You knew this was coming. Eddie House has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for his “obscene gesture” during yesterday’s Heat/Thunder game — that being his interpretation of the Sam Cassell Big Balls Dance, a.k.a. the Pedro Cerrano Dance.

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Tony Allen, Tom Thibodeau and Big Baby’s personal pork chef could have filled in for ABC’s announce crew and told you how yesterday’s Lakers/Celtics game was going to turn out. To put it simply: Kobe Bryant cannot beat Boston by himself. Despite 41 points (16-29 FG) from the Black Mamba, L.A. saw its slim halftime lead slip away as the C’s dominated most of the second half in a convincing 109-96 win on Kobe’s floor in what was supposed to be a Game of the Year candidate … Read More »

The Big Three was down to the Chosen One for last night’s Heat/Pistons game, which naturally meant for LeBron James that the role of fourth-quarter hero would fall into the hands of — Eddie House? … With five minutes left in the fourth, the Pistons were up three before House tied it with a corner trey. A few possessions later, House hit an off-balance jumper from the wing. Then after Austin Daye’s triple with one minute left put Detroit up by one, House ended up with the ball in his hands with the final seconds ticking down. Read More »

With all the buzz surrounding the Celtics victory last night in Miami and highlights of Rajon Rondo‘s dunk everywhere — as well as the basketball world just killing Chris Bosh — we wanted to examine how that play developed last night in the first quarter. While Bosh was victimized, as he did not protect the rim this play had trouble written on it from the start for the Heat: Read More »

Last night we saw the best and the worst of the Miami Heat. The best was on display as they built a 22-point first half lead against the Jazz: Nine or 10 Miami players got on the scoreboard, LeBron was collecting rebounds and directing the offense while letting the scoring happen naturally, and D-Wade attacked and put pressure on Utah’s defense. Miami took a 13-point lead into the fourth quarter, but as it slipped away, we saw their worst — namely, poor frontcourt and rotation defense as Paul Millsap was a steroid mix of Karl Malone and Sam Perkins, finishing with 46 points (19-28 FG) and 9 rebounds … Read More »

As the NBA regular season approaches, we preview the upcoming campaign with the “Highs and Lows” system — predicting the respective ceiling and basement for each team.

Added: LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Mike Miller, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Eddie House, Jerry Stackhouse, Juwan Howard

Lost: Michael Beasley, Jermaine O’Neal, Quentin Richardson, Dorell Wright, Daequan Cook, Rafer Alston Read More »

Nobody really knows what’s going to happen this year in Miami. While we can all track and predict and analyze even movement or quote coming out of South Beach, at the end of the day, it’s going to come down to playing 48 minutes a night for 82 games. With that said, at least one of the new members of the Heat has something to say to all the haters out there. Read More »

One way or another, there are going to be a lot of broken hearts in Miami this year. Either the new-look Heat don’t win a championship, or they do, and three guys who signed this summer don’t end up getting a ring. Now that Miami has inked former West Virginia star Da’Sean Butler, the 42nd pick in this year’s NBA Draft, he becomes the team’s 18th player under contract going into training camp. So while it’s going to be an uphill battle for Butler as he works to come back from a torn ligament in his left knee, let’s look at the roster and try and figure out who will be on the outside looking in this year. Read More »

All due respect to T-Mac and A.I., but the 2010 free agency rush is over. After Shaq signed with Boston for the monetary equivalent of his yearly Fuddruckers budget, at this point we’re beating down sources and constantly refreshing NBA rumor sites just for items like, “Cartier Martin is getting interest from the Bobcats, Heat and Blazers.” In other words, not exactly “The Decision” … Kobe Bryant‘s squad inked the player who is probably the last significant piece to fall into place for next year’s championship picture — since Orlando, Miami, Boston and San Antonio have filled their rosters — re-upping with Shannon Brown on a 2-year, $4.6 million deal. Read More »

Imagine you’re Shaq. (OK, you’d probably have to go back and eat about twice your normal breakfast to really get into character, then put on socks big enough to use as a backpack.) Now you’re waiting in free-agency purgatory for somebody to sign you, and you know the Hawks are in the mix. You get a call from your agent who says, “Sorry Big Fella, but it looks like Atlanta signed another center.” As you’re quickly flipping through your mental depth chart to think of any decent fives still on the market, the agent says, “They got Jason Collins.” … Read More »