With less than eight teams remaining in the NBA Playoffs, it means a few “contenders” have already been eliminated from title contention. The offseason is the time for these teams to retool to prepare for deeper runs next season. The Los Angeles Clippers were one of the better teams in the Western Conference all year. Read More »

When Danny Ainge first acquired Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen back in 2007, the new Big Three, in theory, was providing the Celtics with a three-year championship window. After going one for two in their title appearances in their first three years, Ainge decided to keep the window cracked open for another three years after not biting on potential deals. Read More »

There’s a first time for everything, and in yesterday afternoon’s matinee in San Antonio, we saw an injured star player attempt to coach a playoff team through 140 characters. Anxious that he can’t be out there helping his teammates, Kobe Bryant took to Twitter with the same aggressiveness he usually shows on wing isolations. Not everyone was feeling it. Read More »

As much as I enjoy watching LeBron James at the peak of his NBA powers, as much as I enjoy watching the veteran Celtics come together since Rajon Rondo went down, as fun as it is to watch Carmelo Anthony drop 35-plus night after night en-route to his first scoring title, and Chris Paul continuing to be the best point guard of this generation, what makes the NBA so great night in and night out is everyone else. Read More »

Check out this outrageous block last night by Eric Bledsoe in the Clippers/Timberwolves game in L.A. Bledsoe gets bumped guarding Alexey Shved on a high ball screen, and instead on giving up on the play and letting his help defense stop Shved on the drive, Bledsoe turns into a video game character and tracks him down. What follows is one of the best athletes in all of sports elevating and punching the hell out of Shved’s attempt, launching it like it was shot out a t-shirt cannon. Read More »

The NBA is notorious for having a small number of teams with realistic championship expectations. While nearly half of the NFL can claim to be in the running, the NBA normally only has a handful of true contenders. The Heat, Thunder and Spurs have all established themselves as frontrunners to be playing into June, but there is another interesting group below them of teams that have shown the capability of playing with the elite. Read More »

The NBA regular season, at least for the teams that hold visions of championships, is just an 82-session practice for the playoffs. So rather than worry about who is the unofficial “best” or “worst” team in the League right now, let’s look at which team is most equipped for the truly important games. Read More »

NBA All-Star Saturday Night’s signature events are, without question, the Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout and the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest. Dime Magazine was in Houston to check out the action live and have grades on the performances of each participant in both events (we can’t be the only other ones who nearly slept through the Shooting Stars and the Skills Competition). Be forewarned: this isn’t exactly a fair grading scale. Expectations played a role in their grades. Remember one of the worst things in the world is wasted talent – at least that’s what they say in the movie A Bronx Tale. Read More »

It’s not often you hear Vince Carter‘s name mentioned with Larry Bird‘s. But before you start in with the “Wince” jokes, know that he’s been one of the most surprising players this season, playing like he’s 30 years old again. In Dallas’ 23-point thumping of Sacramento last night, VC hit for 17 in the third and 26 total to pass Bird for 29th all time in points. Read More »

Eric Bledsoe is an absolute freak of nature. Maybe he hasn’t caught an alley-oop windmill in a game like Gerald Green and maybe he hasn’t put it in-between his legs from the free throw line like James White, but he’s the best little guy dunker since Nate Robinson. Read More »