Beast of the Night:Dirk Nowitzki was an absolute animal last night, putting up 40 points on 55 percent (12-22) shooting from the field and 94 percent (15-16) from the line, chipping in a three-pointer along with 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 5 blocks and no turnovers. He scored 29 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter, playing like Mehmet Okur bad-mouthed David Hasselhoff. You can’t get much better than this in fantasy ball and Diggler is in for a great year. Read More »
The first bromance moment caught on national television was when Zeke and Magic met on court before Game 6 of the 1988 Finals and exchanged a kiss showing their deep friendship. In memory of that relationship, which effectively ended last week, I have compiled a list of bromances from the NBA. For those of you unfamiliar with the term the definition is as follows. Bromance (n.) is a close but non-sexual relationship between two men; see also: Man-Crush; related words: Pause. 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…
You know the only way a preseason game between the Knicks and a team that isn’t even in the NBA would crack the sports highlights shows on an NFL and baseball playoffs Sunday is if something crazy happened. And in the third quarter of New York’s game against Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel), things got appropriately insane. After Maccabi head coach Pini Gershon got himself ejected thanks to a couple of techs, he refused to leave the court — if you saw the Season 2 premier of “Tool Academy,” he pretty much acted like the dude who got kicked off that first week. The refs wouldn’t re-start the game until Gershon left, so it turned into a standoff. Read More »
The NBA preseason is underway, meaning it’s time again for Dime’s team-by-team season previews. Last year we debuted the “Highs and Lows” system — predicting the respective ceilings and basements for each team. In other words, what is the realistic best-case and worst-case scenario for the 2009-10 campaign?
Added:Jordan Hill, Darko Milicic, Toney Douglas, Gabe PruittRead More »
Yesterday must have been unofficial Sh*t-Talking Day around the NBA. With most teams kicking off training camp this week — check out the first installment of Dime’s team-by-team season previews HERE — most teams are having their annual preseason Media Day, and a few guys have been talking reckless. Monta Ellis raised the most eyebrows in Golden State. Ever since the Warriors took Stephen Curry and didn’t trade him to Phoenix, the rookie has been penciled into the starting backcourt next to Monta. But apparently nobody ran that idea by Cold-Vicious. “Us together? No. Can’t. We just can’t,” Monta said, sounding like somebody had asked him to film a Brokeback Mountain scene. Read More »
OK, so the Shaq and Terry Porter experiment failed and now the Phoenix Suns are back to runnin’ and gunnin’ full time. Over the summer, Steve Kerr re-signed the quarterback behind the seven-seconds-or-less offense Steve Nash, re-upped with Grant Hill and acquired two slim and athletic big men in Channing Frye and lottery-pick Earl Clark. Under coach Alvin Gentry (who was one of D’Antoni’s assistants in Phoenix), the team will try to trying to rewind time back to the 2004-’05 season and attempt to put up 115 or more points per game. Read More »
No team will ever admit it — not even the OKC Thunder — but some NBA uniforms are just plain ugly. From the ’90s Nets (tie-dye?) to the original Vancouver Grizzlies to the Wizards’ gold/black tragedy, there have been some bad ones along the way. And with their bright orange base and the checkered-flag side panel for “special” occasions, the Charlotte Bobcats have cracked the list since their inception. Yesterday, however, the ‘Cats unveiled their new unis, the one Gerald Wallace is wearing in the photo. No more bright orange overload; it’s blue for the road and white at home. (The orange is “avant garde” according to the press release.) Read More »
Ray Felton’s objective should be obvious to anyone who’s been paying attention to this summer of free agency: Sometime around January/February, Ray wants to be in the All-Star conversation, setting himself up lovely for a fatter contract in 2010, and as icing on the cake, making everyone wonder just why the hell it took so long for somebody to get him signed in the first place. Felton agreed to the Bobcats’ one-year qualifying offer yesterday ($5.5 million), setting Charlotte up for another run at getting that elusive first-ever playoff berth with Felton and D.J. Augustin at the point, Raja Bell/Gerald Henderson at the two, Gerald Wallace at the three, Boris Diaw at the four, Tyson Chandler in the middle and Alexis Ajinca getting cramps from sitting down for extended periods of time. Read More »
Real life hit the NBA once again yesterday, when reports surfaced that a number of Miami Heat employees — most notably Pat Riley and head coach Erik Spoelstra — accepted pay cuts up to 20% in an effort to prevent further layoffs in the organization. It’s been public knowledge for years that some NBA teams are in financial trouble (Grizzlies, Bobcats, etc.), but Miami usually wasn’t in that group. It’s not like Riley or Spoelstra is starving or anything, but it’s got to be scary for a lot of people around the League. And of course, it kicks off an easy round of “Why can’t Underachieving Player X take a pay cut?” Read More »
