Chris Paul wasn’t about to let his team lose its 15-game win streak, not like that. So in Utah on Friday night, down 19 points halfway through the third quarter, CP3 broke out the defibrillator and shocked life back into the Clippers. Why’s that impressive? Well, the 16-game streak is the longest since the Celtics had a 19-gamer in 2008. Two, Salt Lake City is not an easy place to play even in the post-Sloan era and the Clippers struggle there — they’ve gone 20-61 there all-time. Three, mental toughness was not something associated with this franchise until recently — oh, about the time CP3 and Chauncey Billups arrived, to be honest. Read More »

It wasn’t easy, but a W is a W. Team USA struggled early against Brazil and were down by as many as 10. A struggle? They were having problems just converting layups. Russell Westbrook was missing breakaway lay ins; the rest of the team couldn’t make a shot in the lane. At the end of the first quarter, it was 27-17 Brazil, and we thought Coach K might break a blood vessel. Everything was going wrong for the USA early, even the Kiss Cam. Barack Obama and Michelle were in the building, and they were put on the Kiss Cam. Michelle refused the president twice, even after he went in for the kill, and the crowd wasn’t feeling it. Obama was swagging out all night in Under Armour – at a Nike event – but it took him a second try at the Kiss Cam to give his woman a smooch. 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: Kevin Durant posted 32 points, nine rebounds, five assists, two steals, a block and a three-pointer last night. He shot 56 percent (10-18) from the field and 100 percent (11-11) from the free-throw line, and turned the ball over four times. This was a nice bounce-back game after notching a mediocre 18/6/2 (along with six turnovers) the night before. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Al Jefferson posted 25 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, one steal and three blocks last night. He shot 56 percent (9-16) from the floor and 88 percent (7-8) from the free-throw line, and had no turnovers. This is about as perfect as a big man’s line gets. Jefferson has been a top 10 stud so far this season. His value has been boosted by his improved assists (2.2 per game, up from 1.8 last season) and steady turnovers (1.2 per game, down from 1.3 last season). Read More »

Weekend Wonder: LeBron James averaged 30.0 points, 11.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.5 steals, 2.5 blocks and 0.5 threes in two huge games over the weekend. He shot 56 percent from the field, 50 percent from the free-throw line and averaged 1.5 turnovers in that stretch. It’s good to be king. Read More »

Beast of the Night: DeAndre Jordan finished with 14 points, 14 rebounds, two steals and four blocks last night. He shot 78 percent (7-9) from the field and shot not free-throw attempts and had no turnovers. This was Jordan’s third straight game with double-digit rebounds. He remains a fantasy stud for owners punting free-throw percentage. Read More »

As we mentioned in Smack, this move from James Johnson had us all out of our seats. Remember when he was coming out of Wake Forest and everyone thought we’d see stuff like this from him on the regular? It hasn’t exactly worked out as expected – even though he’s been decent this year (7.6 points, 4.7 rebounds a game) in Canada – but he has come up with some sick highlights this season. Read More »

He might’ve made just four of his last 25 “clutch” shots and he might’ve shot the Lakers out of two or three games this season – most recently in Philly last week – and he might’ve missed six of his previous seven shots on this afternoon, but it wasn’t a surprise that Kobe was gonna take the one shot that counted in L.A.’s 94-92 win in Canada. Add another one to the highlight reel, this one a one-dribble pull-up on the baseline. Bryant (27 points) was a man down the stretch, hitting a ball-busting three and then getting a steal and an assist to put L.A. up one. 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 »