No one knows whether or not the San Antonio Spurs really care about the regular season, and the strange events that took place at Madison Square Garden last night didn’t give us any better indication. After hanging within striking distance of the Knicks throughout the second half, the Spurs found themselves down by 10 with three minutes left after Ray Felton (28 pts, 7 asts) went berserker in crunch time. That’s when Gregg Popovich pulled all of his starters — bringing in Chris Quinn, Gary Neal, Ime Udoka, Matt Bonner and Tiago Splitter to replace Tony Parker (26 pts), Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson, Tim Duncan and DeJuan Blair. Read More »

Winning really does fix everything. Similar to how the early-season needling of LeBron and Chris Bosh has been all but muted since the Miami Heat started cracking off W’s like Popeye’s makes biscuits, we’re also hearing nowhere near as much noise about Pat Riley coming in to save Erik Spoelstra from himself on the Miami bench. Last night’s Heat/Warriors game was another vote of confidence for Spoelstra, who watched his team sleep-walk through the first half, then got them to strap up defensively and pull off a comeback win in the second half … Read More »

The haters are running out of reasons to throw rocks at the Heat. Last night’s blowout of the Hornets — a team that has W’s over Dallas, San Antonio and Miami already on its resume — provided an answer to just about every criticism that’s been levied against D-Wade, LeBron and Bosh‘s crew … You say Wade and ‘Bron can’t play together? While Wade dominated the second quarter, scoring 20 of his 32 points, LeBron owned the third, scoring 13 of his 20 as Miami turned a one-point halftime deficit into a seven-point lead going into the fourth quarter. Read More »

Ranking the NBA from worst to first…

30. Los Angeles Clippers (2-13) Last week — Lost at Minnesota, lost at Indiana, lost to New York, beat New Orleans Congratulations on pulling off the biggest upset of the young season by knocking off the red-hot Hornets, but it’s still not enough to climb out of the basement. They’re inching their way up the stairs, though. Read More »

Now it’s just getting ridiculous. On their final outing of a four-games-in-five-nights road trip, Jerry Sloan‘s boys faced a prototypical trap game: After huge wins in Miami, Orlando and Atlanta, last night’s tip in Charlotte presented a not-so-glamorous opponent and an understandable excuse to let one get away. But that’s not the Jazz way. Once again they fell behind by double-digits, this time in the first quarter, and once again their collective toughness and Deron Williams brought them back … Read More »

Buy Low: Al Jefferson: His averages aren’t that bad, but the downer for Jefferson’s owners so far this season has been his inconsistency. For a guy who was most likely picked in the top 25 of most drafts, he’s been more than a bit disappointing. Chalk it up to a completely new situation in Utah. The good signs are that he’s averaging nearly 38 minutes a night, rebounding and blocking shots relatively well, and is shooting 78 percent from the line, up from a miserable 68 percent last season. The consistency will come soon enough for Jefferson, who should be fine going forward. Read More »

Buy Low: LeBron James has really disappointed owners so far, with averages of 20.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 1.4 steals, 0.8 blocks, 1 three and 5.2 turnovers. It’s clear that James’ chance at averaging a triple-double this season are is all but dead, and the possibility of a blowout or two each week doesn’t help his shot at surpassing his monstrous numbers from 2009-10. That said, once his turnovers come down to a sustainable level and once the Heat gets into their groove, James should have little trouble averaging big numbers. It might take another week or two, but if you can buy low on him now you won’t regret it. Read More »

Who do you want your offense to run through with the game on the line? Counting down from 30th to 1st (one per team), I’ve ranked the League’s go-to guys…

JOHN SALMONS, Milwaukee Bucks

For the most part, NBA teams will do one of two things when it’s high-pressure time to get a bucket: (1) High screen-and-roll with their best playmaker and their best big man, (2) Iso for their best 1-on-1 scorer. Or, if you’re the Spurs, you might run an actual play that requires more than two guys to move. But it’s those first two options that make the Bucks so tough to figure out when it came to identifying a go-to guy. Read More »

It’s time to get negative. We all enjoy a healthy discussion about our favorite fantasy basketball sleepers, but it’s equally important to talk about the biggest busts in 2010-11. For purposes of this post, busts will be loosely defined as players who will most underwhelm their owners based on expectations and projected draft positions. In no particular order, here are five players who will be fantasy busts this season. Read More »

Just how many NBA free agents were on the market this summer? Put it this way: Even if two of the three best players in the world hadn’t been part of the pool — i.e., LeBron James and Dwyane Wade — 2010 would still qualify as the most important free agent class in League history. Looking at the NBA before the signing bonanza, most teams only had a handful of players actually under contract, while everyone else was either looking for work or having work come find them.

So if you need help keeping up, we’ve got your back. Read More »