Beast of the Night: Josh Smith busted out something nasty last night, to the tune of 33 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, one steal, two blocks and two three-pointers. He shot 57 percent (13-23) from the floor and 100 percent (5-5) from the free-throw line, and had one turnover. After shooting a miserable 41 percent from the field in February, Smith is hitting 51 percent of his shots to go along with his 26.6 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.3 steals, 1.9 blocks and 1.1 threes per game through the first seven games of March. Read More »

Beast of the Night: James Harden posted 30 points, four rebounds, one assist, two steals, two blocks and four three-pointers last night. He shot 67 percent (8-12) from the field, 91 percent (10-11) from the free-throw line and had one turnover. Harden has been a top 25 fantasy stud so far this season, which is extra impressive given that he’s the non-starter in that bunch. Read More »

Hitting up the All-Star Weekend is a double-edged sword. You constantly work, spend late nights in media rooms and feel like a single wildebeest in a stampede of thousands at the media-infested player availabilities. But in the end, you’re hanging around the 24 or so best basketball players in the world. It’s one thing to hit up a credentialed Knicks game or Celtics game. It’s another level to see the game’s biggest stars together. For one, it gives you perspective. Read More »

Earlier this morning, it was confirmed that with Iman Shumpert‘s left knee injury, he wouldn’t be participating in the dunk contest this weekend and will be replaced by Utah’s Jeremy Evans. That’s great news. We’ve been trying to #LetJeremyDunk for quite a while. But why isn’t anyone talking about Chase Budinger? The dude is a monster volleyball player, has a recorded max vertical of 38.5 inches, and recently dunked over Yao Ming. Read More »

Amar’e said afterwards he had “no doubt” Deron Williams came out with something to prove in MSG against Jeremy Lin. On second glance, we should’ve seen it coming. Williams basically flipped on a group of reporters earlier during Linsanity because no one wanted to talk about anything other than the new Knick sensation. He dropped 38 points with eight triples in New Jersey’s shockingly easy 100-92 win. Carmelo Anthony returned (as did Baron Davis) and yet the only one who mattered was Williams. Read More »

We’re now a month and a half into the season, and it’s been more unpredictable than a Lil’ Wayne album. Sure, we have our juggernauts (Miami, Chicago, I guess OKC) and our basement-dwellers (Charlotte gets their own spot). But in the middle, it’s a wreck. Portland looks like the best team in the West at home, but then goes on the road and can’t do anything. Denver started off 14-5. Then lost seven of eight. Even old reliables like the Celtics have continuously sputtered and stopped. Already this season, they’ve had winning streaks of four, four again and five, and losing streaks of three and five. Read More »

The last time we ran this rookie report, there were a few surprises (Greg Stiemsma anyone?) but in the end, the No. 1 pick in last June’s draft was right where he should’ve been: at the top of this class. To say he’s keeping the status quo would be an understatement: In the past few weeks, Kyrie Irving has stepped up his game even more, already hitting the 20-plus point mark in six games this month. Read More »

JaVale McGee is almost certainly not a happy camper this Tuesday morning. Emerging from a great jam-packed day of NBA basketball yesterday comes this clip of Houston’s Chandler Parsons tea-bagging McGee yesterday afternoon (it basically broke Twitter when it happened). Read More »

Well that was ugly. On a night where the big stories were supposed to be Lamar Odom‘s return to Staples and Kobe‘s shot at a fifth-consecutive 40-point game, neither side could hit a shot and couldn’t get out of each other’s way. So it came down to a guy who’s shooting 33 percent and averaging 4.3 points a night. Derek Fisher (13 points) hit the game-winning three with three seconds left, and the Lakers won one of the ugliest games we’ve seen in a long time when Vince Carter‘s last-ditch look was off. Read More »

Say hello to the bad guy. We have a new beast in the West. In probably the most physical game of the NBA season so far, the Blazers showed why everyone is so frightened of playing them up in the Northwest by punking the Clippers and Blake Griffin, 105-97. With the NBA’s newest A-List team threatening them over and over, Portland answered every call. Between Gerald Wallace, LaMarcus Aldridge and Marcus Camby, they did work on Griffin, holding him to the most up-and-down 18 and 12 night you’ll ever see. Read More »