Beast of the Night: Dwight Howard posted 25 points, 24 rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocks last night, his sixth 20/20 game of the season. He shot 64 percent (9-14) from the field, 70 percent (7-10) from the free-throw line and had three turnovers. Howard’s averaging 25.4 points, 16.0 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 2.4 steals and 2.8 blocks in his five games so far this month. Read More »

All hail Jeremy Lin. That’s now two games in a row that the seldom-used backup has torched opponents and lit the Garden on fire as if he was John Starks. Lin dropped 28 and eight in New York’s 99-88 win over Utah. Beast? Lin seems to finish every three point play, make all the right decisions out of the pick-n-roll and has even shown off his deep ball. At one point in the second half, he dropped a high-arching shot and then trotted back on defense with a swag unlimited smirk before sticking his tongue out (It looked like he had been sucking on some blue lollipops during the quarter break). Read More »

What made Mike D’Antoni and the Phoenix Suns such a threat in the Western Conference was the fact that he had an arsenal of shooters at his disposal. But when D’Antoni first arrived in New York, his best three-point threat was Al Harrington. That’s not good. Last year, Toney Douglas was the only player on the Knicks to hit more than 100 three-pointers, finishing the season with 143. They also had sharpshooter Andy Rautins on the roster, but never used him. Finally, it appears D’Antoni has found his man. Read More »

The San Antonio Spurs were a surprisingly effective offensive NBA team last season. Though their window of opportunity is quickly closing, a prolonged offseason should be good rest for its two elderly stars. While the team as a whole is fairly fantasy-friendly, there are only three truly valuable fantasy assets. But don’t overlook some of the younger players who bring something to the table. Read More »

For anyone that was free to sit in front of the television all day, they were in for a treat. Between eight NCAA Tournament games and six NBA contests, there were enough highlights to make sure SportsCenter didn’t feel compelled to show us any B-roll from the NFL lockout negotiations. And if you’re a fan of amazing individual performances, you had eight guys drop 30-plus: Jacob Pullen (38), Jimmer Fredette (34), LeBron James (33), Dwyane Wade (32), David West (32), Shelvin Mack (30), Brandon Knight (30) and Blake Griffin (30). So let’s get started … Read More »

Carmelo Anthony had that George Gervin flow going once again last night. Not that ‘Melo was dropping mid-range finger rolls or squeezing his skinny body in between some poor team’s Swiss Cheese defense — it was more that Carmelo’s 23-point effort in the third quarter against Indiana was awfully reminiscent of the 33-point quarter he had a couple years ago that tied Iceman’s record for most in a quarter in NBA history … You could say ‘Melo (36 pts, 14-27 FG) channeled Iceman in that there wasn’t as much of that usual bully-style in his buckets. Read More »

Every team in the NBA changed their uniforms yesterday. But before you go and start cleaning out the NBA Store for fresh throwbacks, just know it’s more of a performance material change. The League introduced its new unis yesterday in Manhattan, and some of the Dime crew was on-site. Dwight Howard, Brook Lopez, Wilson Chandler and Jordan Farmar were also in the building. Talking about his offseason, Dwight dropped a line that his fantasy owners will love: Read More »

For the last two years at Temple, Dionte Christmas was the stud of the A-10. After averaging a shade under 20 points a game his junior and senior seasons, Christmas surprisingly went undrafted in last June’s draft. Surprising, I note, because Goran Suton and Robert Dozier did get drafted. Until Wednesday, Christmas had caught on with his hometown Sixers, when he was cut along with Brandon Bowman to slim the roster to 13. Read More »