Hopefully Kobe knows who Jeremy Lin is now. After spending time between the Lakers’ win in Boston and last night’s 92-85 loss in NYC doing his best to try to say he had no clue who the NBA’s newest sensation was, Bryant got one-upped by the man who has now scored more points in his first three starts than any player ever has since the NBA/ABA merger. Lin blew up for 38 points and seven assists, incubating Derek Fisher (He had one spin move in the first half that sent Fisher back to 1996) and running the lazy Lakers all over the half-court. Read More »

Another night in the NBA, another great performance from the Knicks’ Jeremy Lin. He led New York to another win, this time over the miserable Washington Wizards, going for 23 and 10 assists.

Among Lin’s points, were these two that came as a result of crossing John Wall and jetting to the rim for his first NBA dunk: Read More »

We all know Blake Griffin is a rising star, but today it was announced the All-Star starter is one of 18 chosen for the 2012 BBVA Rising Stars Challenge during All-Star weekend in Orlando.

The Rising Stars Challenge is a switch on the former Rookie/Sophomore game, though it was still voted on by assistant coaches. Now, they’ll be mixed together with Charles Barkley and Shaq choosing and coaching the teams. Each squad gets nine guys.

Here are the players on the list: Read More »

All hail Jeremy Lin. That’s now two games in a row that the seldom-used backup has torched opponents and lit the Garden on fire as if he was John Starks. Lin dropped 28 and eight in New York’s 99-88 win over Utah. Beast? Lin seems to finish every three point play, make all the right decisions out of the pick-n-roll and has even shown off his deep ball. At one point in the second half, he dropped a high-arching shot and then trotted back on defense with a swag unlimited smirk before sticking his tongue out (It looked like he had been sucking on some blue lollipops during the quarter break). Read More »

Derrick Rose said he was gonna go crazy against Washington last night, and dude did go a little nuts. Not only did he pick up a technical, but he was as aggressive as we’ve seen him all year in the first half, weaving into the lane and throwing up more of those high-arching floaters he’s grown fond of. John Wall gave him some run during the first half of Chicago’s 10-point win, but there’s still one glaring difference between the two: John Wall makes tough shots. Derrick Rose makes tough shots look easy. Read More »

The Knicks decided real basketball was for the birds, and started launching a monsoon of treys. That might work against some teams, but not Miami, especially when Dwyane Wade is healthy and cooking. With Carmelo Anthony sitting out, the Heat weathered a random Bill Walker night (21 points, all on treys) and a bunch of other weird stuff (in the first half the Knicks were 5-for-19 on twos and 10-for-23 on threes) to pull away in the fourth quarter, 99-89. LeBron and D-Wade were all over the place, combining for 59 points and only 15 missed shots. Read More »

There’s something purely Americana about the hometown kid making good in front of the hometown crowd.

Whether it’s David Freese blasting home runs to lead his St. Louis Cardinals to a World Series title, or Chauncey Billups going from prep legend to college superstar to NBA bust back to NBA superstar in Denver, or even Jerome Bettis winning a Super Bowl in Detroit in his final NFL game while playing for another team, we like these stories. In a sports culture where free agency and stressed-out GMs eager to trade make it increasingly tougher for fans to claim one group of players as “our guys” for any length of time, hometown ties remain nearly impossible to break. Read More »

I don’t know about you, but doesn’t it sometimes feel like the missed dunks are the ones that can get the crowd hyped? It’s those plays that are just out of reach, so close, that have players pushing the boundaries and fans getting excited. Our friends at Hoopmixtape put together the 10 best misses of the entire year, which includes people like Shaquille Johnson, Stephen Curry and John Wall getting oh so close to some incredible jams. Hit the jump to check out the best of the best misses. Read More »

You had to know this was coming sooner or later. Flip Saunders is now officially out as the Wizards head coach, according to Michael Lee of The Washington Post. He will be replaced by lead assistant Randy Wittman. When you have some of the most immature talent in the league leading you through a 2-15 disaster of a season, with an offense that is dead last in the entire NBA (and a defense that’s not much better), what do you expect? Washington started slow, and the progress has been so minimal that the front office had no other choice. Read More »

You may not have heard, but there are reports the NBA is going to tweak the format for the Rookie-Sophomore Game at All-Star Weekend. For the previous few seasons, it was always the rookie class vs. the sophomores and while that seems great in theory, sometimes it didn’t work. Last season, the sophomores had one guy – DeJuan Blair – who put in work inside (and he’s undersized). The rookies had DeMarcus Cousins, Blake Griffin, and even Derrick Favors and Greg Monroe off the bench. So in order to make it a more interesting game, the NBA is reportedly doing something a little different this year. Read More »