You have to give Dwyane Wade some credit. Even though he’s refusing to use the word “defer” in regards to his relationship with the King, Wade has conceded once again that LeBron James is arguably the best in the world, and that Miami is only as good as James is. Wade said this weekend to NBA.com, “For our team to be as successful as we need to be, we need him to be the best player in the world.” It might be obvious to anyone who watches, but for Wade to accept his current status, even if everyone else in Miami is still willing to kiss his feet, it shows how far this team has come. Read More »

The beast is back. The monster from Marion (Ind.) that carried the Memphis Grizzlies to last year’s incredible first-round playoff upset of the top-seeded Spurs had been relatively quiet this season — thanks to a major knee injury and his team’s offensive balance — but last night Zach Randolph picked the perfect time to dominate. Z-Bo put up 18 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks to lead the Griz to a 90-88 road victory in Game 6 of their first-round series with the Clippers, forcing a Game 7 back in Memphis … Read More »

Saturday morning, things looked pretty good for the Heat: All they had to do was beat the craptastic Wizards at home, and if the Bulls lost to the Mavs in a game that injury-racked Derrick Rose (head, shoulders, knees, toes) probably wouldn’t play in, Miami would be in prime position to snatch the No. 1 playoff seed in the East before the regular season wraps up next week … Saturday evening, it was a different story: D-Rose was cleared to play, and Miami’s plan to give LeBron and Chris Bosh the night off suddenly looked stupid when Dwyane Wade hurt his finger in the opening minutes and never returned. By the end of the night, Chicago had stretched its lead over Miami to 2.5 games, and shrunk the Heat’s margin for error down to zero … Read More »

It’s going to be hard for the Sixers to make any noise in the postseason (if they even get there) when their leading scorer and go-to man down the stretch is a 6-1 bench player averaging barely 15 points a night. Lou Williams probably won’t win them any games in the second season, but he still has the capability to do this: Read More »

In a calmer, maybe more reasonable world, the Miami Heat could lose a game like the game they lost to the Boston Celtics last night and it wouldn’t be a big deal. In that world, LeBron James and Miami fans could adopt the same attitude Kobe Bryant and L.A. fans have after every one of their high-profile L’s in the regular season: Don’t panic, it’s only (fill-in-the-month). This is bigger to them than it is to us. We’ll be fine in the playoffs. … But there are five diamond-studded reasons why a Kobe-led team gets that kind of leeway and a LeBron-led team does not. Read More »

Andre Iguodala and LeBron James (41 points) engaged in a highlight-off Tuesday in Miami, but Terrel Harris didn’t get the memo to stay out of the way on this slam in the second quarter. 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 »

After sitting out five games, and then taking the All-Star Game as an opportunity to chill, Derrick Rose is back. With 32 and nine on Tuesday night, and then after he sauteed Tony Parker for 29 points last night in Chicago’s 96-89 win, the back problems are a thing of the past. Parker looked like a pup trying to curtail Rose’s drives, and on the other end shot 5-for-16 in one of those performances where you can visibly see the difference between an MVP and an All-Star … Read More »

All hail Jeremy Lin. That’s now two games in a row that the seldom-used backup has torched opponents and lit the Garden on fire as if he was John Starks. Lin dropped 28 and eight in New York’s 99-88 win over Utah. Beast? Lin seems to finish every three point play, make all the right decisions out of the pick-n-roll and has even shown off his deep ball. At one point in the second half, he dropped a high-arching shot and then trotted back on defense with a swag unlimited smirk before sticking his tongue out (It looked like he had been sucking on some blue lollipops during the quarter break). Read More »