Sure the Dallas Mavericks have won 13 games in a row – and might not lose in their next five games either – but they have to be more than excited to get their star sixth man back on the court. Just one week after undergoing facial surgery to repair his fractured left orbital bone, Jason Terry practiced today. And better yet, Terry says he expects to play in one of the Mavs’ two games next week. Read More »

Ranking the NBA from worst to first…

30. New Jersey Nets (7-56) — Garbage in, garbage out, garbage up, garbage down.

29. Minnesota Timberwolves (14-50) — In Monday’s loss to Dallas, Kurt Rambis sat Kevin Love most of the night and played Darko in his place, claiming he wanted to have a more active big man to give Dirk some problems. You’re over-thinking it, homeboy. Play the double-double kid. Read More »

There’s no hotter team in the NBA than the Dallas Mavericks. Currently sitting five games behind the Lakers for the top seed in the Western Conference, the Mavs are 20 games over .500 and have won nine in a row. But all that could soon change, as their spark plug Jason Terry is slated to undergo surgery today to repair a fractured orbital bone. What’s his timetable for return? The reports range anywhere from a week to two months. Safe to say this is not good news for Mavs fans. Read More »

A whole lot of things didn’t make sense about last night’s Grizzlies/Hornets game. It didn’t make sense that Mike Conley (26 pts, 7 asts, 5 stls) was sticking jumpers like Mark Price. It didn’t make sense that Darren Collison (17 pts, 14 asts, 5 stls) and Marcus Thornton (24 pts) kept playing like the best backcourt in the League. It didn’t make sense that Emeka Okafor had one whole rebound. It didn’t make sense that Aaron Gray and Hamed Haddadi guarded each other for about 10 minutes and the sport of basketball wasn’t set back 30 years. But most improbable thing, according to one Hornets’ announcer, was the shot that eventually won Memphis the game … Read More »

The time has come, and the Wizards are finally ready to blow up the squad – that at least on paper – looked like the fourth best team in the Eastern Conference before the season. After finding out that the League granted them some cap relief (almost $4 million) after losing Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton to suspension for the rest of the season, they’re going to try and move their $74 million payroll below the cap threshold of $69.9 million. This means that Caron Butler’s days in D.C. could be limited. Read More »

The Sixers’ ship is sinking fast and it’s still unclear whether or when Allen Iverson will come in and rescue the franchise’s playoff hopes. After last night’s 104-102 loss to the Mavs, Philly has now lost seven straight games. The one bright spot of the game for the Sixers was this nasty dunk by rookie Jrue Holiday.

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…

Added: Shawn Marion, Drew Gooden, Rodrigue Beaubois, Kris Humphries, Quinton Ross, Tim Thomas

Lost: Brandon Bass, Antoine Wright, Jerry Stackhouse, Ryan Hollins, Devean George, Gerald Green Read More »

Dating back to the failed ‘09 deadline trade that was supposed to send Tyson Chandler to Oklahoma City for a package headlined by Chris Wilcox, every rumored deal we heard involving Chandler had the Hornets getting short-changed. Names like Rasho Nesterovic and Didn’t You Used To Be Ben Wallace were among those being thrown around, but if the trade that was reported last night to be close to happening actually goes through, the Hornets would be big winners. The rumor has Emeka Okafor headed to New Orleans in a trade for Chandler, and last time we checked, several sources are saying it’s just about complete … Read More »

Who would have guessed that the first NBA dude to put Blake Griffin on his ass would be skinny JaVale McGee? Blake finished with 19 points, 10 boards and four steals against the Wizards in yesterday’s Vegas Summer League, but one time he came through the lane with the rock and McGee (19 pts, 7 blks) gave the rookie a good, hard, welcome-to-the-NBA foul. Blake stayed on the ground for a second, but he was OK. Then later in the fourth quarter, McGee caught an alley-oop on Blake’s head and screamed on him. (JaVale is still doing the salute thing whenever he dunks, too.) … Rodrigue Beaubois scored 23 for the Mavs in a game against the Thunder that was just ugly. Read More »

Jonny Flynn’s 11-point, 7-assist performance isn’t one of the best stat lines of the summer league thus far. (Rodrigue Beaubois‘ 34-point outing, and the Tyler Hansbrough/Roy Hibbert domination a la Duncan/Robinson both trump Flynn’s night.) But he looked really good as a playmaker, getting rave reviews from David Thorpe’s twitter-analysis.

(If you can’t see the video right away, keep clicking “next” until you see “ESPNews Highlight of the Night.”)

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