The Basketball Diaries

East 134 West 128

You know, I don't much care about the NBA All Star game. The only part of the festivities I ever really enjoy are the dunk and (to a lesser degree) three-point contests. After witnessing Dwight Howard's performance in the dunk contest on Saturday night, I knew nothing could happen in the actual All-Star Game that would compare, so I didn't watch. Still, I bet I can tell you what happened. The best basketball players in the country did a whole bunch of crazy shit. There were a lot of alley-oops, highlight dunks, and no defense whatsoever. Am I right? I know that LeBron scored 27 points for the East, two of which came in the final minute when he dunked on the entire Western Conference, and was named MVP. James also had 8 rebounds and 9 assists.

And none of it was as cool as this.

The Basketball Diaries - What's Wrong With the Magic?

Detroit Pistons 110 Orlando Magic 88

This was one of those classic matchups between two teams heading in completely opposite directions. The Pistons have won nine of ten, and are clearly the class of the Eastern Conference right now. Meanwhile, the Magic have now lost six games in a row to fall below .500, and are about to land in third place behind the Heat. Dwight Howard had 26 points and 15 rebounds, but his teammates did their best impression of MJ at the dunk contest and offered him no support. "It feels bad when you get beat as bad we did tonight," Howard said. "They beat us in every way possible, and we can't let that happen. Hopefully, when we play these guys again Friday, we'll come out with a much better attitude."

Houston Rockets 112 Miami Heat 102

Dwyane Wade is such a damn drama queen. How many people do you know need to be carted off in a wheelchair when they hurt their shoulder? That's what happened with Wade last night, as the Heat lost in Pat Riley's return to the bench. Wade had 27 points before he got tangled up with Shane Battier and had to be carted off. Yes, it's dislocated and Wade won't make the trip with the team to play in Dallas Thursday night, but $20 says the Mavs still get called for six fouls against him somehow.

Phoenix Suns 118 Boston Celtics 108

The Suns weren't at their best last night, but they were playing the Celtics so technically they only had to be horrible to get a victory. Steve Nash had 14 points and 13 assists in his second game back, while Amare dominated with 32 and 12. As far as the Celtics, well.....Gerald Green won the Dunk Contest on Saturday!! So they got that going for them, which is nice. I guess.

Elsewhere...

• Spurs 103 Hawks 96
• Pacers 136 Bucks 129 2OT
• Sixers 104 Knicks 84
• Cavs 86 Raptors 85
• Hornets 111 Nets 107
• Bobcats 100 TWolves 95
• Warriors 118 Grizzlies 115 OT
• Blazers 112 Lakers 108

Dwight Howard was Robbed

I watched the Slam Dunk Contest on Saturday night, and I can't believe what they did to Dwight Howard.

I guess it's true, big guys will never win one of these things.

No matter what they do, they're always at a disadvantage versus midgets like Nate Robinson. Robinson is allowed to attempt the same dunk 42 times until he finally completes one. Dwight Howard nearly touches the top of the backboard, and dunks on the first try, and MJ gives him an 8.

Charles had it right, MJ is the Russian Judge.

If Dwight had leapt to the top of the backboard, and then did a backflip off of it and dunked on the way down, maybe MJ would have given him a 9.

The Basketball Diaries - Howard's End

Orlando Magic 106, San Antonio Spurs 104

It really was magic last night. A one-handed dunk off a long pass from Hedo Turkoglu with 0.2 seconds to go made Orlando's Dwight Howard the hero of the evening. Howard's total 30 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots didn't hurt either. Rookie Magician J.J. Redick added a season-high 16 points and some high praise for Howard's first game-winning play of his career: "That was just freak athleticism. We've all seen spectacular lobs and dunks, but I told him after the game: 'Dude, I've never seen anything like that in that situation.'"

Golden State Warriors 123, Chicago Bulls 121

Bang bang! No, that's not Stephen Jackson at a strip club, it was him last night in OT as first, he put two clutch free throws in the hole to take the lead, then switched to defense and thwarted Ben Gordon's attempt at the the winning shot. "Thank goodness I was able to make those free throws," said Jackson. "This game could have went either way." It sure felt that way with the Bulls playing much of the game ahead against a weak Warriors defense. Starting the fourth quarter, Chicago was up by a healthy 13 points but a brief lapse - a couple missed shots, bad passes and a turnover - and Golden State was right back in it again, ultimately tying the game with less than a minute left and forcing the overtime. We built a nice lead," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. "We just lost focus." Yeah, and the game. On the plus side, Gordon put up a healthy 24 points, ending his mini-slump, Luol Deng added 23 points, and Kirk Hinrich scored 22 points and had 10 assists.

