There was a moment during last night’s Celtics/Wizards game when Rajon Rondo picked up his second foul late in the second half and Eddie House bounced off the bench to ask Doc Rivers if he should go in for Rondo. TNT’s Mike Fratello praised House for being in-tune enough to realize the dangers of Rondo picking up his third foul before halftime, but Marv Albert (more correctly, I think) speculated House just wanted to get in and get some more shots up.

On the flip side, midway through the second quarter of Jazz/Magic, Rashard Lewis was summoned off the bench by Stan Van Gundy to go in and said, “Nah, I’m good.” (Or something like that.) Read More »

Beast of the Night: Deron Williams dissected Orlando’s defense and notched 32 points, 8 rebounds, 15 assists, 1 steal and just 1 turnover. He hit 2 threes, shot 50 percent (9-18) from the field and 80 percent (12-15) from the free throw line. Williams’ free throw percentage (74 percent) has kept him from the top-15 value that many thought he would have on draft day but you won’t hear his owners complaining about that. Read More »

Kevin McHale is old school. He comes from the era when the Bad Boys could be bullies, hand-checking wasn’t invented yet and David Stern wouldn’t throw out a five or six-digit fine every time a little scuffle would arise. After LeBron James started to riverdance on the sidelines during the Cavs blowout against the Bulls last week, Joakim Noah took exception. Read More »

The injury bug hit the NBA especially hard this season. From Antawn Jamison to Jameer Nelson to now Greg Oden, it seems every other day, another big name player gets hurt and is forced to miss a month, two months or even the season. But whenever someone goes down, an opportunity arises for someone else. We saw it last year when Rafer Alston stepped in for Jameer. Read More »

Sam Cassell can stay, but if Flip Saunders is going to turn these Wizards around, he needs to clean house with the rest of his assistants and bring in the likes of Coach Carter, Joe Clark from Lean on Me, Gene Hackman, Bobby Knight and Mike Ditka. Basically, coaches who won’t take any nonsense and won’t accept some of the iron-headed decisions the players are making. The Wizards had a chance to beat the Celtics last night and stay undefeated in national TV games this season, but they gave it away with their own curious choices … Read More »

It was just last April when the Chicago Bulls were pushing the defending champion Celtics to the limit during the first round of the 2009 Playoffs. Though they lost in seven games, the Bulls were looking like a team on the rise and Derrick Rose was looking like the league’s next superstar. Not even seven months later, the Bulls are a mediocre team that’s six games under .500. They’ve dropped 9 of their last 10 games, seven of those losses have been by 10 or more points. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Kobe Bryant had a nice overall line last night, finishing with 27 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 2 turnovers. He hit 1 three and shot 53 percent (10-19) from the floor and 75 percent (6-8) from the line. Kobe has been taking fewer shots since Pau Gasol returned to the starting lineup but he’s also handing out more assists since then. The Black Mamba remains one of the superior fantasy killers out there. Read More »

As EA Sports and 2K Sports scramble to produce the most realistic NBA video game it is important to remember where we came from. In the early 90s Midway developed their NBA video game franchise, NBA Jam. The games were 2 on 2 and pitted the NBA’s best (with the exception of His Airness) against one another. Even though you couldn’t play with the best player in the world, the proper cheat codes allowed you to play as Vice President Gore and President Clinton. NBA Jam included some of the best basketball sayings of the era such as, Boom-shaka-laka, Slam-a-jamma, From Downtown and most famously He’s On Fire. The ridiculous dunks and on court hot spots didn’t make the game realistic but it made the Stockton-Malone connection all the more entertaining.

We argue. You decide.

GILBERT ARENAS (by Austin Burton) I wonder if Gilbert Arenas watches Warriors games — because Gilbert actually does spend his free time following the rest of the League — and sees traces of himself in the form of Monta Ellis. It makes sense. Both are quick and vicious scoring guards who play the point mainly out of necessity. Both are occasionally misunderstood, often criticized, and always overachieving; two second-round picks who weren’t supposed to cash eight figures a year as the face of anybody’s franchise. Read More »

Calling a player from the New Jersey Nets an All-Star is like calling The Real World/Road Road Rules Challenge a Golden Globe award-winning show. But even though the Nets are the league’s doormat, Brooke Lopez has been having a solid season and is making a good case on why he deserves All-Star consideration. Read More »