The trip the the NBA Finals last season wasn’t a fluke. The Orlando Magic finished an undefeated preseason by beating the Atlanta Hawks by a final score of 123-86. The Magic won all eight of their exhibition contests.
Against the Hawks, Vince Carter led the way with 26 points in 27 minutes. He was 9-for-10 from the field, 5-for-5 on three-pointers and 3-for-4 at the line. Dwight Howard had 25 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks. Ryan Anderson chipped in with 18 points, while Brandon Bass had 14.
The Hawks didn’t exactly end their preseason play in style. Jamal Crawford came off …read more

The New York Knicks finally prevailed over the Maccabi Tel Aviv Euroleague team on Sunday by 106-91 margin. But it wasn’t before a eight-minute delay in the third quarter when the visiting coach, Pini Gershon refused to leave after being ejected.
If it wasn’t odd enough that the coach continued to linger near the bench, at one point a rabbi tried to intervene, asking the officials to allow Gershon to stay.
“I explained that this is not a regular game and the kids are watching and [it's] important that there will be peace and forgive him,” Rabbi Yitchak Dovid Grossman said of …read more

Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks defeated a Cleveland Cavaliers squad that was missing a few key pieces — namely LeBron James, Mo Williams and Shaquille O’Neal. Nowitzki poured in 19 points as the Mavs beat the Cavs by a final score of 93-82. With the win, Dallas is now 4-1 in the preseason.
Nowitzki scored his 19 points on 8-for-11 shooting and also had five rebounds, three assists, two blocks and one steal. Kris Humphries, Drew Gooden and Rodrigue Beaubois were also in double figures for the Mavs.
The LeBron-less Cavs were led by Jamario Moon’s 18 points, ten rebounds and …read more

Although the Houston Rockets beat the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday, the talk after the game was about Spurs rookie DeJuan Blair. In his first professional game of any kind, Blair played 22 minutes and had 16 points and 19 rebounds.
Even though Blair was a second round pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, he’s widely regarded as the steal of the draft. It took all of one game for Blair to prove that there might be something to that talk.
Said Blair: “I did what Coach Pop asked of me and that was to rebound. Everything else came after that.”
Blair played …read more