Even if Dirk Nowitzki is feeling as good as he did against the Jazz on Saturday when he scored a season high 40 points in just under 29 minutes, defeating the best home team in the league will be a tall task for the Dallas Mavericks. Nowitzki and the Mavericks (22-16) visit Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder (29-8) for their final meeting this season in Monday night’s best game. The Thunder has won two of the three meetings this season
The runaway NBA leader in 20-20 games is Dwight Howard. The runaway leader in triple-doubles is Rajon Rondo. And since the All-Star Game, they have been the runaway leaders in trade rumors. But while Howard’s name will remain at the head of the list, Rondo took a huge step Sunday toward taking his name out of sourced stories. Last week, Rondo reportedly was headed to Golden State for Stephen Curry before Celtics president Danny Ainge said it was highly unlikely his All-Star
When Josh Smith is in the right frame of mind, meaning attack the basket and not settling for perimeter shots, the Atlanta Hawks are a difficult team to beat. In fact, when Smith scores at least 20 points, the team is undefeated. They improved to 11-0 in such situations as Smith scored 30 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder — the team with the NBA’s best record coming into the game — 97-90 Saturday night. It was an
The Oklahoma City Thunder head to Atlanta on Saturday to play their one game against Hawks this season and may be without All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook. Westbrook rolled his ankle with 5:46 remaining against the Orlando Magic on Thursday, but didn’t leave until 20 seconds remained to ensure Thunder’s 105-102 win. “Russell has a heart of a lion. That’s the bottom line.” said coach Scott Brooks. Westbrook was a little more candid. “I don’t know. I was just playing, man, trying to find
While the swirl around Dwight Howard and Rajon Rondo has calmed down to something less than a tornado, it is picking up elsewhere, specifically around the Portland Trail Blazers. After a quick start that saw the Blazers win at Oklahoma City and briefly hold the best record in the Western Conference, Portland has fallen to 18-18 and is on the outside looking in at the playoff picture. The Blazers have movable parts – the expiring contracts of Raymond Felton ($7.5 million) and Marcus Camby
“I know the chatter will begin,” LeBron James said. Is that chatter” as in talk? Or “chatter”as in “chattering” teeth? Just five nights after he was taken to task (by some harder than by others) for not attempting the game-tying shot in the All-Star game, LeBron James had a brilliant fourth quarter until that quarter came to an end. With the game on the line in Utah, James passed to Udonis Haslem for an open 17-foot jumper that missed, and Miami’s winning
Dwight Howard has asked the Orlando Magic for a lot, hasn’t he? Over the past couple of years, Howard has asked management to try to acquire a handful of players, including Monta Ellis and Deron Williams. During the preseason, he asked for a trade. Then he asked that any trade be limited to a handful of teams – the New Jersey Nets, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks — that his agent was given permission to talk to. Now, Howard apparently again is
The only place Kevin Durant had never won in his career was the Amway Center. He can finally cross that off on his to-do list. The Thunder put an end to the long road drought — they hadn’t won in Orlando in eight years — by staging a big comeback behind Durant to win 105-102 and pushed their winning streak to seven games. Russell Westbrook went off for 29 points and 10 assists, only his second double-digit assist effort this season. Dwight Howard took