I’m pretty sure the title explains everything you need to know. Read More »

Miami’s pretty good when they put it together. The Spurs played perfectly through 24 minutes, and even got two ridiculous buzzer beaters from the same player, and yet it couldn’t stop them from getting completely stomped out on South Beach. After surrendering 63 first half points, the Heat responded with 71 of their own in the second half, LeBron and Bosh combined for 63 points and Miami ran away with the game, 120-98. Going into last night, the Spurs hadn’t won a road game all year. Miami had lost three in a row. One of the streaks had to end last night, and the Heat broke their visitor’s back. Read More »

Chances are Jamaal Tinsley was going to be the first Gatorade Call-Up of the 2011-12 NBA Development League season, but the Jazz beat ‘em to the punch. According to Brian T. Smith of The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah has signed the veteran point guard, and he’ll be in SLC tomorrow when training camp opens. Read More »

The Utah Jazz are a frontcourt-heavy team. They have about 3-4 big men capable of producing usable numbers if given sufficient minutes, which means that unless a trade happens to free things up there, some frustrating minutes-based limitations are in the cards. That said, the Jazz have a nice balance of productive veterans and up-and-coming players ready to make an impact on fantasy basketball whenever the NBA starts again. Read More »

The big NBA news today (so far, at least) is a deal that sends Deron Williams to the New Jersey Nets in exchange for Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, two first-round draft picks and $3 million. There’s also a second deal that involves the Golden State Warriors, who will send Dan Gadzuric and Brandan Wright to the Nets in exchange for Troy Murphy. There’s a lot going on with this curveball, so grab your White Russian, lift it in honor of the shrewd Mikhail Prokhorov and read on for a quick assessment of the fantasy fallout. Read More »

Jordan Farmar wants to be a starter. So far in his four-year career with the Lakers, he has averaged 6.9 points and 2.1 assists in only 18.1 minutes a game, failing to distinguish himself from aging Derek Fisher or raw combo guard Shannon Brown as L.A.’s point guard of the future. And yet Farmar still maintained throughout the season and immediately following the Lakers’ championship run that he’s looking to be the No. 1 guy somewhere — whether it’s in L.A. or not. Now that he’s a free agent, where would Farmar have a shot at getting his wish? Read More »

As the end of the NBA regular season draws near, fans of the forgotten Lottery squads all ask themselves one question:

Should we start tanking games now to get a better draft pick?

Usually I’m 100% against that idea. Even if scoring the No. 1 pick means you’ll get LeBron or Shaq or Duncan, I just don’t want my team/coach out there trying to lose. If you get lucky and the balls bounce your way for a franchise-changing superstar, fine; it was meant to happen. But if you tank and then don’t get the top pick anyway, you might have messed around and created a losing culture in your locker room that can take years to eradicate. Read More »

The funniest thing about the NBA Draft Lottery is how team reps try to balance acting happy about getting a high pick with looking sufficiently disappointed that their team was bad enough to end up at the Lottery in the first place.

The 2010 Conflicted Emotions winner was the guy from the Pistons: During the drawing he broke into a big grin when his team landed the No. 7 pick, but as soon as ESPN’s Mark Jones said, “The Pistons missed the playoffs for the first time in since 2001,” his face immediately shifted to a somber, focused look.

Danny Granger forgot the “act happy” part. Repping the Pacers, Granger brought a John Wall jersey to the Lottery and was ready to rip off his dress shirt like the Incredible Hulk if the Pacers got the top pick. When they didn’t, he dropped his head onto the table. Lost in the comedy of the moment: Granger was advertising that he needs help. Read More »

Around this time last year, the Indiana Pacers were in pretty good shape. Despite missing the playoffs by a few games, things seemed to be looking up, with Troy Murphy coming off a career year, rookies Roy Hibbert and Brandon Rush showing promise, and some cap space to pick up a contributor or two in free agency.

And most importantly, the Pacers had its franchise player in place. Read More »

Hawks/Heat was only notable last season for being the worst playoff series of ’09: A brutal seven-game stretch of blowouts, dead crowds, a subpar Joe Johnson, an exhausted D-Wade, and some good ol’ Pat Riley-approved ’90s Knicks prison yard basketball sprinkled in here and there. This season it’s been more of the same, as the three Hawks/Heat meetings leading up to last night had been decided by an average of 16 points. And yet Saturday’s matchup turned out to be the best game on the NBA schedule … It was nip/tuck throughout the fourth quarter. Read More »