Four matchups to watch on Thursday’s two-game schedule…

Chicago @ Cleveland: Luol Deng vs. LeBron James For all the grief he took last season — getting the big contract, then promptly going into the tank with injuries and subpar play — Deng has been earning his money this year (17.8 ppg, 10.5 rpg). Read More »

In lieu of making yet another LeBron/Jay-Z analogy, let’s put it this way: The Cavs are treating the Wizards like LL Cool J did Canibus. They’ll take some time out to address the beef, but always with a swagger that says “Who is this little pest?” It’s even trickled down to the announcers. When Washington came out blasting last night (”Second Round Knockout”) and put the Cavs down by as much as 18 in the first half, Austin Carr admitted the game didn’t mean as much to LeBron and Co. as it did to Gilbert Arenas‘ squad. Read More »

Breaking down the first-week performances of the serious 2010 title contenders, Spurs announcer Sean Elliott messed up his words and said the Lakers took an “old-fashioned butt cooking” from the Mavs on Friday night. As it turns out, that was the best way to describe what the Spurs were about to do to the Kings on Saturday … Despite Sacramento starting probably the worst frontcourt in the League (Jason Thompson, Sean May, Desmond Mason), it was one of those nights where Tim Duncan didn’t have to do much and could let the smaller guys go to work. Read More »

Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — previewing the NBA season by predicting the respective ceiling and basement for each team. Same theme, different season…

Added: Shaquille O’Neal, Jamario Moon, Anthony Parker, Leon Powe, Danny Green, Coby Karl

Lost: Joe Smith, Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak, Sasha Pavlovic, Lorenzen Wright, Tarence Kinsey Read More »

Take a deep breath.

We’re on the edge of the glorious start of the 2009-10 NBA season. For fantasy owners, this means that eyes are bulging, lips are grinning and palms are sweating as we check our starting rosters over and over and over again to ensure a good start to the season.

In order to help you toward a successful launch for however many fantasy teams you own this week, we’ll have a brief overview of team schedules for week one, along with a look at some of the difficult decisions you might have to make. Read More »

With no more preseason games and just a few days until the NBA regular season starts, all that’s left to do is iron out some position battles and figure out who among the banged-up is healthy enough to suit up for Opening Night. There was an outside chance that Shaq, among others, would be suspended for the Cavs/Celtics opener after he left the bench during Mo Williams and Shelden Williams‘ altercation a few nights ago. But the NBA ruled that since the scrap happened technically at halftime, guys who left the bench won’t be punished … Read More »

Light schedule of only four NBA preseason games on a day where the biggest (rumored) news was that the replacement refs probably won’t make it to the regular season due to the League being close to an agreement with the union guys. We hit on this a little bit yesterday, but it’s funny how so many media and fans are bashing the replacements as if they’ve been so much worse than the regulars. We even heard one TV talking head praise the return of the “real” refs, because the ones they’ve had in the preseason are obviously fake refs. How long will it take for NBA players to start complaining about every call again and for the rest of us to remember we thought the “real” refs stunk at their jobs, too? About 24 minutes into the first game? … Read More »

With most of their guys back healthy from the flu and various other injuries, the Cavs smashed the Mavs by 30 last night at the University of Pittsburgh gym. (Since when do Cleveland teams get love in Pittsburgh?) Mo Williams had 16 points and 11 assists, LeBron put up 12 points on 3-of-13 shooting and seven dimes, and Big Z scored 16 off the bench … Dallas was the team playing short-handed, as Dirk, J-Kidd and Jason Terry were given the night off, and Josh Howard and Shawn Marion are still banged up. So the starting five looked like this: J.J. Barea, Matt Carroll, Quinton Ross, Drew Gooden and Erick Dampier. Pretty sure the Pitt Panthers squad would be able to give that lineup at least a decent run. Hell, put Sam Young and DeJuan Blair back on the squad and they might pull off a W … Read More »

I’m trying to be a man of the people this season, so per a reader’s request, here are the results of a mock draft I participated in recently. It was for a 12-team, head-to-head format league with the standard nine categories and 10 starting spots (PG, SG, G, SF, PF, F, C, C, Util, Util).

I’ll list each round (with my picks in bold) followed by brief comments and will list my final team from this mock draft at the bottom. Here we go. Read More »

Just like Prom Night, the new NBA season holds promise for a handful of youngsters to lose their (All-Star Game) virginity. At the same time, each incoming crop of first-timers means there are some ASG incumbents who will be spending that February weekend at home — or at least be restricted to hitting the clubs in whatever city All-Star takes place. A while back, Gerald Narcisco nominated some 2010 first-time All-Stars; here are the guys who stand to lose their spots when the big game goes to Dallas next year: Read More »