LeBron Gets An Interesting Reception Going Home; Linsanity Is Over… For Now

Remember when a LeBron James visit to Cleveland came with an undeniable whiff of potential danger? Not so much now. The fans at the Q last night for Miami’s win were plenty vicious – booing LeBron during pre-game intros and pretty much every time he touched the basketball – but it seems they’re almost over the whole thing. Almost. The Cavs have a bright future to look forward to with Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and this year’s Lottery pick, so for the fans (and the owner) to continue acting like Alicia Silverstone in The Crush over LeBron would be more pathetic than anything … LeBron (28 points) set the tone immediately, getting a steal on the game’s first possession, and the Heat jumped out to an 25-5 lead that featured acrobatic layups by D-Wade (22 points), a couple LBJ bangers that had the basket mics woofing, and Mario Chalmers playing like he just found out Gary Payton is his father … Unintentionally hilarious line of the night from Cavs announcer Austin Carr: “You wanna be the first one to hit that blow.” He was trying to make a boxing parallel but it sounded more like a coke analogy … Miami finished their road trip 5-1. All five wins were by at least 15 points. Crazy … Rudy Gay (20 points) scored six straight points (jumper, bank shot and two free throws) in the final moments after not scoring at all after the halftime break, but still, Dante Cunningham had to tip in his miss with less than a second left to lift Memphis to a one-point win over the Nuggets … On the other side, Corey Brewer had 26… in the second half … Minnesota got a combined 63 points and 29 rebounds from Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic but the best part of their 111-98 W against Houston was this pass from Ricky Rubio (18 points, nine assists) … Al Jefferson played as angry as Al Jefferson ever could, turning the Wizards into a bunch of wood chips in Utah’s 114-100 win. 26 first-half points, 34 and 12 for the game, Big Al and Utah needed this one badly after losing five of their last six … If they schedule a few extra Phoenix/Laker games this year, Kobe might just set the all-time scoring record. The man who hates the Suns went berserk in the second half of L.A.’s 111-99 W last night, scoring 36 on an array of shots (a number of lefty specials too). Dude had Alvin Gentry yelling at his guys in the huddle to man up as if Bean was Medusa, turning people into stone if they dared to test him … And James Harden (25 points) and Kevin Durant (23 points, 10 rebounds) both had big nights in OKC’s easy 23-point win against the Warriors … Keep reading to hear if the shoes still fit for Cinderella …

Midnight struck for the Knicks and Jeremy Lin in their disappointing 89-85 loss at home to Trevor Ariza (25 points) and the New Or-Lins Hornets. Despite scoring 26, Lin tried to do too much, turning it over eight times in the first half alone (He’s pacing the greatest turnover artists of ALL TIME right now.) and missing a few opportunities to make plays for others in the second. If Russell Westbrook was averaging over seven turnovers a game in his last five, would we be calling him Russ-sanity? Or would we be too busy comparing him to Steve Nash? Let’s calm down … And first the Chris Paul trade got blocked, and now the temple of Shao-Lin gets invaded and destroyed by the league-owned Bees? David Stern, talk with us man. Where is your head at? … Since the only shot Toronto could make down the stretch was an illegal out-of-bounds alley-oop pass from Jose Calderon, the Bobcats were let off the hook and FINALLY won a game, 98-91 against the Raptors. Leandro Barbosa had the two biggest turnovers of the game, and they both came on potential layups. He lost the second one, and it damn near ricocheted into the upper deck. Bismack Biyombo, err, Biz Markie, had 13 rebounds and seven blocked shots with those Praying Mantis arms. But more memorably, he also hugged and swung around D.J. Augustin during warmups like we were on the set of Dirty Dancing … Orlando finished off Milwaukee with a ridiculous 17-0 run to end the game, riding Superman to another monstrous game (26 points, 20 rebounds). The Bucks had plenty of chances, but alas, Brandon Jennings (4-for-20) couldn’t hit a damn shot in the fourth quarter (or really, at any point), and Shaun Livingston literally missed the rim on two straight shots right at the basket. A Hedo-to-Dwight playground lob drove the knife in during the final minute … Brandon Knight (23 points, 10 assists) and Rodney Stuckey (36 points) hit back-to-back triples to put Detroit up four with a minute left against the Kings, which was amazing because the team had missed three or four bunnies immediately before that (also amazing because the crowd – or what there was of a crowd – stirred just a tad. Normally, they blow up at that point). 26 and 15 from DeMarcus Cousins eventually wasn’t enough to keep the Pistons from celebrating in front of their Semi-Pro-like crowd … And Dirk not an All-Star? We’re glad the coaches had the foresight to vote him in because the man is balling now. He had 28 and 12 in another impressive Dallas win, by seven in Philly. The Sixers were up 14 at the break, and then that vaunted Dallas D (see what we did there, Chuck?) held them to eight in the third and 24 total points in the last 24 minutes. Turner, Holiday and Iguodala are a combined 13-for-58 from the floor over the last two games … We’re out like Linsanity.