In April, the Mavs might look back and admit this was the night their season died. Up 21, they blew the lead and then lost after a flurry of insanity doomed them. First, Nic Batum made a completely ridiculous three-pointer to tie it up (dude hadn’t made anything all night). Read More »

Rajon Rondo is one of the best defensive point guards in the NBA. The Boston Celtics, over the past 6-7 years, have been one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. And yet Rondo nor the C’s could do a damn thing with Kyrie Irving last night. On his way to 40 points, Irving dominated the fourth quarter and handed out buckets to the guys in green like they were demo CDs … Read More »

In Tony Parker‘s last three games in Atlanta, he’s scored 33 points a game. Knowing that, can we fault Gregg Popovich for sitting Tim Duncan in the Spurs’ five-point win over the Hawks? Not really, not after seeing San Antonio hold the Hawks down in their 98-93 win. Somehow, even without their best player, the Spurs jumped on the Hawks and led all the way until the third quarter. Read More »

Even after Chris Paul’s right kneecap conspired to scratch Tuesday’s most intriguing point-guard matchup from the schedule — CP3 and the Clippers facing Jeremy Lin and the Rockets — the NBA still delivered a gem by giving us Ty Lawson versus Damian Lillard. In a style clash of playmaker versus scorer, power versus skill, fast versus fearless, the four-year vet Lawson got the best of the rookie Lillard, dropping 24 points and 12 assists as the Nuggets edged the Blazers in overtime. Read More »

Everyone claims they have the answers for the Lakers problems this year. But there’s one that’s stumped Hollywood for over a decade: what to do with Tony Parker. In San Antonio’s wild three-point win over the Lakers, Parker looked like he was running his own pick-n-roll drill, and barely broke a sweat on his way to 24 points and six dimes. The Spurs needed all of that, as they nearly let a 17-point lead slip away before Manu Ginobili (19 points, eight rebounds) hit the biggest shot of the night: a wing triple in the final minute. Read More »

The last time James Harden played against his old team, he had a nightmare game, a half dozen of his shots blocked back into his face. This time, he made his first shot in Kevin Durant‘s face, and was good enough to drop 25 points (still only 9-for-33 shooting against OKC this year). But while the first half played out like a tape from the old And1 video game, the second half became a mismatch, and the Thunder went on to win 124-94. Read More »

The return of Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks’ lineup kicked into overdrive in the fourth quarter. That’s when he and Jason Kidd turned a game between a sluggish New York team and a Denver team that had a hard time missing (56 percent in the game) into another Knicks home win. They’re undefeated at the Garden after the 112-106 win, and sure, you can point to ‘Melo’s 34 points, several of which came in a 17-2 run in the fourth quarter that flipped the script on the Knicks’ fortunes with Rasheed Wallace sitting and unable to provide the same energy. Read More »

The Milwaukee Bucks are a young team that was on the brink of the playoffs last season before falling apart in the stretch run, losing seven of the Bucks’ last 10 games. This year, they’ve again started strong, opening the season at 6-2, before losing their last three. What is causing them to play so hot and cold? The inverse play of Brandon Jennings and Larry Sanders could be the explanation. Read More »

Portland rookie Damian Lillard has started all eight games for his team this season. In those games, he’s played exceptionally well, averaging over 18 points, six assists and a steal per game. It’s only eight games over a long season, but he’s playing well enough to garner the only Rookie of the Year talk that isn’t heaped on Anthony Davis. It’s important to look at things in context: How does Lillard stack up against more established point guards over the last 10 years… specifically, point guards who started when they came into the league, like Lillard is doing now? Read More »

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 »