The sequel never, ever lives up to the hype. The Godfather II. Jaws II. Even Caddyshack II couldn’t do it. Last night in Cleveland, the game was at least closer than the last Return of the King. But no one cared about that. They wanted fireworks. And got absolutely none (unless you’re a Cavs fan) … Despite nearly blowing a 23-point second-half lead, the Cavs held on to beat the Heat 102-90 to deny them a chance to move ahead of Boston and into second place in the East. The first time LeBron James came back to Cleveland, everyone was nervous he was going to slip up at a red light and some Cavs’ fan would pull up and get their Sonny Corleone on. This time, the reaction wasn’t nearly as antagonistic. Maybe that was because James didn’t show up for introductions. Yes, when they called his name, he was back in the locker room, waiting it out while his teammates had to soak in the boos. Read More »

Ever since the official launch of NBA JAM for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, our friends over at Complex and EA Sports have been throwing parties at some of the hottest sneaker stores around the country. From Austin, San Francisco and Philly to Chicago, New York and L.A., attendees have an opportunity to check out the revamped classic game, enjoy free drinks and hang out with the hosts such as Jrue Holiday, Kyle Korver and Eric Gordon in their respective cities. With that, check out the cities they’ve been to and the next ones on tap this week. Read More »

Dating back to the Allen Iverson era — which was here and gone about as fast as A.I.’s first step — cracks in the chemistry of the Detroit Pistons infrastructure have effectively ended what was one of the NBA’s most consistent runs of success over the last decade. While the A.I. situation drew more national attention because of the big names involved, the Pistons’ issues over the last couple of seasons have been just as damaging. Now it’s just getting out of hand. Read More »

It’s a little early to break out the Run-TMC nostalgia — or even relics from the Baron/J-Rich heyday — but the Golden State Warriors are hot right now. Last night’s win over the Knicks puts G-State at 6-2 on the young season, as the team ranks 5th in the NBA in scoring offense while Monta Ellis is 2nd in individual scoring (27.1 ppg) and David Lee is 5th in rebounding (11.3 rpg).

In the visitor’s locker room at Madison Square Garden, I got up with some of the team’s key reserves — guard Reggie Williams, swingman Rodney Carney and forward Brandan Wright — to get a look inside one of the most interesting teams in the League: Read More »

You Know It’s NBA Preseason When … Lamar Odom is guest-commentating at the announcer’s table during the second quarter, and he’s still wearing his warm-ups. Assuming L.O. wasn’t going commando under the sweats, he could have conceivably moved directly from his seat next to Mark Jackson to the court … For the most part, though, intensity was the name of last night’s Lakers/Warriors game in Ontario, Calif., which was technically a “neutral” site but definitely housed a pro-Lakers crowd. Fill-in coach Brian Shaw even had Kobe Bryant (22 pts, 7 asts) and Pau Gasol in for most of the fourth quarter and some of overtime, while G-State ran Monta Ellis and David Lee almost all night … Read More »

Sleepers are an important but dangerous part of any preparations for fantasy basketball drafts. After all, what fun is it strictly adhering to the automated or “expert-based” rankings you’re spoon-fed? Not only is taking that route lame, it can also blind you to players whose true value is hidden from lists too-heavily based on numbers or past performances. The hazard is getting caught up in the self- or media-generated hype for your sleeper picks and moving too early to grab them. All that said, here is a list of the Top 10 sleepers that you should keep an eye out for in the latter rounds of your drafts (with target rounds in 12-team leagues in brackets), in no particular order. Read More »

After the Heat brought in LeBron and Chris Bosh to play with D-Wade, and the Miami roster began to take shape, the next obvious question was, “Where will they play?” It’s not like the ’07 Celtics, where it only made sense to plug in Ray Allen at the two and KG at the four because Boston had pieces set in place elsewhere. With this Miami group, having Mario Chalmers and Carlos Arroyo at PG, and everybody yet nobody at center, plus throwing multi-positional Mike Miller into the mix, there are lots of possibilities. Coach Erik Spoelstra cleared up some confusion in an interview with the Miami Herald. Read More »

A couple weeks ago I called Reggie Williams the NBA D-League’s biggest success story of 2010. That was for his work outside the D-League. For accomplishments in the D-League, Mike Harris was the runaway winner. The reigning league MVP led the Rio Grande Valley Vipers to a championship earlier this week, putting up 27.8 points and 10.2 boards in the playoffs.

Harris appeared in 13 games with the Rockets and Wizards during the season, and expect him to be in some NBA team’s training camp this fall, potentially cracking a roster by Opening Night. A couple months ago I profiled Harris in a “What’s My Name?” piece that ran in Dime #55. Read More »

I don’t smoke tweeds, but I grew up much closer to the greenery than just listening to The Chronic and Cypress Hill. So while 4/20 is more significant to me because the new season of “Deadliest Warrior” debuts tonight, I understand the importance of the stoner’s holiday.

According to some of my more laid-back colleagues, “nuggets” is a term commonly associated with 4/20. You can probably guess why. So with that, here are my 10 favorite Denver Nuggets of the past 25 years: Read More »

In what has been a banner season for the NBA’s D-League — with a record 23 players getting called up to the bigs — no one has been more of a success story than Reggie Williams.

The Virginia Military Institute alum was dropping 26 points a night for the Sioux Falls Skyforce when he was brought up by the Golden State Warriors in early-March, and has stuck with the team ever since, averaging 14.9 points per game and cracking the starting lineup. Read More »