Contrary to what Chris Webber said last night, the Celtics are not going to win the 2010 championship because they picked up Rasheed Wallace. While ‘Sheed will definitely play a role, Boston isn’t winning jack (or Larry) unless Paul Pierce performs up to Paul Pierce standards. Last night was vintage Truth, as Boston downed the Cavs in the opening game of the new season, a rare home loss for Cleveland. With a little over a minute remaining in the fourth and the Celtics up by four, Pierce (23 pts, 11 rebs) ran a pick-and-roll with KG near midcourt against LeBron and Shaq. Advantage: Boston. Shaq reached, Pierce teached, then stuck a jumper from the top of the key that was essentially the dagger. Read More »
Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — previewing the NBA season by predicting the respective ceiling and basement for each team. Same theme, different season…
The Big Three had the night off Tuesday (as did Mike Sweetney, so maybe that’s like The Big Five), leaving Rajon Rondo and Rasheed Wallace to carry the load in the Celtics’ win over the Nets. ‘Sheed posted 20 points and nine boards before tweaking his ankle in the third quarter, taking turns shooting Yi Jianlian’s face off and beasting Ed Najera in the post; Rondo had 18 points and 13 dimes and took over in the fourth quarter. Big Baby helped seal the W by showing some vertical and swatting Courtney Lee on one of NJ’s last possessions, then getting a key offensive board on a Rondo missed FT in the final seconds. Read More »
When the NBA season gets underway, nobody has a longer list of scheduled ass-bustings on his calendar than Mario Chalmers. And not in the sense of getting lit up — more like dishing it out. All summer long, it seemed every out-of-work PG either brought up Miami as a possible destination (or the media did it for them), as if Chalmers would be a small obstacle in their taking a starting job next to D-Wade in the Heat backcourt. If and when those guys get signed, and just to the public in general, Chalmers will get to show them why Pat Riley wasn’t interested. And now you can add Rafer Alston to that list. Read More »
This will get the LeBron haters’ blood pressure up. The Orlando Sentinel polled 11 “NBA experts” (a.k.a. media) to handicap the Eastern Conference for next season, and the Cavs were given the No. 1 spot. The Celtics ranked second, and Orlando third. Apparently replacing Hedo Turkoglu and Courtney Lee with Vince Carter and Matt Barnes was seen as a step backwards for the Magic, while a healthy Kevin Garnett and the addition of Shaq helped pushed Boston and Cleveland to the top … Read More »
Nobody on this magazine/website’s staff is dumb. We’ve been at this game for years now, and believe we have a pretty good read on the pulse of both the industry and the fans. So we knew that by populating the site with several posts yesterday that were directly or indirectly about LeBron James, there would be some heavy backlash from some readers. But the level of some of the hating was crazy … Over the weekend, Dime’s Aron Phillips went to a Nike media summit/sneaker launch in Akron, Ohio, dedicated to LeBron, so naturally he returned Monday with tons of photos and stories. And naturally, not everybody was a fan. But before you accuse Dime of turning into a vehicle for LeBron, consider this: Read More »
Dating back to the failed ‘09 deadline trade that was supposed to send Tyson Chandler to Oklahoma City for a package headlined by Chris Wilcox, every rumored deal we heard involving Chandler had the Hornets getting short-changed. Names like Rasho Nesterovic and Didn’t You Used To Be Ben Wallace were among those being thrown around, but if the trade that was reported last night to be close to happening actually goes through, the Hornets would be big winners. The rumor has Emeka Okafor headed to New Orleans in a trade for Chandler, and last time we checked, several sources are saying it’s just about complete … Read More »
Does anybody want to play for Team USA anymore? The list of guys who have dropped out of this year’s USA Basketball mini-camp (which starts tomorrow) was already getting long — Brandon Roy, David Lee, David West, Big Baby Davis, Andrew Bynum and LaMarcus Aldridge among them — and then yesterday a couple more confirmed they won’t be participating: Read More »
Whatever you hear coming out of Las Vegas today, don’t believe Anthony Morrow if he says he wasn’t gunning to break teammate Anthony Randolph’s summer-league scoring record. A couple days after Randolph dropped 42 points in a game for the Warriors, Morrow went Desperado on the Hornets — in a game Randolph was sitting out — sniping them for 47 points (18-26 FG, 7-9 3PA) to take his spot in the record books. (Not that they keep an actual book of VSL records; it’s probably scribbled on the back of a racing form.) Morrow had zero assists … And it’s nice to know Nellie will reward Morrow by benching him for two straight weeks once the season starts in favor of Rob Kurz … Thursday’s big matchup pitted Blake Griffin versus Hasheem Thabeet. Read More »
So is it OK for Shawn Marion to be good again? As the centerpiece of a complicated four-team trade that went down last night, Marion is (pending League approval) headed to Dallas, where he’ll continue his tradition of being paired with an elite point guard who can make him look like a Top-20 NBA player. First it was Steph in his prime, then Steve Nash in his prime, and now Jason Kidd (at the end of the road). We still haven’t been able to figure out just how good Marion is without the assists/assistance of an All-Star PG — here’s where the Raptors fans try to sell Jose Calderon as an All-Star — and even the stints with Miami and Toronto where his production fell off could be chalked up to not having enough time to blend into their system or not being in the right system. Read More »
