In the midst of all their trade rumors, Pau Gasol and the Lakers delivered a W. Even if the Wolves didn’t have Kevin Love, it still took L.A. nearly 48 minutes to secure a 105-102 win on the road. Kobe Bryant had 34 points and down the stretch, he made key free throws to keep the Lakers from folding. In the place of Love, Derrick Williams rumbled to 22 points and 10 rebounds, FINALLY doing what everyone expected him to all year … Read More »

The real Amar’e Stoudemire might’ve finally emerged, scoring 26 points and dunking aggressively for the first time since before someone snuck into his house at night and gave him Penny Hardaway‘s knees. But Dirk hit two of his patented awkward rainbows in the final moments, and gave one courtside kid a HARD handshake in Dallas’ 95-85 win over the visiting Knicks. Read More »

Josh Smith might not be an All-Star but he had arguably one of the best games of his career in the Hawks’ seven-point upset of Oklahoma City. Smith did everything, including hitting more jump hooks than seemingly anyone in a game since Kareem, and murdering the league’s top shot blocker at the rim with this dunk. He had 30 and 12 and even made a trey, and put the game away late by dominating inside. There was a stretch at the end of the game with the ATL up five where the Thunder missed three consecutive threes and Smith got the rebound on every single one. Read More »

The push will come stronger and faster. You can’t work your way into it. No waiting for tomorrow. You have until April 28 – that’s less than two months – to work your way into the postseason. If you’re in the East, there’s hope. Outside of three or four teams, everyone else is one big injury away from a five-game slide and a shot at extinction. Outside of Miami and Chicago, get too big-headed and you’ll be slain. Lose your confidence and you’ll end up next to Washington and Charlotte. Read More »

The guys in the NBA TV studios were saying the Heat looked like a championship team last night. Okay, they did play Sacramento, who have lost six in a row and have perhaps the most playground, fundamentally-flawed team in the league. But the Queens really went hard, and had the defending East champs on their heels all night. In the end, Dwyane Wade (30 points on 16 shots, 10 assists) lifted Miami to another level with one of his best games of the season, and for the first time all year, three Heat players scored at least 20 and one of them wasn’t LeBron. They’ve now won seven in a row, all by double digits, and are sitting in first place in the NBA. Read More »

Remember when a LeBron James visit to Cleveland came with an undeniable whiff of potential danger? Not so much now. The fans at the Q last night for Miami’s win were plenty vicious – booing LeBron during pre-game intros and pretty much every time he touched the basketball – but it seems they’re almost over the whole thing. Almost. The Cavs have a bright future to look forward to with Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and this year’s Lottery pick, so for the fans (and the owner) to continue acting like Alicia Silverstone in The Crush over LeBron would be more pathetic than anything … 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 »

Wow. Nothing else really needs to be said at this point. Jeremy Lin has done some cool things, but last night he took it to another level, wetting a pull-up jumper in Canada’s face with less than a second left in a tie game. The swag was ridiculous; In the huddle before he closed the fridge on the Raptors, Lin told Mike D’Antoni to give him an iso. Then he went out and capped the best night yet of the Jeremy Lin tour with New York’s come-from-behind 90-87 win. Read More »

We’re now a month and a half into the season, and it’s been more unpredictable than a Lil’ Wayne album. Sure, we have our juggernauts (Miami, Chicago, I guess OKC) and our basement-dwellers (Charlotte gets their own spot). But in the middle, it’s a wreck. Portland looks like the best team in the West at home, but then goes on the road and can’t do anything. Denver started off 14-5. Then lost seven of eight. Even old reliables like the Celtics have continuously sputtered and stopped. Already this season, they’ve had winning streaks of four, four again and five, and losing streaks of three and five. Read More »

Hopefully Kobe knows who Jeremy Lin is now. After spending time between the Lakers’ win in Boston and last night’s 92-85 loss in NYC doing his best to try to say he had no clue who the NBA’s newest sensation was, Bryant got one-upped by the man who has now scored more points in his first three starts than any player ever has since the NBA/ABA merger. Lin blew up for 38 points and seven assists, incubating Derek Fisher (He had one spin move in the first half that sent Fisher back to 1996) and running the lazy Lakers all over the half-court. Read More »