Baller Grub

Expectations were high for the New York Knicks this season, with a full season of Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler playing together. But a little more than a month into the season, the Knicks sit at 711 and are 10th in the Eastern Conference, already five games behind the surprising Philadelphia 76ers in their division. The Knicks are 2125 since trading for Anthony. At...

Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times: A night after playing with emotion, determination and a chip on their shoulders, the Clippers looked drained and not as focused against the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday night. No, Memphis is not the Lakers, but the Grizzlies are a talented, athletic group that lost last season in the Western Conference semifinals. The Clippers were forced to grind throug...

Bob Sansevere of the Pioneer Press: Even though Kevin Love would have been a restricted free agent and not likely to leave next season, the Wolves had to send a message to Love, his teammates and fans that they were committed to keeping him as a core member of the team. The message would have been even stronger if the Wolves had given Love the fifth year he wanted instead of an optout after three ...

Sam SharpeUS Presswire Carmelo Anthony is having a hard time identifying good shots. After making 10 of 30 shots against the Nuggets, Carmelo Anthony didn't talk about the other team's defense. He didn't talk about how he'd do things differently next time. He talked, instead, about not knowing what he should do. "When you're missing shots and they're right there...

Jason Reid of The Washington Post: Presumably, Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis is only getting started. And if so, he’ll soon announce even bigger, needed changes. Although Tuesday’s firing of beleaguered coach Flip Saunders was inevitable, Leonsis clearly left the job halfdone. He took the easy route in choosing to treat a symptom of Washington’s sickness rather than target...

Ned DishmanNBAEGetty Images Which ran out first: The Wizards' patience with Flip Saunders, or vice versa Flip Saunders isn't exactly known for his ranting. For all those years in Minnesota and Detroit, he was generally seen as a players' coach, with whispers he was on the permissive side. But if you just watched the last year or so, as he captained the Titanic of the Wizards into t...

US PresswireGetty Images On the topic of LeBron James, Cavs rookies are more mature than most. There's a narrative out there that LeBron James is childish and foolish, and real deal longtime Cleveland fans could teach him a ton about what it means to be a real adult. I'm going to pick almost randomly on Joe Tait here. (So many to choose from.) Tait's the longtime and much beloved C...

Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman: He was as good as he has been all season Monday. The Thunder point guard had his way with the lowly Pistons in a 9979 blowout. He created good looks. He made pretty passes. He snagged big rebounds. He played stifling defense. He made great decisions. He played like a guy motivated to prove that he's worth every penny of his new fiveyear, $80 million deal. You c...

Usually we focus our attention on highlights from the night’s action in the NBA, but tonight’s post will focus on the lowlight turned in by the Orlando Magic. Playing against a depleted Boston Celtics roster, the Magic managed just 16 made baskets and 56 points for the entire game. Both were franchise lows. All for a franchise that is young compared to some others in the league, but ...

Truth About It is insanely fun to read. For instance, do you want to know why Flip Saunders trashed his own clipboard in that game against the Celtics They have you covered. Precisely what kind of fruit did Kevin Garnett grunt at, and then eat, as he stormed out postgame This is the place. And then there's this: "In the Wizards locker room before the game, Andray Blatche asked pair of Ch...

Thousands of tears have been shed as a result of the Soviet annexation of Lithuania, most of which will never be redeemed. But the little redemption there has been ... a lot of it comes from basketball. Specifically, the 1992 Lithuanian national team, as portrayed in a powerful documentary The Other Dream Team (you can see a bit here). Alan Bacchus of Daily Film Dose writes: Filmmaker Marius Mark...

Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: This victory came the oldfashioned way for the Milwaukee Bucks. It was a capital D game, as in Defense. While the Bucks struggled to 35% shooting, they relied on grit and some clutch plays to knock off the Miami Heat, 9182, on Sunday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. The Heat was averaging 107 points through its first 15 games. But the Bucks held Miami to...

Noah GrahamNBAE via Getty Images The Sam CassellforMarko Jaric trade in 2005 set into a motion a series of bizarre and historic events. Almost seven years ago, the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Clippers swung a trade on a sleepy August day. The Clippers sent combo guard Marko Jaric and Lionel Chalmers to Minnesota in exchange for 35yearold point guard Sam Cassell and a Timberwolves first...

Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman: Westbrook signed a fiveyear contract extension Wednesday, binding him to the Thunder until summer 2017. Durant’s contract goes through 2016. Are you kidding me All the concerns are gone. The new collective bargaining agreement. The silliness over whether Durant and Westbrook can get along. The idea that Westbrook quickly wanted to go home to Los Angeles, to be ...

