They said they were going to stop the game in New Orleans once Kobe Bryant hit 30,000 career points. He did that just before the end of the first half, going off the dribble and hitting a running floater over Robin Lopez. But the game never ceased, and Bryant – fittingly, as always – didn’t stop either. He hit three more free throws in the final minute of the half to add to his total. The 30,000-point club also includes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. How would you rate that five? Read More »

Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Danny Green weren’t in Miami for Thursday’s nationally televised game. After 36 minutes of the big, bad Heat playing neck-and-neck with the Spurs’ second unit, the Heat’s biggest star showed up in a big way to stop the messing around. LeBron James wasn’t a miracle worker all night — ESPN reported San Antonio’s motley crew outscored Miami by one in LeBron’s 39 minutes of PT — but in the final eight minutes he was like a conductor. Read More »

The Knicks rarely found themselves on the losing end of the turnover battle in their undefeated start to this season. They also never had someone so thoroughly at ease against their defense until Chandler Parsons‘ first half Friday. The Rockets forward upended the Jeremy Lin vs. Knicks/Raymond Felton narrative when he didn’t miss in the first quarter, knocking down his first eight shots en route to 26 points — in the first half. The Rockets torched the Knicks’ defense that had been at or near the top of league statistics for the season’s first two weeks for 131 points in a 28-point win. Read More »

Every now and then, we could all use a reminder that this basketball thing isn’t as complicated as we think. Last night’s national TV showdown between the Thunder and Clippers was one of those reminders. Sure, we could get all Hubie Brown-ish and meticulously pick apart and break down every little subtlety, but the game ultimately came down to this: Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were better than everybody else when it mattered most … Matt Barnes of all people sparked L.A.’s fourth-quarter rally to force overtime, but then KD and Russ took over the extra session and won it for OKC. Read More »

In February of 2005, the Philadelphia 76ers made what was thought to be a blockbuster deal when they acquired Chris Webber from the Sacramento Kings. It was their last effort to pair Allen Iverson an All-Star-caliber player. The Sixers failed to do so in prior attempts with guys like Glenn Robinson, Toni Kukoc and even Dikembe Mutombo (although they had to make that deal and every Sixers fan knows why). C-Webb was 30 years old and only played in 23 games in the season prior due to knee injuries. Read More »

We don’t often lead Smack with the Pacers, but what transpired in Atlanta last night was too depressing not to. We found out yesterday morning that Danny Granger is now going to miss three months of action, and for Indiana, that’s a major loss. It showed in a 89-86 loss to the Hawks. After going up 14 in the fourth quarter, the Pacers’ offensive rhythm made us want to cry. They were more of a mess than Romney‘s campaign strategy. Read More »

About a week ago, I was watching NBATV’s “Open Court” program when Shaquille O’Neal was asked about Dwight Howard. Astute NBA fans know all about the ongoing “feud” — if we must call it that — between O’Neal and Howard, and so it came as no surprise that Shaq unleashed a torrent of criticism toward the freshly anointed Laker. He claimed Robin Lopez was better than Howard, then quickly corrected that to twin brother Brook Lopez — a rare analytical double fault. Furious, I turned the show off. Read More »

As far as scintillating debuts go, James Harden’s first game with the Rockets fell somewhere between Cam Newton in Carolina and The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. Everything the Rockets could have envisioned when they traded for Harden and inked him to an $80 million deal, he put on display Tuesday: Harden had six rebounds, 12 assists, four steals and a block, and he dropped 37 points in a win over Detroit, shattering the Rockets’ franchise record for most points in a debut … Read More »

Do positions even matter anymore? They feel arbitrary. Shooting guards and small forwards should be wings or swingmen. Power forwards and centers should just be bigs. Most of the time, those are the terms people within the sport use. But for fans and the media, having specific one through five positions help to make sense of it all. Read More »

After acquiring Andre Iguodala this summer, everyone is annointing the Nuggets as the West’s biggest sleeper, and surprisingly, a candidate to earn a No. 1 seed in the West. Even though I’m a huge fan of their overly-aggressive offense, and now with Iggy, a hopefully halfway decent defense, I don’t believe they’re finishing with the best record in the entire Western Conference. Read More »