The second round of the playoffs is underway and with only eight teams remaining, it means another eight have been eliminated from title contention. The offseason is the time for these teams to retool to prepare for deeper runs next season. The Atlanta Hawks have been one of the most consistent teams in the NBA the past six seasons, but not in a good way. The Hawks are always the fourth or fifth seed in the playoffs and have lost in the first round three out of the last six years. Read More »

Casual fans outside of the West Coast might not know it but right next to Orlando and Dwight Howard stand Portland and Raymond Felton as cities who revile their former player. A quick recap: In Felton’s lone season as a Trail Blazer (a shortened one, at that) he pissed people off by being out of shape and for his penchant to dribble the ball off his own foot out of bounds. When he realized he was being cast as the villain in a bad 2012 season, he didn’t exactly reach over the side of the boat to pull coach Nate McMillan back in before his firing. Read More »

Despite Kobe Bryant‘s ruthless pursuit of victories — which translate this season into simply, “the playoffs” — he can live with an opponent playing just as hard as he. What he can’t stomach is an opponent straying from basketball’s unwritten rules to do so. Case in point, last night in Atlanta. Read More »

As we wrote in Smack over the weekend, Saturday night’s Dallas/Houston tilt was perhaps the most entertaining game of the season. Outside of O.J. Mayo‘s dagger threes in the fourth quarter, the most memorable highlight came from Dahntay Jones, who crammed a facial on Patrick Patterson‘s dome off a feed from Juice. Read More »

Juwan Howard set the tone early. Miami was going to be aggressive, a message sent after Howard needed to be separated from Lance Stephenson in pregame shootaround. The Heat took offense after Stephenson’s choke sign in Game 3 and their own awful play. It just took a quarter and a half for the message to sink in for anyone not named LeBron. Read More »

In no surprise to anyone, the higher-seeded Indiana Pacers defeated the Orlando Magic in the first round on Tuesday night. The Pacers definitely wanted to close out the series and get some rest before the second round, but a number of Pacer players already got in some fun and relaxation while in Orlando for Games 3 and 4. While in Orlando, Kyrylo Fesenko and Dahntay Jones took part in a joint birthday celebration for George Hill and Paul George at Disney World. Read More »

The “best pure scorer” label always came with a crutch. Yes, you can score, but what else can you do? Carmelo Anthony has been answering a lot of questions lately, and last night he might’ve given the world his best all-around game as a Knick. 35 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, he was the ring leader on a night where the Knicks could’ve opened up their own sperm bank because they were shooting so well. New York got the win they needed, 118-110 over the Celtics, but it was the box score that had everyone talking. The Knicks messed with the video game sliders in the first half. They MUST have. Read More »

Kris Humphries went “Keeping Up With Dahntay Jones” on a fast break to end the third quarter on Thursday in Indy.

The Pacers’ Jones was driving on the last man back, New Jersey’s Sundiata Gaines, with five seconds left in the third. He thought he had only one man to beat, but he didn’t see the trailing Humphries, who altered the ball’s trajectory into the floor instead. It was also a microcosm of the game, which featured all of seven fast-break points. Read More »

With Linsanity temporarily suspended, a nation turned its eyes to the next best thing: Bulls-Celtics. Paul Pierce came out on fire, knocking down his first three shots in Chicago, but it was Luol Deng (23 points, 10 assists) who capped the night for the Bulls’ 89-80 victory. He dropped 14 in the fourth quarter, with a huge three from the left corner (one of his six threes) to go up nine in the final minute. Since we brought it up, don’t overlook who fed him on that three — 10-day contract signee Mike James, who’s now with his 10th team (and also looks like Jason Weaver‘s father)… Read More »

The Indiana Pacers are some kind of something. That is to say, they’re a mediocre team with a few mildly appealing pieces for fantasy purposes, but nothing to go nuts about. If anything, there are a lot of untouched ceilings here, which may or may not appeal to you. Let’s take a look at what Larry Bird’s boys can offer fantasy owners next season. Read More »