Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.
Dang, Dwyane Wade. Isn't a little late in the season to be dropping off 55-point games? The (soon-to-be) scoring champion can't hit the three ... except when he drops six of 12 from distance on his way to a marvelous 55-point effort in the waning days of the regular season.
Of course, something was in fact at stake: Miami clinched the No. 5 seed in the East with the victory. That means Atlanta instead of Orlando in the first round. But Wade also made his final plea for MVP consideration with the effort. After a Brett Pollakoff-led assault on LeBron's predestined status, Kobe Bryant has likely supplanted Wade as the No. 2 choice. That won't do, men. That won't do.
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.
Toronto is still alive in the Eastern Conference. Fifteen games under .500, hanging on a thread for the past week, 14th place in the conference ... and alive. And so long as the Raptors keep beating the opponents in their way, they will remain alive.
Andrea Bargnani did some heavy lifting Saturday against the Knicks, racking up 23 points and seven rebounds. Chris Bosh helped with 17/13, Shawn Marion handled business with 12/13 and Quincy Douby had a True Shooting percentage of 100%!
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HEADLINER Orlando at Los Angeles Lakers, 10:30 PM ET
Four teams have already won 30 games: the Lakers, Celtics, Cavaliers and ... um ... wait, it'll come to me ... oh, I give up. Ah yes, the Magic! Nobody talks about this team as being one of the league's elite, but if they can go into the Staples Center and pull out the upset, people will notice.
From the moment the Raptors selected Andrea Bargnani with the first overall pick in the 2006 draft, he's been second-guessed and labeled a bust. He showed the occasional flash of potential his first couple of years, but not nearly enough to justify being drafted over the likes of fellow top-10 picks Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge or Rudy Gay or late-round gems Rajon Rondo or Paul Millsap.
And then, things started to click: when Jermaine O'Neal went down late last month, Bargnani has picked up the slack and then some, averaging 22.1 points per game sidelined since New Year's Eve, Bargnani has flourished in the starting lineup, averaging a surprising 22.1 points and 7.3 rebounds in eight starts.
Ryan McNeill of Hoops Addict has a great little post on Andrea Bargnani's pro struggles as seen through the eyes of Sam Mitchell. There's talk about the struggles Dirk Nowitzki and Rik Smits faced in adapting to the NBA style early in their careers, but the best snip is when Mitchell talks about Bargnani jumping off the wrong foot.
"It's a lot of technical things with Andrea. It's the weirdest thing, someone told me they teach players to jump off the wrong foot when they drive to the basket in Europe. I'm right-handed and I'm trying to jump off my left leg, every time. Andrea's right-handed and a lot of times he plants with his right leg. Jay Triano was telling me they teach them that over in Europe because a lot of times if they take that extra step they call them for traveling. So we've been trying to break Andrea of something he's been doing for how many years? We're trying to get him comfortable jumping off the left leg when he shoots with the right hand. The right leg when he shoots with the left. Now I know it sounds simple, but if you haven't done it... you watch him. Most of the time when he gets stuck going to the basket he's thinking 'I need to be jumping off the other leg' and he gets caught jumping off the wrong leg."
So the difference -- the gulf, if you ask Juan Carlos Navarro -- between the way European and American referees call traveling is to blame? I'll buy it. Bargnani's top characteristic, for an observer, is awkwardness. He seems clumsy, mechanical on the court. You assume it wasn't that way on Treviso.
However, plenty of Europeans have been able to adapt quickly. Which camp will Danilo Gallinari fall into to? (Don't answer that, there are Knicks fans present.)
Every May-June-July-August, there are somewhere between 15 and 29 NBA teams who seek significant improvement. Most lottery teams qualify as candidates, traditionally joined by first-round flame-outs (Dallas, Toronto) and soon-to-be has-beens (Phoenix, Cleveland).
Unsurprisingly, the Nets -- wildly uneven in the roster, wildly uneven in the win-loss ledger -- seek significant improvement. How are they going about it? Sending Jigga to Secaucus is part of the plan; apparently, trading for someone/everyone completes the manual. Bravado beat writer Dave D'Alessandro of the Newark Star-Ledgerpasses on these rumors.
They have made some cursory inquiries with Phoenix (about Boris Diaw and Leandro Barbosa), more substantive discussions with Toronto (about Andrea Bargnani), and there has been some dialogue with Denver about Carmelo Anthony.
M. Moore discussed the wild 'Melo rumor Monday when it broke by the hand of The Bergen Record's Al Iannazzone (who insisted NJ was near a deal for Andres Nocioni in January). That a second reporter on the ground confirms the existence of two-party talks bolsters the imagination. The inclusion of other wildly disparate talents (Barbosa? Il Mago? whaa?) sets the ray to WTF.
