Beast of the Night: Nene put up a monster line with 20 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, 4 blocks and 2 turnovers while shooting 62 percent (8-13) from the floor and 80 percent (4-5) from the line. It was his finest game of the season so far and his owners have to be hoping that he stays healthy. Read More »

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 »

With the start of the NBA season, comes tons of new NBA gear - and our friends at adidas came correct. Introducing the BLACK/BLACK collection, an exclusive lifestyle collection inspired by the League. This high finish, concept collection keeps the look easy and will take you day to night both on and off the court. And with a special unveiling in seven NBA cities, including in-store appearances and autograph signing sessions, you’re going to want to get down. Second stop, Chicago. Read More »

It’s too easy to start rolling out predictions and watch lists two weeks into the season. Unlike football, where two weeks means you’ve only played two games, two weeks of the NBA translates to almost 10 games, a good enough sample for most to gauge how a guy is going to play for the next 7-8 months. That’s why Steve Nash, Carmelo and Kobe are already running an MVP race, Brandon Jennings is running away with R.O.Y., and Ron Artest and LeBron are vying for Defensive Player of the Year.

So if he isn’t already on the ballot, here’s my early vote for Luol Deng as the NBA’s Most Improved Player. Read More »

Weekend Wonder: Tyreke Evans is bouncing back from a bum ankle in a big way, helped partly by the absence of Kevin Martin. The Kings’ surging rookie averaged 27.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.5 steals and just 1 turnover in two games over the weekend, while also hitting 1.5 threes, shooting 50 percent (15-30) from the field and 85 percent (22-26) from the free throw line. With Martin sidelined for six to eight weeks, expect Evans to fill that void quite nicely. Read More »

If you’re purely interested in the best interest of Allen Iverson, you’re glad the Grizzlies had one of their business-as-usual losses against the Clippers last night. Having gone 0-3 since A.I. joined the lineup earlier in the week, for Memphis to win after Iverson had left the team for undisclosed personal reasons — even if it was against the Clips — would have brought up all the same criticisms of Iverson you saw in Detroit and at various points throughout his runs in Philly and Denver. Mainly, that A.I.’s team is better without him, and that certain young stars (i.e. O.J. Mayo in this case) are better off when he’s not in the picture … Instead, the Grizzlies did what they typically do with or without Iverson, putting up a lot of points while giving up even more. Read More »

Buy Low: Devin Harris, Antawn Jamison, Kevin Love, J.R. Smith, Rashard Lewis and anyone else who is going to return from an injury or suspension in the near future should be targeted for low-ball offers.

Danilo Gallinari has turned from being an Italian stallion to an ordinary pony in the span of a week. His owners are champing at the bit for him to put up studly lines again, and in the meantime you should be dangling carrots in their faces in hopes of nabbing this three-point hoss. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Carlos Boozer pummeled the Spurs with 27 points, 14 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. He shot 60 percent (12-20) from the floor and a perfect 3-3 from the line while turning the ball over just once. He’s been a roller coaster all season but last night’s line against Tim Duncan and the Spurs, one of the teams favored to get to the Finals, has to inject some confidence in his owners. The window to buy low on Boozer might be closed. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Tim Duncan put up 28 points, 16 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks in 34:23 against the Bulls last night. He also shot 68.4 percent (13-19) from the floor, 50 percent (2-4) from the free throw line and turned the ball over twice. His minutes won’t climb much higher for most of the season, but on nights like these it doesn’t matter. Read More »

This year’s draft class has the potential for a number of gems to come out of the second round. I think Dejuan Blair, Sam Young, Dajuan Summers and Marcus Thornton will all make an immediate impact this season. But another guy to keep an eye on is someone that we’ve all known about for years: Chase Budinger. Cue the eye rolls. Read More »