Weekend Wonder: LeBron James averaged 30.0 points, 11.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.5 steals, 2.5 blocks and 0.5 threes in two huge games over the weekend. He shot 56 percent from the field, 50 percent from the free-throw line and averaged 1.5 turnovers in that stretch. It’s good to be king. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Jamal Crawford finished with 21 points, five rebounds, five assists, one steal, two blocks and five threes in his second consecutive start last night. He shot 53 percent (8-15) from the floor and had one turnover. Crawford looks set to continue being the Blazers’ starting point guard, relegating the struggling Raymond Felton to the bench. So long as he’s starting, Crawford will see a nice bump in value. Read More »

As the second half begins, Dime looks at a burning question facing each team. Here’s the Northwest Division.

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Oklahoma City Thunder When do the Thunder get tired? When OKC gets tired as the playoffs get closer, Scott Brooks will look to rest his team, even if it is one of the league’s youngest rosters. That, in turn, means a search for regaining momentum before the playoffs start — the proverbial “flipped switch.” The Thunder made a Western Conference Finals run last year and are tied for an NBA-best 27-7 with Miami, but their sample size is still too small to have full confidence in their playoff maturity. Read More »

Beast of the Night: DeAndre Jordan finished with 14 points, 14 rebounds, two steals and four blocks last night. He shot 78 percent (7-9) from the field and shot not free-throw attempts and had no turnovers. This was Jordan’s third straight game with double-digit rebounds. He remains a fantasy stud for owners punting free-throw percentage. Read More »

It doesn’t happen very often, so we’re a little surprised the Three-Point Shootout was much more entertaining than the Dunk Contest. But we’ll start with the dunkers since we know everyone will want to talk about them anyways. Jeremy Evans won it, beating out a group of guys who hired drunk entertainers (Chase Budinger) to throw them lobs, honored Larry Bird in a dunk contest (Paul George) and missed the same dunk for two minutes straight (Nate Robi…. aw, we mean Derrick Williams). Evans was okay. We guess. He probably won the vote because Utah fans have nothing better to do. The double dunk was cool. But honoring Karl Malone wasn’t all that great. Read More »

Four first-time dunkers are competing in the All-Star Weekend Dunk Contest this year, and they’ve got 28 years of history to live up to when it comes to dramatic dunk debuts.

Chase Budinger, Derrick Williams, Paul George and Jeremy Evans take part in Saturday night’s Sprite Slam Dunk Contest in Orlando, where they’ll be chasing the precedent of the best dunkers in their first contest. From Spud to Kobe to J.R. and Jordan, we bring you the top 10 of those moments here. Read More »

The field is set for the 2012 NBA Dunk Contest, and… Jeremy Lin will be there! Ah, not what you might expect though. He’s been included to be the helper for his teammate, Iman Shumpert. Joining Shumpert in the dunking field will be Chase Budinger, Derrick Williams and Paul George. Underwhelming? As SBNation’s Mike Prada tweeted, these four are tied for 41st, 45th, 97th and 149th in dunks this season. That doesn’t mean it’ll be a weak contest, but it’s leaning that way. Read More »

So is this a dunk? Either way, Derrick Williams – who’s had just about the quietest rookie season ever from a guy who’s been labeled neither a bust nor boon – stuffed D.J. White into a closest and then shut the lights off. We’re giving him extra points for doing this with his left hand, but also have to take some away because it’s Charlotte, and they are just flat out awful. Read More »

We knew he could drop buckets and strut around like a much smaller Rick Ross, but last night was the first time those Steve Nash comparisons actually started to make sense. Lob. Wrap-around. Another lob. 13 dimes later and the Knicks had their seventh-straight win, 100-85 over the Kings. We asked yesterday if Jeremy Lin‘s hype was partially racial. Last night wasn’t so much racial as it was Nash-ial. Lin has that offense flowing on all cylinders. Read More »

We all know Blake Griffin is a rising star, but today it was announced the All-Star starter is one of 18 chosen for the 2012 BBVA Rising Stars Challenge during All-Star weekend in Orlando.

The Rising Stars Challenge is a switch on the former Rookie/Sophomore game, though it was still voted on by assistant coaches. Now, they’ll be mixed together with Charles Barkley and Shaq choosing and coaching the teams. Each squad gets nine guys.

Here are the players on the list: Read More »