How often do you see it happen: a visiting team takes control in the fourth quarter before squandering a late chance to grab a W, and then end up getting pounded into submission in the extra session? Dallas is feeling the pain now after letting the Heat off the hook in Miami’s 119-109 overtime win. There’s not much to explain from overtime: Miami just ran Dallas over. The real fun was in the fourth quarter. In the final minutes, LeBron (32 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists) found Shane Battier for one of the biggest shots of the night, a corner three. Read More »

Two months of NBA action is in the books and the good tidings of the New Year is upon us. Both NBA conferences have surprised, inspired and baffled us with various storylines in 2012. Now it’s time to look ahead to some of the more intriguing questions from each conference in 2013. Read More »

A great recipe for disaster – at least if you’re the Lakers – is playing in Denver on the second night of a back-to-back. Old legs. The high altitude. The penchant of the Nuggets to play fast and frenetic. It almost never works out for L.A., and last night, not even 40 from Kobe Bryant was enough. Read More »

This NBA season has already seen a number of marquee players return to their teams well after the first game of the season. A few more joined this weekend in the Lakers’ Steve Nash and Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, with the Celtics’ Avery Bradley close to his first practice. Now that the Mayans were wrong and the world hasn’t ended, fans in Los Angeles, Dallas and Boston must face that they’re still stuck with deeply flawed teams. Read More »

Minnesota’s burliest player took over in the first half. Its smallest came through with a giant sleight-of-hand charge in the fourth quarter to ice the 99-93 win. Ding, dong, a pair of Thunder dozen-game winning streaks are dead — their overall streak, plus a 12-gamer just over the T-Wolves. The lesson: Good things happen when Nikola Pekovic scores 20 points — the Timberwolves were 5-0 when he hit that entering Thursday night, when Pekovic knocked down 8-of-12 shots in the first half alone for 18 points. He’d finish with 24 and 10. Read More »

Sometimes we wish the NBA was more like the NFL. In football, you must bring your best effort or you’ll be left looking like Mark Sanchez on Monday Night Football, getting your skills compared to Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite. Read More »

After a tremendous block by Dwyane Wade on a Kevin Love dunk attempt, Norris Cole hustles to the other end of the floor splitting the defense and speeding past the Timberwolves’ Andrei Kirilenko and Alexey Shved for the layup. Read More »

One of the most entertaining games of the season went down at the Barclays last night — and this was before Red Bull’s Midnight Run Finals took center stage on the floor. Joe Johnson was shipped out of Atlanta this summer and you sensed the Hawks fans just shrugged or celebrated when they got the news. Read More »

There are a lot of young stars in the NBA, but only a few that seem destined for greatness. We’re highlighting five who, barring injury, or a shocking decline in production, could be elected into the Hall of Fame some time around or after 2025. We’re only giving you five of them, and all are under the age of 25. It’s good to be young. Read More »

Having Kevin Durant on your team is probably good for about 10 extra wins a year strictly based on his talent and his competitive streak. You’re going to win games you shouldn’t only because he’ll get pissed off for some reason or another and start raining Hell on whoever’s guarding him. Read More »