I'd say the Birthday Cake was easily the best dunk of the night.

I found Green's birthday cake dunk and shoe-less dunk to be the most impressive dunks skill-wise last night. However, Dwight Howard deserved the win on showmanship and entertainment.

Well... Dwight's dunk last year when he put his sticker on the TOP of the backboard was amazing. And he didn't make it past the first round. So...

[youtube2]http://youtube.com/watch?v=B3x17ICa4JQ[/youtube2]

SUPERMAN'S IN DA BUILDING!


Dwight Howard makings of a Superman Slam Dunk 2008 winner


Dwight Howard Kiss The Rim Dunk (a dunk he didn't get to use in the '07 contest)

This white boy can dunk............good!

Great game, horseshit MVP. 28 points overall, 12 in the final three minutes, and that's not enough for Ray Allen to win it? And he only played 18 minutes!

Edit: At least Lebron picked the right MVP.

LeBron almost had a triple double! Ray did great in the fourth but LeBron was the overall MVP.

back to back triple doubles; man lebron sure can ball

I love how the Rockets have won 9 in a row and are still in 4th place in their division. The playoffs are gonna be fun!

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3257159

Ben Wallace???!?

Yeah... that's who the Cavs needed. Andy Verajo is already a better Ben Wallace (energy, defense, rebounds, no scoring).

Trust me... from years of watching Ben with the Pistons, you'll cringe anytime he touches the ball on offense. I was not sad to see him go to Chicago. Heck, I specifically remember Lebron James saying that Detroit was better without Ben because now they had to guard 5 players on defense.

i'm just happy the cavs actually have a pretty good PG now, and a great outside shooter in szczerbiak. and joe smith has plenty of game left. all i ask from wallace is to block shots and grab rebounds. i could care less about his scoring. believe me, teams will still have to guard 5 players on the cavs on defense, because james will still command a double team most of the time. and i don't think it gets more cringe worthy than seeing larry hughes fire up 15 outside shots per game and hit 4 of them.

We will see, but Ben has been a cancer on his last two teams... he has displayed a lot of diva like activity on both the Bulls and Pistons and reportedly has not been good for morale. I see a lot more downside for him and his $15+ million a year.

But, I'd agree with one thing you said... if I were a Cavs fan I'd do a little happy dance to be rid of Larry Hughes.

LARRY HUGHES IS GONE!!!!

I love this deal. Sad to see Drew go, but with Andy coming back soon he was expendable. Wallace isn't that great, but he'll do everything Gooden did (maybe more since LeBron will help his scoring). Big parts of this deal were Delonte West and Szczerbiak. A point guard and a consistent shooter is exactly what the Cavs needed. No stopping us from getting the 3 seed and maybe not having to play Boston (cmon 2nd rounds upsets!).

Whoa, I missed some stuff

Thoughts on some trades

Kidd - It's really the reverse Shaq deal for me, at first it seemed great, then the more I thought of it, the more I didn't like it. Harris seems like a spark and heart player, something I think the Mavs are missing, from what I've seen. They were struggling when he got injured for that reason... In comparison to the Suns, Marion had an attitude you don't want on a team, Harris had one you DO. But most of all, I just don't think they'll win with this. I can't see Dirk and Kidd being really lethal, to be honest. Nice to see them make a move and try something, but I would've gone for Artest. In fact, I think Artest on both the Mavs and Suns would be better than what they got. It would give them the edge they both need. I would've maybe kept Harris and Diop and switched Howard for Artest.

Wallace Hughes mega deal - I like it for Cleveland actually. Wallace may be old and crappy, but the other pieces should help. And Hughes just sucked so bad... Seattle's obviously just dumping, I think it's fine for them too. Chicago, I dunno, it didn't really help or hurt. They're just lost I think. Maybe they've seen how Hughes has done without Bron in the lineup this year(better), and are hoping he can be good again away from him. But probably not.

Brezec for Dixon (US) - I love it. Dixon sucks, and Brezec is still young and has some potential. Maybe he'll mesh with all our other Euros. One thing, we have lots of big guys now, but whatever. I hate Dixon so I'm glad to dump him.

Rockets - I noticed they shipped like 3-4 players today. I don't know why, they're winning and now those new players will just have to learn Adelman like the rest did in the early parts of the year. Don't get it.

Denver - The real losers of the day. Unless they have some fantasy about Iverson-Anthony-Camby actually winning anything at all(I have them missing the playoffs), they had no reason to stand pat. Say hello to the 9th seed, the worst thing they can possibly get. I still think they should've traded Kidd for Iverson straight up. Never had a chance of happening though.

Oh, and the East just gets more and more pathetic. At this rate Philly could win 39 games and get the sixth seed! ... Though I personally feel the Nets will pick it up a bit again and get it, Vince will do better with the offense run from and through him like he did in Toronto.

I want 3rd. Comon Magic... start losing.

I'd never thought I'd see the day where people get excited for Delonte West and Wally Sczerbiak. I liked both of them while they played for Boston, but West still needs a lot of development at point guard, and Sczerbiak is an injury waiting to happen. And Ben Wallace would've been a great addition three or four years ago.

This improves the Cavs marginally. Instead of opening up on the road in the playoffs, they'll now have home court for the first round against the Raptors or Wizards. I don't see them going much farther than a first round win though.

As for the Celtics, I'm glad they didn't make a deal. As much as it would've been nice to get a Sam Cassell to come off the bench, they're fine as is.

Only 4 (although Golden State signed C-Webb) teams in the West didn't make trades in the last month. Poor Denver

Rockets got Gerald Green. Hornets got Mike James and Bonzi Wells.

*edit

I'm wrong!

Portland trades Taurean Green to Denver for Von Wafer!

So the Clippers are the only team in the West without a new player.

west and szerviak r a lot better than hughes n wallace will flourish with levron

5 straight home games for Rockets next; 16-game winning streak? Hopefully.

hahahaah the cavs just beat the wizards with 8 players....2 of whom are NBDL players on 10-Day contracts

It's the backwards west coast trip for the Celtics. The first two games they needed their defense to show up and they give up 124 and 119. The good thing was both games were competitive and they had a chance to win both. And now tonight in Phoenix, their defense has been this shy of outstanding, and they can only manage to get 30 points against the Suns in the first half?

Neither the Celtics or Suns deserve to win this game. 67-56 Suns with 8:12 to go. What the hell is going on?

Only LeBron can play point guard and power forward at the same time.