The Hawks should have known Dwyane Wade wasn’t gonna have two bad playoff games in a row. After being held to 19 points in Miami’s ugly Game 1 loss, Wade came out last night with the Terminator scope on, and ATL didn’t help their cause by giving him some wide-open shots. In the second quarter Wade (33 pts, 7 asts, 6 threes) went on a run where he scored 13 straight points in three minutes, hitting up Flip Murray and Mo Evans for buckets. Read More »

This was supposed to be Jordan Farmar‘s season to shine. Having earned some decent playoff and Finals experience in ’08, the third-year pro would conceivably establish himself as a quality NBA point guard in ’09, maybe even steal Derek Fisher‘s starting job by midseason, and set himself up for a long-term contract extension at the beginning of next season.

Didn’t work out that way. Bothered by injuries and inconsistency, Farmar’s numbers dropped across the board. Read More »

We at the Dime factory would like to say big ups to Derrick Rose for winning the NBA’s Rookie of the Year honors. Read More »

Yesterday I hit up the T-mobile Sidekick Launch Party. Last year’s party was the THE party to be at so you know I was looking forward to ths one. Read More »

When John Calipari decided to leave Memphis for Kentucky, he was doing so realizing that there was a possibility that his superstar-studded recruiting class wouldn’t remain intact. He retained top big man DeMarcus Cousins right away, getting him to sign with the Wildcats. But it looks like he’s going to fall to Bill Self with premier wing, Xavier Henry.

However, his loss of Henry wouldn’t be the end of the world for UK nation if he can pull the superstar of the Nike Hoops Summit, John Wall, on board. Read More »

When Smack reader “SwedishMooze” suggested that Andre Iguodala‘s game-winner against Orlando the other night doubled as a big F-U to Sixers coach Tony DiLeo — who’d called timeout when Iguodala had the ball where he wanted it a few seconds earlier and may have drawn up a different play than “Andre iso on Hedo” — I asked the biggest Sixers fan I know, Dime’s Pat Cassidy, who he wants coaching his team next year. Read More »

There’s one aspect of Tracy McGrady‘s comments about the Cavs not having what it takes that didn’t even register with a lot of people. He said that he thought the Lakers were gonna win the ‘chip, barely entertaining the idea that his own team could go the whole way. Here’s how Ron Artest responded when radio show host Carmichael Dave read T-Mac’s comments… Read More »

Today is one of the saddest days of the year. Not because of the weather, or the fact that I had to re-up on my $81 monthly Metro Card, but because Dikembe Mutombo‘s career-ending injury signifies the end of an era. Bigger than the game, take a look back on Deke’s life.

Is Mutombo a first-ballot Hall of Famer?

Remember Chris Paul‘s first two playoff games last year? 33.5 points, 13.5 assists, 3.5 steals per game. As solid as his 21-point, 11-assist, 2-steal game was in Game 1 against Denver, it wasn’t the same as what he did to Jason Kidd last year. And Byron Scott thinks he knows why Paul wasn’t as dominant: because Dahntay Jones was dancing that fine line between playing him hard and playing him dirty. Read More »

We stopped by the NBA Store yesterday (52nd & 5th), where Coach Mike Krzyzewski told stories from his book, “The Gold Standard: Building a World-Class Team” (in stores now) about USA Basketball’s three-year commitment leading up to winning the gold in Beijing. After reading some excerpts to a group of students through the NBA Cares program, Coach K told some great stories about Team USA’s preparation – what he calls “team-building” – to win gold. Read More »