Last night, Denver ran away from L.A. in the Staples Center because they dominated at points in the second and late in the third quarter. George Karl trusts his bench, almost too much in fact. His goal this year might be to coach this team like its intramurals. That’s just speculation, but with the way he hands out minutes, 11 guys all average double figures, we wouldn’t be surprised. Having a decent bench is always important, but it’s never been stressed like this. Five games in six nights will leave your team playing more up and down than a seesaw if the second unit can’t hoop. Read More »

This is absolutely one of the top highlights of the young NBA season; it’s destined to live on in “Best Of” highlights mixes for a long time. In last night’s Nuggets/Kings game a scrum for a loose ball at half court led to a Rudy Fernandez/Kenneth Faried break out for Denver.

Rudy then tosses a no-look, over-the-head alley-oop on the money to the trailing Faried. Check it out here: Read More »

Yeah, that guy we all saw last year wearing No. 6 for Miami in the NBA Finals? That guy wasn’t LeBron James. He was someone else, an impostor, a fake, a poser. LeBron says the real LeBron is back. Should we believe him? James says for the first time since he got to Miami, he’s back to the real him. More alive and ready to go. That’s good to know; We aren’t sure how anyone could deal with the amount of venom he had to take in last year. But still, the whispers about clutch failures, disappointments and lack of heart will only grow louder with each misstep. It’s a full-on disease for him now, and the only way to cure it is to win a championship and do it in a fashion that’ll have people forget about James’ past playoff struggles. Read More »

So what did Otis Smith say? Or what did he do? Something happened. Something weird, because just hours after Dwight Howard basically came out and said “Look man, trade me. I’m not feeling like we can work things out. You and I don’t have a good relationship,” the big man is now saying he loves Orlando and doesn’t want to leave. Whereas Chris Paul had made it pretty clear he’s not trying to stay in New Orleans, Howard has been going back and forth for the past few weeks on whether he wants to stay or not. Read More »

We wouldn’t exactly call it airing dirty laundry, but Shaquille O’Neal is definitely getting a few things off his chest now that he’s retired. We aren’t hearing anything new. It’s just that O’Neal is making no mistake about anything: he had some serious problems with Kobe, he left Pat Riley on really bad terms, and that he’s not into Dwight Howard‘s whole Superman routine and thinks Orlando’s big man needs to be his own man. In Shaq’s new book (Shaq Uncut: My Story), Superman takes a couple shots at Superman 2.0, telling Howard to “be his own man.” Shaq and Howard have never really gotten along, so this news comes without any surprise. Shaq has always been someone who spoke his mind, and in his new book, he holds nothing back. Read More »

This is why I love Rudy Fernandez. (And check out full highlights from the game after the jump.)

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We tend to highlight the Rashard Lewises and Eddy Currys whose contracts, concocted largely in part by NBA front offices, lead to pro ball purgatory (i.e. the NBA Lockout). However we often lose sight of the other end of the spectrum on the road to a new CBA: second round draft picks. USA Today published a piece on second round rookies like Travis Leslie, Isaiah Thomas and Josh Selby and how they’ve managed their finances, or relative lack thereof, until play resumes. Read More »

With the NBA lockout raging on, Jesus Shuttlesworth has been getting a lot more pub than Ray Allen has around these parts. But that’s about to change. Allen recently said he’s prepared to give up the entire year if that what it means to get a fair deal done. He said it’s his responsibility to his team and to the league to see this thing through to the end. Not exactly what we’d like to hear, but at least he’s committed. Allen is one of the few players that probably wouldn’t miss a beat even if they lost a whole year. Dude is almost obsessed with keeping himself in tip-top shape. Read More »

The first task for fantasy owners looking at the Dallas Mavericks is to take extra care to separate reality from fantasy. Yes, the Mavs were the underdogs-turned-NBA-champions in June, but that means absolutely nothing for fantasy basketball purposes. Assuming the team can reassemble itself into something resembling the 2010-11 champs, the Mavs will have one first-round stud and a handful of other usable parts, many of whom will be well into their 30s when the next season starts. Get those coughs out of your system and read on to see what the Mavericks can offer to fantasy owners next season. Read More »

Stop us if you’ve heard this before. A Denver Nugget is going to play in China during the lockout and will sign the largest contract in the league’s history. This is getting to be ridiculous. Do the Nuggets have some type of deal with frequent flyer miles? That’s now five core players heading overseas: first Wilson Chandler and Ty Lawson, then J.R. Smith, then earlier this week, Danilo Gallinari, and now Kenyon Martin. Is there anyone left? Of course, Martin is supposed to be a free agent so there’s no guarantee his terrible lip tattoo even makes it back to Denver, but there is a chance we see him playing in the NBA later this year. Read More »