A blockbuster return seems to depend wholly on a top-3 victory in tonight's draft lottery, a victory NJ is quite unlikely to actually receive. Bargnani, Diaw -- this tier of players, still confounding, seems more in line with reality for Rod Thorn.
In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Raptors-Magic game tonight.
1. Sultan Of Swat:Dwight Howard had 8 blocks last game. That's today's "Matt repeats himself so you can let that sink in" phrase of the day. Dwight Howard had 8 freaking blocks in a playoff game in Toronto on Saturday. Chris Bosh can get all the mid range J's and weakside layups he wants. It's been clear from the start of this series that Howard owns the paint in this series. If the Raptors are going to pull out the semi-miracle and pull this thing back to Canada kicking and screaming, they're going to have to attack the basket and get some fouls on Howard. Because letting him sit back there, legal or not, is only going to result in more jumpers, which you can't rely on in a game like this.
2. Dónde Está Jose?: You remember Jose Calderon, right? The guy all the Raptors fans wanted to start after Game 2, before TJ Ford scored 21 points to help the Raps take Game 3? The guy who in that same game had a dou-ble-dou-ble? Yeah, well, if you see him, holler at your boy, okay? Because Calderon vanished in Game 4. 2 points, 5 assists, 1 for 7 shooting in 21 minutes. I kept searching a box score for something tangible I could attribute the Game 4 Magic win to, beyond my own observations watching the game which were a. Dwight Howard is not of this world and b. Rashard Lewis can pop off when he wants to. The only answer I can come up with Calderon. He's got to step up and be the man tonight along with Ford if the Raptors want to win. Well, that and ...
Bryan Colangelo hadn't quite recreated Phoenix North over the past two seasons in Toronto, but he did borrow the European emphasis on having a ton of shooters on the roster. Drafting perimeter-based big Andrea Bargnani with the top pick, signing Jason Kapono to the full mid-level ... Colangelo's got shooters. But shooting, oddly, was the problem with Toronto's offense in its Saturday loss to the Magic.
Chris Bosh shot 16-26 for 39 points. Everyone else in white? 36% from the field, and 14% from three. Kapono did fine (12 points on 9 shots), but Bargnani sucked got destroyed, Jose Calderon sucked, T.J. Ford and Anthony Parker weren't remotely efficient, Jamario Moon (who yanked a groin) added little offensively.
You can attribute quite a bit Toronto's failings to a monstrous Orlando defense, with Dwight Howard blocking eight (!!) shots, including the clincher with 2-1/2 minutes left when Ford took it to the bucket. Rashard Lewis hit a three on the other end, and the Raps went into foul mode. The Magic can seal it at home Monday, and you have to think that even if Detroit comes back to vanquish the frisky Sixers, Orlando will have reason to think it can get to the conference finals.
In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Magic-Raptors Game 3 tonight.
1. JK- OMG:Jason Kapono has been lights out in this series for Toronto, and with Sam Mitchell promising a revamped lineup, it's likely he'll get a start tonight. They need him to continue his hot shooting during this series (66% from the arc) if they want to get this puppy back on the leash. Kapono makes for a difficult matchup for the Magic because he's actually got some size on him. If the Magic decide to focus on shutting him down by assigning him a larger player (like, oh, say, Hedo Turkoglu) , then someone's going to have to step up for the Raps. Someone unselfish. Someone who's humble. Someone who's not T.J. Ford. Someone like ...
2. Joooose, Jose, Jose Jose ... : Well, then. Thanks for your time, Mr. Ford. Don't injure your neck on the way to the bench (seriously, we like you, don't want you get hurt, glad you're back) . Ford has been apoplectic in this series, and it's clearly time to go to Jose Calderon. Calderon is averaging 14 points and 6 assists in this series, and for a team that desperately needs instant offense, Calderon is the best option. He needs to produce on both ends of the floor, though, because the Magic's back court has matched the Raptors' guards' intensity.
Is a suspension warranted? If this was 1995, no chance. But since Dirk just got one, I guess Johnson had to, as well. I just wish Jackson had mulled it over a bit longer and announced his decision on Saturday when the Heat face the Hawks "twice" -- first their 51.9 second replay of their December match followed by an actual game. After all the hand-wringing about who'd be eligible to play, wouldn't it have been fun to throw this monkey-wrench into the mix? Would Johnson have been forced to sit both games out? Would he have been eligible to play in the replay but not the real game? We'll never know.
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." 
FanHouse's 
From the moment the Raptors selected 
Ryan McNeill of Hoops Addict has 
Every May-June-July-August, there are somewhere between 15 and 29 NBA teams who seek significant improvement. Most lottery teams qualify as candidates, traditionally joined by first-round flame-outs (Dallas, Toronto) and soon-to-be has-beens (Phoenix, Cleveland).
In another of 
In another of 
