A lot of people get on Steve Nash for being a bad defender. But there wasn’t anything he could do about this. Josh Smith had a crazy dunk off an alley from Mike Bibby early this season, but I think this one trumps everything he’s done in the ’08-09 campaign.

Remember when the biggest story surrounding Jordan Farmar was the time he played in a D-League game and a Lakers game in the same day? That seemed forever ago — yet somehow, Darren Collison, his backup at UCLA, is still in college — and now Farmar is a legit contributor and an X-factor who could make a difference in L.A. winning a ‘chip this year. Having missed about a month following knee surgery, Farmar came back yesterday and scored 14 points off the bench in the Lakers’ blowout win over the Spurs, and cracked the highlight reel when he found Trevor Ariza with a lob from midcourt. “We missed [Farmar] a lot,” Kobe said in the post-game. “He makes our second unit go. He’s the motor. Now that he’s back, everybody falls into their natural positions and we’re back clicking on all cylinders.” About the only person who really suffers here is Sun Yue, whose PT drops from the occasional 30 seconds a night to nothing … The game was essentially over by the end of the third quarter, and all of L.A.’s starters (sans Pau Gasol) sat out the entire fourth quarter. Blame the San Antonio defense: Too often they were running under the high screen instead of fighting to get over it, giving up wide-open jumpers left and right as Gregg Popovich gradually lost his mind. Read More »

Michael Redd is out for the season with a torn ACL and MCL. More on this later, but for right now, RUN, don’t walk, and pick up Ramon Sessions.

We could literally give LeBron (or CP for that matter) the fantasy MVP every time he plays. His line last night? 33 points, 14 boards, and 9 assists. It really isn’t fair. We gave last night’s MVP to Mr. Brandon Roy for his absurd boxscore. How absurd? Check below.

Brandon Roy – If you own Roy, you’re squad just won steals for the week. Roy finished with 22 points, 6 boards, seven dimes, and a team record 10 steals! He even added 2 blocks for good measure.

Greg Oden – Someone asked yesterday if they should cut Oden. 18 points and 14 boards later, that reader probably won’t be dropping Oden anytime soon.

Michael Redd – Ramon Sessions anyone? Here we go again. Redd hurt his knee and more information should be available today. If Redd is out for a significant period of time, Sessions should have relevance once again. Raja Bell is another possible free agent solution if Redd has to miss significant time. Read More »

Of course the Orlando Magic would choose now — after we just handed them the No. 1 spot in Dime’s NBA Hit List — to have their first two-game losing streak in months. After Jameer Nelson and the Eastern Conference’s third-best offense (behind Indiana and New York) got shut down against the Celtics the other day, last night they ran into a solid Miami defense. Leading the pack was Mario Chalmers (20 pts, 6 asts, 3 stls), who outplayed Jameer (16 pts, 4-11 FG, 3 turnovers) and made the play of the game: With Miami ahead by three with less than 15 seconds to go, Jameer drove right and was about to put up a shot when Chalmers played him perfectly and came up with a steal. After the Magic had to foul and then Dwight Howard picked up a silly technical, Chalmers and Daequan Cook iced it from the stripe … Up-and-down game for Dwight (22 pts, 10 rebs, 3 blks), who on one hand showed some real-life post moves when he was matched up with Jamaal Magloire and made some huge blocks in crunch time, but on the other hand, committed a killer turnover in that same fourth-quarter stretch, bricked a key free throw, and cost himself and the team with two immature techs straight from the Rasheed Wallace Handbook For Self-Implosion … Read More »

When Yao Ming bruised his knee in the first half of last night’s Rockets/Pacers game and had to sit out the entire second half, it seemed only natural that Dikembe Mutombo would step in and replace him. But even as the Pacers kept getting into the lane and making a living at the free-throw line (33-for-38 FT’s), Rick Adelman kept Deke on the bench, yet another DNP-CD for the 42-year-old future Hall of Famer.

Since re-signing with the Rockets on Dec. 30, Mutombo has only played once, a four-minute cameo against the Lakers on Jan. 13. But with Yao unavailable this time and the Rockets getting worked over inside while Luis Scola played center, why didn’t Deke play on Friday? Read More »

Late last night I turned on the TV to see if any of the west coast night games were still going on. The first play I saw when I hit the Warriors/Cavs game was Monta Ellis with a full extension pull back cram. He was back. The return to action couldn’t have gone any better for Ellis (well, accept of course the Warriors lost on a buzzer beater by LeBron… Who of course had another monster night). Ellis had 20 points, his usual high field goal percentage and put up a little bit of everything else. This is what really jumped out at me though. Ellis was coming back from a major, major injury. How often do we see players return and play 15 to 20 minutes their first game back? Don Nelson? The crazy man starts Ellis and plays him 34 minutes! I’m not 100% positive that this is a good thing or bad thing for owners. I think good, but we’ll have to see how Ellis achilles responds. Either way, Ellis looks good to be back in your starting lineup next week. There were a ton of stats last night. Let’s get to it.

Mike Conley – The Mike Conley showcase is on, and the kid is responding. Conley had 18 points, 4 threes, 6 boards, 4 dimes, and 2 steals last night. He should be picked up in 14 team leagues. If you need a spot starter, Conley might be a nice addition. Read More »

From the LSU roots to the surly attitude to the never-ending “But he’s got POTENTIAL!” argument that will keep him employed well beyond his sell-by date, Tyrus Thomas is more of a Stromile Swift clone than Kobe will ever be an MJ clone. Oh, and there are plays like this from last night’s Bulls/Raptors game…

Going into the fourth quarter of a nip/tuck battle that was the most entertaining game of the night (maybe the year so far), one of the Golden State announcers said: “Darth Vader is playing for Cleveland, but the young Jedi Knight has returned for the Warriors.” If you’re not clear, he was talking about LeBron and Monta Ellis. Making his season debut, Monta — who clearly has been spending a lot of time with his tattoo artist during his ankle rehab — started off somewhat slow, but got stronger (and faster) as the game went on, and by the time he was getting crunch-time buckets in the final minutes, Monta (20 pts) showed he’s gonna be worth every bit of that $66 million contract. Midway through the fourth, Monta ran a give-and-go with Stephen Jackson where he got up and crammed it just like old times, officially ending any doubt as to his health … That particular play seemed to spell the beginning of the end for the Cavs. After Monta’s go-ahead dunk, Cleveland’s next two possessions ended in a 24-second violation and a LeBron air-ball. Read More »

Ten games on Friday’s NBA schedule, with a few interesting story lines. Which one will you be watching?

Phoenix @ Charlotte — Raja Bell and Boris Diaw host their former teammates, while J-Rich returns to his old gym; Shaq goes up against Emeka Okafor.

Dallas @ Detroit — Two teams struggling to find their identity work it out on national TV. A.I., who most people agree shouldn’t be on the All-Star team, goes up against Jason Terry, who is outplaying A.I. but has no chance of suiting up during All-Star Weekend (unless it’s for the Three-Point Shootout).

Houston @ Indiana — Several members of the Pacers are supposed to wear Magnum P.I.-style mustaches. If one of them can convince Yao Ming to start rocking one, it’ll be all worth it. Read More »