I can’t resist season preview magazines. NBA, NFL, college, MLB, I’m a sucker for those thick annual issues that I’ll pore through in a couple of sittings before the season, then rarely open during the season. (Speaking of, keep an eye out for Dime #53, our NBA/college/high school preview issue.)
Every few years, one of the preview mags will do a feature where they create the “perfect” player for their sport, Dr. Frankenstein-style. 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…
As much as everyone has talked about the cooler, calmer, more collected Denver Nuggets in this second Chauncey Billups era, this is still an energy-driven squad, especially at home. So throughout last night’s Game 6 loss that ended Denver’s season and sent the Lakers to the NBA Finals, Kobe Bryant was all about delivering daggers and taking the crowd out of the equation. Kobe (35 pts, 6 rebs, 10 asts) was handing out silencers like Nic Cage in Lord of War, and in turn the Nuggets were generally listless, particularly in the second half when you’d expect them to come out on fire. Read More »
I thought Doc Rivers post-game touchdown dance was going to elicit a reaction from the Magic. But as long as he didn’t split his pants with his Rod Tidwell ground-slap, Doc didn’t cause any problems. After Big Baby hit the game-winning jumper (and pushed a little kid into his seat), some other Celtics supposedly crossed the line, inciting notorious tough guy Rashard Lewis to issue a warning to Boston through the media. Read More »
After all that had happened in the first six games, you have to imagine even Boston fans would’ve liked to see a more thrilling Game Seven between the Celtics and Bulls. It’s not that the game wasn’t competitive — Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon sparked a late second-half comeback and kept Chicago within a possession or two for most of the fourth quarter — but it was like the C’s were Lennox Lewis, keeping the young challenger at bay with a series of long jabs and the occasional big right hand … Read More »
Auto-robotic response upon hearing the news Manu Ginobili is out for the rest of the season: “The Spurs are done, they’re toast, peace out, etc., etc. …” Whether you said it with a huge grin on your face as a Lakers fan, or with an “Oops I crapped my pants” look as a Spurs fan, it was an easy conclusion to jump to. Read More »
