What the hell is going on with the Wizards? Earlier this week they got Antawn Jamison back, got a mostly healthy roster, took out the arch-enemy Cavs on national TV to snap a six-game losing streak, and looked like they were back on track toward contending in the East like so many people had predicted. Then the Wiz turn around and got almost 20-pieced in Oklahoma City, and last night they got smoked in San Antonio … It was a bad mix of the Spurs at their best and the Wizards at their worst. Tim Duncan and his cronies dominated the glass (59-44), Gilbert Arenas and his guys forgot about ball movement (12 assists total), Tony Parker was killing on the pick-and-roll (17 pts, 8 asts), and of course Washington had somebody get injured when Mike Miller hurt his calf in the first quarter and reportedly could be out for up to a month … Read More »

Beast of the Night: Pau Gasol had a very smooth return to the tune of 24 points, 13 boards, 3 assists, 1 block and 2 turnovers. He shot 60 percent (9-15) from the field and perfect (6-6) from the free throw line. His owners have waited a long time for Gasol to play his first game this season and he looks ready to justify his first-round draft position in most leagues. Now the question is which Gasol brother will finish the year with better fantasy value. Read More »

No matter how old and inconsistent he gets, apparently Peja Stojakovic will always be able to light up the Suns. In what could have been one of those rock-bottom moments for the Hornets — national TV, no Chris Paul, interim coach, hosting a red-hot opponent who could conceivably drop 130 points on ‘em and get them booed out of their own gym — N.O. showed some heart and pulled off an upset win behind Peja’s 25 points, 13 boards and seven threes. It wasn’t the first time Peja has taken down the Suns on a big stage: Read More »

Understand that six days out of seven, I’d rather watch college basketball than the NBA; that I’ve been a Georgetown fan since I was a kid; and as a West Coast native, I’m both loyal and defensive when it comes to the Pac-10.

Also understand that I’m far from an expert at the X’s and O’s of basketball. I don’t run plays on NBA 2K10, and I would never coach at any level beyond the littlest of Little League. The kids deserve better.

That said, even I found myself wondering W-exactly-TF Ben Howland was doing in the latter stages of UCLA’s loss to Cal State-Fullerton last night. Read More »

Weekend Wonder: Brandon Jennings was all kinds of amazing Saturday, blasting the scoreboard with 55 points, 7 threes, 5 rebounds and 5 assists against the woeful Warriors. He shot 62 percent (21-34) from the field, 75 percent (6-8) from the free throw line and turned the ball over four times. It’s hard to imagine him keeping up this pace for the whole season but for the time being, Jennings is already a top-20 fantasy player. Read More »

Before all the Jeff Capel, Willie Warren and Griffin brothers hype surrounding the University of Oklahoma, a 6-1, buck-seventy pound point guard ran Soonerville. Hollis Price, originally out of New Orleans, was the star of Norman throughout his four years on campus. Read More »

The NBA preseason is underway, meaning it’s time again for Dime’s team-by-team season previews. Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — predicting the respective ceilings and basements for each team. In other words, what is the realistic best-case and worst-case scenario for the 2009-10 campaign?

Added: Emeka Okafor, Darren Collison, Darius Songaila, Marcus Thornton, Ike Diogu, Bobby Brown Read More »

Who would have guessed that the first NBA dude to put Blake Griffin on his ass would be skinny JaVale McGee? Blake finished with 19 points, 10 boards and four steals against the Wizards in yesterday’s Vegas Summer League, but one time he came through the lane with the rock and McGee (19 pts, 7 blks) gave the rookie a good, hard, welcome-to-the-NBA foul. Blake stayed on the ground for a second, but he was OK. Then later in the fourth quarter, McGee caught an alley-oop on Blake’s head and screamed on him. (JaVale is still doing the salute thing whenever he dunks, too.) … Rodrigue Beaubois scored 23 for the Mavs in a game against the Thunder that was just ugly. Read More »

Classic example of the difference between the NBA summer league and the real-life NBA: Yesterday’s matchup pitting #2 pick Hasheem Thabeet against #3 pick James Harden drew a good-sized crowd at the Thomas & Mack Center in Vegas, and later headlined NBA TV’s “Gametime” highlight show. But wait until the regular season, whenever the Grizzlies and Thunder play each other for the first time. Half-empty gym, and it probably won’t even make the nightly highlight shows unless it happens to be A.I.’s first game with Memphis or Kevin Durant scores 50 … Read More »

Although the ‘09 NBA free agent class isn’t as stacked as in years past — not to mention the League is being more thrifty than ever due to the slumping economy — teams still have holes they want to plug, and players have moves they want to make. Here, we break down all 30 NBA teams’ free agent strategy… Read More »