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 »

Did the Heat lose in the Finals last year because LeBron played like he was scared? Did they lose because J.J. Barea went off? Did they lose because Dirk did everything outside of morphing into Larry Bird to stop them? Dwyane Wade doesn’t believe any of that was the real reason they lost. The Heat lost because of misplaced emotion. Wade and his teammates wanted to win to spite people because so much of the public actively hated them. Public Enemy No. 1. Even Ice Cube in his heyday never felt this hated. And yet Wade told Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski on his radio show that the team was wrongly fueled by hate, and didn’t win the championship because of that. Do you buy it? Read More »

I have no problem saying Burger King makes the best fries. But McDonald’s won’t send me back home shuffling through my refrigerator at 2 a.m. on a Saturday night either. One version is crispier. The other feels like it needs another two minutes in the oven. Both do the job. Both taste really good. Try comparing NBA teams. It’s nearly impossible when those squads are coming from differing situations. From the players, ownership, the fans and even the style of play or storylines surrounding a team, no two situations will be entirely alike. You can’t compare style. Playoff teams? We’ve seen 65-win juggernauts, lousy 40-win teams getting in only because their timing was so good, and then everything in-between. Read More »

If Carmelo Anthony keeps playing like this, he might as well keep up the rent payments on his property in Denver, because he won’t be going anywhere until at least Summer 2011. ‘Melo dropped 30 points (17-19 FT), 14 rebounds, 9 assists and 3 steals on the Clippers at Staples Center last night, carrying a Nuggets squad that was without Chauncey, K-Mart and Al Harrington. Denver was up three with five seconds left when ‘Melo stepped to the line and iced the W after Eric Gordon missed a potential game-tying triple … Read More »

Now that we know Ricky Rubio won’t be playing in Minnesota this season (or next), questions turn to whether he’ll ever play for the Wolves at all. Soon after it was reported that Rubio is definitely staying in Spain until 2011, some Minnesota sources said the Knicks were worming their way back into the picture, pitching trades to see if the Wolves would rather get something now than wait for Rubio later. Then some New York sources promptly denied it. (Why wouldn’t they?) If the teams are talking, apparently David Lee, Nate Robinson, and/or a No. 1 pick would be some of the bargaining chips on the table. Just for fun, let’s pretend there’s a chance of a deal here: We’ve been over how Rubio and the Knicks would be a perfect fit; but what about Lee or Nate in Minnesota? Read More »