On this night five years ago, the Boston Celtics ended Houston’s 22-game winning streak. They nearly did it to Miami last night, up 13 with only eight minutes left. But then LeBron James happened … In Miami’s incredible 105-103 win, James (37 points, seven rebounds, 12 assists) scored twice in the last minute – once on an inbounds play and another on a jumper in Jeff Green‘s face – and Boston missed a couple of gimmies before Paul Pierce was short on a wild three in the closing seconds. Read More »

The best finish in all of the NBA last night went down in Cleveland when the Cavs and Spurs traded potentially game-winning buckets. This C.J. Miles dunk wasn’t one of them, but it was probably the best slam of the night. He drove to his off hand and dunked on basically San Antonio’s entire frontcourt. Read More »

The last time James Harden played against his old team, he had a nightmare game, a half dozen of his shots blocked back into his face. This time, he made his first shot in Kevin Durant‘s face, and was good enough to drop 25 points (still only 9-for-33 shooting against OKC this year). But while the first half played out like a tape from the old And1 video game, the second half became a mismatch, and the Thunder went on to win 124-94. Read More »

The Dark Knight Rises was one of the best movies of the year, and another sequel in the Batman line nearly broke out in MSG last night. Kyrie Irving did Christian Bale justice, carving up the Knicks for a career-high 41 points while donning a memorable black face mask to protect a broken bone in his jaw. Yet the Knicks survived by one when Anderson Varejao‘s potential game-tying freebie with one second left hit every part of the rim before bouncing out … Read More »

Having Kevin Durant on your team is probably good for about 10 extra wins a year strictly based on his talent and his competitive streak. You’re going to win games you shouldn’t only because he’ll get pissed off for some reason or another and start raining Hell on whoever’s guarding him. Read More »

At some point, the Lakers need to sit back and reassess everything. Waiting on Pau Gasol and Steve Nash isn’t going to cut it. Blaming the coach won’t work either, not after you just sent the last one to Chick-fil-A barely a month ago. The NBA version of Ocean’s Eleven is a mess right now, and last night, they were caught with their pants down against one of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference. During the first half of their eventual 100-94 win, Cleveland was hitting on all cylinders, going up by 15 and leaking out on the break at every opportunity. Read More »

I’m very vocal in regards to people I care about. I don’t necessarily believe in being quiet or soft spoken. Hence, that’s why I write. I love Joe Johnson. I was always enamored by his velvety smooth game and demeanor on the court. He wasn’t as boisterous as KG and never taunted his opponents. He simply let his game do all the talking. That’s why I loved him. Read More »

Back in the preseason when the Lakers had all five starters together (a rare occurrence, we know), there were stretches where they were cooking better than Walter White on Breaking Bad. Mike Brown‘s failed experiment hid for a time what we saw once more Sunday night at Staples Center: In barely third gear, this team is dangerous once again. They had 40 points after one quarter without Steve Nash, who was off doing Gangnam Style, a Dwight Howard (28 points, 13 rebounds) who claimed afterward he’s still at best 80 percent healthy and a Pau Gasol who hasn’t decided to really play. Read More »

One night after Tristan Thompson and Kyrie Irving were a part of two huge plays in Cleveland’s win over Montepaschi Siena, C.J. Miles created both of the Cavs’ best highlights Tuesday against Milwaukee in Canton, Ohio (forgive me the preseason enthusiasm, I’m just excited basketball is back). Miles had a game-high 18 points in Cleveland’s loss, but you can toss out the boxscore and just pay attention to both his facial on Ersan Ilyasova and his steal and slam on the fast break. Read More »

Midway through the third quarter of their eventual 92-88 takedown of Memphis, Chicago opened up a 14-point lead as Kirk Hinrich went all 2004 on us. He had a few steals, a blocked shot, a layup, and started a number of fast breaks, all within a four-minute stretch. Eight minutes into the quarter, and Memphis already had seven turnovers while Hinrich was looking like Jimmy Chitwood. Read More »