“The (Other) Streak” is dead. 13 New York Knicks wins in a row undone by predominantly by one Nate Robinson, who came off the bench to give ‘em 35 in 33 minutes in a come-from-behind overtime win for the Bulls in Chicago … [Check out Nate's new custom Jordans] … The wonder of Nate was on full display for pretty much the entire game with plenty of the good (buckets, energy, tenacity) and a heaping helping of the bad (horrrrrible shots at inopportune times, knucklehead passes, constantly straddling the line of about-to-get-a T and/or punched in the face by an opponent, etc.). Perfect example: Read More »

The United Center is known as a home of history. From Michael Jordan to the first Big Ten Conference basketball tournament in 1998, this was always a haven of basketball heaven. And last night, another spectacle engraved itself into the history books. Read More »

Sometimes you just want to see history. We don’t think anyone would confuse us with Miami Heat fans, but yeah, we were rooting for the Heat to win last night. We wanted to see someone break that 33-game record. Read More »

Like the rest of the basketball world, we’re sure you’re glued to this Miami Heat/Chicago Bulls game on on ESPN. However this thing turns out, the one thing that is certain is that the Bulls are giving LeBron James & Co. everything they can handle.

If the Bulls do hold on, one of the highlights that will be played over and over again will be this alley oop that Jimmy Butler caught on Chris Bosh‘s head: Read More »

Not everyone can be LeBron James. That’s okay, especially in the playoffs when just as many big games are determined not by the last shot, but by the defensive rebound or the charge or the swing pass or the block that set up that last shot. The club of playoff x-factors is long and memorable, and we’ll see some more names be inducted this year. Read More »

This week’s pickups list comes with some good and bad news. Let’s just get the negative stuff out of the way first. You could probably do better than this edition’s Fresh Pickings. After having such a thick waiver wire for the last couple weeks, things have slimmed down, and will probably stay that way until the trade deadline opens up opportunities for more players. Read More »

The Chicago Bulls’ perimeter players were nothing short of great last night against the Lakers. Not only did they rack up points against L.A.’s porous defense, but they also defended the hell out of the Lakers on the other end of the floor.

One Bull in particular had the defensive night of his life. Jimmy Butler locked down on Kobe Bryant, arguably playing him better than anyone else in the NBA has this year, badgering Bryant into 7-22 shooting from the field). The kid was was so locked in last night, on the offensive end he was putting MJ turnarounds in Kobe’s face (you can see it after the jump). Read More »

The NBA season is just warming up, and like everything from Kobe‘s shooting percentages to Marcin Gortat leading the league in blocks, there are bound to be some statistical anomalies occuring out of sheer luck. Yes, sometimes, you can spot trends or improvements in a player’s game before they really happen (or at least get noticed on a larger scale). But five, six or seven games is a VERY small sample, and there are plenty of statistical numbers that are all out of whack through the season’s first two weeks. Read More »

Even if James Harden wasn’t, we all had waited a long time for last night. Both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook didn’t suit up, which meant the Beard would finally get a long-awaited chance to be the no. 1 option versus a top defense like the Bulls. Harden never really wanted this, dating all the way back to the draft when he reportedly actually wanted to be picked by OKC because he could fit in rather than dealing with the pressure of being “the man.” But anyone on the cusp of getting a max contract should be willing to test themselves. It’s safe to say Harden failed this one. Read More »

The 2012 NBA Draft has come and gone like Maybach Music Group’s Self Made 2 drop earlier this week. Billed as one of best drafts in recent memory, it didn’t provide the same kind of trade activity that all the pre-draft talk suggested. Nevertheless, the lack of major moves impacted the way the draft played out. Hell, David Stern, Adam Silver and the entire ESPN broadcast couldn’t even keep up with the rate Twitter was disseminating the picks at warp speed. Now GMs, teams and players have no time before they’re notified of how great or how poor their evening went. Read More »