All hail Jeremy Lin. That’s now two games in a row that the seldom-used backup has torched opponents and lit the Garden on fire as if he was John Starks. Lin dropped 28 and eight in New York’s 99-88 win over Utah. Beast? Lin seems to finish every three point play, make all the right decisions out of the pick-n-roll and has even shown off his deep ball. At one point in the second half, he dropped a high-arching shot and then trotted back on defense with a swag unlimited smirk before sticking his tongue out (It looked like he had been sucking on some blue lollipops during the quarter break). Read More »

Joe Johnson is absolutely balling right now. He dropped 24 in the first half of Atlanta’s blowout win in Toronto. After he closed the frame with a rainbow three from the top of the key, the ATL play-by-play guy yelled, “Nothing but the bottom of the sack.” It’s not even a question anymore whether he’s an All-Star. If he keeps this up, we’re only asking for him to give back $30 million to the Hawks, rather than $40 mill. 30 points on 13-for-18 from the field, in only three quarters … Tracy McGrady added 15 off the bench … Read More »

Buy Low: Carmelo Anthony is having a rough week. In his last two games, he’s totaled 16 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists and a block, while shooting 5-of-21 (24 percent) from the field and hitting zero three-pointers. Melo’s shooting woes have plagued him all season, as he’s shooting just 39 percent from floor so far in the 2011-12 NBA season. If your league counts field-goal percentage as a category, ‘Melo is not much more than a top 50 fantasy asset – if your league doesn’t count that column, he surges to the top 20. All that said, he’s coming off a forgettable week for a Knicks team that looks about as healthy as Lindsay Lohan. But with Baron Davis on the way back and some kind of changing wind on the way (one can hope, right?), a guy as talented as ‘Melo is can’t be mired in this slump for too much longer. He won’t get cheaper than he is right now. Read More »

Ranking the NBA from worst to first …

30. New Orleans Hornets (3-15) Last Week: 25, -5 Since they started off the year 2-0, the Hornets have lost more than just their sting. They’re 1-15 since and haven’t sniffed an ounce of winning. One thing you can say about them is they fight. Their last nine losses have all been by 10 or less against teams sporting a .606 winning percentage. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Andrea Bargnani posted 36 points, six boards, two assists, two steals, a block and four three-pointers in his mighty comeback from a calf injury. He shot 48 percent (10-21) from the floor, 100 percent (12-12) from the free-throw line and had two turnovers. Bargnani is having himself a solid all-around season with no real signs of a letdown in sight. Read More »

If you’re LeBron, what’s the point? He could afford to be passive last night because Chris Bosh was getting busy in the fourth quarter of Miami’s 92-85 win over Cleveland. Kyra Sedgwick went off for 17 fourth quarter points, and had two of the biggest buckets of the game: a three-point play off the dribble and then a pull-up J in the closing minutes. His two free throws with 55 seconds left put Miami up eight, icing the win. It wasn’t so much that Bosh didn’t get help. ‘Bron had 18. But Bosh took the Cavs’ best punches all night, drawing foul after foul and finishing everything. Read More »

Back again for the third time, NBA TV is presenting another season of The Association, starting this Wednesday. The cast and characters this year: one of the league’s most consistently successful organizations, the Denver Nuggets. Whereas in past seasons with Boston and the Lakers, we knew what we were getting, which was a story about a team trying to win a championship. But with the Nuggets, the show should take on a different feel, not because they aren’t trying to win it all but because episode one (trailer after the jump) goes behind-the-scenes with a team that had only seven players at the start of training camp. Read More »

It wasn’t like we were the only ones to say the Sixers were for real this year. Everyone was saying that, and the numbers backed it up. They were No. 1 in offense and defense – at the same time – for a while this season, and were dominating people at home. But last night, they ran into a real title contender, the Miami Heat, and the Sixers got blitzed worse than anything we’ve seen all year from the Ravens. Even without Dwyane Wade, the Heat won because they dominated on the glass and LeBron (28 points) was an absolute savage on the pick-n-roll. Whenever he got into the lane, it was an automatic bucket. Read More »

There’s no doubt that Emeka Okafor is one of the best shot blockers in the NBA. Over his eight-year career, he’s averaged 1.8 blocks per game. The only problem is, when you attempt to block shots, you put yourself in the position to be on the underside of a lot of posters. So after watching him play last night against Houston, I decided now was as good a time as any to compile the top 10 dunks on Okafor from his NBA career. Enjoy! Read More »

In late November, we showed you 70 behind the scenes photos from the inaugural Nike Pro Training Camp. Over four intense days of basketball and training at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., some of the best athletes represented by Nike Inc. – meaning Nike Basketball, Jordan Brand and Converse – came out to get better. Now, here’s your chance to take another inside look at what LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh, Udonis Haslem, Omri Casspi, Randy Foye, and Manny Harris did. Read More »