It took about 47 and a half minutes for Don Nelson to really miss Stephen Jackson. In the Warriors’ first game since trading Capt. Jack to the Bobcats, they were actually hanging with the Cavs on the road last night. On a critical possession with under a minute to go and Cleveland ahead by four, LeBron of course had the rock, a situation where S-Jack would normally have been guarding him. This time, however, Nellie had to enlist Vlad Radmanovic for the job. (Well, he didn’t have to; Anthony Randolph might have been a better choice.) To the surprise of no one, LeBron scored easily, sticking a pull-up jumper for the dagger … Read More »
You know you pulled off an incredible dunk when your team doesn’t even win the game, you lost to a team that features arguably the best/most famous (active) basketball player in the world and one of the two other most famous players in the world, the dunk itself happened way back in the first quarter of an East Coast tip-off, and it’s STILL the first everybody is talking about around the water cooler. A few minutes into Heat/Cavs, LeBron looked like he was gonna put somebody on a poster when he got a step on his defender and approached the rim with bad intentions. LBJ got stuffed by Jermaine O’Neal, though, creating a one-man fast break for Dwyane Wade. Read More »
Is it possible the West is actually stronger than we all thought? No surprise that the Lakers, Nuggets, Spurs and Blazers have been solid, but not a lot of people expected Houston, Dallas and Phoenix to play so well coming out of the gate … The Suns are arguably the best team in the entire League right now, with Steve Nash putting himself in the mix for a third MVP and doing that thing where he makes fringe NBA players look like All-Stars. Last night Nash added to the resume, putting up 21 points and 20 assists in a come-from-behind win at Philly … Read More »
From worst to first, ranking the NBA through the first couple of weeks…
30. New Jersey Nets (0-7) — They’re dropping like panties at R.Kelly’s house in Jersey, with starters Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, CDR and Yi Jianlian all missing games with injury and/or illness.
29. Minnesota Timberwolves (1-6) — The only bright spot of this past week was Jonny Flynn outplaying Brandon Jennings head-to-head. And the Wolves still lost that game. Read More »
Erick Dampier was almost the headline photo for today’s Smack. Seriously. In the late stages of the fourth quarter of Mavs/Hornets, Damp (16 pts, 14 rebs, 3 blks) was the most clutch player in the building, getting a putback off a Dirk Nowitzki miss to break a tie, catching an alley-oop from Jason Kidd on the next possession, then scoring on another tip-in with 16 seconds left. That should’ve been the dagger, but Dallas killed themselves at the free-throw line in the final seconds: Jason Terry missed one after Chris Paul got T’d up for arguing a push-off call (CP had pushed off on J.J. Barea like 3-4 times in the fourth, but didn’t get called for it until what looked like N.O.’s last-chance possession), then Barea missed two freebies to keep the Hornets alive. Read More »
Five matchups to watch on Wednesday’s 10-game schedule…
Detroit at Toronto: Pistons’ frontcourt vs. Chris Bosh
Previously known as three of the Seven Dwarfs’ cousins, Ben Wallace (Buffy), Chris Wilcox (Lazy) and Kwame Brown (Fumbly) earned their money Tuesday by taking Dwight Howard completely out of Detroit’s upset win over Orlando. Read More »
Tom Izzo has built himself nothing short of a dynasty in his time at Michigan State. It’s no secret, but the Spartans are built top to bottom again this year. From reigning Big Ten POY, Kalin Lucas, to future NBA check collectors Delvon Roe and Durrell Summers, Sparty is looking good. Read More »
Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — previewing the NBA season by predicting the respective ceiling and basement for each team. Same theme, different season…
With most of their guys back healthy from the flu and various other injuries, the Cavs smashed the Mavs by 30 last night at the University of Pittsburgh gym. (Since when do Cleveland teams get love in Pittsburgh?) Mo Williams had 16 points and 11 assists, LeBron put up 12 points on 3-of-13 shooting and seven dimes, and Big Z scored 16 off the bench … Dallas was the team playing short-handed, as Dirk, J-Kidd and Jason Terry were given the night off, and Josh Howard and Shawn Marion are still banged up. So the starting five looked like this: J.J. Barea, Matt Carroll, Quinton Ross, Drew Gooden and Erick Dampier. Pretty sure the Pitt Panthers squad would be able to give that lineup at least a decent run. Hell, put Sam Young and DeJuan Blair back on the squad and they might pull off a W … Read More »
Today we’re continuing our week-long look at the projected top 10 fantasy players for each position this season. We looked at the top 10 fantasy point guards yesterday and now we’re moving on to the top 10 fantasy shooting guards. Speak up if you agree or disagree with what you see and bear in mind that these lists are purely from a fantasy perspective.
1. Dwyane Wade: We all knew he was great, but last season Wade played completely out of his mind, improving on every single statistical category while staying healthy. It’s unlikely that he’ll be able to continue improving his stats so drastically, but he should be counted on for nothing less than jaw-dropping lines each night. Read More »
