As much as John Wall appears to be a lock for the Washington Wizards with the No. 1 pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, Evan Turner has been penciled into the Philadelphia 76ers lineup by almost everybody since the night Philly landed the No. 2 pick in the Lottery.

Not so fast. Soon after the Sixers hired Doug Collins as head coach, talk around the organization was that Collins is a big fan of Derrick Favors, and would seriously consider taking the Georgia Tech freshman over Turner. Read More »

Whatever happened to the days when officials would swallow their whistle?

In the 1980′s, when Boston squared off against L.A., Kurt Rambis was getting clotheslined by Kevin McHale, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was flinging elbows at Larry Bird‘s face, and that was just part of the game. But it seems like ever since Ron Artest and Paul Pierce got tangled up in the opening seconds of the 2010 Lakers/Celtics series, the officials have decided to call every little flop and touch foul. Read More »

The thing about Robert Horry that a lot of people didn’t appreciate: He wasn’t just knocking down one huge shot here or there at random intervals, he could take over an entire fourth quarter of a game by hitting multiple huge shots. As the 2010 version of Big Shot Rob, Derek Fisher reached that next level during the Lakers win over the Celtics in last night’s Game 3 of the NBA Finals … Kobe dominated the majority of a disjointed, ugly game that would have driven some basketball purists to hit the Crown Royal pretty hard, but for the first 10 minutes of the fourth quarter, Kobe couldn’t make a shot. That’s when Fisher (15 pts) took over, scoring 11 in the quarter on a series of fullback-style drives and last-ditch jumpers to beat the shot clock. Read More »

Why the Lakers won: Depth. Contrary to what you may have seen in the second and third quarters, the Lakers are not a one-man show. Kobe Bryant didn’t score for the first 10 minutes of the fourth quarter, but L.A. maintained its lead thanks to Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol (mostly Fisher) hitting big shots. In the first quarter, when Ron Artest sat down with foul trouble, Luke Walton replaced him and surprisingly didn’t get shredded by Paul Pierce. And during the big four-minute run in the first half where L.A. built an ultimately insurmountable 17-point lead, everybody from Shannon Brown to Jordan Farmar to Andrew Bynum got buckets. That’s eight guys who made a positive contribution out of the 10 Lakers who played. Read More »

If you are in the NYC area this Saturday, come by the House of Hoops in Harlem if you want to meet Carmelo Anthony. He’ll be doing a Q&A in the store, and we’ve heard there will be some special stuff going down. Read More »

Last week, when I posted the L.A. Clippers’ summer to-do list, more than a few readers put “Get a new owner” as their No. 1 suggestion. While it’s obvious that current owner Donald Sterling‘s reign of futility has kept the Clips in place as the NBA’s running joke of a franchise, I never even entertained the idea of an ownership change because it was just not realistic — or at least that was the case last week.

According to sources cited by ESPN and the New York Post, the Clippers could be in line for a change at the top, as billionaire entertainment mogul David Geffen (DreamWorks, Geffen Records) is interested in buying 51 percent of the team from Sterling. And should that happen, LeBron James might come as part of the package. Read More »

My New York people will hate me for this, but you can make a solid argument that Los Angeles is really the Mecca of basketball. The Lakers are one of the most popular pro sports franchises on the planet, UCLA has the most national championships in college history, L.A.’s high school powerhouses regularly crank out NBA players, and the playground scene is alive and thriving at spots like Venice Beach and The Hangar. Read More »

It seems like everyone gets up for the big games – even the people that aren’t playing. Enter SportsEnemy, and their new tee for the NBA Finals titled “Boston Massacre.” Available now for a limited time only, we figured we’d also give the Dime fam a chance to win one. Read More »

The story of Kendrick Perkins’ career in Boston may soon change from technical fouls and two-handed dunks into Gold Glove awards and thunderous homeruns. The Boston Red Sox used a sixth-round selection on a Texas A&M commit with the same name in Major League Baseball’s Entry Draft on Tuesday. The 6-2 outfielder, who also hails from Texas, hits for power and has a big frame. It looks like Perkins already has his namesake’s signature scowl down pat.

This game is beyond important. Both teams know playing from behind during the NBA Finals is normally suicidal. History wants to tell us tonight could determine this entire season: in Finals history with the series tied at 1, the Game 3 winner went on to win it all 28 out of 32 times. For L.A., the question is how bad do they really want it? Here are three keys to a Lakers Game 3 victory tonight. Read More »