Get used to seeing Blake Griffin on the bench for the next six weeks. Those of us on the East Coast woke up this morning to the news of Griffin's stress fracture in his left kneecap, while those out West -- notably in Los Angeles -- probably didn't get much sleep at all.
It's frustrating, no matter where your NBA allegiance lies, when a talent like Griffin goes down before we even get to see him lace up for the Clippers in a meaningful game. It wasn't that long ago that we lost the 2007 No.1 draft pick, Greg Oden, before the start of the '07-'08 season. Let's hope it doesn't take Griffin as long as it took Oden to return to action.
From a fantasy perspective it's hard to speculate who could "replace" Blake Griffin on your lineup since we actually don't even know who he is as a fantasy baller. But, I'll do my best to identify a few guys who are widely available in FleaFlicker and Yahoo! leagues.
Garnett has been one of the league's best players this decade. Part of what makes him so great is his intensity. Early in his career, KG was capable of harnessing that intensity in a positive way. In his later years? Not so much.
In the dog days of summer, every NBA team is filled with championship dreams.
OK, that's a crock of Jerome James-flavored gumbo. Most teams are well aware that the only gold at the end of an NBA season's rainbow is named Jose. And I'm not talking about just the Clippers or Kings here. I'm also talking about the Hawks and Sixers and Hornets and Jazz. There are only a handful of teams that are genuinely in the hunt. And most champions will tell you it takes a precious combination of talent, obscenely hard work, and lots and lots of luck to cash in the ticket to immortality. Some teams expect to contend for a championship. Rarely does any team expect to win a championship, if it's not currently holding the ring (or waiting for it to arrive in the mail).
The San Antonio Spurs, of course, are a pretty rare team. And they have been for the last decade. And much of their success is due to their equally rare head coach.
Antonio McDyess has agreed to sign a three-year deal worth the full mid-level exception with the Spurs on Wednesday, giving Tim Duncan arguably his most reliable sidekick in the post since David Robinson retired.
For a team that looked beaten down and weary in the playoffs last year, you wouldn't think the addition of a 34-year-old power forward with a history of knee problems would prop open the window of success, but it does. Playing just 30 minutes a game last season, McDyess fell just shy of a double-double, averaging 9.6 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.
Spurs general manger R.C. Buford confirmed the agreement, which should become official later this week, with Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News on Wednesday night.
Maybe they should rename the building, "The Palace King James Tore Down."
The Cavaliers took no time in putting their foot to the throat of the Detroit Pistons, closing them out in the third quarter with 16-6 run. The Pistons, a powerhouse over the last seven years, will not reach the conference finals for the first time in seven years. The cause of their downfall? The only man with less fear of the Palace than Ron Artest.
LeBron James had 36 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists to again create the majority of the punch for the Cavs, who will now have up to a week of off time before facing the winner of the Atlanta-Miami showdown.
With the way the Cavaliers are playing, those teams might want to put off facing the Cavs as long as possible.
It's trophy time in the NBA, and the FanHouse crew has submitted its ballots. Find out which players deserve to take home the hardware and which ones don't, in our NBA Awards series. First up: Sixth Man of the Year.
The Sixth Man award, as you probably have guessed from its name, is given to the player believed to have the biggest impact for his team coming off the bench. Over the past couple of seasons, the discussion is one that's been dominated by two names -- Manu Ginobili and Leandro Barbosa. This year, however, we have a new group of players in the conversation, and, while the voting was close, we were able to come up with a clear cut choice.
NEW YORK -- A beautiful thing happened to the Detroit Pistons on their way to the playoffs. Oh, they haven't quite reached the postseason yet, but there isn't much doubt that is where they're headed, where they belong now that the team has been made whole again.
It took the subtraction of Allen Iverson to mend the Pistons, and while there is a chance his removal came a bit too late, Detroit needs to win just one more game to seal a playoff berth. The Pistons are now tied for the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference with the Chicago Bulls, a lucky spot that means avoiding a first-round clash with LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers.
NEW YORK -- A beautiful thing happened to the Detroit Pistons on their way to the playoffs. Oh, they haven't quite reached the postseason yet, but there isn't much doubt that is where they're headed, where they belong now that the team has been made whole again.
It took the subtraction of Allen Iverson to mend the Pistons, and while there is a chance his removal came a bit too late, Detroit needs to win just one more game to seal a playoff berth. The Pistons are now tied for the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference with the Chicago Bulls, a lucky spot that means avoiding a first-round clash with LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers.
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.
Kobe Bryant reads the New York Times Magazine, and dangit! Shane Battier ... why do you have to diss Kobe in public? Michael Lewis' February love letter to Daryl Morey and Battier talked about how the Rockets make KB inefficient. With Ron Artest also on board, things look bleak for the Laker superhero ... right?
KB scored 37 points on 14-of-23 shooting (.609 FG%) in Houston last night. Lakers win. Whoops! Maybe such stories are best reserved for the offseason, when Kobe can get distracted by shiny things (like gold medals).
Anyone who's followed the Pistons on a regular basis couldn't possibly have been surprised by Sunday's embarrassing blowout in Cleveland. (You know things are bad when you lose by 21 and a note on the team's official Twitter feed still admits "it wasn't as close as the final score.")
The Cavs have made a lot of teams look silly this year, but the loss was Detroit's sixth in a row and their 15th in 20 games. Forget the Pistons' streak of six consecutive appearances in the Conference Finals -- at their current pace, they're in very real danger of missing the playoffs completely.
Get used to seeing Blake Griffin on the bench for the next six weeks. Those of us on the East Coast woke up this morning to the news of Griffin's stress fracture in his left kneecap, while those out West -- notably in Los Angeles -- probably didn't get much sleep at all. 
With the start of the 2009-10 season looming, 
Maybe they should rename the building, "The Palace King James Tore Down." 
It's trophy time in the NBA, and the FanHouse crew has submitted its ballots. Find out which players deserve to take home the hardware and which ones don't, in our 
NEW YORK -- A beautiful thing happened to the Detroit Pistons on their way to the playoffs. Oh, they haven't quite reached the postseason yet, but there isn't much doubt that is where they're headed, where they belong now that the team has been made whole again.
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." 
Anyone who's followed the Pistons on a regular basis couldn't possibly have been surprised by Sunday's embarrassing blowout in Cleveland. (You know things are bad when you lose by 21 and 
