If you made Carmelo Anthony into a Mortal Kombat character, he’d have it all. You could give him some knives, a couple of devastating 360 kicks, maybe even fire-breathing capabilities. But as all gamers know, no matter how nasty you are at putting characters on their asses, you still have to save your energy… can’t be in there button mashing. That’s the only thing New Yorkers are worried about right now. Read More »

Before 2002, the last time the Boston Celtics made the postseason, Kevin Garnett was donning a royal blue and yellow Farragut Academy jersey. Beantown’s trip to the 2002 NBA Playoffs ended a six-year drought in which the Cs failed to both get out of the lottery and reincarnate Larry Bird. Read More »

On a night where we all tried to watch a BCS championship that got so bad – think Spike running over the Little Giants – that Brent Musburger needed a hall pass by the end of the first quarter because he was getting distracted by A.J. McCarron‘s girlfriend, we saw more than enough upsets in the NBA to hold over even the most raucous Notre Dame fans. In the Mecca, Paul Pierce oiled up the machine, got the creaky gears working together again, and put on his “professional scorer” face in the fourth quarter of Boston’s 102-96 “don’t believe the hype” win against the Knicks. Read More »

For as much work as Santa Claus put in last night, the sports world was undeniably quiet on Christmas Eve. Yeah, we were all busy watching Elf for the fifth time this week, and you were probably finishing off your seventh cheesecake of the holidays. But the NBA? College basketball? They were silent. We’re about a quarter of the way into the NBA season, and nothing is decided yet. Read More »

With talent comes the luxury of not always needing to play hard. For the Clippers, this is a gift and a curse. The only thing they’ve really been consistent with this year is being inconsistent, and despite a recent four-game winning streak, their record is still a somewhat pedestrian 12-6 (before yesterday afternoon against Phoenix). L.A.’s on again, off again track record played out pretty convincingly in yesterday’s 117-99 win over the Suns. For three quarters, everyone outside of Blake Griffin (24 points, eight boards) was sleepwalking. Read More »

With so much softness leaking into the modern game, we’re always anxious to annoint the next great rivalry. Where is the next Bulls-Knicks going to come from? Or the next Sacramento-Los Angeles? Everyone loves when players get a little nasty, and last night in Boston, the Celtics and Nets put on the first real throwdown of the season. Late in the first half, the Celtics weren’t getting any foul calls, and were getting run off their own floor. Read More »

In one of those dreaded Saturday afternoon Atlantic Division games (seriously, who came up with these?), Boston turned a close game against Toronto into a rout during the second half of a 107-89 beatdown. Jason Terry, still starting in the Bean, went off for 20 points, and Rajon Rondo had a dozen assists just a few minutes into the second half. He’d end up with 20 in just 32 minutes, his streak of consecutive regular season games with double-digit assists now at 33. Is anyone in the league dominating a single statistical category like Rondo is assists? Read More »

Once the Lakers finished off their all-you-can-eat buffet of a summer, there was really only one man for the job. Sure Mike Brown was the coach at the time, but all along, didn’t this job have Phil Jackson‘s name written all over it? The job is his to lose now, with everyone from Kobe Bryant calling him the greatest coach in sports to Jim Buss sitting on his ego for once and acknowledging PJ is the man to even Jackson himself phoning his old assistants to check on their availability, according to the Los Angeles Times. Read More »

For years, even as he masqueraded between the NBA’s best passer and a subsequent weirdo off the court, we heard the Celtics’ were Rajon Rondo‘s team. In a sense, we were right: they go as he goes, and during the playoffs – when the chips are most valuable – Rondo perennially turned in near-ESPN Classic performances. But did Boston follow his lead in the locker room? Did he have the presence to outweigh Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett? Read More »

Kobe who? If you would’ve told us that Bryant was going to sit out a game in San Antonio against the red hot Spurs, we would’ve said Gregg Popovich would’ve been pulling out the victory cigars early in the fourth quarter. You can’t fault us though because no one, repeat NO ONE, could’ve expected Andrew Bynum to set an NBA season high and in the process nearly outrebound San Antonio by himself: 33 to 30. The big man also chipped in 16 points, and with Pau Gasol putting in a quiet 21 and 11, the Lakers completed dominated inside in their blowout win. Read More »