Two weeks ago, we pronounced Utah dead, a casualty of a terrible stretch of scheduling and the expected rise of the Lakers. Now? They’ve won six games in a row, and have a half game lead on L.A. for the West’s last playoff spot after taking care of business against Portland last night, 112-102. Read More »

Sometimes you just want to see history. We don’t think anyone would confuse us with Miami Heat fans, but yeah, we were rooting for the Heat to win last night. We wanted to see someone break that 33-game record. Read More »

Harvard graduate. Rags-to-riches basketball phenomenon. Apparel giant? That is the latest audacious accomplishment Jeremy Lin wants to achieve thanks to a reported line of licensed merchandise he’s working with Nike to develop, a line that would specifically outfit Harvard. Read More »

Chris Paul might not be Dwyane Wade, who seems intent on turning himself into some sort of fashion icon. But he’s stylish enough to make the cover of GQ (along with actors Denzel Washington and Javier Bardem), and in the subsequent interview, he admitted he was happy to end up with the Clippers instead of the Lakers. The former JV team had better pieces, and as Paul said, “winning with the Clippers would be legendary.” Read More »

Shaquille O’Neal‘s movies make us want to wince (did you know he’s been in seven films?) but it doesn’t mean the big screen is out of his future. And we’re not talking about his cameo in “Grown Ups 2″ he’s got coming up. The Big Aristotle became The Big Projector on Friday when his newly renovated movie theater, the CityPlex 12, he co-owns in downtown Newark opened. Read More »

The big names signed on the dotted line – or in Deron Williams‘ case, on the iPad – weeks ago, and the pool of talent is pretty much completely dry. But for contending teams, and even those who are just in the market for a veteran to give them a few good minutes or a few good pre-game speeches, there are still a couple of names available. None of these guys will be making consistently key contributions for a contender, but they’re all still viable NBA players. Read More »

Ivan Johnson doesn’t go out quietly. When he played professionally in Korea, he was banned for life for making an “obscene gesture at a referee.” That is a nice way of saying he dropped a middle finger on a ref over there and was subsequently the last time he played there. Last night in Atlanta’s last game of the year, a Game 6 loss in Boston, Johnson made his mark despite getting the dreaded DNP. Read More »

There was a point in the third quarter where you could see it on LeBron James‘ face. New Jersey was flowing. Miami was in a trance. And LeBron was annoyed. A late regular season game in New Jersey isn’t exactly the NBA Finals, but it’ll do for now, especially when he puts together a performance that had shades of 2006, Game 5 in Detroit. LeBron scored 17 straight for Miami to bring the Heat charging back in a 111-108 W, all while everyone in the building screamed “MVP!” Read More »

Josh Smith might not be an All-Star but he had arguably one of the best games of his career in the Hawks’ seven-point upset of Oklahoma City. Smith did everything, including hitting more jump hooks than seemingly anyone in a game since Kareem, and murdering the league’s top shot blocker at the rim with this dunk. He had 30 and 12 and even made a trey, and put the game away late by dominating inside. There was a stretch at the end of the game with the ATL up five where the Thunder missed three consecutive threes and Smith got the rebound on every single one. Read More »

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 »