With all the buzz surrounding the Celtics victory last night in Miami and highlights of Rajon Rondo‘s dunk everywhere — as well as the basketball world just killing Chris Bosh — we wanted to examine how that play developed last night in the first quarter. While Bosh was victimized, as he did not protect the rim this play had trouble written on it from the start for the Heat: Read More »

Buy Low: Al Jefferson: His averages aren’t that bad, but the downer for Jefferson’s owners so far this season has been his inconsistency. For a guy who was most likely picked in the top 25 of most drafts, he’s been more than a bit disappointing. Chalk it up to a completely new situation in Utah. The good signs are that he’s averaging nearly 38 minutes a night, rebounding and blocking shots relatively well, and is shooting 78 percent from the line, up from a miserable 68 percent last season. The consistency will come soon enough for Jefferson, who should be fine going forward. Read More »

After a sophomore campaign that included a first-time All-Star nod and a second consecutive trip to the playoffs, Derrick Rose entered the 2010-11 season a fringe superstar at only 22 years old. Never one to be complacent with minimal success, Rose set his goals high this year. As high as MVP of the League. And with the amount of work that he put in every single day this past offseason, it looks like the NBA’s elite better watch their backs. Read More »

It’s been a huge week for Michael Beasley. How big? Try 42 points and nine rebounds in Wednesday night’s win in Sacramento. With that, we figured we’d drop the behind the scenes video of Beasley’s photo shoot for Dime #60. For the Bravo fans out there, you might recognize the interior as the home of Robert and Cortney Novogratz from the show 9 By Design. Check it out.

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Don’t say we didn’t warn you… NYC-based Mick Boogie, known for his eclectic DJ sets and amazing mixtapes, is also an avid basketball fan and a video game junkie. With the recent return of the classic 90’s arcade game NBA JAM (now refreshed and remixed for 2010), Mick was inspired to put together a mixtape of classic and rare 90s remixes that serve as the soundtrack to where we were back in the day. Being that NBA JAM dropped in 1993… Mick’s decision to call the mix ’93 ‘Til Infinity was the only appropriate choice. Check it out after the jump. Read More »

Yesterday afternoon, the New Jersey Nets announced that for the 2011-12 NBA season, they would be entering into a single affiliate partnership with the D-League’s Springfield Armor. What this means is that the Nets will have total control of the basketball operations for the Armor, while the current local ownership would be in charge of selling tickets, sponsorships and reaching out in the community. Within this framework, the Nets would draft the Armor’s players in the D-League Draft, would decide who to sign to the roster and would also appoint the Armor’s front office and coaching staffs. There is only one other affiliation like this currently in the NBA, as the Rio Grande Valley Vipers are a single affiliate for the Houston Rockets. Read More »

It was just one sequence of bricks and boards, but it adequately summed up Thursday night for the Miami Heat and the third part of their “Big Three.” As the Celtics played volleyball off the backboard with each other while going for a loose rebound, TNT’s Reggie Miller asked: “Where is Chris Bosh? Where is Chris Bosh in all this?”

For the second time, Bosh came up short against the one team for which these Heat absolutely need him to be tall. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Luol Deng put up 26 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks and hit 2 threes in a blowout victory over the Warriors last night. He shot 47 percent (9-19) from the field and 86 percent (6-7) from the free-throw line. Deng has been solid for his fantasy owners so far this season, but he remains a good sell-high candidate, since Carlos Boozer’s return later this month will dent Deng’s stats. Read More »

As one of the Dime fam texted me last night, “Maybe it’s just the Big Two.”

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Round 2 of Heat/Celtics was such an accurate reenactment of Round 1 (Opening Night), we were waiting for Bill Murray to walk out to midcourt and casually swipe LeBron’s headband off his dome without LBJ noticing. Once again, the Celtics executed with ruthless precision as Ray Allen rained jumpers (35 pts, 7-9 3PA) and Rajon Rondo (8 pts, 16 asts) controlled the rock like Nino Brown. Once again, D-Wade (8 pts, 2-12 FG, 6 TO’s) couldn’t hit the side of Dexter Pittman, and Chris Bosh (15 pts, 7 rebs) was systematically beaten into invisibility. Read More »