Ranking the NBA from worst to first…

30. Charlotte Bobcats (19-61) Last week: 30, - Maybe this is the year that they finally win the lottery. Unfortunately there doesn’t look to be any superstar prospects coming out. Classic Bobcats. Read More »

After Carmelo Anthony hung 50 points on the Miami Heat, we asked whether he was filming his own “Better Basketball: How To Score From Deep” DVD. And again, last night, we don’t think Spike Lee was putting together any “Carmelo Doin’ Work” videos, but someone really should’ve capitalized off this. Anthony was clipping the wings off the Hawks, and had an assembly line of defenders getting buckets in the face. Read More »

Two weeks ago, we pronounced Utah dead, a casualty of a terrible stretch of scheduling and the expected rise of the Lakers. Now? They’ve won six games in a row, and have a half game lead on L.A. for the West’s last playoff spot after taking care of business against Portland last night, 112-102. Read More »

It had been 19 years since Michigan had made the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. But dabble in a little Trey Burke, and add in some copious amounts of the Kansas Jayhawks — who have a history of this sort of choking — and it all adds up to the best comeback of March Madness … After overtime, the final score read, 87-85, Michigan, but make no mistake: it wasn’t the Wolverines that won the game. It was their point guard. Read More »

Now this is more of what we expected of L.A. basketball this season. In the Midwest, the Pacers could have filed a claim with Cliff Paul for the damage point god Chris Paul did to their defense in the fourth quarter of the Clippers’ road win. Read More »

The Heat-Clippers showdown got undermined in the last three weeks by Chris Paul‘s hurt kneecap and a flu strain that made most Miami players sick before the game. Still, even with the whole Clippers roster (Jamal Crawford had 13 points, Paul had 3 and Blake Griffin had 13 in their respective returns) mostly healthy, shorthanded Miami bludgeoned its way to a rout made almost unwatchable it was so lopsided if it weren’t for LeBron James’ hypnotizing skills. Read More »

Everyone claims they have the answers for the Lakers problems this year. But there’s one that’s stumped Hollywood for over a decade: what to do with Tony Parker. In San Antonio’s wild three-point win over the Lakers, Parker looked like he was running his own pick-n-roll drill, and barely broke a sweat on his way to 24 points and six dimes. The Spurs needed all of that, as they nearly let a 17-point lead slip away before Manu Ginobili (19 points, eight rebounds) hit the biggest shot of the night: a wing triple in the final minute. Read More »

If you were busy trying to breakdown Mike D’Antoni‘s gameplan, which consisted of the coach determining subs by using “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,” you might’ve missed out on James Harden. He was only the best player on the floor by a mile in Houston’s 125-112 thrashing of the sinking Lakers, doing whatever he wanted on his way to 31 points, six rebounds and nine assists. Read More »

Minnesota’s burliest player took over in the first half. Its smallest came through with a giant sleight-of-hand charge in the fourth quarter to ice the 99-93 win. Ding, dong, a pair of Thunder dozen-game winning streaks are dead — their overall streak, plus a 12-gamer just over the T-Wolves. The lesson: Good things happen when Nikola Pekovic scores 20 points — the Timberwolves were 5-0 when he hit that entering Thursday night, when Pekovic knocked down 8-of-12 shots in the first half alone for 18 points. He’d finish with 24 and 10. Read More »

One of the most entertaining games of the season went down at the Barclays last night — and this was before Red Bull’s Midnight Run Finals took center stage on the floor. Joe Johnson was shipped out of Atlanta this summer and you sensed the Hawks fans just shrugged or celebrated when they got the news. Read More »