Once we saw the schedule had Denver and Cleveland last night, we set our watches. Ty Lawson. Kyrie Irving. Could it get any better? The matchup never materialized, however, and Lawson is probably thankful for that. He scored just 11 while Irving dropped 26 points and seven assists. But part of that stems from Denver being one of the deepest teams in the league, and Irving being asked to do everything outside of fill his team’s water bottles. Read More »

Amid the ruckus created by Kyrie Irving giving Rajon Rondo 40 points-worth of the business last night Cleveland, was this monster dunk from Alonzo Gee [doing what he does best].
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David Stern dropped a $250,000 fine on San Antonio on Friday afternoon, then said he doesn’t want to talk about it any more. Good luck with that – the topic of what a coach can and can’t do with his team will be white-hot because of mistakes both the league and the Spurs made with Starter-Gate. It’s wrong to meddle with a coach’s team but Gregg Popovich had ways to achieve the same result (resting his four best players) without sending them home on Southwest Airlines without telling the NBA, too. Read More »

The Cavs’ Alonzo Gee finds a seam in the Sun’s defense and makes them pay:

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The NBA season is just warming up, and like everything from Kobe‘s shooting percentages to Marcin Gortat leading the league in blocks, there are bound to be some statistical anomalies occuring out of sheer luck. Yes, sometimes, you can spot trends or improvements in a player’s game before they really happen (or at least get noticed on a larger scale). But five, six or seven games is a VERY small sample, and there are plenty of statistical numbers that are all out of whack through the season’s first two weeks. Read More »

Even if James Harden wasn’t, we all had waited a long time for last night. Both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook didn’t suit up, which meant the Beard would finally get a long-awaited chance to be the no. 1 option versus a top defense like the Bulls. Harden never really wanted this, dating all the way back to the draft when he reportedly actually wanted to be picked by OKC because he could fit in rather than dealing with the pressure of being “the man.” But anyone on the cusp of getting a max contract should be willing to test themselves. It’s safe to say Harden failed this one. Read More »

When I was coming up with a list earlier this week about the coaches most likely to face off, Cleveland coach Byron Scott kept coming to mind. Not because he fit the mold I was looking for — actually, because he’s the opposite. I’m sure he’s not as stoic behind closed doors about the Cavs’ 29-game back finish of their division leader (that tied for second-worst in the league), but he’s about as demonstrative on the sideline as an Easter Island statue. Regardless of strategy, he has maybe the perfect attitude for leading a team still fighting its way up from the bottom. Read More »

Alonzo Gee will be heading back to Cleveland after agreeing to a multi-year contract, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reported today, and that’s not just good for Gee, who could be a full-time starter under Byron Scott this season after opening 31 games in 2011-12. He averaged 10.6 points and 5.1 rebounds per game and played 29 minutes per game, easily the most of his three-year career. It’s wonderful news because if you have even a remote appreciation for dunks, Gee’s are so consistently good they can even light up a dreary Cavs game, as he so often did last season. It’s my sincere hope more playing time will beget a few more highlight-worthy slams this season by Gee. Read More »

Nothing gets us going in the Dime offices like a good ol’ fashioned debate, and the best debates are the ones that get heated. Trying to rate the best dunkers in the league is unanimously impossible. Do you want style? Force? Does a big man get points taken away? If a player is an epic dunker in warm-ups, does that count?

Back in the day, we had Vince Carter and there was no denying what type of dunker he was. But in the current NBA, outside of perhaps one or two guys, you could make a case for anyone. Read More »