Are they for real? We guess we could’ve said that about either one of the teams taking the floor in Indiana last night. The Pacers beheaded the Heat by 15, and Miami has now lost two in a row by double figures, and are just 8-6 since the All-Star break. Title contenders? They need to get their heads out of the sand first. Then on the other side, the Pacers made a statement: Don’t overlook us. They almost had Miami calling for the mercy rule on the boards, destroying them 49-33. Read More »

It doesn’t matter if it took two extra overtimes, seeing a game end up with 289 points is crazy. Kevin Love channeled his recent anger to go berserk for a career-high 51 points, and yet the Thunder dominated the final overtime. Russell Westbrook scored the first points there and ultimately led OKC to a nine-point win with 45 points. Kevin Durant chipped in with 40 points and 17 rebounds, but as well as the Thunder’s big-name players balled, the rest of the team was non-existant. James Harden did his thing as well, but where was everybody else? They were busy making J.J. Barea (25 points, 14 assists) look like something other than a pretty good backup … Read More »

I like Jeremy Evans a lot. Everyone here at Dime does. We’ve supported the #LetJeremyDunk movement since the beginning. I spent some time with him over All-Star Weekend, and we joked about his admittedly horrendous Call of Duty skills and the worst dunker on Utah. But he shouldn’t have won the dunk contest. Paul George had the best dunks. I’m not accepting arguments. That’s a fact (although it would’ve been Derrick Williams winning had he been able to finish his last one). Read More »

It doesn’t happen very often, so we’re a little surprised the Three-Point Shootout was much more entertaining than the Dunk Contest. But we’ll start with the dunkers since we know everyone will want to talk about them anyways. Jeremy Evans won it, beating out a group of guys who hired drunk entertainers (Chase Budinger) to throw them lobs, honored Larry Bird in a dunk contest (Paul George) and missed the same dunk for two minutes straight (Nate Robi…. aw, we mean Derrick Williams). Evans was okay. We guess. He probably won the vote because Utah fans have nothing better to do. The double dunk was cool. But honoring Karl Malone wasn’t all that great. Read More »

Took me long enough. Some media members have been complaining all weekend about how this All-Star Weekend seemed like one of those high school Friday night bashes when the rents don’t tell you they’re bouncing until 9:30 that night, and you call up a few friends, they call a few friends, you hit up your beer connect, charge up the iPod and yet everything feels rushed and crowded. That’s what a lockout will do to you. Read More »

Four first-time dunkers are competing in the All-Star Weekend Dunk Contest this year, and they’ve got 28 years of history to live up to when it comes to dramatic dunk debuts.

Chase Budinger, Derrick Williams, Paul George and Jeremy Evans take part in Saturday night’s Sprite Slam Dunk Contest in Orlando, where they’ll be chasing the precedent of the best dunkers in their first contest. From Spud to Kobe to J.R. and Jordan, we bring you the top 10 of those moments here. Read More »

At the rate Paul George is racking up Dominique Wilkins-esque highlights, we wouldn’t be shocked to see him try to hurdle ‘Nique in the dunk contest on Saturday night.

We mentioned it Smack this morning, but it deserves it’s own post here: Check out the windmill slam he unleashed on the Hornets last night in Indy … Read More »

The guys in the NBA TV studios were saying the Heat looked like a championship team last night. Okay, they did play Sacramento, who have lost six in a row and have perhaps the most playground, fundamentally-flawed team in the league. But the Queens really went hard, and had the defending East champs on their heels all night. In the end, Dwyane Wade (30 points on 16 shots, 10 assists) lifted Miami to another level with one of his best games of the season, and for the first time all year, three Heat players scored at least 20 and one of them wasn’t LeBron. They’ve now won seven in a row, all by double digits, and are sitting in first place in the NBA. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Danny Granger returned from a one-game absence with a bum ankle to put up 32 points, five rebounds, an assist, a steal, a block and four made three-pointers last night against the Nets. He shot 50 percent (10-20) from the field, 89 percent (8-9) from the floor and had two turnovers. Granger is having a great month, averaging 20.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.7 threes through nine games. He’s pulled his value up into the realm of the top 35. Read More »

The field is set for the 2012 NBA Dunk Contest, and… Jeremy Lin will be there! Ah, not what you might expect though. He’s been included to be the helper for his teammate, Iman Shumpert. Joining Shumpert in the dunking field will be Chase Budinger, Derrick Williams and Paul George. Underwhelming? As SBNation’s Mike Prada tweeted, these four are tied for 41st, 45th, 97th and 149th in dunks this season. That doesn’t mean it’ll be a weak contest, but it’s leaning that way. Read More »