At some point during the fourth quarter, as the Hawks were getting all they could handle from the Rockets and seemed on the verge of their first home loss of the season, Dominique Wilkins said the same thing you’re gonna hear from a bunch of opposing team announcers about the Rockets this year: “This is a GOOD basketball team!” in a surprised tone … In what might have been the most entertaining finish of the year, Houston went up by seven midway through the fourth when Aaron Brooks dusted Joe Johnson on a crossover/hesitation along the baseline for a layup. Read More »
Newsday is reporting that the Knicks have apparently decided not to offer Allen Iverson a contract. A source close to the Knicks told beat writer Alan Hahn that management had a lot of interest in the former All-Star but decided to pass. The Knicks’ record currently sits at 2-9 and are second to last in the Eastern Conference. With point guard Chris Duhon struggling, acquiring Iverson would not only fill a need but would bring back excitement to the Garden. We at the Dime office are strong advocates of A.I. being a Knick, so we are hoping the rumor isn’t true.
What a difference a year makes. After replacing the disgraced Stephon Marbury last year, Chris Duhon was looking like the stable point guard the New York Knicks had been missing all those years. Critics raved about how well he fit in with Mike D’Antoni’s run-and-gun offense and there was even a point last season when people were talking about Duhon potentially being an All-Star. Through 10 games, the Knicks were at 6-4 and Duhon was averaging 9 ppg and 7.4 assists. Just 365 days later, the Knicks are 1-9 and Duhon has been by far the team’s the biggest disappointment. Read More »
Ten days ago on Halloween night, New York Knicks fans walked into Madison Square Garden with their usual annual optimism and excitement. The sold out crowd roared and cheered like it was the playoffs, especially after the Knicks put on a spirited fourth quarter comeback against the Sixers that forced overtime. Then once again, the Knicks ruined the moment by getting blown out in OT. Read More »
Erick Dampier was almost the headline photo for today’s Smack. Seriously. In the late stages of the fourth quarter of Mavs/Hornets, Damp (16 pts, 14 rebs, 3 blks) was the most clutch player in the building, getting a putback off a Dirk Nowitzki miss to break a tie, catching an alley-oop from Jason Kidd on the next possession, then scoring on another tip-in with 16 seconds left. That should’ve been the dagger, but Dallas killed themselves at the free-throw line in the final seconds: Jason Terry missed one after Chris Paul got T’d up for arguing a push-off call (CP had pushed off on J.J. Barea like 3-4 times in the fourth, but didn’t get called for it until what looked like N.O.’s last-chance possession), then Barea missed two freebies to keep the Hornets alive. Read More »
The worst part about preseason polls is that voters adopt a loyalty to those pre-determined spots even after the season shows us some of those picks were just wrong. College football gets it the worst, but the same often applies for the NBA; the only saving grace is that, at the end of the day, voter opinion doesn’t matter because the NBA has a playoff.
That said, we ignored making a preseason NBA Hit List power ranking, so as not to influence this first week’s edition. Counting down from worst to first… Read More »
Breaking down the first-week performances of the serious 2010 title contenders, Spurs announcer Sean Elliott messed up his words and said the Lakers took an “old-fashioned butt cooking” from the Mavs on Friday night. As it turns out, that was the best way to describe what the Spurs were about to do to the Kings on Saturday … Despite Sacramento starting probably the worst frontcourt in the League (Jason Thompson, Sean May, Desmond Mason), it was one of those nights where Tim Duncan didn’t have to do much and could let the smaller guys go to work. Read More »
At this point, Coach K and the Duke Blue Devils are in that elite class of college programs who can pretty much pick and choose who they want to play for them rather than ever “settling” for certain recruits. But even then, it’s not so easy putting together a powerhouse.
For the majority of this decade, Duke hasn’t had the best luck with five-star high school point guards. Read More »
Light schedule of only four NBA preseason games on a day where the biggest (rumored) news was that the replacement refs probably won’t make it to the regular season due to the League being close to an agreement with the union guys. We hit on this a little bit yesterday, but it’s funny how so many media and fans are bashing the replacements as if they’ve been so much worse than the regulars. We even heard one TV talking head praise the return of the “real” refs, because the ones they’ve had in the preseason are obviously fake refs. How long will it take for NBA players to start complaining about every call again and for the rest of us to remember we thought the “real” refs stunk at their jobs, too? About 24 minutes into the first game? … Read More »
Now that we’ve covered late-rounders who will help fill in your teams’ scoring and rebounding weaknesses, let’s move on to assists. Again, these are players who will likely be available in the later rounds of most fantasy drafts but could offer good value in this specific statistical category and are not listed in any specific order. Read on, respond and let us know if you’d remove or add someone to this list. Read More »
