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Derrick Rose has produced just 10 points, five rebounds, six assists and one steal in his last two games. His back is aching him, which is part of the reason why he only played a total of about 33 minutes in those two games. Clearly, Rose’s fantasy value has taken a hit with this latest setback, just as we were forgetting about his bum toe. He could be playing at less than 100 percent for the foreseeable future, but with All-Star weekend about two weeks away, recovered health shouldn’t be too far away. Read More »
When Dime‘s own Sean Sweeney ventured into the Dean Dome last night, all we wanted was an overtime or a buzzer beater. We got what we came for. Austin Rivers is a stone cold assassin. He’s like Vincent from Collateral, except with blacker hair, and just doesn’t give a you know what. On the final possession of the biggest game of his life, Rivers came off the screen and roll just as he had probably 30 other times throughout the game, sized up Tyler Zeller and unleashed hell to bring Duke a one-point win on the road. Read More »
Forget Steve Nash and Baron Davis. Jeremy Lin is taking over NYC. The Knicks survived New Jersey 99-92, and it was their popular bench warmer who had the city juiced. Deron Williams (21 points, 11 assists), the former best point guard in the world, was getting worked over by Lin (25 points, five rebounds, seven assists) down the stretch. Jumpers. Pick-n-rolls Everything was out of wack for New York. Carmelo (3-for-15) couldn’t make a shot, and Amar’e Stoudemire wasn’t much better, but Lin was pulling out reverses, and after a three-point play, Tyson Chandler was doing the Brandy Reed celebration from back in the day … Read More »
Who stole Orlando’s offense? With the Celtics reeling from injuries and actually giving legit minutes to people like Sasha Pavlovic and E’Twaun Moore, the Magic could’ve stepped on their necks. Instead, they folded like a bad hand, scoring only 56 for the game and leaving Boston with a 31-point L on their foreheads. 56 points sounds awful. But 20 second half points and 24 percent shooting for the game sounds even worse. Dwight Howard had 18 and 14, but didn’t even make a shot in the second half while Paul Pierce and Brandon Bass dropped 19 to lead all scorers … 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 »
You talkin’ about playoffs? The atmosphere in the Clippers overtime win over Miami felt like an NBA Finals game. Down the stretch, we can’t remember the last time we’d seen so many bodies hitting the deck. Miami really should’ve won it during regulation. But LeBron (23 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists) fouled Chauncey Billups on a three, as well as going half n’ half at the line two times in a row at the end of the game (Damn he looked uncomfortable at the end of the game). It stayed close all the way through the overtime until Mario Chalmers (18 points) missed a three. With the Heat down three, they couldn’t get a foul, DeAndre Jordan (six huge blocks) got a wide-open jam, Erik Spoelstra flipped out and got tossed and the Clippers had a 95-89 win … 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 »
With the NBA locked out this summer, Kris Humphries took on another Big Three. He lost, and now Forbes has declared him the most disliked player in the NBA as voted by fans in part because of it. Read More »