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 »

Christmas came early for the Lakers. Steve Nash is back, and he brought one of the Lakers’ most impressive wins of the season with him. L.A. had to fend off a list of issues to win against the Warriors: Jarrett Jack (29 points, 11 dimes) torching them, Dwight Howard foul trouble, a 14-point deficit, and Kobe Bryant (16-for-41 shooting, 34 points, 10 boards) shooting so often they classified his arms as unregistered firearms. Read More »

Instagram has added yet another avenue for basketball fans to connect with the personalities of their favorite NBA, college and high school players. It’s damn near impossible though for most normal people to stay up with everything that gets posted to Instagram on a daily basis, so we’re gonna help out the best way we know how: by collecting the best pics each week for our readers to cruise through at their leisure. Read More »

We don’t often lead Smack with the Pacers, but what transpired in Atlanta last night was too depressing not to. We found out yesterday morning that Danny Granger is now going to miss three months of action, and for Indiana, that’s a major loss. It showed in a 89-86 loss to the Hawks. After going up 14 in the fourth quarter, the Pacers’ offensive rhythm made us want to cry. They were more of a mess than Romney‘s campaign strategy. Read More »

Once Ricky Rubio took the league by storm in Minnesota, the assist became a theme for the season, and no team was more exciting than the Wolves. On the year, Rubio averaged 8.2 dimes a night, and even after his torn-up knee forced him to sit out the rest of the season, it felt like other guys in the league, everyone from Rajon Rondo to Rudy Fernandez, were trying to out-do him. Check out this awesome video of pretty much every great pass of the season. Read More »

Randy Foye, the last serious three-point threat left on the free agent market, has reportedly agreed to a one-year contract with the Utah Jazz. Last season with the Clippers, Foye shot 38.6 percent from three-point range and averaged 12.8 points as a starter after Chauncey Billups went out for the year. Read More »

We think it’s unfair to make jokes about Jason Kidd playing with a cane now that he’s agreed to a three-year deal worth reportedly $9 million to return to Dallas. Wait, what’s that? Oh, he changed his mind three hours later to play with the Knicks. That about-face was the story of the NBA on Thursday in what has become even more of an old guards’ league. Free agency so far has been a job fair where only old point guards have shown up, and everyone’s fighting over them. Note to the draft class of 2013: Help wanted if you’re a point guard. Read More »

The aftermath of the NBA Draft is always a good time to tell who actually knows something about basketball and who should just sit in a corner and think about hockey. One particularly popular non-informed opinion we’ve heard across sports-radio shows and Internet columns since Thursday is that the Cavs messed up by taking Dion Waiters with the No. 4 overall pick. Now we’re not guaranteeing that Waiters will be a good pro. He might not pan out, just like any Top-5 pick could potentially be a bust. But if your only reason to bash Cleveland’s pick is that Waiters wasn’t a starter at Syracuse, well, you need a better reason. Read More »

Everyone knows I have an awkward obsession with Deron Williams‘ crossover. It is definitely the best move in the game, so I’m a little surprised and pissed off it didn’t take home the No. 1 spot on this list. Read More »

The beast is back. The monster from Marion (Ind.) that carried the Memphis Grizzlies to last year’s incredible first-round playoff upset of the top-seeded Spurs had been relatively quiet this season — thanks to a major knee injury and his team’s offensive balance — but last night Zach Randolph picked the perfect time to dominate. Z-Bo put up 18 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks to lead the Griz to a 90-88 road victory in Game 6 of their first-round series with the Clippers, forcing a Game 7 back in Memphis … Read More »