Beast of the Night: Brandon Jennings finished with 31 points, four rebounds, eight assists, four steals and seven three-pointers last night. He shot 36 percent (9-25) from the floor, 75 percent (6-8) from the free-throw line and had zero turnovers. Since Jan. 17, Jennings is averaging 24.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 1.9 steals and 3.6 threes per game, while shooting 45 percent from the field and 83 percent from the free-throw line. For the season, he’s putting up top 10 averages. Read More »

Nothing hurts more than losing your spot at the gym because you lost to a bunch of random dudes. That’s what happened to the Lakers last night in Milwaukee. With Stephen Jackson corporate thuggin’ it off-court (suspended for verbal abuse of an official), Andrew Bogut out with his yearly injury and Brandon Jennings playing more passively than at any point over the past month, the Lakers took body blows from Drew Gooden, Mike Dunleavy and Ersan Ilyasova before finally falling 100-89. Read More »

Well, at least Milwaukee forward Ersan Ilyasova can take a shred of solace knowing he’s not the first or last to be memorialized as a Blake Griffin victim.

L.A.’s Griffin got the bucket and a free throw Saturday night during this play in the third quarter of the Clippers’ 92-86 win as a helpless Ilyasova got whistled for a block on Griffin’s poster-perfect tomahawk. Upon further review, the Turk doesn’t so much block the Clipper forward as much as lay down in sacrifice knowing what’s coming. Read More »

And we thought he was going for 50. LeBron James didn’t quite get 50, but he made every shot he took in the first quarter, scoring 22 points, and put Miami into a lead they would never relinquish. New Jersey lost 101-90 despite the most hated player in the NBA, Kris Humphries, somehow going for 25 points and 12 rebounds. In his first game back after missing some time with an ankle, James had 32 points and nine assists. Read More »

You’d think with an electric point guard and an authentic Aussie around, the Milwaukee Bucks would be a pretty exciting NBA team. Dig into the team’s statistics from last season and you’ll find otherwise. There isn’t much else in Milwaukee besides some middle-round value, and the most valuable fantasy player the Bucks have to offer is bogged down by serious physical limitations. Maybe Captain Jack can turn the ship around? Read More »

Is there a better national team frontcourt than Spain? The Gasol brothers and Serge Ibaka: completely different and yet they complement each other perfectly. They have defense, length, athleticism, touch, shooting and toughness. Ibaka actually is saying he can be an All-Star either next year or the year after. We believe him. Everyone is riding the James Harden train right now and deservedly so. The Beard was balling in the playoffs and looks like he could be the second coming of a Paul Pierce-type player. But Ibaka is OKC’s third-most important player. Read More »

His star-making postseason debut series aside, Derrick Rose had kind of established a script recently whenever he faced the Boston Celtics. The most explosive point guard in the League wouldn’t do anything too spectacular, his counterpart Rajon Rondo would slap up an easy double-double while flirting with 20 assists, and the Bulls would lose in uninspiring fashion. Last night, D-Rose thankfully flipped the script and reignited that Rose/Rondo rivalry we all want to see … Rose dropped 36 points and the Bulls’ interior defense stepped up in crunch time as Chicago snapped Boston’s four-game win streak. Read More »

Why Team USA won: Kevin Durant. He absolutely owned the last three games of the World Championship, dropping 33 on Russia in the quarterfinals, 38 on Lithuania in the semis, and 28 on Turkey in the gold-medal finale. Everyone in the building knew KD would be the focal point, and yet most of his buckets today were standstill jump shots, as he was able to play catch-and-shoot and score within the flow of the Team USA offense. Read More »

Call ‘em whatever you like: Thrillers, classics, epics, or just games with so many balls on display they’d make the Borat director’s cut. Either way, after the last couple of days of World Championship goodness, we don’t wanna see Team USA in another sloppily vicious 30-piecing when they face Russia today. Tip-off is at 11 a.m. EST, so make sure you’re on DimeMag.com to check out our live blog of the action. The biggest X-factor in this game for the U.S. will be Derrick Rose. Read More »

If Fran Fraschilla said it once, he said it a thousand times: Team USA wasn’t playing against Iran yesterday, they were playing against themselves. (Only without the Jay-Z after-party.) So if that was the case, would we call the 37-point “victory” over the guys in the other uniforms a win or a loss? … Hamed Haddadi and Co. weren’t as terrible as you may have been led to believe, but they still weren’t on Team USA’s level. And yet if you wanted the U.S. to improve during this game, you had to be disappointed. Read More »