Basketball Page 810 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

’90s rules, agency wars, and other ideas for an NBA midseason tournament
I know I’m not the only one rolling my eyes at the NBA trying to come up with a midseason tournament format worthy of getting players to compete at the highest level. This is going to be like summer camp for teams once they’re eliminated, and if I was in the league, I’d think about throwing a contes...

Go your own Brey
Mike Brey’s 23rd season as Notre Dame’s head men’s basketball coach will be his last as he’ll reportedly step down at the end of this season. Brey is the winningest coach in Fighting Irish and had an overall record of 481-269 since moving to South Bend in 2000. Before coming to Notre Dame, Brey spen...

Raise your hand if you want a Denver Nuggets-Memphis Grizzlies Western Conference Finals
If you directly asked the NBA powers how they would feel about a Memphis Grizzlies-Denver Nuggets matchup in the Western Conference Finals, I think they’d offer a “We’d love that.” However, if you asked the same people the same question in an anonymous poll, I’m pretty sure the responses would be so...

Does LaMelo Ball’s tortuous season have a light at the end of the tunnel?
LaMelo Ball’s lost season was cursed before it even began. On Wednesday night, the Charlotte Hornets guard sprained his ankle after teammate P.J. Washington landed on it during a rare win over the Houston Rockets. Entering the night, Houston was the only team in the league with a more hopeless recor...

John Wall hasn’t forgotten about (allegedly) being dissed by Tyler Hansbrough
There were few more highly touted prospects in the one-and-done era of men’s College Basketball than John Wall. Born and raised in Raleigh, N.C., it would make sense that he would want to attend the University of North Carolina. However, Wall alleges that a meeting with 2008-09 National Player of th...

The case for trading LeBron James for Evan Mobley
I’ve seen kiddie pools deeper than the unseasoned jambalaya VP Rob Pelinka has assembled for the Lakers around LeBron James. As a consequence, James’ enduring existence on a sub-.500 borderline playoff squad has created a rift where trade speculation festers and boils. During a recent appearance on ...

The best NBA games to watch this week
Of course, a single game does not impact a team’s overall record the same way that it does an NFL team. In the NBA, teams play multiple games per week. That is not changing anytime soon, especially with the Golden State Warriors needing to host as many events as possible in their palatial $1.4 billi...

Luka Dončić got Banksy’d — and Mark Cuban got pissed
Artists are often great at capitalizing on a moment and saying what everyone is thinking in a creative and eye-capturing fashion. Enter Preston Pannek, whose mural of Luka Dončić holding a “Please send help” sign perfectly encapsulates the season the Dallas Mavericks are having. And like any fascist...

Could bluebloods Kentucky and North Carolina both wind up in the NIT?
Both North Carolina’s and Kentucky’s men’s basketball teams have already lost six games this season. Two of the college basketball’s blueblood programs are struggling, and the NCAA Tournament might not be in the cards for them — but it’s not like this hasn’t happened before....

Nic Claxton is a major reason why the Brooklyn Nets have played so well lately
Thursday night’s playoff rematch between the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets will be like many big-time NBA regular-season matchups — incomplete....

Don’t call it a comeback — Steph Curry returns for the Warriors
Relax. The Golden State Warriors are fine despite their apparent demise, which has been declared by a particular sector of the NBA community. A sluggish start to the season, coupled with a Steph Curry injury that caused him to miss 11 games, is part of the reason some fans and media personalities ha...

Can Paul George and Kawhi Leonard social distance their way to a title?
The Los Angeles Clippers are a bifurcated roster. Without one or both of their wings, they are in a steep nosedive. There are three different incarnations of Ty Lue’s rotation. The Kawhi Leonard Clippers are almost mechanical in their execution as the two-time champion keys the offense. Paul George’...

Texas fires Chris Beard for cause following domestic violence arrest
The University of Texas has fired men’s head basketball coach Chris Beard. The school announced the move Thursday, with Beard’s removal coming nearly a month after Beard’s arrest on felony domestic violence charges. Beard’s fiancée called Austin police when the two allegedly got into an argument in ...

Who are the top 5 defenders in the NBA?
In this current era of NBA basketball, it’s all about who can shoot and dominate on the offensive end of the court. The days of lockdown defenders have disappeared and been replaced by terms like, “it’s a make or miss league.” With all the scoring we’ve seen this season, that’s all it is. Boston rec...

What is going on with the scoring in the NBA?
Wednesday was a relatively slow offensive night for the NBA. Kevin Durant was the league’s best performer and all he could manage was a season-high 44 points on 68.1/50/100 shooting splits, five assists, and four rebounds. With the way that NBA players have been lighting up the scoreboards, especial...

Was the Cavs’ ‘random’ PED test just fateful coincidence after Mitchell scored 71?
In one of the NBA’s more conspicuously timed sequences, the Cleveland Cavs were “randomly” drug tested just hours after Donovan Mitchell’s 71-point performance Monday night. It feels all too convenient for the association to “randomly” test the Cavs for performance-enhancing drugs one day after Mitc...
