Dwight Howard (photo. Mannion)
Hedo Turkoglu has been pretty money in crunch-time all year long, but in the playoffs he’s made some eyebrow-raising decisions. Either Hedo was holding the ball too long or he was taking rushed shots; either he wasn’t being aggressive enough in getting the shot he wanted, or he was being too aggressive. […]

LeBron (photo. Mannion)
LeBron James has become pretty good at providing the immortal YouTube moment that also serves as the pivotal moment in a playoff series against the reigning Eastern Conference powerhouse. Last year ‘Bron unleashed THIS bit of cruelty on Rasheed Wallace’s dome on his way to the NBA Finals, then last night he did […]

Photo. Chris Sembrot
Are the Lakers in trouble? Just a few days ago L.A. seemed unbeatable, but now after two straight losses to even up their series with the Jazz and Kobe’s back all of a sudden acting up, you have to wonder about them. Now that the honeymoon is over and the path to the […]

Hanging his head…
Forget about the 66 wins and the postseason blowouts at the Garden; we’re no longer taking the Celtics seriously as championship contenders until they win at least one playoff road game. Losing three in Atlanta to a sub-.500 squad was bad enough, then last night KG and crew got torn apart in Cleveland […]

Carlos Boozer (photo. Jeffrey Salter)
Carlos Boozer returned to the land of the living on Friday, playing his best game in about six weeks and ruining any plans the Lakers had of pulling a “Fo, fo, fo and fo” on the ‘08 postseason. Booz slapped up 27 points and 20 boards as the Jazz handed L.A. […]

Tim Duncan (photo. adidas)
Remember that Nike ad from a few years back when a 5-on-5 run devolved into Paul Pierce and Jermaine O’Neal going 1-on-1 full-court while the other guys just sat on the sideline and watched? That was kind of like what we saw between Chris Paul (35 pts, 9 asts) and Tony Parker […]

We told you so…
Everyone wanted to see what Kobe Bryant would do on the night he was presented with the MVP trophy; one notoriously loud national analyst casually predicted he’d score 50, while others talked about triple-doubles and game-winning buckets for the game’s ultimate big stage performer. After telling his adoring L.A. minions that it […]

Photo. Mannion
One reason everyone has been so geeked since July that the Celtics are a championship contender again is the inevitable feeling of nostalgia. Well, Celtics/Cavs last night was definitely nostalgic; it looked a lot like those awful bump-and-grind Knicks/Heat games from the 1990’s. Paul Pierce only had 4 points on 2-of-14 shooting, Ray Allen […]

Dwight Howard (photo. Mannion)
Right after the final buzzer sounded and the Pistons had taken a 2-0 series lead on the Magic, we got a great camera shot of Stan Van Gundy spewing venom at a referee, screaming “That’s f***ing bulls***!” before storming off to the locker room. He could have been talking about a couple […]

Kobe (photo. Chris Sembrot)
What excuse could the Lakers-haters use after yesterday’s display? Even against a well-coached team that actually plays team defense and doesn’t have any — as far as we know — significant internal locker-room strife or heart/balls issues, the Lakers looked as sharp as ever: Kobe Bryant (38 pts) was unstoppable, Pau Gasol […]

Tyson Chandler (photo. Brandon Sullivan)
Just when you were about to face facts and admit the Hornets weren’t ready to beat the Spurs in the postseason, Chris Paul found his game and led N.O. on a 13-0 run to grab the lead in the second half, then guided the Hornets the rest of the way in […]

Joe Johnson (photo. Zach Wolfe)
The ‘94 Nuggets. The ‘07 Warriors. The ‘08 Hawks? A monumental playoff upset can do a lot to legitimize a franchise and its star player, which is why Joe Johnson (or Josh Smith) is one game away from putting himself on the mainstream map, just like Baron Davis did last year […]

Chauncey Billups (photo. adidas)
If you were pulling for the Sixers to at least make last night’s Game Six interesting, you didn’t want to get an e-mail like the one Jed sent out amongst the Dime crew during the first quarter, the one that read: “I’m not sure if Philly is going to score in this […]

Caron Butler
While Soulja Boy was locked in a room somewhere working on that response diss to Hova and LeBron (because only so many things rhyme with “Youuuuuuuuuu!”), his man DeShawn Stevenson helped extend the Cavs/Wizards series and, of course, extend the NBA’s dumbest feud at the same time … In the first quarter of yesterday’s […]

Standing Tall and Ticked (photo. Mannion)
Cue another summer of the Phoenix Suns (secretly) and their fans (very publicly) blaming the refs and whatever other straws they can grasp onto while trying to come to grips with another heartbreaking playoff exit. You could say last night’s game hinged on a few crucial calls/no-calls, most of which […]