Beast of the Night: LeBron James owned the Thunder with his 34 points, seven rebounds, 10 assists, four steals, one block and three three-pointers last night. He shot 50 percent (10-20) from the field and 85 percent (11-13) from the free-throw line, and had two turnovers. This followed his 41/6/4 line against the Sixers the previous night. Believe it or not, last night’s monster line helped James reclaim the No. 1 spot over Kevin Durant again. Read More »

Derek Fisher looked FOCUSED in his return to Staples Center on Thursday. After getting the pregame video tribute treatment he came off the pine to get seven points in seven minutes. They were all the points he got before he got out of the way for the bigger show. The purists who don’t want players to even give dap before tipoff won’t like the tribute treatment, but come on, he helped deliver five titles. Anyway, his return the benchings of Kobe Bryant (23 points, nine boards) and Andrew Bynum (25 points, 13 boards) were the game’s storylines. Surprise! It ended a Russell Westbrook (36 points, six assists) and Kevin Durant (21 points) story. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Paul Pierce blasted the Bobcats with 36 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, three steals, three blocks and a three-pointer last night. He shot 50 percent (10-20) from the field and 83 percent (15-18) from the free-throw line, and had four turnovers. Since March 2, Pierce has averaged 22.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.2 steals, 0.5 blocks and 1.7 threes, while shooting 47 percent from the field and 87 percent from the charity stripe. Those are top 15 averages. Read More »

It’s true what Thomas Wolfe wrote, that you can’t go home again. OK, so saying New Orleans is Chris Paul’s home is a definite stretch, but when you spent your whole career someplace, it’s more than just a stop on a map. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Kevin Durant posted 32 points, nine rebounds, five assists, two steals, a block and a three-pointer last night. He shot 56 percent (10-18) from the field and 100 percent (11-11) from the free-throw line, and turned the ball over four times. This was a nice bounce-back game after notching a mediocre 18/6/2 (along with six turnovers) the night before. Read More »

Beast of the Night: John Wall finished with 26 points, four rebounds, 12 assists, three steals and a block last night. He shot 69 percent (11-16) from the floor and 100 percent (4-4) from the free-throw line, and had five turnovers. Maybe that new Wizards roster will do Wall some good. Read More »

Weekend Wonder: LeBron James averaged 30.0 points, 11.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.5 steals, 2.5 blocks and 0.5 threes in two huge games over the weekend. He shot 56 percent from the field, 50 percent from the free-throw line and averaged 1.5 turnovers in that stretch. It’s good to be king. Read More »

Josh Smith might not be an All-Star but he had arguably one of the best games of his career in the Hawks’ seven-point upset of Oklahoma City. Smith did everything, including hitting more jump hooks than seemingly anyone in a game since Kareem, and murdering the league’s top shot blocker at the rim with this dunk. He had 30 and 12 and even made a trey, and put the game away late by dominating inside. There was a stretch at the end of the game with the ATL up five where the Thunder missed three consecutive threes and Smith got the rebound on every single one. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Chris Paul finished last night with 36 points, one rebound, nine assists, two steals and three three-pointers made. He shot 69 percent (11-16) from the field, 92 percent (11-12) from the charity stripe and had three turnovers. For the season, CP3 has been the third best fantasy basketball player, which is right in line with expectations. Read More »

Wow. Nothing else really needs to be said at this point. Jeremy Lin has done some cool things, but last night he took it to another level, wetting a pull-up jumper in Canada’s face with less than a second left in a tie game. The swag was ridiculous; In the huddle before he closed the fridge on the Raptors, Lin told Mike D’Antoni to give him an iso. Then he went out and capped the best night yet of the Jeremy Lin tour with New York’s come-from-behind 90-87 win. Read More »