A.I. on Dime’s 2005 Collector’s Issue
Ask any top-level defensive stopper — be it Kevin Garnett or Bruce Bowen or Ron Artest or Gary Payton — and they’ll tell you that playing tough defense ultimately comes down to effort and desire. So when an ultra-talented offensive team like the ‘07-08 Denver Nuggets run risk of missing […]

Dirk (photo. Monte Isom)
The main reason it still seems so strange that the Mavs are battling Golden State and Denver for those last couple of Western Conference playoff spots isn’t because Dallas won 67 games last year; it’s because they’re pretty clearly better than the Warriors and Nuggets this year and shouldn’t be underachieving like […]

Chris Paul (photo. Mannion)
For 47 minutes of Hornets/Magic, Peja Stojakovic was having such an off night that the Orlando announcers were questioning Byron Scott for even having him on the court in crunch time. But that didn’t stop Peja from stepping up with about a minute to go and hitting the go-ahead three-pointer on a […]

Kobe (photo. Chris Sembrot)
Most of the time, DeShawn Stevenson is just “a guy” on an NBA court: decent defender, decent shooter, gets buckets sometimes. If he didn’t have all the tats and the Che Guevara beard, he’d be Devin Brown with more hops. But the line DeShawn up against either one of the two best […]

Baron Davis (photo. Land)
Have you ever spent all night watching a movie or TV-show marathon that was amazing all the way through, until you got to the end and it was a total letdown? That’s what it was like watching the NBA last night. Pistons/Suns and Lakers/Warriors were both fantastic overtime games, only the nightcap […]

Dirk (photo. Monte Isom)
Remember a couple years ago when Tim Duncan played almost the entire season with a bad foot because the Spurs couldn’t afford to give him a rest and lose ground to the Mavs in the Southwest? At stake then was the difference between a #1-seed in the conference and a #4-seed. Yesterday, […]

T-Mac (photo. Marc Morrison)
After the Rockets notched consecutive win #19, we asked in the DimeMag.com poll when T-Mac’s crew would finally lose. Understandably, not many of you thought last night’s game in Atlanta would be the streak-breaker. But there the Rockets were, in a one-possession game with five minutes left before Mac (28 pts, 9 […]

“I’ve abandoned Jordan Farmar!”
(Photo. Chris Sembrot)
Knowing that Brandon Roy (ankle) is still on the shelf, Blazers/Lakers on Tuesday’s schedule meant Martell Webster would be the one charged with guarding Kobe. Going in, we were thinking it could get bloody for Martell, but the kid actually held his own for a while. In the first quarter […]

Still hope for Kidd? (Photo. Mannion)
Wouldn’t you have liked to see the look on Jason Kidd’s face when he learned the trade sending him to Dallas was being shut down because of Devean George? We can imagine J-Kidd sitting there thinking he’s about to leave soul-sapping New Jersey for a legit shot at a ring […]

Baron Davis (Photo. Tim Tadder)
If the Warriors are going to be this entertaining all the time, we won’t mind staying up past 1 a.m. on the East Coast and watching their games. Last night GS was down by as much as 23 to the Wizards, who were desperate for a win after dropping seven straight, […]

S-Jack (Photo. Eriberto Oriol)
With Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson sharing the court, the Insane-O-Meter at Oracle Arena was in danger of going on overload. The damage wasn’t too bad: Ron-Ron picked up a technical foul in the first half, and S-Jack probably should have gotten one when he went temporarily ballistic on ref Violet Palmer […]