Jeremy Lin Is The Next LeBron… Statistically; Austin Rivers Is A Straight G

When Dime‘s own Sean Sweeney ventured into the Dean Dome last night, all we wanted was an overtime or a buzzer beater. We got what we came for. Austin Rivers is a stone cold assassin. He’s like Vincent from Collateral, except with blacker hair, and just doesn’t give a you know what. On the final possession of the biggest game of his life, Rivers came off the screen and roll just as he had probably 30 other times throughout the game, sized up Tyler Zeller and unleashed hell to bring Duke a one-point win on the road. First of all, those are some serious balls. Second of all, can you play any worse defense? Dude literally let the man – who had hit five threes and had 26 points up until that point – walk right into another one. Incredible finish. We’ve never heard a building grow so quiet so quickly. On the other side, John Henson actually made a few jumpers (12 points, 17 rebounds), Harrison Barnes actually nearly took it over in the second half (25 points) and Zeller (23 points, 11 rebounds) actually looked like a legit NBA big. The drama in that 13-2 game-ending run was crazy, but for us, the whole day was wild. Sweeney took a tour of the locker room, the basketball museum (which is like it’s own mini Hall of Fame) and got a chance to get out on the court. We’ll post some of the dopest photos later today, but some of the best takeaways: when Sweeney walked out onto the court, guess who was out there getting some shots up? Shammond Williams. And he also caught up with Rasheed Wallace, who was in town for the game, looking excited as ever (and rocking his patented sweatsuit/beanie bummy rich man look), talking about how his 14-year-old, 6-4 son is going to be a beast. He still looks like he could put up a classic press conference or two … We can’t talk UNC without mentioning ‘Cuse. The deepest team in the country survived an overtime classic against Georgetown, 64-61. We’ve been praising Dion Waiters constantly in the office lately, but last night it was Kris Joseph (29 points) who was the difference. The college Paul Pierce made the decisive three-pointer in overtime to push the Orange over the top … So what if some people believe the Magic are merely waiting until after the All-Star Game to officially say yes and trade Dwight Howard. The big man is still hooping, and he went for 25 and 24 in Orlando’s surprising 102-89 spanking of the Heat. Miami stayed close for awhile, mainly because Dwyane Wade (33 points) was attacking the rim like he had a vendetta against it. But eventually, the score’s going to open up when a team takes a team record 42 threes (Orlando) and makes a lot of them … Tony Parker probably wrapped up an All-Star berth by going for 37 points and eight assists in San Antonio’s 100-90 win over Philly … The Bucks got by despite 25 more from DeMar DeRozan to beat the Raptors … Detroit survived 34 monster points from Deron Williams to beat the Nets by seven … Josh Smith had one of his best games of his career, going for 28 and 12 with five steals and three blocks in Atlanta’s 97-87 win over the Pacers. Zaza Pachulia also had a perfect behind-the-back pass to Smith for a wide-open layup. Santa Claus is also real … And the Bulls completely murdered New Orleans, 90-67, in a game where the only excitement came before the tip-off. Will Ferrell is the man … Keep reading to hear about the league’s newest sensation …

John Wall had 29 points and yet the Wizards lost again by 14. Tyson Chandler (25 points, 11 rebounds) was an absolute manchild inside, treating Washington like they were his opponents in one of those old Ball Above All vids from his eighth grade season. Basically, everything went according to plan in Washington last night… except Jeremy Lin went out like a boss and dropped 23 points and 10 assists. How crazy is this run? He’s the first since LeBron to drop 20 and eight in his first two starts. He had one of his usual crazy reverses, but he also crossed up Wall and smashed in the lane on the entire capital. Dude’s been such a monster that he’s earned more than 60,000 Twitter followers in just five days. Maybe now he’ll be able to afford a spot better than his bro’s couch. Don’t get it twisted though. Wall dunked on him as well last night … Some things never change. Kenyon Martin got T-ed up in his first game back as Antawn Jamison dropped 27 in Cleveland’s surprising seven-point win over the Clippers. But we’ll take it if only because this matchup felt like a bad game of Twister. There were bodies everywhere … Rudy Gay had 19 in Memphis’ iffy 85-80 win over the T’Wolves. The Grizz might’ve gotten the W, but that was because Kevin Love was hanging out providing Twitter commentary (He’s suspended for his hit on Luis Scola) … We loved Stuart Scott‘s reaction to Jeremy Pargo‘s ridiculous baseline jam: “Pargo went baseline… and just about crushed kids.” What are you even talking about? Dunk was still nice though … Portland had it going on late in the third to the fourth quarter of their 103-96 loss to Houston. They went on an 11-2 run to cut it back from 15 down. Dragic had a chance to quiet the Rose Garden when he picked Jamal Crawford‘s pocket with 10 minutes left in the fourth. Then he bricked a double-pump dunk. Sure, Nic Batum was giving pressure but Dragic put that on the front of the rim. It looked bad but felt worse after Crawford drilled a three the next trip down to get Portland even closer. Eventually, they couldn’t sustain it because the Rockets scored a STUPID 66 points off the bench … And Dirk went off for 25 and nine in Dallas’ 10-point win over the Nuggets … We’re out like Zeller’s D.