It’s official, Carmelo Anthony is out for 3 to 4 weeks with a fractured metacarpal bone in his shooting hand. Keep in mind he played with the injury a bit last night and actually played well (though he did air ball a free throw) so there shouldn’t be too much to worry about when he does return. In the meantime, as I mentioned in the (Almost) Daily Fantasy, both JR Smith and Linas Kleiza (maybe with a splash of Anthony Carter and Dahntay Jones) will pick up the slack. My guess is that both Kleiza and JR will have their nice nights and although Kleiza could end being the more consistent one (and the starter), JR is going to have his huge nights. JR should be owned in most leagues and if you have the space, take the short term flier on Kleiza.

When you’re going against the Warriors, I guess you don’t need to take the pre-game shootaround as seriously as you would otherwise. Case in point: before playing Golden State last night, Deron Williams decided that he wanted to spend his time punting basketballs into the upper deck of EnergySolutions Arena, and then make Kosta Koufos go retrieve them.

But the best part might be after the game when D-Will got wind of the Fiesta Bowl score, and was talking a ton of trash to Koufos, a former Buckeye.

In fact, it didn’t take long for the Jazz to pick up right where they left off at shootaround. Williams was riding Koufos about Texas’ victory over Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. Read More »

Head over to Sneakerfiles and check out exclusive pics of the 2009 NBA All-Star Game Nike Air Force 1s designed by none other than DJ Clark Kent. Kent, one of the respected names in the sneaker community when it comes to Air Force 1s, designed the sneakers to resemble the colors of the jerseys the players will be wearing. Read More »

Shaun Livingston‘s PT with the Miami Heat was so few and far between, his NBA.com profile photo is still his suit-and-tie pose from the team’s website. That said, it was no surprise that the Heat cut the 23-year-old point guard four days before his contract would have become guaranteed for the rest of the season.

Livingston played in just four regular season games since signing with Miami over the summer, averaging 10 minutes per outing while still far from 100 percent healthy after his gruesome Feb. 2007 knee injury. According to the Miami Herald: Read More »

Although Dee Brown won the initial Phoenix PG sweepstakes, it appears he was the wrong choice for the job, as the Suns released him today less than two weeks after signing him.

Steve Nash isn’t getting any younger and Terry Porter doesn’t like Leandro Barbosa handling the ball, so who’s next? With Jermareo Davidson being signed by the Warriors yesterday, I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve Kerr also looks to the D-League. Having already worked out Walker Russell Jr., either he or Will Conroy, Smush Parker and Curtis Stinson could get a 10-day contract from the Suns. Read More »

Up until Jan 14th you can vote for the last participant in this year’s 2009 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest. Now, if voting was open to guys not in the League mine would probably go to this dude, Guy Dupuy out of France. After watching this video I am convinced he’s a better dunker than T-Dub…

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Earlier this morning in the office, a strange looking package was delivered to the office that was addressed to me. AP proceeded to tell me to open the box as far away from him as possible because the parcel looked like it could have possibly been a bomb. Read More »

After being ejected last week for arguing his third personal foul in the second quarter, Amare Stoudemire delivered one of the greatest quotables of the year. “I felt disrespect,” Stoudemire said. “Refs don’t like me as much as the cops didn’t like Tupac.”

Wow. While STAT continues his All-Star campaign and appears to be in position to start in Phoenix, if the Suns are going to do any damage this season (and eventually in the playoffs) they need the young Sun Tzu to keep his cool. Read More »

Reports have surfaced all over the web about Carmelo Anthony‘s right hand, ranging from reports that the X-Ray’s revealed it is a “probable fracture,” and others saying that it’s definitely broken. Either way, it’s looking like Denver could be without his much-needed scoring punch for an extended period of time.

At best, it’s a major scare for the first-place team in the Northwest Division. At worst, it’s a major blow for a Nuggets team that was beginning to look like a serious contender for the first time in at least 20 years.

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