If you didn’t watch the standings or check the box scores, you’d think the Orlando Magic were actually struggling.

Halfway through the season, you can pick a negative story line surrounding the defending Eastern Conference champs and somebody, somewhere has already run with it: Dwight not getting the ball enough; Rashard‘s game falling off like he really needs PED’s; missing Hedo and/or Rafer more than they thought; Jameer dealing with more injuries; overpaying Gortat; under-playing Brandon Bass; team meetings regarding Stan Van Gundy‘s infectious negativity … You could even throw celebrity Magic fan Tiger Woods and his status collapse onto a pile that should be screaming “NBA Finals hangover.” Read More »

In case you missed this over the weekend, in the Thunder’s game against the Nuggets on Friday, Kevin Durant decided to put Arron Afflalo in his place. Other than dropping a cool 30 and getting the W, the Durantula blocked Afflalo with only one shoe.

In a lot of ways, Lakers/Celtics shouldn’t have even come down to Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce looking to trade daggers in the final seconds. The Lake Show dominated the first quarter as Andrew Bynum (19 pts, 11 rebs) took ownership of the paint and Kobe (19 pts) hit his typical array of tough shots that he made look easy. Then, after Boston recovered to make it a ballgame, L.A. found themselves down by double-digits in the fourth thanks to Rajon Rondo (21 pts, 12 asts) carving up the defense and Eddie House throwing in some big threes. So the Lakers rallied, and with 45 seconds left, Ron Artest made an awkward runner — yes, you could say all of Ron-Ron’s buckets are awkward — to cut the lead to one. Read More »