Before I unveil Game 3’s winners and losers, let’s get one thing straight: the Miami defense, and not Dwyane Wade, closed out that game. Sure, D-Wade knocked down some jump shots, but that’s exactly the point. He took jumpers. For those of you keeping score at home, LeBron went the same route in Game 2, except he missed. So Erik Spoelstra and Dwyane Wade, you are this week’s first official losers. You got lucky this time, but history has proven that end-of-the-shot-clock heaves are not the answer. Read More »

Game 3 of the NBA Finals was pretty much an attempt by the basketball gods to screw with us onlookers. We had finally decided that the Miami Heat were LeBron James‘ team, Chris Bosh was weak sauce and Dirk Nowitzki had more clutch in him than Jeff Gordon‘s NASCAR car. But that all was a cruel trick.

As it turned out, Bosh hits the game winner, and though LeBron made the pretty set-up pass, King James took a lot of flak from the media afterward. Dallas had a good shot to tie it and send the game into overtime, but Nowitzki shot it long and that was that. Read More »

So the Heat won and the Mavs lost. Pretty simple. But if you watched the game closely, some other winners and losers definitely slid into the conversation. So here’s to you, unsung heroes. And losers, try again in Game 2. Read More »

Analyzing Game 1 between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat goes beyond the Xs and Os, past the same storyline many of us predicted before the tip. Were you surprised that it was a game until LeBron James and Dwyane Wade proved too much for Dirk Nowitzki and, well, nobody else?

I think you might have seen that coming. Whatever the case may be, the Twittersphere was blowing up with a lot of insight, smack talk and humorous accounts (for the love of the basketball gods, “Dirk NoRingski” was trending). For the sake of objectivity, here’s a little taste of the Mavs Malice and the Heat Hate – plus a ton of old-guy jokes – via Twitter. Read More »

How does a 7-foot NBA center miss a wide-open dunk? Brendan Haywood shows you how. Come on, B! You’re only 31.

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Do we need to say anything else? I didn’t think so.

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On Twitter a couple weeks ago, WFAN Radio’s (New York) Evan Roberts tweeted a suggestion that as part of the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement, each team should be allowed to void one bad contract. I thought that was an interesting idea, and did some research, and here is one contract each NBA team would probably like to void: Read More »

In one of the most storied rivalries in sports, Duke and North Carolina played last night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, in what turned out to be a great game. For a collegiate clash that date’s all the way back to 1920, Duke got their 100th win in the all-time series, although UNC still leads 130-100. With everyone still buzzing about Tobacco Road this morning, we decided to ponder what an alumni game with current NBA players would look like today. Read More »

For about an hour, it looked like Tuesday would be the night that sparked 1,000 TV features and Internet columns about how the tides are changing in L.A., and the Clippers are seriously challenging the Lakers for local supremacy. The Clippers were outplaying the Mavs in the first half of a huge road game, while the Lakers had a dangerous Utah team on the schedule. The stage was set. But by the end of the night, status quo had been maintained … Read More »

As the NBA regular season approaches, we preview the upcoming campaign with the “Highs and Lows” system — predicting the respective ceiling and basement for each team.

Added: Tyson Chandler, Dominique Jones, Steve Novak, Ian Mahinmi, Brian Cardinal, Alexis Ajinca

Lost: Erick Dampier, Tim Thomas, Ed Najera, Matt Carroll Read More »