The one thing that no one’s going to remember from last night’s Pistons/Blazers duel at the Rose Garden was how Tayshaun Prince was easily the best player on the floor for the majority of the game, even torturing Travis Outlaw for pullup 20 footers. That’s because Mr. Outlaw came back and did what a lot of us have come to expect from him.

Even Suns color commentator Eddie Johnson had to appreciate this one. In a game where the Phoenix fans had already booed their team for its atrocious D, they breakdown at the worst possible time and end up with maybe their worst defensive player (Steve Nash) sticking Indiana’s best offensive player. Nice work.

Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not at Florida State anymore…

When Dick Vitale somehow fit an entire half-hour pre-game show’s worth of talk into the first two minutes of Heat/Nuggets, we were worried that the second part of ESPN’s “announcer swap” experiment was headed for disaster, as we could imagine fans nationwide reaching for their remotes. But Dickie V calmed down as the game went on, and unless you’re someone who just automatically can’t stand him, he wasn’t bad. D-Wade got the baptismal, “The Elevator Man! High-riser! Super, scintillating, sensationaaaaaal!” treatment when he caught an alley-oop from Mario Chalmers, which was honestly pretty cool in a Marquette-flashback kind of way, but that “Dwyane The Dazzler” nickname Vitale kept pushing hopefully isn’t gonna stick … Could you tell Vitale wishes J.R. Smith would have gone to UNC so he could have called some of his games? J.R. Buckets scored 21 off the bench in Denver’s win, including some ridiculously tough jumpers and a dunk at the halftime buzzer (didn’t count) where he took off from almost the free throw line and finished with two hands … Read More »

Yesterday it was being reported that the Miami Heat had outright waived Shaun Livingston. Turns out the 23-year-old PG was in fact kept around, only to be traded today to Memphis and subsequently waived by the Grizzlies. The Heat sent Livingston and cash in exchange for a 2012 draft pick.

Source: Yahoo! Sports

Chucky Atkins finally got his wish – he’s going to get out of Denver. Atkins, who’s been frustrated by a lack of PT for a long time now, is headed to Oklahoma City in exchange for Johan Petro.

“I think that I deserve to play some, and obviously if they’re making a trade for me, then they plan on using me,” Atkins said this afternoon. Read More »

Jason Thompson probably wishes that he had to deal with Deron Williams punting balls into the upper deck of EnergySolutions Arena right now. As punishment for not bringing fresh bagels and cream cheese to practice, JT1 got his truck filled with popcorn – the front, back, trunk, glove box. Welcome to the League.

Source: Ball Don’t Lie

Back when I was in L.A. for the launch of the Zoom Kobe IV, I hit up my buddy Eric’s streetwear spot, Backside, to see what kicks his customers were rockin’. An evolution of “Street Seen” in the magazine, “Laced Up” is a new Dimemag.com feature. Below is a sampling of some of the hottest ones… Read More »

If for no other reason, you have to envy L.A. Lakers fans for one thing: They don’t know the abject fear and nausea that comes with having their team clinging to a slim lead in crunch time and seeing Kobe Bryant wearing the bad guy’s costume, looking to strike a dagger.

Hornets fans re-familiarized themselves with that feeling last night, when Kobe knocked down a trio of three-pointers in a 90-second stretch of the third quarter — which would have been the game’s decisive sequence had the Hornets not been able to limit him to just two points in the fourth. Grizzlies fans knew it a few weeks ago, when their fourth-quarter lead disappeared thanks to Kobe’s multi-faceted attack of long-range, low-post and off-the-dribble buckets. As a Sonics fan, I knew the feeling on numerous occasions over the years, and even after adopting the Pacers this season, felt it again last month when Kobe delivered his patented mid-range pull-up in the final minute, which would have won the game were it not for Troy Murphy‘s miracle tip-in. Read More »

In the past, I’ve been highly critical of Mike Brown‘s inability to figure out how to best take advantage of LeBron‘s freakish skill set. But with the Cavs sitting in first place in the East, I’d be remiss to say that he’s not one of the names to consider at this stage in the Coach of the Year running.

Frankly, there’s no real front-runner for the award at this stage. So as long as you haven’t been fired yet, there’s a shot that you too could win Coach of the Year. Here are some other names who deserve consideration: Read More »