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 »

NBA All-Star Saturday Night’s signature events are, without question, the Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout and the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest. Dime Magazine was in Houston to check out the action live and have grades on the performances of each participant in both events (we can’t be the only other ones who nearly slept through the Shooting Stars and the Skills Competition). Be forewarned: this isn’t exactly a fair grading scale. Expectations played a role in their grades. Remember one of the worst things in the world is wasted talent – at least that’s what they say in the movie A Bronx Tale. Read More »

Is Jeremy Evans the most unknown NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner of all-time? It sure seems like it, and that’s probably because he’s played 129 minutes this season for Utah after playing 217 the year previous. His one, no-brainer skill is dunking, a feat that doesn’t lend itself to a major roll for coach Tyrone Corbin but is a centerpiece of this year’s 2013 NBA All-Star Game’s Slam Dunk Contest. Read More »

NBA legend Karl Malone made a visit to the NBA TV studios on Tuesday night, and while his analysis came down to stuff like “He’s really good” and “I like the way he plays,” I will give him credit for one thing he pointed out: Utah is deep, talented, and is probably the biggest sleeper in the entire Western Conference. Of course, the Mailman admitted he’s biased. But he’s still right. And while Kevin Love‘s injury might finally put more of a spotlight on the Jazz and their criminally underrated frontline, it also could have a major effect on which teams end up making the playoffs. Read More »

The athleticism on display in this sequence from Utah’s Jeremy Evans is just stupid. [WATCH AN ARCHIVE OF EVANS' HIGHLIGHTS HERE]

Evans gets way up to smack Ronny Turiaf‘s jumper, corrals the loose ball and then destroys Turiaf again on the other end of the floor: Read More »

Nothing gets us going in the Dime offices like a good ol’ fashioned debate, and the best debates are the ones that get heated. Trying to rate the best dunkers in the league is unanimously impossible. Do you want style? Force? Does a big man get points taken away? If a player is an epic dunker in warm-ups, does that count?

Back in the day, we had Vince Carter and there was no denying what type of dunker he was. But in the current NBA, outside of perhaps one or two guys, you could make a case for anyone. Read More »

I like Jeremy Evans a lot. Everyone here at Dime does. We’ve supported the #LetJeremyDunk movement since the beginning. I spent some time with him over All-Star Weekend, and we joked about his admittedly horrendous Call of Duty skills and the worst dunker on Utah. But he shouldn’t have won the dunk contest. Paul George had the best dunks. I’m not accepting arguments. That’s a fact (although it would’ve been Derrick Williams winning had he been able to finish his last one). Read More »

It doesn’t happen very often, so we’re a little surprised the Three-Point Shootout was much more entertaining than the Dunk Contest. But we’ll start with the dunkers since we know everyone will want to talk about them anyways. Jeremy Evans won it, beating out a group of guys who hired drunk entertainers (Chase Budinger) to throw them lobs, honored Larry Bird in a dunk contest (Paul George) and missed the same dunk for two minutes straight (Nate Robi…. aw, we mean Derrick Williams). Evans was okay. We guess. He probably won the vote because Utah fans have nothing better to do. The double dunk was cool. But honoring Karl Malone wasn’t all that great. Read More »

Took me long enough. Some media members have been complaining all weekend about how this All-Star Weekend seemed like one of those high school Friday night bashes when the rents don’t tell you they’re bouncing until 9:30 that night, and you call up a few friends, they call a few friends, you hit up your beer connect, charge up the iPod and yet everything feels rushed and crowded. That’s what a lockout will do to you. Read More »

Remember when everyone was so concerned about taking Kyrie Irving No. 1 overall this summer? Between his ROY play so far this year and last night’s dominating performance in the Rising Stars Challenge, he’s shut everyone up. Last night he won MVP by leading Team Chuck to a 146-133 victory over Team Shaq by going OFF for 34 points, nine assists and not missing a three (in eight attempts) all night. Despite the presence of Linsanity, unbelievable highlights from John Wall and Evan Turner‘s forgotten about near-trip-dub, Irving showed he’s the real deal … Read More »