Skyrim is perched over my shoulder like a dark cloud, so I’m extra grateful the guys at Activision hooked me up with an Elite subscription. Now Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 can’t get old. For those of you who have the Elite pass, you’ve probably spent the last few days scampering around the endless staircases of Piazza, and slipping from bush to bunker in Liberation. It’s been a week now since the first content drop, and in-between Blake Griffin dunking on Kendrick Perkins so bad he had to delete his Twitter and the Orlando Magic turning into the Orlando Tragic, I’ve logged my share of time in the trenches. Read More »

Already this season, we’ve seen star players go down, and a part of me wants to say it’s the shortened season. But face the facts: Injuries happen every year. Ask Steve Nash. He’s been dealing with a back injury for 10 years. Then there’s Zach Randolph, fresh off a breakout season and playoff run last year, and yet hurt his knee and now may be out for the season. You can go down the line – Al Horford, Rajon Rondo, Chris Paul – they’ve all tasted the injury bug this year. Read More »

Nothing hurts more than losing your spot at the gym because you lost to a bunch of random dudes. That’s what happened to the Lakers last night in Milwaukee. With Stephen Jackson corporate thuggin’ it off-court (suspended for verbal abuse of an official), Andrew Bogut out with his yearly injury and Brandon Jennings playing more passively than at any point over the past month, the Lakers took body blows from Drew Gooden, Mike Dunleavy and Ersan Ilyasova before finally falling 100-89. Read More »

The Knicks decided real basketball was for the birds, and started launching a monsoon of treys. That might work against some teams, but not Miami, especially when Dwyane Wade is healthy and cooking. With Carmelo Anthony sitting out, the Heat weathered a random Bill Walker night (21 points, all on treys) and a bunch of other weird stuff (in the first half the Knicks were 5-for-19 on twos and 10-for-23 on threes) to pull away in the fourth quarter, 99-89. LeBron and D-Wade were all over the place, combining for 59 points and only 15 missed shots. Read More »

Steve Nash apparently wants in on the ESPN Winter X Games Real Snow competition (presented by vitaminwater) – one of the premiere snowboarding competitions in the world. He wants it so badly, he’s willing to take matters into his own hands. Nash teamed up with vitaminwater to push his case on Twitter. He amassed more than 1,000 tweets with #letnashcompete in the body of the tweet from fans to make his case to enter the competition.

He then put together this video, his “entry” into Real Snow. In it, we get a sneak preview of the “most epic snowboard trick ever” – Nash’s “Corn Chopper.” Read More »

Buy Low: DeMar DeRozan has just about flatlined since his hot start to the season. Since Jan. 6, DeRozan has averaged 11.4 points, 2.9 boards, 1.0 assist, 1.0 steal, 0.6 steals, 0.2 threes and 2.8 turnovers per game, while shooting 35 percent from the field and 73 percent from the free-throw line. That’s good for top 300 value, which is nothing to write home to Compton about. This makes DeRozan a low-risk buy-low candidate, the best kind. Andrea Bargnani’s nearing return will help take some pressure off of DeRozan, who still has an appealing ceiling. If he finds that touch he had in the first handful of games in 2011-12, it’ll be well worth spending 50 cents on the dollar for. Read More »

Thank you NBA fans. You’ve officially destroyed any drama that I ever got out of the All-Star voting. Not that it really matters. Almost every year, you can bank on certain names garnering the most votes and a starting spot in the Sunday capper of the best midseason weekend in basketball. Kobe Bryant could do his whole “watch what happens when I don’t shoot, world” routine for four weeks straight, and his fans would probably declare he’s the best passer in the world and should be in the game. LeBron James could act like a train off its tracks, and keep up that weird “I’m here, but don’t ask me to do anything heroic” face he’s had on since last June, and fans would still call him the most talented player in NBA history. Blake Griffin could blow out his knee or decide to never dunk again as long as the refs continue to screw him (Watch him complain on every call. Hubie almost had a heart attack last night: “GET BACK ON D! YOU GOTTA GET BACK!”), or he could have both happen, and Quake would still be in February’s ultimate showcase. Read More »

The best team in the NBA against the worst. Blowout right? But Washington grew tired of getting jumped and walking around embarrassed the rest of the day. So they put together by far their best performance of the season in their surprising 105-102 win over the Thunder. On a night where Andray Blatche got booed in the pre-game introductions, and then booed again just three minutes in when he started his lackadaisical routine by shooting air balls, eventually everything turned to gold because John Wall took over in the fourth quarter. Read More »

Miami’s pretty good when they put it together. The Spurs played perfectly through 24 minutes, and even got two ridiculous buzzer beaters from the same player, and yet it couldn’t stop them from getting completely stomped out on South Beach. After surrendering 63 first half points, the Heat responded with 71 of their own in the second half, LeBron and Bosh combined for 63 points and Miami ran away with the game, 120-98. Going into last night, the Spurs hadn’t won a road game all year. Miami had lost three in a row. One of the streaks had to end last night, and the Heat broke their visitor’s back. Read More »

Okay, so he does have Marcin Gortat (24 points, 15 rebounds). But other than that, Steve Nash is the last man standing in Phoenix. Last year, it looked like their deep trips into the postseason were over. Now, the fast-breaking, free-wheeling style is a thing of the past as well. We felt like we were watching ghosts in San Antonio yesterday. San Antonio beat Phoenix 102-91 in a game that would’ve mattered back in 2006. Now, it almost felt like Gregg Popovich wasn’t even taking it seriously. San Antonio controlled throughout, and even when the Suns made their run, he didn’t flinch. The minute he brought back in the starters for the finish, the Spurs regained control and shut down Nash and the Suns. Read More »