They all count from here on out. Friday was the last day of NBA preseason action, with a nearly full schedule that included two national TV games: Hawks/Magic and Nuggets/Lakers … Orlando effectively ended their contest early, going up by 20-plus in the first quarter and capping an undefeated preseason with a near 40-piecing. Vince Carter dropped 26, hit all five of his threes, and was throwing down double-clutch dunks along the baseline while the Hawks basically watched. Dwight Howard put up 25 points, 13 boards and three blocks … Even more impressive about Dwight’s performance was that he managed to beast Al Horford. Read More »

One sequence defined last night’s Lakers/Nuggets national TV preseason game: In the second half, after Kobe Bryant had already come out of the locker room with That Look in his eye, he pulled off his new favorite move on Kenyon Martin; getting him in the air with a pump fake and spinning a quick 360 to his left, dropping a jumper as K-Mart harmlessly floated back to Earth. Then on the Nuggets’ ensuing possession, Kobe jumped a passing lane and finished with a breakway one-hander, slapping on the bottom-teeth snarl as an exclamation point … Read More »

With points, rebounds and assists covered, let’s move on to discuss some late-round thieves who could help your fantasy team with a steals deficiency. Again, these players are listed in no particular order. There’s much room for discussion here, so please populate the comments section below with your reactions. Read More »

A couple of weeks ago, the Nuggets and Pacers flew halfway across the globe to play a pair of exhibition games in the Far East. The first game took in Taipei, Taiwan, and the second one went down in Beijing, China. The headliner for the two teams was undoubtedly Carmelo Anthony. On top of playing the two games, Carmelo was crazy busy promoting his new Jordan Melo M6 sneaker to his Asian fan base. Since we weren’t there to tell you about it, we had Melo pen his Asia experience… Read More »

Principal D-Stern had to have been pleased with his product yesterday, as two of the NBA’s three preseason games took place outside the United States. In Taiwan, the Pacers blew out the Nuggets: Troy Murphy put up 20 points with four threes, and Brandon Rush (20 pts) knocked down six triples, but the real story was Roy Hibbert. The kid was a BEAST, going for 20 points, 11 boards and eight blocks. Granted, Nene being out meant Denver started Johan Petro at center, but he only played 10 minutes before Birdman and K-Mart assumed most of the duties inside. It’s just preseason, but in the Nuggets‘ two games against NBA teams (they smashed a team of kids from Belgrade), they haven’t looked good at all … Read More »

A good sign that things are getting busier and crazier around here: A couple years ago, if the first televised NBA preseason game was on during the workday, you would’ve found at least 2-3 members of the Dime crew parked on the office couch in front of the TV, workload be damned. This year, the best we could do was catch some of Jazz/Bulls (from London) on a side-glance … No Derrick Rose for this one, as he reportedly hurt his ankle the day before in practice. (Funny how that coincided with his 21st birthday on Sunday. Not that we’re accusing anybody of anything.) Read More »

The Lakers and the Spurs are the heavy favorites to lock down the top spots in the Western Conference. Even though the third spot is up for grabs, I think the most likely candidates will be either Portland or Denver. The Nuggets last year gave the Lakers a run for their money in the Western Conference Finals, but the Blazers continually get better every season. Both teams had 54-28 records last season. The question is: Which of these two teams will have a better record after 82 games? Read More »

Thanks to some sloppy play by the Nuggets and that same ol’ sharp execution by the Jazz, there wasn’t much excitement left by the end of last night’s NBA preseason opener. Deron Williams (16 pts, 6 asts) and C.J. Miles (16 pts, 3 stls) led Utah as they teased a 20-piecing before halftime, allowed Denver to cut it to single-digits by the break, but pulled away in the second half to win 103-87. Carmelo (13 pts, 4-11 FG) and James White (13 pts) led the Nuggets, who had 27 turnovers as a team … Carlos Boozer started at PF and finished with seven points and seven boards in 20 minutes, while Paul Millsap came off the bench for seven points and three rebounds in 18 minutes. Boozer somehow didn’t get resoundingly booed by the home fans, but he didn’t exactly get a hero’s welcome, either. Read More »

Today is a big day if you’ve been going through basketball withdrawal, as the first NBA preseason game tips off at 9 p.m. EST, Jazz versus Nuggets. Deron’s shakes against Chauncey’s shot, Carmelo’s O against Kirilenko’s D, Boozer’s excessive chest hair against K-Mart’s excessive tats — even if it’s only for a few minutes here and there before guys like Arron Afflalo and Kosta Koufos get most of the minutes, we’ve really missed the League. And if the backups do get a lot of time, that means we’ll at least get a good look at Ty Lawson and Eric Maynor … Kirilenko (quad), C.J. Miles (hip flexor) and Kyle Korver (knee) might not play, but Jerry Sloan’s biggest personnel problem will be figuring out what to do with Boozer and Paul Millsap. Read More »

NBA training camps opened over weekend, meaning it’s time again for Dime’s team-by-team season previews. Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — predicting the respective ceilings and basements for each team. Or in other words, what is the realistic best-case and worst-case scenario for the 2009-10 campaign?

Added: Ty Lawson, Arron Afflalo, James White, Joey Graham, Malik Allen Read More »