Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that the Boston Celtics, who have been trying to find a way to acquire Courtney Lee for a while now, have finally landed their man. The deal will be a sign-and-trade, with JaJuan Johnson going over to Houston in exchange for Lee. Read More »

The Grizzlies should’ve just hit up a Super Bowl party early because Boston slapped them around all afternoon, winning their fourth-straight game 98-80 behind a throwback (24 points, nine rebounds) from Kevin Garnett and yet another, ho-hum 21 points from The Truth. Boston’s defense was suffocating, holding Memphis to under 37 percent from the field and under 20 points in every quarter outside of the third. And with Rajon Rondo (14 assists, his first game with double-digit assists since Jan. 13) really back, they had one of their best bucket-getting halves of the year (the second frame) … Read More »

On a team known for its experience – and bad knees – Avery Bradley is an anomaly. The 21-year-old combo guard is the youngest player on the Celtics’ roster. In fact, it was just three years ago that Bradley was putting up 19.1 points per game at Findlay Prep, a feat that earned him the No. 1 ranking in the ESPNU 100, four spots ahead of John Wall. Read More »

Brian Cardinal is the definition of a journeyman. With his sixth NBA team, the man affectionately named “The Custodian” finally got to the Promised Land, hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy with the Dallas Mavericks this June. On a team where every player had a specific role to play, Cardinal played his to perfection, coming in and making life miserable for Chris Bosh and LeBron James in the paint. Cardinal also made the most of his opportunities with the ball, knocking down some huge three-pointers in Game 5 and 6. Recently we caught up with Brian to talk about whatever was on his mind. Read More »

Following the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago and feedback from various individual workouts around the league, we can continue to fine-tune how the draft will play out after the top spot. In the second of many Dime mock drafts leading up to June 23, keep in mind that this is a combination of what we think teams should do and what we think they will do: Read More »

And you thought the first round of the playoffs wasn’t competitive enough. With the Lakers and Magic taking care of business on the road yesterday in their respective Game 3′s, the defending conference champs are each up 3-0 in their series, and with the Suns also up 3-0 on San Antonio, that makes only one series (Cavs/Celtics) that doesn’t feel like it’s already over … For the Jazz, it was the worst kind of loss because they really gave Kobe and Co. their best shot and it still wasn’t good enough. With Kobe pretty quiet in the second half, Ron Artest was carrying L.A.’s offense to start the fourth quarter, scoring their first nine points in the quarter. Read More »

After the first three days of the NCAA Tournament belonged to lovable underdogs like Jimmer Fredette, Ali Farokhmanesh, Cornell and the St. Mary’s Hoosiers, Day 4 belonged to the big dogs — a.k.a. the Big Ten. Thanks to Korie Lucious and Chris Kramer‘s clutch play and Evan Turner‘s overall dominance, we’re headed to the Sweet Sixteen with the Big Ten having more teams still standing (Ohio State, Michigan State, Purdue) than any other conference, including the much-hyped Big East … Michigan State was trailing Maryland by one with six seconds left after Greivis Vasquez (26 pts, 8 asts, 3 stls) hit a tough shot in the lane. The Spartans got it to Lucious (13 pts), and the sophomore calmly found his spot and drained a three at the buzzer. Read More »

*Dime’s NCAA Tournament Day 2 coverage*

Most likely because Trevon Hughes was the hero for Wisconsin last year — when his game-winner got them past Florida State in the first round — it was like he tried too hard to be the hero this time around.

As the 4th-seeded Badgers were getting everything they could handle from 13-seed Wofford today, Hughes went into Allen Iverson mode down the stretch, primarily looking for his own shot and jacking up some that were pretty terrible. Read More »

That’s right, the start of the college hoops season is just one week away and you know what that means: it’s time to unleash the mother effing fury! For the past seven months, I’ve been bottling up a vicious mixture of excitement and rage, just waiting for the moment to release my emotions onto the rest of the world. Well that time has come. Your boy Matty D is back to give you a look at the top teams in the country and to separate the champs from the chumps. Read More »

Dime’s Aron Phillips e-mailed the crew earlier today: “Ty Lawson has been getting as much coverage as Cyrano de Bergerac‘s nose.” Although I wouldn’t have gone for the random French literature reference, Lawson’s injured toe has been one of the major story lines of this NCAA Tournament so far. After missing UNC’s first-round win over Radford, the junior point guard returned for today’s game against LSU. Read More »