If you are like me and a fan of the TV show The Walking Dead, you were thoroughly intrigued by the recent season finale, which showed a strange hooded female character who had gained control of two formerly relentless zombies, rendering them harmless annoyances by severing their arms and placing them on leashes. In a way, those zombies could have been the Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers, a pair of dead teams walking into what should otherwise be a very alive
Four point guards, including Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks, were chosen as divisional winners for the annual NBA Sportsmanship Award. Lin, whose emergence from benchwarmer to star transcended the game for more than a month, is the finalist for the Atlantic Division. He is currently sidelined with a knee injury. Other point guard finalists are Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks (Southwest), Luke Ridnour of the Minnesota Timberwolves (Northwest) and Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers (Pacific). The other two
Derrick Rose was impressive in his long-awaited return, with 29 points, but he did miss 19 shots and turned the ball over eight times, showing a bit of rust. Carmelo Anthony was even better, scoring 43 including the clinching 3-pointer in overtime. Tyson Chandler (8 PTS, 16 REB, 3 BLK) was a huge factor and Iman Shumpert (15 PTS. 6 AST, 9 REB, 3 STL) made up for a quiet day from the hobbling Baron Davis. Luol Deng played almost
Antawn Jamison scored 20 points for the 8th consecutive game, but failed to record a rebound. Jose Calderon was seen in a walking boot at the end of Toronto’s bench. There is no timetable for his return. The Blazers shot 2 of 15 in the first quarter. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Howard is only the 4th player in the past 25 seasons to record a stat line of 24 points, 25 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. At 32-9, the Thunder went
Orlando Magic Chief Executive Officer Alex Martins indicated Sunday that the team has not decided whether it will trade Dwight Howard before the NBA trade deadline on Thursday afternoon.The Magic face one of the most momentous personnel decisions in franchise history: Do they trade the best center in the sport before the deadline to ensure they receive assets in return or do they hold onto Howard and accept the risk that he could sign a free-agent contract with another team
One man started the rumor of a Pau Gasol trade on Twitter in the afternoon and it had swept the globe by tipoff. Possibly distracted, Gasol had 12 points and 11 boards in the Lakers win, though Andrew Bynum (26 & 10) did the heavy lifting and Kobe Bryant scored 34. Kevin Love was a very late scratch with a sore back, but the return of Nikola Pekovic (25 & 13) and a great effort by rookie Derrick Williams (22
A chance to win a 12th consecutive game was not as important to the Spurs as getting a night of scheduled rest for Tony Parker and Tim Duncan. With rookies Cory Joseph at PG and Kawhi Leonard at PF, they lost to the Blazers by 40 points. Even D-League callup Eric Dawson played 31 minutes off the bench for San Antonio in one of those games that should be completely ignored by astute fantasy owners. It did mark the first