The Grizzlies should’ve just hit up a Super Bowl party early because Boston slapped them around all afternoon, winning their fourth-straight game 98-80 behind a throwback (24 points, nine rebounds) from Kevin Garnett and yet another, ho-hum 21 points from The Truth. Boston’s defense was suffocating, holding Memphis to under 37 percent from the field and under 20 points in every quarter outside of the third. And with Rajon Rondo (14 assists, his first game with double-digit assists since Jan. 13) really back, they had one of their best bucket-getting halves of the year (the second frame) … Read More »

Thank you John Lucas for getting in the way. LeBron James and the dunk of the season would’ve happened regardless, but you had to go and intervene. Not on purpose. It was quite obvious you never even saw him coming. That play might end up being the best dunk of James’ career. In 2020, it might not even be close. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Marc Gasol finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and two steals last night against the Clippers. He shot 42 percent (5-12) from the field, 100 percent (8-8) from the free-throw line and had zero turnovers. Gasol gets some much-deserved attention here, since he’s been steadily putting up top 10 numbers so far this season. His stats will inevitably decline when Zach Randolph returns, but Gasol was still putting up top 10 numbers when Randolph was in the lineup. Read More »

This is awesome. We linked to it in Smack as part of the detailed breakdown of Boston’s massive comeback against Orlando last night, but Kevin Garnett‘s post-game interview deserves its own post.

To say that our dude KG is an emotional player is obviously an understatement. When Craig Sager grabbed him right after the final buzzer, the most he could out of KG for the first minute or so was that the game was a “God damn bar fight!” And it went from there: Read More »

At some point in the fourth quarter of Boston’s 91-83 win in Orlando – it might’ve been after another one of his threes or perhaps when he had a behind-the-back assist to Brandon Bass or even when he hit a technical free throw – we sat back and realized, “Damn, Boston is really going to win this thing,” and they did it because Paul Pierce turned back the clock with one of the most incredible comebacks we’ve ever seen. Early in the fourth quarter, Pierce had banged two straight threes and then hit a pull-up in the lane and suddenly it was a four-point game. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Kevin Love finished with 39 points, 12 boards, one assist, one steal and five three-pointers last night. He shot 68 percent (13-19) from the field, 80 percent (8-10) from the free-throw line and had five turnovers. While Love’s rebounding, assists and shooting percentages are down from last season, he’s improved his three-point making, scoring and stealing. There’s not much else to say about this top 10 stud. Read More »

Back when Nick “Swaggy P” Young was still rocking a Trojans’ cardinal and gold uniform from 2004 to 2007, the USC athletic department was on top of the world. On the gridiron, the ’04 squad, led by Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart, cruised to the BCS National Championship. One year later, the Trojans returned to the title game where they fell to Texas.

Meanwhile, USC wasn’t doing too shabby on the hardwood, either. After finishing 12-17 during Young’s rookie season, the Trojans steadily improved, going 17-13 the next year. Then, in 2007, Young and Gabe Pruitt led the Trojans to its first NCAA tournament appearance in five years, taking them to the Sweet Sixteen. Read More »

On a team known for its experience – and bad knees – Avery Bradley is an anomaly. The 21-year-old combo guard is the youngest player on the Celtics’ roster. In fact, it was just three years ago that Bradley was putting up 19.1 points per game at Findlay Prep, a feat that earned him the No. 1 ranking in the ESPNU 100, four spots ahead of John Wall. Read More »

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Ah, the perils of no training camp, a condensed schedule and disgruntled players. Let’s get to it. Read More »

Something is happening in Minnesota. The nucleus of some unbelievable NBA basketball is brewing in the Twin Cities through the duo of Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio, and their time will be here before you know it. Just not yet. The Miami Heat made sure of that last night in Minneapolis. The upstart T-Wolves gave them everything they could handle, leading for much of the game until letting it slip away from them in the final seconds, undone by turnovers, missed foul shots and blown defensive assignments – exactly the type of mistakes you would expect a young team to make, and the type of mistakes you would expect the Heat to use to their advantage … With the game tied at 101, and just under five seconds to play, Miami ran an inbounds play that saw LeBron hit Dwyane Wade with an alley-oop off of a high screen to put Miami up two. The Wolves had a final shot that was missed by Wayne Ellington … After the game, LeBron admitted that their final inbounds play was stolen from the Celtics … James, who was celebrating his 27th birthday yesterday, finished with 34. His 98 points through the first three games is the most in Heat history … While Miami won, the real story is the emergence of Ricky Rubio. Read More »