Standing Tall and Ticked (photo. Mannion)
Cue another summer of the Phoenix Suns (secretly) and their fans (very publicly) blaming the refs and whatever other straws they can grasp onto while trying to come to grips with another heartbreaking playoff exit. You could say last night’s game hinged on a few crucial calls/no-calls, most of which […]

Joe Johnson (photo. Zach Wolfe)
Game 3 was Josh Smith’s time to shine. Game 4 belonged to Joe Johnson. Getting wherever he wanted to go off the dribble while unleashing mixtape moves (pity James Posey and Leon Powe), then wetting jumpers from every angle and distance, Joe went Terminator on the Celtics, putting the red beam […]

Dirk came through; Nash didn’t
We said it a couple days ago in our NBA Hit List player ranking: “These next two games is where we’ll see what kind of leader (Steve) Nash is. Right now you can’t tell if this is his team or Shaq’s.” So what happened in last night’s Suns/Spurs game? Nash had […]

J-Kidd (photo. Jordan Hollander)
Sometime during the end stages of the Mavs joining the Dub Club (a.k.a getting 20-pieced) in New Orleans, this e-mail came through from one of the Dime crew: “Chris Paul, you’re under arrest for the murder of Jason Kidd.” That was cold, but you saw the numbers: 32 points and 17 assists […]

Kobe (photo. Mannion)
Talk about an East Coast bias; yesterday the New York City airwaves were devoid of the Lakers/Nuggets game until about midway through the fourth quarter, with every major network pre-empting their regular programming to show the Pope conducting a mass at Yankee Stadium. It was understandable — after all, there are more Catholics […]

Photo. adidas
As good as this past NBA regular season was, Day 1 of the playoffs topped everything by giving us the best single game we’ve seen all year on any level. We don’t care who you love or who you hate, Spurs/Suns was an amazing display of ball that included a virtuoso performance from one […]

Gilbert Arenas (photo. David Deal)
It’s funny how people like us — you know them as “The Media” — will find anything to do to kill time in between big events. For example, we were watching “SportsCenter” at the office yesterday and they started a debate: “Which big man’s legacy is more on the line: Shaq […]

Shaq (photo. Chenoa Maxwell)
Defense wins championships and blah blah blah, but the Spurs still need to score points if they’re gonna get that fifth Larry O’Brien. Last night’s loss to the Suns makes it three straight games where San Antonio has failed to crack 80 points, not to mention two of their last three have […]

Dirk (photo. Monte Isom)
The main reason it still seems so strange that the Mavs are battling Golden State and Denver for those last couple of Western Conference playoff spots isn’t because Dallas won 67 games last year; it’s because they’re pretty clearly better than the Warriors and Nuggets this year and shouldn’t be underachieving like […]

Chris Paul (photo. Mannion)
For 47 minutes of Hornets/Magic, Peja Stojakovic was having such an off night that the Orlando announcers were questioning Byron Scott for even having him on the court in crunch time. But that didn’t stop Peja from stepping up with about a minute to go and hitting the go-ahead three-pointer on a […]

Photo. Chenoa Maxwell
Other than Shaq dominating Marcus Camby on the game’s first few possessions — or as Suns announcer Eddie Johnson called it, “gangsta’ing” Marcus Camby — Phoenix couldn’t get anything going against the Nuggets in the first quarter last night. Guys were forcing too many bad shots on offense and giving up too many […]

How will T-Mac respond?
(photo. Marc Morrison)
It’s over. After 22 straight wins — 10 of them without Yao Ming — the Rockets finally dropped one last night, at home to the Celtics, who as Kevin Garnett pointed out in the post-game are on a good little run of their own (13 W’s in their last 14). […]

Ben Gordon (photo. Stephen Hill)
Is it really possible that this comic tragedy of season could culminate in a playoff berth for the Bulls? Things have been so crazy around this team that someone needs to write a book (if the beat writers are unavailable, we nominate Joakim Noah), and yet here it is six weeks […]