Beast of the Night: Dwyane Wade hit up the Celtics with 30 points, 5 boards, 13 dimes, 1 steal and 2 blocks. He hit 2 threes and shot 69 percent (11-16) from the field and 75 percent (6-8) from the line. Wade did have 6 turnovers, but they weren’t enough to weigh down this line. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Kevin Durant continued his hot streak with 33 points, 11 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block and 2 turnovers. He hit a three and shot 50 percent (9-18) from the field and 100 percent (14-14) from the line. Virtually all of his numbers are up this season and he’s managed to hoist up his field goal percentage after a miserable start. Some thought using a No. 4 draft pick on him was bullish, but it’s turning out to be about right. Read More »

Not that he really needed to, but Chris Bosh sealed what will be his fifth straight All-Star selection later tonight with a dominating effort against the Heat on Wednesday. Breaking out the throwback unis from the 1947 Toronto Huskies — oddly enough, a team that was also accused of being soft and not playing defense — the Raptors’ win moved them into fifth-place in the East while Miami dropped to sixth … The Raps were down by 13 in the first half, but rallied and were clinging to a small lead late in the fourth quarter. After Bosh (24 pts, 18 rebs) hit a jumper to put them up by seven, one T-Dot announcer screamed, “The cream rises to the top!” Even when Bosh messed up, it worked for him. Read More »

David Stern knew better than to seriously compete with the NFL conference championships on Sunday, putting only three games on the NBA schedule. And good thing the Vikings lost, because if Brett Favre had made the Super Bowl, the media hype over the next two weeks might lead the NBA to suspend their operation altogether until after the entire world hopped off Favre’s jock. Peyton Manning/Drew Brees — plus some Kim Kardashian sprinkled in — we can deal with; a 24-hour, 14-day Favre love fest would be too much to handle … The Mavs faced the Knicks at MSG, and, well, Dime reader JHUSTLE can explain it best: “Aight Dime the next post has gotta be how my Mavs just destroyed the Knicks by 50. FIFTY POINTS???!!! Woooooooow just burn the Garden to the ground after that one. That team should be ashamed of themselves. That’s a 2K10 score, not a real life NBA game score. SMFH.” … Read More »

With many teams at or past the 41-game halfway mark of the regular 2009-10 NBA season, it’s time to look back at the first half of fantasy basketball and to make some projections about the second half.

Though it’s tough to cover everything in a concise manner, let’s attempt to traverse this broad topic by way of using a simple grading system. The first letter grade after each player’s name will be based on their performance thus far, in addition to how they’ve fallen short of, met or exceeded expectations; and the second grade will be based on their expected value during the second half of the season. Read More »

Beast of the Night: LeBron James crowned the Raptors with 28 points, 9 rebounds, 11 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks. He didn’t hit any threes and had 3 turnovers, but shot a respectable 44 percent (8-18) from the field and 86 percent (12-14) from the free throw line. This was business as usual for the King. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Tyreke Evans had no problem overcoming Charlotte’s defense, finishing with 34 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks and 3 turnovers. He hit 65 percent (13-20) of his shots and 73 percent (8-11) of his free throws. The return of Kevin Martin hasn’t hurt his value much at all so far. Read More »

When they weren’t busy complaining about the refs and conveniently turning their heads whenever the Celtics committed a foul, Boston announcers Tommy Heinsohn and Mike Gorman were actually pretty funny during last night’s Hawks/Celtics game when they turned their attention to slaughtering Jamal Crawford for his, um, less than stellar defense.

In the first half, Heinsohn pointed out that whoever Crawford was guarding was attacking the basket at will. “Well, they should,” Gorman quipped. In the second half, Heinsohn said, “[Crawford] couldn’t guard anything if you gave him a rifle and put him outside Buckingham Palace.” Read More »

Today marked the final balloting update leading to the announcement of the All-Star starters on Thursday, Jan. 21, prior to a TNT doubleheader – and right now, Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson are in the starting lineups. Check out the numbers: Read More »

Beast of the Night: Aaron Brooks held his own against Steve Nash last night, finishing with 34 points, 6 threes, 3 rebounds, 5 dimes, 2 steals and 4 turnovers. He shot 50 percent from the floor (11-22) and hit all six of his free-throw attempts. He’s on a nice little scoring streak right now and has managed to maintain top-75 value so far. Read More »