Beast of the Night: Stephen Curry owned the Jazz last night, finishing with 29 points, five boards, 12 assists, three steals and a pair of threes. He shot 71 percent (10-14) from the floor, 88 percent (7-8) from the free-throw line and had three turnovers. This was a nice bounce-back game for Curry, who had just 18 points on 7-of-23 shooting in his previous two games. For the season, he’s averaging top 10 numbers, which is right in line with expectations. Now let’s hope his ankles stay intact. Read More »

There’s no grander stage than Madison Square Garden, and Derrick Rose shined like stars should in NYC as Chicago bounced the Knicks, 105-102. The basics first: 32 points, 13 assists. What left you gasping: a blow-by Toney Douglas dunk in the third, a deke of Tyson Chandler at the rim a little later. The capper, however, was a layup where he avoided Chandler, Amar’e Stoudemire and Jared Jeffries driving through the lane while playing hide-and-seek with the ball around his head. Read More »

The footage of the first five minutes of Blake Griffin‘s performance in Utah last night should be sent right to Springfield, Mass. to show Hall of Fame visitors what NBA basketball would like if X-Men played the game. It took less than nine seconds for him to catch his first alley oop (right off the opening tip). He followed that up with another oop from Chris Paul just a few minutes later. And then after that? He tracked down Gordon Hayward on the break and savagely smashed his layup attempt like he was trying to punch it right through the backboard.
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Oklahoma City didn’t play Thursday, but try telling Thunder fans it wasn’t a victory. Guard Russell Westbrook went all Boomer Sooner by signing a five-year, $80-million extension. The deal brought praise for GM Sam Presti and hailed Westbrook, slammed for being a “shoots-lots” guard, for his unselfishness: “Instead, Westbrook delivered to his teammates, his organization and this city a blessed gift. Expansion of the Thunder’s window of opportunity to turn Oklahoma City into Titletown. … No promises beyond 2016, but until then, barring catastrophic injury, an oil-and-gas bust or general manager Sam Presti losing his senses, the Thunder is set for five years of excellent basketball,” the Oklahoman columnist Berry Tramel wrote. Read More »

I’ll be honest with you. I’m waiting on Tyson Chandler to not live up to this new contract. It seems inevitable: big man who has career year at 29 years old, finds himself in a perfect situation, plays great D and rebounds but has it magnified because his team finally got through the West and won a title (seriously, if Dallas loses in the Western playoffs, is anyone talking about how great Chandler is right now?). Take it for face value: a 29-year-old, injury prone big man who’s coming off BY FAR the best year of his career, a guy who’s been incredibly up and down throughout his career was just given $56 million to come save the defense in the world’s most crazed media market. Read More »

Personally, I’m not that big a fan of Halloween. And when it lands on a Monday, it seems like the holiday just never ends. With that said, I do love to see what costumes NBA players decide to wear, and after last year’s festivities, you might remember that some guys get all decked out. After the jump, check out the NBA’s best Halloween costumes from this year. 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 »

Pau Gasol got revenge. Well, not really. But he did get the better of Dirk Nowitzki and Spain got the better of Germany in the EuroBasket second round, beating them 77-68 behind the two Gasol brothers (Pau: 19 second-half points and Marc: 24 points). Dirk matched the All-Star with 19 of his own, but didn’t make a shot during the last nine minutes of the game. When you’re playing a team like Spain that can bring five or six different guys who have the capability to be their team’s best player on any given night, it’s difficult. Besides Chris Kaman (15 points, 12 rebounds), Nowitzki didn’t get enough help. Read More »

The last thing anyone normally associates with Utah and Indiana is excitement. If you’re an NBA fan – unless you live close by – no one ever really thinks about the Jazz and the Pacers at all. They’re not good enough to go deep in the playoffs and they’re not crazy enough to be laughingstocks. They are what they are. Consistent. Middle of the road (for the most part). Read More »

As much as I hated school growing up (I used to fall asleep…every day…in three or four different classes…all the way through college…no matter if I was in the front row or back…out of pure boredom), there was something exciting about that first day back. When you were really young, back when you did things like pull on a chick’s hair or throws tiny rocks at them to tell them “Hey. I like you” the first day of school didn’t matter so much. It was a joke anyways – the majority of teachers worn down and frustrated from dealing with sugar-raged kids who can’t shut up. Read More »