While the Sixers were once again teaching everyone in the arena the basics of How To Run God Awful Offense At The End Of A Game 101, Jeremy Lin (18 points) was balling. The dude started the game shooting 1-for-9 and yet still had that bounce in his step. He got to the rim. He found his bigs. And most importantly, he made his free throws to close out the Sixers, 82-79. Amar’e Stoudemire chipped in 21 and nine, and his legs appear all the way back. He was dunking, spinning in the lane and had one fourth quarter block on Elton Brand at the rim that had Twitter all fired up. Read More »

Actually, we’re not even sure we should call Orlando a contender after last night. They fell apart and surrendered to Carlos Boozer and the Bulls, 85-59. At home. With Derrick Rose in street clothes. Boozer had 24 and 13 while John Lucas III continued to play out of his mind, burning Orlando in the first quarter and finishing with 20 points in 21 minutes, and helping steer Tom Thibodeau to 100 career coaching wins. Thibs is also the fastest coach in NBA history to reach that milestone … Read More »

The NBA’s best freshmen no longer need to study for midterms. Their quizzes come every day, in practices or in games with this year’s go-go-go schedule.

Their salaries are better than their scholarships, sure, but as rookies the learning curve is mastered slower than going from Math 100 into Advanced Statistics.

That’s why this time of year is one of the most interesting of any to watch the rookies play. In college life, as many of these guys were in last year, this is the peak of the year. Well, welcome to the league, where you’ve still got a month after the NCAA championships — and that’s if you’re watching the playoffs on the couch. Read More »

The Clippers haven’t been right for a while. Since they lost Chauncey Billups to his devastating injury, they’ve actually been below .500, much closer to the older Clippers than the team that was supposed to snatch Hollywood from their bigger brother. Luckily, they have Chris Paul. Three or four times this year, he’s bailed them out. He did it again in overtime of their 87-83 win over the Pistons. He started off the extra frame with two swagger-filled long jumpers, and then made the shot that broke Detroit’s back with 22 seconds left. Read More »

You can always tell when one of your boys got some the night before. He comes strolling into the apartment kitchen doing his best to conceal a smile, pours himself a big ol’ glass of water, leans back in a chair with everyone else staring and just starts chuckling. But damn, the way Andrew Bynum was cheesing last night after his hook shot in the lane helped knockout the Celtics, you would’ve thought he smashed Lauren London. He was hyped. And he should’ve been. Kobe Bryant, who scored 26 and hit a go-ahead pull-up in the final minute to help quiet the growing mass attached to the “Kobe ain’t clutch” bandwagon, overturned another play to tell everyone they should go inside to the Big Knee Injury. Read More »

In the midst of all their trade rumors, Pau Gasol and the Lakers delivered a W. Even if the Wolves didn’t have Kevin Love, it still took L.A. nearly 48 minutes to secure a 105-102 win on the road. Kobe Bryant had 34 points and down the stretch, he made key free throws to keep the Lakers from folding. In the place of Love, Derrick Williams rumbled to 22 points and 10 rebounds, FINALLY doing what everyone expected him to all year … Read More »

On a night of basketball that had it all, we were given four ridiculous game-winning shots: One by an MVP; One by a rookie; One by a journeyman; And one by a couple of no-names. Four game-winners in one night like this can get even the most hardened League Pass vet to shake their head and smile. We’ll kick things off with Derrick Rose ending Brandon Jennings‘ nightmare of a game with a step-back J in his mug. Read More »

The clock is ticking. As if this compressed season hasn’t gone by fast enough, the NBA’s trade deadline is approaching as fast as Kobe deciding to pull-up for a jumper. March 15 marks the last possible day that teams can trade cats to either improve their shot to make a real title run or look to revamp their squads with an eye towards the future. As basketball fans, we all love to discuss trade scenarios probably more so than the actual play at hand. Now it’s time for GMs to get on the phone and make something happen. Read More »

Iman Shumpert may be one of the best young defensive perimeter players in the League, but he had nothing for the Cavs’ Kyrie Iriving on this crossover.

Twitter went nuts when Irving hit him with this. Watch it here: Read More »

We wonder if Dwight Howard was watching last night. The two teams most often associated with the Orlando big man met up for what could’ve been a classic last night in Dallas if it wasn’t for Jason Kidd, and if it wasn’t for the fact that one of the teams is the Nets. Still, New Jersey stole the game 93-92 after a Kidd three-point heave at the buzzer was off. How’d it happen? The Nets have a new big man, and it’s not the guy everyone is talking about. Brook Lopez dropped 38 points in his first big game of the season after coming off his injury. Read More »