As Cavaliers’ rookie Kyrie Irving drove through three Dallas Mavericks with essentially the game-winning layup, a Cleveland crowd of over 17,000 roared on their feet at Quicken Loans Arena on Saturday. It was visible on the clutch point guard’s face – and it couldn’t be refuted at that moment – that he is currently in the process of revitalizing this franchise.

The next three game days are sure to be the most compelling we’ve seen, as Missouri, Kansas and sixth-ranked Baylor take turns playing each other. But the advantage is with the Tigers, who unlike those other two teams, play both games at home while boasting a perfect 12-0 record at Mizzou Arena this season.

To say DeMar DeRozan’s season has been a roller coaster would be an understatement. He started the year making lists as players showing early progress, only be on the same writer’s list last week as a player who is failing to live up to expectations.
It’s exactly this kind of contradiction that is causing Raptors’ fans [...]

With Ed Davis playing well over this last five games – 8.6 rebounds and two double-doubles – it’s created a situation where Raptors head coach Dwane Casey needs to find ways for this talented big man to average more than the 24.5 minutes per game he has been averaging this season. The problem is that Davis’ natural position, power forward, is being occupied by Toronto’s best player in Andrea Bargnani.

If you’re looking for the real Indiana Hoosiers team to show up on a given night, good luck with that.

The Oklahoma City Thunder rolled into Dallas tonight and brought the ever-growing Mavericks-Thunder rivalry with them. While the Thunder are beginning to get used to the injured life with backup point guard Eric Maynor out for the season, the Mavericks are getting a little bit too familiar with constant minor injuries.

When news got out a couple weeks back that the Atlanta Hawks would be without All-Star big man Al Horford for the remainder of the season due to an injury, countless members of the media and fans thought that would be the end of their season. Somebody forgot to give the Hawks this message as they are 9-2 in their past 11 games and they find themselves half a game back of the Miami Heat in the Southeast Division.

We saw last week how messy the NBA’s early extension deadline has the potential to be for the relationship between some teams and their third-year talent’s. While Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook signed long-term deals without incident with the Bulls and Thunder, respectively, things got a little awkward for Kevin Love, Eric Gordon and Roy Hibbert, among others.

Kentucky is ranked No. 1 and widely considered as the best team in the nation. That is something, I believe, shouldn’t change until the start of the NCAA tournament.

Everything was going to plan through the third quarter as the Dallas Mavericks’ lead ballooned to as much as 18 points, but no lead ever seems to be safe in this classic rivalry as long as one team leaves the other enough time. Of all things, it was the San Antonio Spurs’ unheralded bench featuring Danny Green, James Anderson, and Gary Neal’s hot shooting that kept the Spurs in the game and even got them ahead by as many as nine points in the fourth quarter. Then the fun started.