Dallas Mavericks 95, Houston Rocket 74

Maverick Josh Howard passed on flowers and chocolate for NBA Commissioner David Stern and went instead with 22 points and 7 rebounds as a thank-you for Stern's selection of him that day to the All Star squad. Jason Terry added 18 points, Dirk Nowitzki had 15 points and eight rebounds and reserve Jerry Stackhouse scored 14 points for the powerhouse Mavericks, who stretched their overall winning streak to six games and their home victories to 17 straight. Of course, it helped that Houston played terribly, shooting 26 for 78 from the field. Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy blamed himself - "If you want to point the finger, point it at me" - then attempted ritual seppuku at the free throw line. He missed that, too.

The Basketball Diaries - Here Come the Raptors

Toronto Raptors 113 Orlando Magic 103

Look out for the Toronto Raptors. They've won four straight, and they're climbing up the Eastern Conference standings. Chris Bosh scored a career-high 41 points to outshine fellow big man Dwight Howard. Howard also set a career high with 32 points for Orlando. "I know Dwight is competitive. He's a good friend of mine," said Bosh, who played with Howard on the U.S. national team. "I know he's going to come out there and play hard, so I have to try and match it." Bosh scored 31 of his points in the second half, and the Raptors have now won nine of their last eleven games.

Seattle Supersonics 103 Indiana Pacers 102

The Sonics played like a bar manager who just won't go down on Wednesday night, and snapped a 15 game road losing streak. Ray Allen had 33 points and 9 assists to lead Seattle. "I hate losing. I hate losing." said Allen. The Pacers were without Jermaine O'Neal, but Jamaal Tinsley led them with 25 points despite his recent off-court distractions.

The NOOCH 114 Denver Nuggets 112 OT

Something tells me that 23-24 isn't exactly what the Nuggets had in mind when they traded for Allen Iverson. Iverson returned to the Nuggets lineup last night, but it wasn't enough to get a win against the Hornets. The Hornets never led this game in regulation, and Carmelo Anthony put up an airball with 2.9 seconds left in the fourth quarter. It was in overtime that Carmelo blocked Chris Paul's last second attempt to win the game. The shot came up short, but was tipped in by Desmond Mason as the clock expired to give the Hornets a road win. "I knew it went in on time," said Mason, who led the Hornets with 23 points. "When I put the ball up I didn't see a red light. When it left my hand there was no red light. I laid the ball in and actually turned around the other way because I knew it was a bucket."

Elsewhere...

• Nets 87 Hawks 85
• Cavs 94 Clippers 77
• Sixers 92 Bobcats 83
• Spurs 110 Wizards 83
• Heat 91 Celtics 79
• TWolves 121 Warriors 93
• Mavs 113 Grizzlies 97

The Basketball Diaries-J.R. Smith Returns

San Antonio Spurs 92 Denver Nuggets 83

Allen Iverson finally got to play with one of his new toys last night when J.R. Smith returned from his 10 game suspension. It didn't keep the Nuggets from losing, though, when they were stifled by the Spurs defense. Iverson scored 33 points, but he didn't get much help from his teammates. Besides, Iverson doesn't think the Nuggets need to worry about offense. "Moral victories don't mean anything to me at this point," Iverson said. "I know that is a good team, but with the guys out there that we had, we had all the opportunity in the world to win the game, and that is a game that we should have won. We just couldn't get it done defensively at the end of the game." Tony Parker led San Antonio with 26 points and 7 assists.

Orlando Magic 91 Golden State Warriors 76

Dwight Howard has been very impressive in his young career, but he had never scored 30 points in a game. Before last night anyway. Howard had what was probably the most dominant performance against the Warriors. He scored 30 points, and had 25 rebounds to help the Magic snap a 4 game road losing streak. "I was nervous," Howard said. "I'm just glad we got the win. ... I've been trying to push myself in practice to get every rebound, every block, trying to score every time and also getting my teammates involved -- and try to implement that in a game."

Miami Heat 107 Seattle Supersonics 103

Dwyane Wade took over in the fourth quarter to lead the Heat past the Sonics in Seattle. Wade scored 14 of his 29 points in the last 8 minutes to bring the Heat back and get the road win. He also made sure he got his teammates involved with his 13 assists. "Coming out and setting my teammates up I didn't have to use a lot of energy early on and that enabled me to save a lot for later in the game when they needed me to attack," Wade said.

Elsewhere...

• Hornets 96 Hawks 77
• Wizards 113 Bulls 103
• Pacers 97 Celtics 84
• Bobcats 103 Pistons 96
• Knicks 106 Sixers 99
• Raptors 90 Bucks 77
• Clippers 92 Timberwolves 91
• Mavericks 99 Blazers 74
• Rockets 102 Lakers 77