With only four teams remaining in the NBA Playoffs, it means a few “contenders” have already been eliminated from title contention. The offseason is the time for these teams to retool to prepare for deeper runs next season. The Houston Rockets were one of the surprise teams of the 2012-13 NBA season. After pulling off a blockbuster trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder to acquire James Harden they landed a true superstar — something they haven’t seen since Yao Ming was on the roster. Read More »

As much as I enjoy watching LeBron James at the peak of his NBA powers, as much as I enjoy watching the veteran Celtics come together since Rajon Rondo went down, as fun as it is to watch Carmelo Anthony drop 35-plus night after night en-route to his first scoring title, and Chris Paul continuing to be the best point guard of this generation, what makes the NBA so great night in and night out is everyone else. Read More »

Remember yearbooks? The day the powers that be used to drop those in middle school and high school always had people going crazy. Who won what? Where am I? What pictures did they use? At the time, they felt almost like journals. Later on, once you went to college or got a real job, found yourself and dropped the styles that made you look so stupid as a teenager, they became comical. Read More »

As the fantasy playoffs are either here or on the horizon, depending on your league settings, player values have fallen in place. Of course there are some exceptions. However, by this time statistics have evened out. The early hot streaks dissolve, and the underachievers have worked their way back into the fantasy hierarchy. Read More »

A year and a half ago, Greg Smith was playing in the Mexican League just across the border from California, in Mexicali. This was his lot after declaring for the NBA early after two seasons at Fresno State right before the lockout hit. Out of bad timing can come young careers, however. Read More »

For the second time in the second half Sunday at Madison Square Garden, J.R. Smith passed the ball a little too casually from above the three-point line, allowing LeBron James to intercept it. The first time, about 16 game minutes earlier, LBJ went to the line for free throws in the middle of Miami’s comeback from 17 down to the Knicks. Uh oh. The second time, no one stopped him. And that was the story of the second half at MSG. Read More »

When Houston traded for James Harden, they were hoping, maybe even believing that they were getting a star. But we’re not sure anyone thought they were getting this. In Houston’s wild 122-119 comeback win over the Thunder, Harden not only had a defining “So I’m not a max player, huh?” game, he looked like the best player on the floor. Read More »

Back on Dec. 10, Jeremy Lin matched his career high in scoring, dropping 38 in a Lone Star State thriller against San Antonio. The Rockets lost in overtime, but Lin’s performance was an encouraging sign. Up to that point, his production had been inconsistent, even getting benched for key stretches. Where did the 38 point outburst come from, then? Read More »

As much as we want to give credit to Kobe Bryant for icing the Lakers win in Brooklyn last night, L.A. should throw the Nets a bone. Brooklyn did everything they could outside of express mailing the W to Hollywood. Down the stretch, the Nets endured a couple of bad shots from Brook Lopez – one was an ugly airball – on poorly executed plays. Then, Gerald Wallace threw away an inbounds pass. Read More »

Read More »