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 »

With four minutes left and the Chicago crowd ready to explode, John Lucas III cleared out against LeBron, did a lil’ herky jerky dance on the King, and canned a fadeaway in James’ mug. It was a capper on one of those nights when everything goes right. Lucas III has this weird complex about him where he truly believes he’s big time, and for a little while last night, we kept yelling at him to stop shooting. But eventually, you just gotta enjoy the ride. Dude went off for 24 big points, hit contested pull-ups all over the court. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Brandon Jennings finished with 34 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, two blocks and six three-pointers last night. He shot 52 percent (12-23) from the floor, 80 percent (4-5) from the free-throw line and had one turnover. After struggling through February, Jennings is averaging 25.0 points, 4.0 boards, 7.1 assists, 1.3 steals and 3.0 threes in his first seven games this month. He’s been a top 30 stud so far this season. Read More »

Brandon Jennings was content to wait. While the Nets came out hot Monday in New Jersey, Milwaukee’s oft off-target star found his stroke wherever he wanted as the game went on. Jennings stepped back for six threes on 11 attempts and had a game-high 34 in the Bucks’ win. He’s in the best shooting season of his career at 40 percent from the field (Progress, people. Progress.). While it’s progress that he’s better year-over-year, it’s still not good. It was nice though, to see his third night of 50 percent shooting or better this month, after not hitting that mark once in February … Read More »

Beast of the Night: Andrew Bynum finished with 30 points, 14 rebounds, two assists and three blocks last night. He shot 72 percent (13-18) from the field, 80 percent (4-5) from the free-throw line and had three turnovers. Bynum is currently on a 10-game streak of double-doubles and has produced top 20 averages this season, making him one of the bigger exceeder of fantasy expectations in the 2011-12 NBA season. Read More »

The real Amar’e Stoudemire might’ve finally emerged, scoring 26 points and dunking aggressively for the first time since before someone snuck into his house at night and gave him Penny Hardaway‘s knees. But Dirk hit two of his patented awkward rainbows in the final moments, and gave one courtside kid a HARD handshake in Dallas’ 95-85 win over the visiting Knicks. Read More »

Josh Smith might not be an All-Star but he had arguably one of the best games of his career in the Hawks’ seven-point upset of Oklahoma City. Smith did everything, including hitting more jump hooks than seemingly anyone in a game since Kareem, and murdering the league’s top shot blocker at the rim with this dunk. He had 30 and 12 and even made a trey, and put the game away late by dominating inside. There was a stretch at the end of the game with the ATL up five where the Thunder missed three consecutive threes and Smith got the rebound on every single one. Read More »

Weekend Wonder: Kevin Durant averaged 37.0 points, 9.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.0 steals and 4.0 threes in his two games over the weekend. He shot 67 percent from the floor, 83 percent from the free-throw line and turned the ball over a total of 10 games in this stretch. Durant scored a career-high 51 points Sunday night. For the season, Durant is second only to LeBron James on the fantasy basketball totem pole. Read More »

Wow. Nothing else really needs to be said at this point. Jeremy Lin has done some cool things, but last night he took it to another level, wetting a pull-up jumper in Canada’s face with less than a second left in a tie game. The swag was ridiculous; In the huddle before he closed the fridge on the Raptors, Lin told Mike D’Antoni to give him an iso. Then he went out and capped the best night yet of the Jeremy Lin tour with New York’s come-from-behind 90-87 win. 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 »