None of it happens if Ben Wallace doesn't respond to a not-that-hard foul by being a total bitch. It was setting up to be a changing-of-the-guard sort of early-season loss, and he wasn't pleased, so he started a fight over nothing, and it spiraled way out of control.

Not a contender, but they'd be much better. It's tough to put an exact figure on just how badly J.R. constantly saying "I GOT THIS!" on one end and then getting beat back door on the other holds them back. He gets steals and occasionally gets hot shooting, but having him in the rotation lowers New York's ceiling…

That's a really stupid opinion you have there. Congratulations.

Bucks are over .500, bro. Beat Miami on the road and gave Memphis the Grizzlies' first loss, and almost all of their games have been close. They're young, long, athletic, and well-coached. Really good teams should beat the piss out of them, but everybody else tends to get their money's worth.

The broader fight doesn't happen if Ben Wallace doesn't act like a bitch on a foul that wasn't that hard, and then keep stirring shit up when most other people (including Rasheed Wallace, for fuck's sake) were trying to cool it down. Artest and everybody else took it to the streets, but no one would've been in that…

Was at the game last night, and with the rise of Shumpert into a solid rotation two, the Knicks seem to be one "J.R. Smith for literally anybody else, doesn't matter" away from being halfway decent in this year's East. That guy fucking SUCKS.

My three college roommates and I were pre-gaming for the Friday night in our kitchen, watching the small TV we plugged in above the fridge. A little early season NBA, some drinking games, and then we'd hit the town on a Friday night. Once Wallace got things going, we sat in dead silence for the next twenty minutes.…

Really, though, you've become the Kobe Bryant of writing posts about Kobe and the Lakers. I'm a Bucks season ticket holder, so I don't give two shits about the Lakers. Neither do any of the other many NBA fans I know and talk to about basketball. I seriously haven't had one conversation about the Lakers with an actual…

Not bad, Mr. Long. Not bad at all.

You guys set up a dead letter file for people bitching about all these Lakers posts yet?

Session beers are also referred to as "lunch beers" up here in Wisconsin. The story goes they were originally designed for factory workers to drink on their lunch break so they wouldn't be shit-faced when they went back to work for the afternoon. When seen through that lens, session beers make a lot more sense.

Look at their upcoming schedule, and a reasonable garbage-time stretch of half-luck and half-legitimate-talent lands this team at 8-8, i.e. the WORST POSSIBLE OUTCOME for everyone concerned.

JESUS CHRIST MAN WE FUCKING GET IT

As a proud son of Ohio who hasn't cared much about Big Ten football in the seven years since I found out what the SEC was all about (two consecutive national title game dick punches will do that), it will ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS make me happy to see Michigan shit all over themselves.

Can you please do all the basketball stuff from now on? Thanks.

As a devoted Ohio State until about five years ago, and a raised-Irish-Catholic son of the Midwest, I could've told you OSU and Notre Dame are both generally ranked about three to four spots too high compared to a similar non-power team without any of this math. That said, thanks for the hustle laying it out for us.

Take heart, Wenzel: you have to have been up 24 to lose a 24-point lead, and that sure beat the hell out of getting smoked by 30. Kemba went nuclear at the end, it happens.

So it's going to be the Lakers and the Sixers this year on Deadspin's NBA coverage? Word.

I mean, for real. No mention of the Jets, either.

Doesn't bother me that much either way, but three stories dissecting one guys gem complete game shutout and precisely zero on a similarly masterful performance that followed it in an elimination game is pretty ludicrous.