Andrew D. BernsteinNBAE via Getty ImagesKyrie Irving is just 13 games into his NBA career, but he's already had a big impact on the Cleveland Cavaliers and is on pace to be one of the greatest rookie guards.Last fall, USA TODAY published an article about the Duke men’s basketball team, in which head coach Mike Krzyzewski compared thenDuke star Kyrie Irving to NBA AllStar Chris Paul. Wh...

AP PhotoJae C. HongIron men: Kobe Bryant and Luol Deng play heavy minutes, which may hurt their teams in June. Let's say you are asked to make a huge presentation the most important of your year, and maybe your career in June. What can you do, here in January, to make sure you are prepared One approach would be to work every available minute between now and then. But does anybody think t...

Ned DishmanNBAEGetty Images The Wizards found a moment to smile, but you can only smile so much when you're 212. It is the nature of the NBA season that at any given moment, some teams are rolling, while others are rife with anxiety. Today, though, an oddity: It's hard to find any team that's worry free. Take a quick look at the NBA's top ten according to John Hollinger'...

Michael Lee of The Washington Post: Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant brought the team with the NBA’s best record to his home town, and the expectation was that it would be a pushover against the team with the league’s worst record. But Wall played with passion and flair; Nick Young overcame a horrid firsthalf slump to erupt when it counted; Andray Blatche overcame a hostile...

Linda Robertson of The Miami Herald: Life without Dwyane continued for the Heat on Tuesday and at first it looked pretty miserable. Then the Heat decided that ruining its homecoming with a loss to San Antonio was unacceptable, even without the injured Dwyane Wade. The players decided that extending their threegame losing streak was intolerable. The Heat decided to get resourceful, get creative and...

Nathaniel S. ButlerGetty Images Carmelo Anthony's homecoming has been a mixed bag of thrills, lousy chemistry and lots of losing.It’s not complicated. Since the celebrated Carmelo Anthony trade 11 months ago, the New York Knicks have won 20 regularseason games and lost 21. That doesn’t sound so great, but it gets worse: The Knicks also lost four straight in the playoffs, winni...

Andreas SolaroAFPGetty Images The Costa Concordia could cost the Heat's owner a fortune. On Micky Arison's Twitter account, the only concern has been for the victims and their families. And with divers still hunting for the dead and missing, what else could matter But the wheels of finance never stop turning, and in the Guardian, word is that the Costa Concordia tragedy, in which 11 ar...

Colin Stephenson of The StarLedger: The Nets' DeShawn Stevenson admitted his flagrant foul on Blake Griffin was an attempt to send a message to the Los Angeles Clippers’ power forward after Griffin had been pushing the Nets around and throwing down dunks at will in the first half. “He was dunking all over the place,” Stevenson said of Griffin, whom he bumped from behind when...

Tim Tucker of The Atlanta JournalConstitution: While injuries are a big part of any NBA season, a compacted schedule increases the number of games lost to aches and pains that ordinarily might be nursed on days off. The Fort Worth StarTelegram counted 19 key players around the league losing time to injuries in the first two weeks of the season. When the lockout ended, the NBA squeezed a 66game sch...

Andrew D. BernsteinNBAEGetty Images If the Clippers can execute plays like this one in the fourth quarter, none of the noise will matter. Chris Paul's most dynamic play of the night occurred a moment before his most consequential one, after which he limped off the floor. The Clippers led 9182 just inside of five minutes to play. They'd weathered a torrent of Kobe Bryant, who'd gone...

Lamar Odom's falloff this year has been staggering. What's going on John Hollinger explains that hackaplayer only works if that player is DeAndre Jordan or Ben Wallace. Even at Dwight Howard's freethrow rate, having him shoot free throws every time down the floor would create the best offense in the history of the NBA. Therefore he says the Warriors made a horrible mistake. Further...

Andrew D. BernsteinNBAEGetty Images Two crunchtime standouts, with contrasting styles, face off in L.A. Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant could not have more different approaches to crunch time. Chris Paul says he shoots only when open and is mostly looking for the open guy. Bryant admits that by and large the game plan is for him to shoot, no matter what the defense does. Meanwhile, Paul's team has...

Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: This was supposed to be the season that Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard improved his freethrow shooting. But Howard actually is doing worse from the freethrow line than he ever has. Howard entered Thursday's game against the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena shooting just 42.6 percent from the line. He struggled terribly when the Magic beat the Por...

Brace HemmelgarnUS PresswireRicky Rubio's creative passing has made the Timberwolves a team to watch this season.Two years after the Minnesota Timberwolves selected him fifth overall in the 2009 NBA Draft, Ricky Rubio finally made it to the Association and through 10 games he has nearly lived up to the hype that preceded his muchanticipated debut. The Spanish Sensation has yet to see his nam...