The Knicks have laid a tripwire around Madison Square Garden this season, staying undefeated there by springing a first-quarter trap on the Lakers en route to a 116-107 win. What brought this game to a near-blowout and a near-comeback was Carmelo Anthony. It must be frustrating for once-Knicks coach and now Lakers leader Mike D’Antoni to see how ‘Melo has changed since D’Antoni resigned, and it’s twist-the-knife cruel that after that pair’s time together was marked by inconsistency, ‘Melo’s smooth hand buried the Lakers for most this game. Read More »

Once Steve Nash hit the shelf with a broken fibula suffered in the second game of the season (now complicated by a nerve irritation in his lower left leg), the Lakers first tried Steve Blake at the point. He didn’t work out, and then got injured himself. Next came Darius Morris, a failed experiment if there ever was one. Currently, it’s Chris Duhon‘s turn, and get this: if you go by PER, he’s having his best year since 2009, despite averaging just 4.2 points and 3.8 assists a night (those numbers are up to 8.8 points and 7.8 assists as the Lakers’ starting point guard over the past four games). Read More »

The Los Angeles Lakers are 9-12 through the season’s first quarter of the season, and they’ve lost four of their last five. They’re still missing Steve Nash and Pau Gasol - though both may be back in the lineup this week – but the Lakers are going to be heading east for a four-game stretch on the road this week, and they’re 2-6 so far on the road this season. Read More »

They said they were going to stop the game in New Orleans once Kobe Bryant hit 30,000 career points. He did that just before the end of the first half, going off the dribble and hitting a running floater over Robin Lopez. But the game never ceased, and Bryant – fittingly, as always – didn’t stop either. He hit three more free throws in the final minute of the half to add to his total. The 30,000-point club also includes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. How would you rate that five? Read More »

The Los Angeles Clippers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic and Brooklyn Nets are now working on a complicated, four-way deal that will land Dwight Howard in Brooklyn. The deal will involve 13 players, four first round picks and three million in cash changing hands. Instead of rehashing it ourselves, we’re just going to let ESPN.com take over from here. Read More »

The casual fan probably did not tune in to Saturday’s night first round matchup of the Indiana Pacers and the Orlando Magic, but those that did witnessed a scrappy, hard working Magic team will themselves to victory over the higher-ranked Pacers. With Dwight Howard out for the year due to a back injury, the underdog Magic used their deadly three-point shooting and hard nosed defense to steal Game 1 from the Pacers. Read More »

We keep waiting on New Jersey to make a big move. Since acquiring Deron Williams midway through last season, they’ve been a ticking bomb. There are only so many chances to hit a home run and with Williams doing the obvious – declaring his intentions to be a free agent next summer – the Nets cannot afford to come away empty handed.. again. So knowing the Lakers will always be hot on the trail of Dwight Howard, and seeing their prime target, Nene, get reeled back in by Denver for $67 million last night, earlier this morning ESPN sources said Mikhail Prokhorov‘s bunch are speeding up their efforts to land the best big man of this generation. Read More »

You can call out the owners for being greedy, condescending and unreasonable during these lockout “negotiations.” But you can’t say they don’t know what they’re doing. The ultimatums, demands and all of the posturing has the players backed into a corner. Yesterday, David Stern and Adam Silver took to Twitter to answer questions on their most recent proposal – one in which has many players in New York at this very moment. Nothing surprising was revealed. Everything was shaded in “the players are the bad guys” coloring. Read More »

While all the NBA exhibition and charity games during the lockout have been great, there’s been one element missing: school pride. So if guys can put on for their city or their team, the next logical step for them was clearly to put on for their alma mater. And it only makes sense that one of the most heated and storied rivalries in sports kick things off. Read More »

Outside of their beast in the middle and waterfall of threes, the Orlando Magic are a team of uncertainty for fantasy owners. Their starting shooting guard is most likely on his way out, their backup point guard appears more primed to stir up controversy on Twitter than do anything provocative anything on the court and a timeshare looks likely at the power forward position. All that said, there are open doors for a few players to assert themselves as fantasy stalwarts. Of course, if that beast in the middle wiggles his way out of town before season’s end, this house of cards will come tumbling down – hard. Read More »