One of the best games all season went down in Milwaukee last night. With both the Bucks and the Jazz literally playing for their playoff lives, they staged a wild back-n-forth overtime matchup that ultimately swayed Milwaukee’s way because of one man: Monta Ellis. Read More »

The NBA regular season, at least for the teams that hold visions of championships, is just an 82-session practice for the playoffs. So rather than worry about who is the unofficial “best” or “worst” team in the League right now, let’s look at which team is most equipped for the truly important games. Read More »

Each time we checked in with the Hawks vs. Celtics it was like watching a different game. In the first half the Celtics were on cruise control and it almost looked as if Tommy Heinsohn could have stepped in because of Boston’s 27-point lead. Atlanta was going to old standbyes Al Horford and Josh Smith (17 points, 14 boards) inside, though not with much success. Read More »

According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, Memphis has agreed to a multiplayer trade with Cleveland that’ll take $6 million off their payroll and get them under the luxury tax line. Remember all those rumors about a possible Rudy Gay trade? The Grizz may be keeping their starting lineup together after all. Read More »

Friday meant the final day of the preseason, which means there are no more chances to prove why fringe players are worthy of making a 15-man roster. There are about three dozen guys or so around the league keeping their cell phones charged and nearby in the next 24 hours. Stressful? Yeah, we’d say so. Read More »

Preseason is when teams want to work through mistakes and identify the most pressing issues. Camps have now given way to games, which offer a different level of looking at a team’s identity. It would be asking for the impossible to have every problem identified, let alone remedied, by the end of October; the best-case scenario is to simply not carry too many from the start into the season. What should every team be asking itself during the preseason? We’ve got you covered. Today, we look at the Western Conference. Read More »

O.J. Mayo could never quite find the right role on the Memphis Grizzlies. With Rudy Gay and Zach Randolph eating up shot attempts and Mike Conley controlling the ball at the point, Mayo never had a true opportunity to showcase his skill set. The Boston Celtics, meanwhile, are in desperate need of bench scoring, and Mayo might just fit that role perfectly. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Josh Smith busted out something nasty last night, to the tune of 33 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, one steal, two blocks and two three-pointers. He shot 57 percent (13-23) from the floor and 100 percent (5-5) from the free-throw line, and had one turnover. After shooting a miserable 41 percent from the field in February, Smith is hitting 51 percent of his shots to go along with his 26.6 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.3 steals, 1.9 blocks and 1.1 threes per game through the first seven games of March. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Josh Smith exploded for 30 points, 17 rebounds, seven assists, four steals, three blocks and two three-pointers last night. He shot 52 percent (12-23) from the field and 67 percent (4-6) from the free-throw line, and turned the ball over four times. Smith is improving his averages from month to month and continues to be a dominant fantasy asset on most nights. Read More »

We knew he could drop buckets and strut around like a much smaller Rick Ross, but last night was the first time those Steve Nash comparisons actually started to make sense. Lob. Wrap-around. Another lob. 13 dimes later and the Knicks had their seventh-straight win, 100-85 over the Kings. We asked yesterday if Jeremy Lin‘s hype was partially racial. Last night wasn’t so much racial as it was Nash-ial. Lin has that offense flowing on all cylinders. Read More »