Beast of the Night: Paul Pierce finished with 25 points, nine rebounds, two assists, one steal, two blocks and three three-pointers last night. He shot 67 percent from the floor and 67 percent from the free-throw line, and had three turnovers. For the season, Pierce has maintained top 45 value, which is about in line of most owners’ expectations heading into the season. Read More »

It’s true what Thomas Wolfe wrote, that you can’t go home again. OK, so saying New Orleans is Chris Paul’s home is a definite stretch, but when you spent your whole career someplace, it’s more than just a stop on a map. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Dirk Nowitzki finished with 33 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, a block and three three-pointers in just 31:21 of work last night. He shot 63 percent (12-19) from the floor and 75 percent (6-8) from the free-throw line, and had three turnovers. Diggler’s finally clicking and has been a top 15 contributor in the past month. Read More »

The NBA’s best freshmen no longer need to study for midterms. Their quizzes come every day, in practices or in games with this year’s go-go-go schedule.

Their salaries are better than their scholarships, sure, but as rookies the learning curve is mastered slower than going from Math 100 into Advanced Statistics.

That’s why this time of year is one of the most interesting of any to watch the rookies play. In college life, as many of these guys were in last year, this is the peak of the year. Well, welcome to the league, where you’ve still got a month after the NCAA championships — and that’s if you’re watching the playoffs on the couch. Read More »

The 3 p.m., March 15 trade deadline has come and gone as fast as your brackets will be busted by this weekend’s end. Most cats around the league can now breathe easy, knowing they haven’t been dealt and can focus on the remaining part of the schedule. Others, however, must deal with the reality they were shipped out like yesterday’s garbage. Either way, this a time for them to regroup and stop commenting on every rumor that appears on blogs and Twitter. Read More »

The Spurs are bringing back an old friend. The Warriors are showing the door to a brand new one. San Antonio spent much of the past two years looking for a way to unload Richard Jefferson, a forward who just never fit into Gregg Popovich’s plans. Now, Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports is reporting San Antonio is finally sending out Jefferson in a swap for Golden State’s newly-acquired swingman Stephen Jackson. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Kevin Durant finished the first half of the season to the tune of 33 points, four rebounds, six assists, three steals, one block and two three-pointers. He shot 55 percent (12-22) from the field, 100 percent (7-7) from the charity stripe and had two turnovers. Durant has been a stud, as expected, so far this season. He’s improved his field-goal percentage, rebounding, assists, steals and blocks from their marks in his 2010-11 campaign. Read More »

So, a funny thing happened as we celebrated our 10-year anniversary last year: As we combed through our vast archives of photos and stories looking for the most interesting stuff to show our readers, we came to the realization that we had a lot of pictures of “Dime Pieces” from early issues of the magazine.

“Would our readers be interested in seeing these today?” we asked ourselves. Well, we’re about to find out. Read More »

Amar’e said afterwards he had “no doubt” Deron Williams came out with something to prove in MSG against Jeremy Lin. On second glance, we should’ve seen it coming. Williams basically flipped on a group of reporters earlier during Linsanity because no one wanted to talk about anything other than the new Knick sensation. He dropped 38 points with eight triples in New Jersey’s shockingly easy 100-92 win. Carmelo Anthony returned (as did Baron Davis) and yet the only one who mattered was Williams. Read More »

There’s something purely Americana about the hometown kid making good in front of the hometown crowd.

Whether it’s David Freese blasting home runs to lead his St. Louis Cardinals to a World Series title, or Chauncey Billups going from prep legend to college superstar to NBA bust back to NBA superstar in Denver, or even Jerome Bettis winning a Super Bowl in Detroit in his final NFL game while playing for another team, we like these stories. In a sports culture where free agency and stressed-out GMs eager to trade make it increasingly tougher for fans to claim one group of players as “our guys” for any length of time, hometown ties remain nearly impossible to break. Read More »