So last night I’m watching the Knicks-Hawks and watching Carmelo and JR Smith go nuts in the second half. Melo rained 9 threes for 42 points and JR Smith was chucking up some blind fadeaway jumpers late in the game hitting nothin but net. At the same time I watch Melo get a drama queen technical with 2 minutes left in a tie game and JR Smith threw up a couple bricks that were an embarrassment to professional basketball. So basically I started thinking – in a half court game of 2 on 2 on the playground, Melo and JR Smith would probably be one of the most unstoppable duos in the NBA. Not worried about running the floor or running an offense. Nobody cares about defense or getting back in transition. Just straight scoring ability and reckless abandon on the blacktop I think they’d be a top duo in the entire league.

Naturally this led to a much greater debate in my mind – which twosome would be the best NBA Jam team today? Now I don’t know if there’s some new age NBA Jam 2k13 on Playstation 9 or something that has already answered this question. But what I’m talking about is inserting the best duo into the 1993 NBA Jam from Midway that you played on Sega. Obviously no matter who you pick, they pale in comparison to the greatest sports duet of all time – LJ and Alonzo Mourning – but there are still some monster tag teams out there.

The 2 quick choices that comes to mind is Durant/Westbrook and Lebron/Wade. Either team has one of the top 2 players in the league with their counterpart. CP3/Blake Griffin would be an absolutely wrecking ball with the alley-oop game. Kobe/Dwight Howard would do some serious damage only because NBA Jam isn’t real life and those two would actually mesh in a game of 2 on 2, anything-goes fantasy basketball. Derrick Rose doesn’t really have a solid teammate to work with for a good Chicago team. The guys from San Antonio are all so old they were almost already in the original. Nobody else really jumps out in the rest of the league.

Gun to my head though I’m narrowing it down to 2 teams, both using one guy off the bench. I’m either going Carmelo/Novak or Lebron/Ray Allen. Sit down D Wade or Amare and sub in the dude who has a 10/10 rating from beyond the arc. Having that 3 point sharp shooter was so key in NBA Jam. Chris Mullin, Reggie Miller, Glen Rice, Thunder Dan, Sean Elliot. You needed those guys to balance out the standard two-handed, over-the-shoulder reverse dunks. You’re not getting any defense or toughness with Melo and Novak, where as I’d imagine Lebron would also be like an 8/10 in Blocks along with basically 10 across the board on everything else. So the choice is probably LBJ and Ray. But in the NBA Jam fantasy world Carmelo and Novak or JR Swish has gotta be near the top of the list.