How good is Ty Lawson? Better question. How many players can dunk on DJ Mbenga this season?

From worst to first, ranking the NBA through the first couple of weeks…

30. New Jersey Nets (0-7) — They’re dropping like panties at R.Kelly’s house in Jersey, with starters Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, CDR and Yi Jianlian all missing games with injury and/or illness.

29. Minnesota Timberwolves (1-6) — The only bright spot of this past week was Jonny Flynn outplaying Brandon Jennings head-to-head. And the Wolves still lost that game. Read More »

Weekend Wonder: Tyreke Evans is bouncing back from a bum ankle in a big way, helped partly by the absence of Kevin Martin. The Kings’ surging rookie averaged 27.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.5 steals and just 1 turnover in two games over the weekend, while also hitting 1.5 threes, shooting 50 percent (15-30) from the field and 85 percent (22-26) from the free throw line. With Martin sidelined for six to eight weeks, expect Evans to fill that void quite nicely. Read More »

Although Dwight Howard was the one guy on the Magic who didn’t look like he should give his paycheck back after last night’s embarrassing loss to Oklahoma City, that didn’t stop the Thunder announcers from using Dwight for a punchline or two. “Superman has met Lex Luger tonight,” joked commentator Grant Long. His broadcast partner came in for the correction (”Lex Luthor“) but Long had made his point: Orlando looked nothing like a championship contender on Sunday, their second such alarming performance in the last four games. Read More »

One sequence defined last night’s Lakers/Nuggets national TV preseason game: In the second half, after Kobe Bryant had already come out of the locker room with That Look in his eye, he pulled off his new favorite move on Kenyon Martin; getting him in the air with a pump fake and spinning a quick 360 to his left, dropping a jumper as K-Mart harmlessly floated back to Earth. Then on the Nuggets’ ensuing possession, Kobe jumped a passing lane and finished with a breakway one-hander, slapping on the bottom-teeth snarl as an exclamation point … Read More »

We mentioned this morning in Smack that Dime reader Josh Tha Roc put it best: “DJ Mbenga welcomes Blake Griffin to the League…by letting Blake cram on his head.” Here’s the dunk in case you missed it.

You know the only way a preseason game between the Knicks and a team that isn’t even in the NBA would crack the sports highlights shows on an NFL and baseball playoffs Sunday is if something crazy happened. And in the third quarter of New York’s game against Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel), things got appropriately insane. After Maccabi head coach Pini Gershon got himself ejected thanks to a couple of techs, he refused to leave the court — if you saw the Season 2 premier of “Tool Academy,” he pretty much acted like the dude who got kicked off that first week. The refs wouldn’t re-start the game until Gershon left, so it turned into a standoff. Read More »

If you’re a Laker nowadays, you probably have the same star power as a cast member on a CW sitcom. Lamar Odom right now is dominating the tabloids and basically every Laker has been on TMZ. It has gotten so ridiculous, that almost every member of that squad has their own publicist - including D.J. Mbenga. Last March, Jordan Farmar made a cameo on the CBS drama Numb3rs. Apparently, producers were so impressed with his performance that they asked him to return for a small acting role. The Lakers’ back up point guard played an FBI agent in an episode that ran on Friday.

Everyone who worries that Shaq will be a bulldog in his elder years, refusing to admit that he’s no longer the Sheriff, should take a peek at what he tweeted after the Lakers took the ‘chip last night. He congratulated everyone that he has a relationship with on his former squad. But most importantly, he gave Kobe the respect that he deserves - and poked fun at himself too.

“Congratualtions kobe, u deserve it. You played great . Enjoy it my man enjoy it. And I know what yur sayin rt now “Shaq how my ass taste ” Read More »

If you believe in trends and omens and four-leaf clovers and all that, Andrew Bynum would be wise to — even if he’s 100% healthy — skip the Lakers’ April 12 game against the Grizzlies. Bynum’s last two significant knee injuries have happened in games against Memphis; and yet he’s circled April 12 as his projected comeback date from this latest injury. Read More »