Wasn’t this Manhattan/South Beach matchup supposed to be the best series of the first round? Um, what happened? It’s a colossal mismatch, and a 2-0 lead doesn’t do justice to Miami’s dominance through eight quarters. Game 1 felt like murder. In last night’s 104-94 Miami win, the Knicks were better. They played a little harder. Defended a little better. Actually made a few shots. And yet it seemed like the Heat had set their sliders to the Rookie level. Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James combined for 65 points on 48 shots whereas Carmelo Anthony was struggling against everyone besides old man Shane Battier (‘Melo was unleashing hell on him in the first quarter), forcing his way to 30 points on 26 shots. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Russell Westbrook finished the 2011-12 NBA season with a bang, producing a pretty line of 30 points, six rebounds, nine assists, three steals, four blocks and a three-pointer. He shot 50 percent (10-20) from the field and 90 percent (9-10) from the free-throw line, and had two turnovers. Westbrook is finishing the season with top 20 value, which falls short of expectations. The most noticeable stat is his 5.5 assists per game this season, well below the 8.2 assists he dished out per game last season. Read More »

With only a few games left on the slate it’s looking like LeBron James will be our MVP for 2012. His main competition, Kevin Durant, has surrendered, recently quoted saying:

“He [LeBron] deserves all the love [for MVP], He’s playing phenomenal basketball. I’m just trying to get better every single game and trying to help my team as much as I can. I’m just blessed to be in that conversation.”

Here’s what the Top 10 MVP Candidates looks like today: Read More »

“That guy doesn’t know a thing about basketball,” Kevin Durant said of Skip Bayless prior to the Thunder facing the Grizzles on April 2.

SI’s Chris Mannix tweeted recently, “I like @RealSkipBayless, I’ve sat across the desk from him, but the suggestion that OKC is doomed w/Westbrook at point guard is ridiculous.”

As if Skip Bayless doesn’t have enough cats on his hit list, Russell Westbrook is the latest player to feel the hate. He has nicknamed him “Russell Westbrick.” Bayless doesn’t like that he takes too many shots, isn’t a pure point guard, and doesn’t defer to Durant in crunch time. Last season’s playoff performance by Westbrook fueled the media fire against him, but Bayless continually condemns his play and expects he’ll be the Thunder’s cause to their ultimate playoff demise this season. Read More »

Nothing gets us going in the Dime offices like a good ol’ fashioned debate, and the best debates are the ones that get heated. Trying to rate the best dunkers in the league is unanimously impossible. Do you want style? Force? Does a big man get points taken away? If a player is an epic dunker in warm-ups, does that count?

Back in the day, we had Vince Carter and there was no denying what type of dunker he was. But in the current NBA, outside of perhaps one or two guys, you could make a case for anyone. Read More »

In a recent interview with the New York Post, Carmelo Anthony’s wife, La La, talked about the couple’s luxurious Hell’s Kitchen apartment. Like any typical multi-millionaire’s pad, there are top of the line features like high ceilings and custom closets designed by The Container Store, but the one design element that stands out is a huge painting of Carmelo that hangs above their fireplace. Read More »

The regular season is coming to an end and the playoffs are right around the corner. The last few weeks in this MVP race are the most important, as each superstar works to put their team in the best position to contend in the Playoffs. For Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose, the MVP is the least of their concerns. Both players are usually top candidates in the MVP conversation, however they both have gone through rough times this season and are focused solely on the playoffs. Read More »

There was a point in the third quarter where you could see it on LeBron James‘ face. New Jersey was flowing. Miami was in a trance. And LeBron was annoyed. A late regular season game in New Jersey isn’t exactly the NBA Finals, but it’ll do for now, especially when he puts together a performance that had shades of 2006, Game 5 in Detroit. LeBron scored 17 straight for Miami to bring the Heat charging back in a 111-108 W, all while everyone in the building screamed “MVP!” Read More »

We’ve introduced you to Levi Maestro on Dime before, and in this brand new episode of Maestro Knows, he gives us one of the coolest off-court looks into what Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook and Blake Griffin are really like. Joakim Noah also makes an appearance as Maestro’s dope lifestyle video series follows them from workouts to bus rides and on to the 2012 NBA All-Star Game. If you’ve ever wanted to know how Love shed all that excess weight, watch this. Read More »

Utah has been an odd matchup all season for Memphis, and after they jumped out early against the Grizzlies, we figured this would be the game that killed Memphis’ shot at homecourt advantage in the first round. Instead, the Grit N’ Grind gang did what they do best, and took it over in the fourth quarter, pulling away 103-98. O.J. Mayo had 17 in the fourth quarter, and his weak side triple in the final minute put Memphis up four, completing an unexpected turnaround that saw Juice score 20 and yet not have a single assist or rebound in 24 minutes. Just before that, Rudy Gay (26 points, 12 rebounds) had knocked down a triple and had a couple of beastly plays to open up a little Memphis cushion. Even with the Jazz getting another 20 points from Devin Harris, they couldn’t match the talent. Read More »