Beast of the Night: Danny Granger shot 50 percent (12-24) from the field and perfect (5-5) from the line on his way to 31 points, 2 threes, 16 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks and 4 turnovers. The double-digit boards were out of the ordinary as Granger seems to be dealing with a sore heel quite nicely. He’s still a DNP risk but his owners have to be enjoying the ride so far. Read More »

During the ‘09 conference finals, Shaq showed up at one of Orlando’s home games against the Cavs, to the chagrin of a lot of people associated with the Magic. Last night Shaq was back in the building; this time wearing a Cavs uniform. Throw in the tension leftover from when Diesel was talking greasy about Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy last year, and you know the fans had a lot of venom toward Big Witness Protection. He played into it, too, doing stuff like leaving his hand in the air extra-long after a free throw. And the crowd was even more pissed when Cleveland walked out with a win … Read More »

From worst to first, ranking the NBA through the first couple of weeks…

30. New Jersey Nets (0-7) — They’re dropping like panties at R.Kelly’s house in Jersey, with starters Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, CDR and Yi Jianlian all missing games with injury and/or illness.

29. Minnesota Timberwolves (1-6) — The only bright spot of this past week was Jonny Flynn outplaying Brandon Jennings head-to-head. And the Wolves still lost that game. Read More »

Indiana Pacers star Danny Granger is as low key as it gets. But after Indiana’s third straight loss against Denver on Tuesday night, Granger aka Batman made a big statement by storming out of the locker room without speaking to the media. Prior to last night’s game against the Knicks, we talked to the All-Star about the slow start and getting that first win. As fate would have it three hours later, Granger got 21 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals as the Pacers went on to earn that inaugural “W”. Read More »

Five matchups to watch on Tuesday’s nine-game schedule…

Denver @ Indiana: Carmelo Anthony vs. Danny Granger Buckets, buckets and more buckets. By normal human standards, Granger is having a great start, averaging 26.5 points in two games. But ‘Melo is on some extraterrestrial level right now, dropping 37.7 points on 53% shooting and looking like an MVP in the making. Read More »

By now, you should know that when NBA announcers keep saying, “Kobe is really frustrated,” it’s actually code for, “Kobe’s shot isn’t falling and he’s battling with the refs.” … That was the case during Lakers/Mavericks last night, as L.A. got smoked on its homecourt and Kobe (20 pts, 6-19 FG) struggled between breaking out his best whiny faces. Read More »

This was color commentator Dominique Wilkins speaking on T.J. Ford in the first quarter of last night’s Hawks/Pacers game:

“He’s not a bench player. He’s a guy you have to have on the floor because he can make so many people around him better with his penetration ability.”

Even as a Pacers fan and somebody who respects Dominique’s opinion, I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that one. Read More »

Who do you want your offense to run through with everything on the line? Counting down 30th to 1st (one per team), I’ve ranked the League’s go-to guys…

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#1: KOBE BRYANT, L.A. Lakers

Grown-man fear is a complicated thing. It’s not a pure phobia, nor the fear one experiences through startled shock, nor is it a fear that cripples, like that of failure or open spaces. Read More »

I like being proven right. So right now I’m liking Paul Pierce, who did his part last night to prove me right for ranking him the NBA’s 3rd-best go-to guy, ahead of crowd favorites LeBron and Carmelo. But lost in the beauty that was a vintage Truth performance was the fact that Pierce was only finishing what Rajon Rondo started. Read More »

Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — previewing the NBA season by predicting the respective ceiling and basement for each team. Same theme, different season…

Added: Tyler Hansbrough, Dahntay Jones, Earl Watson, Luther Head, Solomon Jones

Lost: Jarrett Jack, Marquis Daniels, Rasho Nesterovic, Stephen Graham, Maceo Baston Read More »