dropped 18 points and Rashard added 19, both of them making timely big plays from beginning to end. In the first half, when the Cavs actually played like the team with the best record in the East, every time they threatened to pull away was met with a Jameer three. In the second half, as Orlando grabbed the lead and turned the screws in, Raw Lew was knocking down dagger threes, diming Dwight Howard (22 pts, 18 rebs) for dunks, and one time swatted a Sasha Pavlovic shot into the crowd … Read More »

The ’09 NBA All-Star reserves will be announced tonight at 7 p.m. EST, leading up to TNT’s doubleheader coverage (Cleveland @ Orlando, San Antonio @ Phoenix). During and after the picks, come back to DimeMag.com for our own analysis on who got picked, who got snubbed, and predictions on what will happen All-Star Weekend, as the Dime crew will be live-blogging the whole announcement special. Post your own opinions on the All-Star picks in the comments section…

* Aron Phillips’ All-Star picks * Austin Burton’s All-Star picks * NBA announces All-Star starters

From last night’s Thunder/Grizzlies game, fast-forward to about the 1:05 mark and you’ll see Desmond Mason suffer what has been diagnosed as a hyperextension of his right knee, which the team announced will put him out for the reason of the season. For a team that is just figuring itself out and winning some games, this is a big blow to them. Mason had been averaging 7.5 points off the bench.

I’m a supporter of the NBA bringing fans into the fold to make an impact on the League in a number of ways. I had a bunch of friends who actually suggested the “Wizards” when Washington wanted to change the name of their franchise. Granted I like the bullets about a million times more, but politics are politics. Read More »

One of the best commercials I’ve seen in years…

Source: NBA FanHouse

As if the Jazz need another injury. With Carlos Boozer having been on the shelf almost all season, Deron Williams missing enough games that he hasn’t really been in the All-Star discussion despite averaging 17 points and 10 assists, and starters Mehmet Okur, Paul Millsap and C.J. Miles missing games here and there, Utah has lost more man-games to injury than any team in the League. I don’t even have to look that up to know it.

Now it’s Andrei Kirilenko who will join Boozer on the sideline. Opting for surgery on his injured right foot, AK-47 is expected to miss about 3-4 weeks.

According to the Deseret News, AK had hoped to put off the surgery until the offseason, but recently the pain in his foot became too much.

If you spent last night watching a) Eddie House torch the Kings b) Nate Robinson and the Knicks look like they could be deserving of the eight-seed or c) Kevin Durant and the Thunder hand Memphis their 11th straight loss (yikes), you missed an absurd night of college basketball.

We’ve got everything that you missed right here…

Al-Farouq Aminu‘s put-back on Jon Scheyer‘s back-neck drives Dickie V crazy…

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With the Magic hosting the Cavs for the first time this season, all eyes are on Dwight Howard and LeBron James. So in anticipation, my man Brian Schmitz asked the inevitable question: If you had to start a franchise, would you take Dwight or LeBron?

“Uh, oh, wow. … I played with Shaq, but that’s a tough one,” said former NBA veteran Dennis Scott. “I would, um, go with. …” Read More »