Lamar Odom, Dwight Howard and Chris Paul aren’t walking through that door. The Lakers are what they are right now: an 0-2 team searching for a spark. They took a beheading at the hands of the Kings last night in Sacramento, 100-91 and while everyone wants to drive the stake into them after two games, maybe we should just give some credit to the Kings. Tyreke Evans (20 points on 13 shots) was a monster again last night, and Marcus Thornton (27 points on 13 shots) was dropping bombs on ‘em Outkast-style throughout the second half. Every time L.A. threatened, one of those two made a big offensive play, or DeMarcus Cousins out-hustled everyone in yellow for the ball. Read More »

Every time someone comes forward to attempt to break a story about the breakup of the Thunder, we get hit with a spinning forehand right back at our faces. Recently, a team workout was organized for four days on the University of Texas campus. 10 of the team’s 15-man roster showed up. Out of the players who didn’t show up, some were overseas, another was recently married and the other two were Kendrick Perkins and Nate Robinson. This came just before there were reports that Perkins and Russell Westbrook had problems last year. A team with rifts and chemistry problems doesn’t do this, trust us. There were no organization personnel on hand (obviously), and everything was set up by Royal Ivey, who just happens to be like, the last man on the bench. Read More »

Rumors of Ron Artest playing in the UK were met with skepticism. The league he’s aiming for is probably the worst in all of Europe, and the team doesn’t even have the money to satisfy Artest. But now officials with the team he is signing with, the Cheshire Jets, are offering to help Artest with his career off the court. There is even talk of getting the Tru Warier onto a soap opera, where he could show how young and restless he really is. Can someone please make this happen? Artest could definitely play the overbearing boyfriend who butts heads with a rival over a lover and overdramatizes every scene … Read More »

Injuries are inevitable and hard work pays off. Just ask Chris Johnson (Blazers) and Garrett Temple (Bucks), former teammates at LSU and the two most recent NBA call-ups from the D-League. These two were the benefactors to open rosters spots due to a rash of injuries on the Bucks (Brandon Jennings, John Salmons) and Blazers (Marcus Camby, Greg Oden). Read More »

If Fran Fraschilla said it once, he said it a thousand times: Team USA wasn’t playing against Iran yesterday, they were playing against themselves. (Only without the Jay-Z after-party.) So if that was the case, would we call the 37-point “victory” over the guys in the other uniforms a win or a loss? … Hamed Haddadi and Co. weren’t as terrible as you may have been led to believe, but they still weren’t on Team USA’s level. And yet if you wanted the U.S. to improve during this game, you had to be disappointed. Read More »

Other than his days at Oklahoma, Eduardo Najera has never been as good a basketball player as he was during his days in Dallas. But at 34 years old, the 6-8 forward (who’s been playing for the Nets the past two seasons) is headed back to the Mavericks in exchange for forwards Kris Humphries and Shawne Williams. Read More »

The Magic have been like the Chicago Cubs of the NBA. Their talent and regular-season record makes it impossible to leave them completely off the list of title contenders, but at the same time, nobody’s really gonna step up and put money on Orlando to win the big prize. Read More »

The Hornets had a big opportunity in front of them last night, and simply put, they blew it. A win over the Rockets at home, coupled with a Nuggets loss, would have put N.O. in 3rd place in the West. And not that Chris Paul and crew could do anything about the Denver game, but facing a Houston squad that (1) didn’t have flu-ridden Yao Ming Read More »