Think there’s any beef between Ron Artest and Trevor Ariza? While the Rockets were in town last night, Ariza lost his shoe and rather than leaving it in its place, Artest grabbed it and threw it off the floor. You can see Trev just standing there, wondering what just happened. Think he was jealous that Ariza got his ring before the game?

If the Nuggets were aware that the majority of NBA experts had kind of written them off as a legit championship contender going into this season — mainly because they hadn’t made any major moves over the summer — last night’s Hulk-Smash of the Lakers on national TV was a definite statement win. Carmelo dropped 25 points in just 29 minutes on L.A.’s shiny new Ron Artest acquisition, as the Nuggets turned a close game at halftime into a rout when they held the Lakers to EIGHT points in the third quarter. By the fourth, J.R. Smith (he’s not “Earl” anymore) was dropping threes and annoyingly twisting the knife in a way only J.R. Smith can. Glad to see he’s officially back … Read More »

Without Stephen Jackson or Ron Artest, with Shaq biting his tongue about Dwight Howard and the Washington Wizards officially swagless, the NBA had little trash talk last night. Hopefully with 16 games on the schedule tonight, including an Orlando/Cleveland showdown, there will be plenty of talk for tomorrow’s Reebok Still Talkin’ Quote of the Day. For today we go international and turn to the Israeli media and prep to Europe player Jeremy Tyler. We all know that Jeremy Tyler took the Brandon Jennings route (albeit for different reasons) to Europe and opted to forgo his senior year of high school to go pro. Thus far his European adventure has been less than impressive and according to Ze’ev Avrahmi (courtesy of Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis) the team is growing sick of Tyler. Read More »

It’s too easy to start rolling out predictions and watch lists two weeks into the season. Unlike football, where two weeks means you’ve only played two games, two weeks of the NBA translates to almost 10 games, a good enough sample for most to gauge how a guy is going to play for the next 7-8 months. That’s why Steve Nash, Carmelo and Kobe are already running an MVP race, Brandon Jennings is running away with R.O.Y., and Ron Artest and LeBron are vying for Defensive Player of the Year.

So if he isn’t already on the ballot, here’s my early vote for Luol Deng as the NBA’s Most Improved Player. Read More »

For the Reebok Still Talkin’ Quote of the Day series the trash talk as been somewhat uninspired. With the exception of Ron Artest and Shaq, most NBA players have been holding their tongue during interviews. The Paul-Rondo saga had the makings to be great, but both players refused to air their grievances in public. Maybe it is because it’s early in the season and a lot can happen or maybe the players are afraid David Stern will (Stephen) Jack part of their paycheck. Even our go to guy, Rasheed Wallace, have been suspiciously politically correct. Well, when the players aren’t giving us ammo we have to turn to their representation. For today’s quote of the day will turn to Stephen Jackson’s agent Mark Stevens. Read More »

Arguably the most controversial man in the NBA, has returned to our Reebok Still Talkin’ Quote of the Day. Last night was the much anticipated return of Ron Artest to the Toyota Center. Leading up to the game Trevor Ariza and Artest both shared their displeasure with free agency (Ariza described it as cut throat, Artest said the Rockets cost him more than $20,000) but deep down we all hoped the fireworks would happen on the court. Artest and Ariza didn’t disappoint each earning technical fouls 2:49 into the game. According to Ariza, Artest was reaching for his neck but Artest had his own interpretation of what happened. 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 »

Five matchups to watch on Wednesday’s 10-game schedule…

Detroit at Toronto: Pistons’ frontcourt vs. Chris Bosh Previously known as three of the Seven Dwarfs’ cousins, Ben Wallace (Buffy), Chris Wilcox (Lazy) and Kwame Brown (Fumbly) earned their money Tuesday by taking Dwight Howard completely out of Detroit’s upset win over Orlando. Read More »

Eight days into the NBA season is always a good time for overreaction. It’s not that it’s too early to make observations — e.g., I don’t think it’s going out on a limb to predict a monster year for Carmelo Anthony right now — but it is too early to put the tombstone on some players who aren’t starting out so hot.

Players like Russell Westbrook. Over the summer, I was the main one leading the charge in the Dime office over Westbrook, insisting he’d blow up this year like Deron Williams blew up in his second pro season. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Dirk Nowitzki was an absolute animal last night, putting up 40 points on 55 percent (12-22) shooting from the field and 94 percent (15-16) from the line, chipping in a three-pointer along with 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 5 blocks and no turnovers. He scored 29 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter, playing like Mehmet Okur bad-mouthed David Hasselhoff. You can’t get much better than this in fantasy ball and Diggler is in for a great year. Read More »