Before Ric Bucher left ESPN this fall, he tweeted one of the more interesting behind-the-scenes nuggets to take into consideration whenever Oklahoma City and the Lakers play. Bucher said that underneath the “We’re all friends!” vibe Team USA put out in winning gold in London last summer, Kobe Bryant was trying to create a wedge between Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant by telling Russ he deserved to be the team’s alpha male. The young OKC stars were wise to the Mamba’s plot then and apparently want to destroy L.A. each time they play the Lakers now because of what Kobe tried to do. Read More »

As the first leg of the NBA season has closed, player values have fallen in place. Of course there are some exceptions, like if some of these players just happened to start off ice cold or riding a hot streak. However, by this time statistics have evened out. The early hot streaks dissolve, and the underachievers slowly work their way back into the fantasy hierarchy. Read More »

Everyone claims they have the answers for the Lakers problems this year. But there’s one that’s stumped Hollywood for over a decade: what to do with Tony Parker. In San Antonio’s wild three-point win over the Lakers, Parker looked like he was running his own pick-n-roll drill, and barely broke a sweat on his way to 24 points and six dimes. The Spurs needed all of that, as they nearly let a 17-point lead slip away before Manu Ginobili (19 points, eight rebounds) hit the biggest shot of the night: a wing triple in the final minute. Read More »

The New Orleans Hornets (they’re not the Pelicans just yet) are a team in flux. They started the year with the specious ROY, Anthony Davis, and his inexorable brow grabbing most of the headlines. But it didn’t last. Davis went down with an ankle injury. Plus, after matching Phoenix’s offer sheet for the off guard they got in the Chris Paul trade, Eric Gordon, they waited for him to recover from a patella tendon disorder and bone bruise in his right knee. Read More »

A great recipe for disaster – at least if you’re the Lakers – is playing in Denver on the second night of a back-to-back. Old legs. The high altitude. The penchant of the Nuggets to play fast and frenetic. It almost never works out for L.A., and last night, not even 40 from Kobe Bryant was enough. Read More »

We don’t know anything concrete about the future of this season – our crystal ball broke a few weeks ago and the Ouija board was tossed long ago. We have our ideas – here’s who we think will take home MVP – but we don’t know, for example whether this Houston Rockets team will contend in the Western Conference. This team will, however, be fun to watch. It’s like this is an “Out to Prove Ourselves” multi-city, national stadium tour sweeping across America. Read More »

There is no doubt that Reggie Evans is an antagonist – he has a long resume of extracurricular nonsense to go along with his career 6.8 rebounds per game.

His “skills” were on display last night against the Hornets with this embarrassing flop against Greivis Vasquez. The officials originally called this a flagrant 2 foul against Vasquez before reducing it to a personal. Just absurd: Read More »

Rudy Gay, I think we can agree, is one of the game’s best dunkers. On his huge fastbreak slam on New Orleans on Wednesday, another person who agrees is clearly Greivis Vasquez, who doesn’t want anything to do with a dunking Gay. While he ran under Gay, his teammate Jason Smith tried to challenge the dunk. He finds chasing Gay on a break isn’t the same as catching Blake Griffin, though. Can’t really fault him for trying, though. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Al Jefferson took full advantage of a triple-overtime marathon against the Mavericks, posting 28 points, 26 rebounds, one assist, one steal and two blocks in more than 54 minutes of burn. He shot 56 percent (14-25) from the floor and had one turnover. For the season, Jefferson has exceeded expectations by producing top six averages. Barring major changes in the Jazz’s roster or Jefferson’s health, he should be viewed as a first-round player in next year’s drafts. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Goran Dragic finished with 22 points, two rebounds, seven assists, three steals and four three-pointers. He shot 57 percent (8-14) from the floor and 67 percent (2-3) from the free-throw line, and had two turnovers. Since becoming a starter exactly a month ago, Dragic has averaged 18.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 8.6 assists, 2.0 steals and 2.1 threes per game, while shooting 52 percent from the field and 82 percent from the free-throw line. Those are top five numbers. Kyle Lowry‘s return shouldn’t damage Dragic’s fantasy value too much the rest of the way. Read More »