With a front-row seat to watch Vince Carter torch the Hornets for 48 points last night, TNT’s Reggie Miller might have had a flashback. On Nov. 28, 1992, Reggie dumped 57 points on the Hornets — 43 over the second and third quarters — along with eight assists, five boards, one steal, and zero turnovers. You want efficiency? He did it on only 29 FG attempts, and hit 21-of-23 from the line.

Beast of the Night: Jason Terry torched the Warriors with 36 points, 6 threes, 6 rebounds, 9 assists and 3 steals. He shot 53 percent (9-17) from the floor, 92 percent (12-13) from the free throw line and had 3 turnovers. As the TNT crew noted, it’s not surprising that this came against the crew from Oakland, but the Jet’s fantasy owners probably don’t care how he got this magnificent line. Read More »

OK, so it’s safe to say Vince Carter is back. After a terrible month of January that would’ve made bigger headlines had the Magic had been losing, Vince ran off two straight 20-point games over Super Bowl weekend, then last night he exploded on the Hornets like Shane Diesel at a cougar convention … Vince got going early, scoring seven of Orlando’s first 12 points after tip-off, but was fairly quiet the rest of the first half as the Magic got picked apart by Darren Collison (27 pts, 9 asts, 4 stls) and David West (27 pts) and gave up 70 points by halftime. The defense tightened up in the second half, though, and Vince went nuts. He finished with 48 points, six threes and zero dunks. Read More »

Weekend Wonder: LeBron James dropped some jaws with his 47 points, 6 threes, 8 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 steals on Saturday. He had 5 turnovers, but shot 55 percent (17-31) from the field and 100 percent (7-7) from the free throw line. It’s tough not to take him for granted. Read More »

Call it a motivational tactic or simply of moment of brutal honesty, but Doc Rivers delivered what had to be a sobering blow for the Celtics yesterday: “One of the guys said, ‘We’re better than Orlando,’ and I said, ‘No, you’re not. They knocked you out of the playoffs last year.’ Orlando is better than us right now. Atlanta is better than us right now. L.A. is better than us right now.” (Notice how he didn’t include Cleveland, though.) … That quote was following Boston’s decisive loss to the Magic, one of just two NBA games on Super Bowl Sunday. Read More »

Why would LeBron want to join the Knicks when he has such a good time destroying them? Hosting NY last night, ‘Bron turned in another “I own these fools” performance, dropping 47 points (17-31 FG), six threes, eight boards, eight dimes and five steals. Whoever Mike D’Antoni threw at him — Wilson Chandler, Jordan Hill, Jared Jeffries, Jake Sully, Jigsaw, etc. — got their eyebrows singed with a steady stream of jumpers. During one stretch in the first half LeBron scored 24 straight points. For anybody who still claims LeBron is limited to putting his head down and bull-rushing his way to the rim, watch this game … Read More »

Less than a minute to go in Orlando, the Wizards were up one with the ball. And as one of the Magic announcers put it, “Their body language is such that they don’t believe they’re really here.” In other words, the Wizards were acting like they knew they were going to somehow blow the game. As if on cue, they committed a turnover, and a couple possessions later, Rashard Lewis stuck a corner three to put Orlando up one with four seconds left. Given all that’s happened to the Wizards this year, you’d think they might as well just go home at that point, but this time they had one reason to stay optimistic: Caron Butler … Read More »

In the final seconds of the fourth quarter of last night’s Sixers/Bulls game, Philly was down one with the ball. Allen Iverson was not in the building, as he was home dealing with a family illness. Elton Brand and Andre Iguodala, respectively, were having perhaps their best games of the season.

But even I’ve seen enough Sixers games to know what every Philly fan was fearing most: Lou Williams was going to take it upon his shoulders to lose this game. 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 »

Ranking the League from worst to first…

30. New Jersey Nets (4-42) Last week: Beat L.A. Clippers; lost to Washington; lost to Philadelphia. With Kris Humphries being able to step in and immediately become Jersey’s second-best big man, is that a credit to Humphries’ talent or an indictment of the team’s lack of talent? We’ll go with “B.”

29. Los Angeles Clippers (20-27) Last week: Lost at New Jersey; lost at Minnesota; lost at Cleveland. Technically, they could have had a worse week. At least the players’ paychecks didn’t bounce. Read More »