Watching Kobe Bryant plunge another spear into the heart of another seemingly helpless opponent the other night, what struck me most wasn’t the degree of difficulty on Kobe’s Jordan-esque corner fadeaway, nor the sunken shoulders of the Toronto Raptors the moment the ball touched the net — even though they technically still had a shot to win the game.
What struck me most was Kobe’s reaction. Or better yet, his non-reaction. Read More »
After three quarters of feeding the post and flexing their size advantage, the Lakers went back to their bread and butter when things got tense against Toronto: Give it to Kobe Bryant and vacate the premises … Midway through the fourth, L.A. was down on the scoreboard and in danger of losing their fourth game in a row. Predictably, that’s when Kobe (32 pts, 6 rebs, 6 asts) went to work. In the span of what seemed like a few seconds, he strung together a jumper and some free throws to turn a four-point deficit into a Lakers lead. A couple minutes later, Kobe put L.A. up four with a short baseline fadeaway. Read More »
Down 10 going into the fourth quarter against the reigning Eastern Conference champs, it seemed Kobe was just waiting for the perfect set-up to steal another team’s heart. Scoring a modest 16 points through three quarters, Kobe hit back-to-back jumpers to open the fourth, then later went on a personal 7-0 run to cut Orlando’s lead to two with about 4:30 remaining. Read More »
For some inexplicable reason, while the ESPN announcers were recapping last night’s Cavs/Pistons game as Cleveland was putting the finishing touches on another W, they failed to explore the possibility that Detroit was shaken up by what had happened to Rodney Stuckey, or go into how it affected their play … During a timeout late in the third quarter, Stuckey was coming of the court and said he felt dizzy. He then collapsed on the bench right next to the Pistons’ trainer, and had to be rushed away in ambulance. After that, there was a somber, strange vibe in the arena that even translated through the TV. Read More »
Earlier today, Dime posted its NBA trade deadline winners and losers. But you all know your teams better than we do. So we asked our readers to rank their own winners and losers, with the best of them listed here:
WINNERS
The Cavs are way better now that they have Jamison instead of Amar’e. Here’s why: (1) Amar’e doesnt like Shaq. (2) Amar’e wants to be the unequivocal MAN on his team. That’s not happening with the Cleveland LeBrons. Read More »
We’ve been over the winners. Following a hectic NBA trading season where 39 players changed addresses leading up to Thursday’s deadline, here are the trade deadline losers:
1. Los Angeles Lakers — It’s easy to see why the defending champs would be content with what they’ve got, especially when they’re currently sporting the best record in the West. But the Lake Show does have some noticeable flaws that could have been addressed with a trade. Namely, L.A. needs a guy who can handle the ball and deal with fast guards. Remember the ‘09 playoffs against Aaron Brooks? Last night it was tough watching Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar trying to stay in front of Rajon Rondo, and at some point that defensive hole could come back and bite L.A. in the butt. Read More »
Less than a minute to go in Orlando, the Wizards were up one with the ball. And as one of the Magic announcers put it, “Their body language is such that they don’t believe they’re really here.” In other words, the Wizards were acting like they knew they were going to somehow blow the game. As if on cue, they committed a turnover, and a couple possessions later, Rashard Lewis stuck a corner three to put Orlando up one with four seconds left. Given all that’s happened to the Wizards this year, you’d think they might as well just go home at that point, but this time they had one reason to stay optimistic: Caron Butler … Read More »
Last night’s Hawks/Celtics game was about as close as you’ll get on TV to seeing good ol’ confrontational angry NBA action in-person without the actual risk of Jermaine O’Neal punching you in the face. We’re not sure if the Atlanta crowd was extra quiet or the court mics were just extra loud, but throughout the game you could hear pretty much everything Rasheed Wallace and Kevin Garnett were saying, especially ‘Sheed … Playing in the building he called home for about 20 minutes once upon a time, ‘Sheed was in vintage form: Yelling at every teammate, cussing at every opponent, and abusing every ref. Read More »
The best one-two punches on a team aren’t always a big man paired with a small guard. Sure Stockton and Malone and Magic and Kareem, were two of the greatest combos in league history. But the league has had some pretty damn good backcourts over the years, from Isiah and Joe Dumars to Chauncey and Rip. Read More »
