Beast of the Night: Stephen Curry finished with 32 points, six rebounds, seven assists, four steals and six three-pointers last night. He shot 63 percent (12-19) from the field, 67 percent (2-3) from the free-throw line and had just one turnover in 38 minutes of play. Curry has racked up 74 minutes of run in his last two games, which is a good sign that his ankle is fine for the time being. Barring any further setbacks, he’ll handsomely reward owners who bought low or exercised patience on him. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Dwight Howard was truly a beast last night, posting 45 points, 23 rebounds, three assists, four steals and two blocks against the Warriors. He shot 57 percent (12-21) from the field, 54 percent (21-39 – the 39 attempts broke Wilt Chamberlain’s 50-year-old record of 34) from the free-throw line and had three turnovers. Not much needs to be said here. Howard’s averages this season nearly match his output from 2010-11, except that he’s dishing out more assists (2.3 vs. 1.4) and turning the ball over less (3.1 vs. 3.6). The Magic only had two games this week, which means owners who unwisely benched the guy in weekly update leagues are kicking themselves this morning. Read More »

Just put Dwight on the line, right? That was Mark Jackson’s strategy on Thursday against Orlando and it seemed good for a while against the career 59 percent free-throw shooter. The Magic didn’t lead through the first quarter after going wire-to-wire against Portland in its own building the night before. Well, Howard’s not exactly Mark Price from the stripe but if you send a guy there an NBA-record 39 times (he made 21), he’s going to get his, anyway, and score with a stopped clock to help a comeback, too. That’s how Orlando held off Golden State, 117-109. Read More »

Beast of the Night: Derrick Rose put up 31 points, three boards, 11 assists, a steal, two blocks and four three-pointers last night against the Timberwolves. He shot 55 percent (12-22) from the field, 75 percent (3-4) from the free-throw line and had three turnovers. For the season, Rose is scoring less than he did in 2010-11, but he’s dishing out 8.6 assists per outing, an improvement of nearly a full assist per game. Rose has put up top 15 averages so far, a bit disappointing given his first-round expectations heading into the season. Read More »

Say hello to the bad guy. We have a new beast in the West. In probably the most physical game of the NBA season so far, the Blazers showed why everyone is so frightened of playing them up in the Northwest by punking the Clippers and Blake Griffin, 105-97. With the NBA’s newest A-List team threatening them over and over, Portland answered every call. Between Gerald Wallace, LaMarcus Aldridge and Marcus Camby, they did work on Griffin, holding him to the most up-and-down 18 and 12 night you’ll ever see. Read More »

Is there any team in the league that pisses off basketball fans more than Atlanta? In reality though, why should we get so aggravated when they struggle? As Reggie and Charles pointed out, you’re only as good as your best player. Despite that, with LeBron and Dwyane Wade dressed up (What the hell was that shirt ‘Bron had on?) on the sidelines, the Heat rode Chris Bosh (33 points, 14 rebounds) and a bunch of role players to a surprising 116-109 win in triple OT. Read More »

Asking Kobe Bryant to sit out with an injury just isn’t happening anymore. Some of us want to believe he’s doing it for the fame – “Not even Jordan could play through this!” – but at this point, it doesn’t matter the motives. Mike Brown says he can’t even tell Bryant is injured at practice, and Kobe is promising he will play this weekend. Kobe is Christian Bale and Gary Vitti is Morgan Freeman. So what will happen? We’re not doctors, but NBA 2K12 took a stab at it for us … Read More »

The lockout is just a memory, the NBA is days away from its glorious Christmas Day return, and fantasy basketball preparations are in full swing. But you can’t escape the past. This isn’t a life lesson from the fingers of someone wholly unfit to give you non-fantasy basketball advice – it’s a reminder that suspensions handed down late in the 2010-11 NBA season are going to affect some players’ availabilities in the early going this season. On top of those suspensions are injuries and health conditions that will have implications from the outset of the 2011-12 NBA season. Below is a rundown of early suspensions and injuries, and the players who stand to benefit from those circumstances. Read More »

Everyone wants to talk about super teams. Of course, the Heat, Knicks, Clippers, Celtics and all the rest of ‘em capture the imagination of the NBA fan base. There’s nothing quite like feeling the anticipation and excitement in the air when you see that news hit telling you Chris Paul has finally been traded and he’s going to the Clippers. What immediately follows is typically more invigorating than what eventually happens. The promise of what could be is almost always better than what is. Even here at Dime, we find ourselves talking about one third of the NBA about 80 percent of the time. That doesn’t mean we don’t care about everyone else. Read More »

Didn’t we kinda sorta predict this? Stephen Jackson hasn’t been practicing up in Milwaukee because of some back spasms, but some are saying he’s been sitting out for entirely different reasons. Reportedly, Jackson isn’t happy with his contract, one that will pay him over $9 million this season and $10 million next season. He wanted an extension in Charlotte – as a 33-year-old, you know the guaranteed years are weighing heavily on him – and the Bobcats decided to ship him out instead of offering one. Jackson hasn’t said a word about it during training camp. Read More »