Two weeks ago, Jeremy Shockey was rolled out of the Hard Rock Casino's "Rehab" pool party on a stretcher suffering from "dehydration," which is basically a sanitized hospital euphemism for "ridiculously wasted." This weekend, Shockey returned to Saints practice and addressed the issue.
"You know what they say, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," Shockey told reporters at the Saints training facility. "That's the past. I'm looking forward to the future."
Predictably, the New Orleans news media fell all over themselves to pat Shockey on the back for his outlandish wit. Did you see what he did there? He took an advertising slogan and made it his own! That is totally awesome.
MIAMI -- Center Jermaine O'Neal was replaced in the starting lineup for Miami Friday night because of concussion-like symptoms stemming from a hit Wednesday night from Atlanta's Zaza Pachulia.
Although O'Neal was on the 12-man active list, the Heat listed Joel Anthony as their starting center, hurting their chance to fight off elimination in this best-of-seven series.
While O'Neal was a surprise scratch, Hawks forward Marvin Williams must have had a good healthy lunch because his sprained right wrist suddenly healed enough so he could play.
The Miami Heat made it official on Wednesday. They're the worst team remaining in the NBA playoffs. That's just one conclusion you can draw after Atlanta won Game 5 over Miami 106-91 to go up 3-2 in the series.
How can the Heat be anything other than the worst team remaining when they came into the playoffs as an underdog and, now, Dwyane Wade is not 100 percent? Hey, it's just another way of saying that coach Erik Spoelstra is doing a great coaching job.
Miami was down 23 points at halftime, and the only reason to watch the remaining 24 was to find out who was going to commit the next hard foul and who was going to be on the receiving end of it.
Atlanta 106, Miami 91: Recap | Box Score Atlanta Leads Series 3-2 | Next Game: Friday @ Miami
NBA Playoff 4-5 matchups are often the best of the first round. Usually the two teams are within a few wins of each other. They're not a level of David and Goliath, and both teams are usually mortal enough to make it interesting. Such is the case with tonight's matchup of the Atlanta Hawks and the Miami Heat. As such, we're rocking the live blog action again tonight. Join us after the end of Orlando-Philadelphia for Hawks-Heat. Joe Johnson. Dwyane Wade. Make this happen.
If Cleveland-Detroit is the Rolling Stones, and Utah-LA is the Beatles, then Atlanta-Miami is the Velvet Underground. You're not going to catch it on the radio, but if you dig music, it's essential that you take a listen.
This is the matchup that will get the least publicity bu features what may be the closes matchup. The Hawks shocked everyone by actually, (gasp) improving on last year's success. What's more, they finished with homecourt advantage in the first round. And next to the Heat, they're the playoff experienced club. It's a crazy world we live in. Meanwhile, the Heat are a reclamation project. Dwyane Wade 2.0 is a one-man army and the world is his enemy. Something's gotta give.
As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong. "If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on its headstone might well be: 'It seemed a good idea at the time.'" -Rebecca West
Bryan Colangelo either laughs or weeps at this quote after the Raptors 2008-2009 season.
I mean, it DID seem like a good idea at the time, right? You're a playoff team, on the verge of contention. You have a legit superstar in Chris Bosh. You have an up and coming point guard in Jose Calderon, a core of veterans alongside sharpshooter Jason Kapono, and a young stud in Jamario Moon. All they needed was to jettison that black hole, T.J. Ford and minimize that bust Andrea Bargnani. And if they could do all that and upgrade their frontcourt with some muscle, that would be idea.
The Rotation is a weekly study on the NBA by one of our All-Star voices. In rotation this week is Brett Pollakoff.
With just six weeks left in the grind that is the NBA's regular season, it's time to start having the MVP conversation. LeBron James and Kobe Bryant will likely be the first two names mentioned when this hotly debated topic is brought up, but they shouldn't be -- not this season. If you've been paying attention, Dwyane Wade is the league's most valuable player, and it's really not even that close.
After seeing how the game between the Miami Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers turned out, there's no doubt that the people in charge of the NBA's TV schedule screwed things up.
LeBron James finished with 42 points, eight rebounds, and four assists, and Dwyane Wade finished with 41, nine assists, seven rebounds, and seven steals (!) as the Cavs used a huge fourth quarter to come from behind to beat the Heat in Miami, 107-100.
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.
I'm not sure what it would take to consider Detroit's season salvaged. I imagine it involves wins. As such, the Pistons -- with Rip Hamilton back in the starting five -- got a good lead on its eventual, mysterious salvage job with a big win in Orlando.
Hamilton tallied 31 points, six assists and three steals in place of injured Allen Iverson. Rodney Stuckey also worked well with Rip, putting up 22 points of his own. On the other end, three-point heavy Orlando shot only 4-for-19 from deep.
PHOENIX -- In the final segment of my interview with Chris Bosh, we discussed the important stuff: how his current season is going with the Raptors. Bosh is very candid in admitting that this isn't exactly how he imagined the season would play out, but with the recent trade that sent Jermaine O'Neal out of town to Miami for Shawn Marion, there might be time to turn it around.
Bosh also told me when he's planning on coming back from his knee injury (hint: soon), and answered one of the hot topics this season: Kobe or LeBron? Our conversation, after the jump.
Two weeks ago, Jeremy Shockey was rolled out of the Hard Rock Casino's "Rehab" pool party on a stretcher suffering from "dehydration," which is basically a sanitized hospital euphemism for "ridiculously wasted." This weekend, Shockey returned to Saints practice and addressed the issue. 
MIAMI -- Center 
The Miami Heat made it official on Wednesday. They're the worst team remaining in the NBA playoffs. That's just one conclusion you can draw after 
NBA Playoff 4-5 matchups are often the best of the first round. Usually the two teams are within a few wins of each other. They're not a level of David and Goliath, and both teams are usually mortal enough to make it interesting. Such is the case with tonight's matchup of the Atlanta Hawks and the Miami Heat. As such, we're rocking the live blog action again tonight. Join us after the end of Orlando-Philadelphia for Hawks-Heat. 
FanHouse previews the 
As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, 
After seeing how the game between the Miami Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers turned out, there's no doubt that the people in charge of the NBA's TV schedule screwed things up.
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." 
