You can’t disrespect a Derrick Rose-less Chicago team that’s still leading the East despite him being gone for 20 games now this season with injury. The Heat couldn’t stop the Bulls without their MVP a couple weeks back, remember? This is to say that when West-leading Oklahoma City met East beast Chicago on Sunday in OKC, you knew the Thunder were going to give the Bulls a full run no matter what. That run turned out to be a 14-point win that came with serious style points. Read More »

Oh poor Jose Calderon. Should we give him credit for sticking in there? At best, he should’ve taken another step outside of the restricted area so he could take a charge. That way JaVale McGee would’ve contributed another clip to his top 5 dunk fails because he no doubt would’ve tried to jump over the Spanish point guard from Montreal. Yet Calderon hesitated and woke up this morning smelling “McGee” on his shirt. Read More »

Lost amongst the Eastern contenders and pretenders is Boston. No one’s quiet sure what to make of them, especially now that they’re 13-5 since the All-Star Break and are threatening to overtake Philly in the standings. Kevin Garnett (23 points, 10 rebounds) has apparently found the fountain of youth, and last night he mugged the Jazz hard enough that the Celtics survived a monster third quarter from Al Jefferson, winning 94-82 … Read More »

It doesn’t matter if it took two extra overtimes, seeing a game end up with 289 points is crazy. Kevin Love channeled his recent anger to go berserk for a career-high 51 points, and yet the Thunder dominated the final overtime. Russell Westbrook scored the first points there and ultimately led OKC to a nine-point win with 45 points. Kevin Durant chipped in with 40 points and 17 rebounds, but as well as the Thunder’s big-name players balled, the rest of the team was non-existant. James Harden did his thing as well, but where was everybody else? They were busy making J.J. Barea (25 points, 14 assists) look like something other than a pretty good backup … 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 »

While the Sixers were once again teaching everyone in the arena the basics of How To Run God Awful Offense At The End Of A Game 101, Jeremy Lin (18 points) was balling. The dude started the game shooting 1-for-9 and yet still had that bounce in his step. He got to the rim. He found his bigs. And most importantly, he made his free throws to close out the Sixers, 82-79. Amar’e Stoudemire chipped in 21 and nine, and his legs appear all the way back. He was dunking, spinning in the lane and had one fourth quarter block on Elton Brand at the rim that had Twitter all fired up. Read More »

No, George Karl did not lose his mind. He believes it. JaVale McGee, despite his YouTube celebrity, reminds him a little bit of the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. McGee does have the shot-blocking numbers (2.4 a game) and the wingspan (7-6) to perhaps confuse a few people. He even has a semi-effective sky hook. But when you hear comments like this, Denver’s reasoning behind swapping their prized offseason signing (Nene) for McGee becomes quite clear. Read More »

Nick Young is going home (Clippers) while JaVale McGee is finally leaving Washington (to go to Denver), and Nene moves on just months after signing a massive deal in Denver (to Washington). Yahoo! Sports is reporting the three-team deal has gone down, which also includes Brian Cook and a second-round pick from the Clippers going to the Wizards while Ronny Turiaf goes to Denver. Read More »

Brandon Jennings was content to wait. While the Nets came out hot Monday in New Jersey, Milwaukee’s oft off-target star found his stroke wherever he wanted as the game went on. Jennings stepped back for six threes on 11 attempts and had a game-high 34 in the Bucks’ win. He’s in the best shooting season of his career at 40 percent from the field (Progress, people. Progress.). While it’s progress that he’s better year-over-year, it’s still not good. It was nice though, to see his third night of 50 percent shooting or better this month, after not hitting that mark once in February … Read More »

Listening to Derrick Rose the last few days, it felt like a Michael Corleone moment. All this talk about the Pacers celebrating the last time they beat Chicago, and how Rose didn’t forget anything and couldn’t wait to play them again, we pictured him seeking out his own Al Neri and saying, “Nothing is to happen to them until I say so.” We were waiting for him to pull out the little boat, pack the Pacers into it and send them out on the lake. Rose and the Bulls decided on the third quarter as the appropriate time for revenge in their 92-72 win last night. Read More »