In a calmer, maybe more reasonable world, the Miami Heat could lose a game like the game they lost to the Boston Celtics last night and it wouldn’t be a big deal. In that world, LeBron James and Miami fans could adopt the same attitude Kobe Bryant and L.A. fans have after every one of their high-profile L’s in the regular season: Don’t panic, it’s only (fill-in-the-month). This is bigger to them than it is to us. We’ll be fine in the playoffs. … But there are five diamond-studded reasons why a Kobe-led team gets that kind of leeway and a LeBron-led team does not. Read More »

Well at least New York can say for sure that Carmelo Anthony is alive. Still, the Hawks beat them by 10 after withstanding an old school ‘Melo performance (36 points, nine rebounds). At one point in the fourth, after Joe Johnson (28 points) had rocked the Knicks to sleep on three consecutive pull-ups, we heard the Hawk announcers say, “When it comes to clutch shooters in this league, Joe Johnson has to be in the top two.” However the two biggest shots of the game came from Willie Green (8-for-9, 20 points). Read More »

Beast of the Night: Dirk Nowitzki finished with 33 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, a block and three three-pointers in just 31:21 of work last night. He shot 63 percent (12-19) from the floor and 75 percent (6-8) from the free-throw line, and had three turnovers. Diggler’s finally clicking and has been a top 15 contributor in the past month. Read More »

Actually, we’re not even sure we should call Orlando a contender after last night. They fell apart and surrendered to Carlos Boozer and the Bulls, 85-59. At home. With Derrick Rose in street clothes. Boozer had 24 and 13 while John Lucas III continued to play out of his mind, burning Orlando in the first quarter and finishing with 20 points in 21 minutes, and helping steer Tom Thibodeau to 100 career coaching wins. Thibs is also the fastest coach in NBA history to reach that milestone … Read More »

You can cut the Nuggets some slack if they weren’t really into it last night. They had a major trade during the afternoon – their prized offseason signing gone – and have the front office angling to bring Wilson Chandler back to Denver. So for them to give the best team in the West a game for at least a few quarters, they’ll probably take it. Eventually, the Thunder lit the spark with a 26-8 run between the end of the first half and the middle of the third, capping it with a huge Kevin Durant (24 points) dunk, another slam from James Harden (18 points) and a back-breaking triple from Russell Westbrook (23 points). Read More »

Is Stan Van Gundy a master motivator or just annoying enough to stoke the Magic’s fire? There’s evidence each way, but the result was a much-needed win for Orlando against Chi-town. SVG had called out his team just days ago, saying they were being complacent about having the third-best record in the East. Hey, you’d be upset too when you lose to the Bobcats and show the energy of a corpse as Charlotte started its double-digit comeback … Different story on Thursday: The Magic came in the first quarter hot like a burning building with 75 percent shooting. 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 »

Who are these old guys, anyway? Shouldn’t San Antonio’s core of Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker be content with riding out their careers with rings and memories in hand?

Think again. The Southwest Division this year has been up for grabs dating back to Memphis’ playoff upset and Dallas’ offseason moves that made its title defense a question. This division used to be the Spurs and Mavericks’ personal playground every year. Only the Hornets in 2007-08 broke the hold of those two teams’ titles going back to 2004. 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 »

I’m back in here like Jordan with the 4-5. The NBA All-Star Game is set to “tip off” in exactly 54:40, according to the shot clock, and unlike last night, I did a better job navigating the traffic. No late bus ride. No idiot drivers. No being stepped on and abused by Ne-Yo and his entourage. No awful elevator system. Of course, my incredible security checkpoint luck continued. As I said, last night, I went through with Ryan Howard. Tonight? David Robinson. Read More »