2014 Page 39 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Seriously, What The Hell Is Going On With The Pacers?
Things have been bad for the Pacers for about two months, during which the team took on the surly, listless post-holiday air of an unhappy family too long indoors. But even when they were playing their worst, it was hard to imagine this. Down 2-1 series to the eighth-seeded Hawks, the Pacers are in ...
Brad Marchand Misses Two Wide-Open Nets
Brad Marchand has to be feeling very lucky about the fact that his Bruins came away with a 3-2 victory in last night's Game 4 against the Red Wings, otherwise he would be having a very, very bad day today....
Terry Stotts, Reinvented: How A Retread NBA Coach Became Cutting Edge
Players get better, and players get worse. This is a fundamental truth, and an arc we've always understood, analytics or not, as part of the fabric of not just sports, but performance and ability in general. Sometimes you get better at your job, sometimes you fall off. But we don't really look at co...
Did Nene's Whistle From The Bench Make Hinrich Miss His Foul Shot? (No.)
Last night in overtime of the Wizards-Bulls game, Kirk Hinrich went to the line with 2.4 seconds left, the score 101-99, and a chance to tie the game. But he missed! How could this be? Last night, we thought it was because he was a clutch gene-free, low-motor choke artist. But today, we may have our...
Oh Hell, Root For The Wizards: John Wall's Brave, Stubborn Playoff Run
If you have watched much Washington Wizards basketball over the past four seasons, first of all, why, and I am so sorry—but also, you have seen John Wall chase down a ballhandler in transition, take off like a fucking F/A-18 off a carrier deck, and swat the absolute shit out of the ball. It's reall...
The Nets Are Very Old, But Their Defense Is Next Level
The average age of the Brooklyn Nets preferred starting lineup right now is 32.4. Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Deron Williams have seemingly been in our collective consciousness for decades. Even Shaun Livingston, the fifth member of that quintet, is best known for a gruesome knee in...
Durant, Perkins Heroics Force Overtime In Oklahoma City
This play, and everything about it, is absolutely nuts....
Is Chris Paul Somehow Underrated?
There's a neat narrative in the NBA today (which we help perpetuate) that LeBron James and Kevin Durant are the best players in the league by a mile, each season a clash between two great legacies in the making. But how true is this, really?...
The NBA Playoffs' Most Memorable Moments, Animated
The NBA playoffs start tomorrow, and they are the absolute best time of year. To celebrate that, here are some of our favorite moments from the playoffs in rotoscoped animation. ...
NBA Playoff Interactive Shows Who's Most Likely To Win Every Round
Our friend Ed Feng at The Power Rank, along with Andrew Phillips from Chartball, put together an interactive that shows win probabilities for the NBA playoffs, all the way through to the finals, weighted heavily by adjusted strength of schedule. ...
Pitbull And J. Lo Team Up For The Official 2014 World Cup Anthem
Here it is, the song that you are going to be so damn sick and tired of hearing by the time the 2014 World Cup is over. Wrap your ears around Pitbull and J. Lo's "We Are One (Ole Ola)."...
Run The Jules: Your Guide To The USMNT's Newest (Maybe?) Star
During last night's USA-Mexico friendly, USMNT fans finally got a glimpse of Julian Green, the 18-year-old superstar-in-the-making(?) who spurned Germany to play for the US. The massive excitement at his arrival is matched only by the massive amount we don't know about him. Who is this guy? Is he re...
U.S. Fans Buy Three Times As Many World Cup Tickets As Any Other Nation
The World Cup kicks off in—holy crap—71 days, and other than host nation Brazil, no side will have as many supporters as the U.S. Recently released FIFA numbers show that Americans have purchased the most tickets of any visiting country, and it's not even close....
Presenting The 2014 Name Of The Year Bracket, A Shitavious Gruntfest
Name of the Year dates to the fall of 1982 and names taped to a dorm-room door on an Ivy campus: Dexter Manley, Cornelius Boza-Edwards, Baskerville Holmes. The following spring, Hector (Macho) Camacho was elected the first Name of the Year. What can we say? The first basketball baskets didn't have h...
How Will The 2014 World Cup Ball Swerve? An Aerodynamic Test
There are now only a few months to go until the biggest sporting event of 2014—the FIFA World Cup in Brazil—and questions are being asked. Will the stadiums be ready? Are the airports ready for the crowds? But one matter rises above all others, and may have an impact on the destiny of the cup itself...
The Best Part Of The Sloan Conference Is All The Pro Sports Gamblers
By now, we've heard about all the different kinds of geniuses and salesmen and Malcolm Gladwells at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. It's true, you'll find all kinds of wonderful nerds there. What they don't tell you is that the guys having the most fun are probably the sports bettors, wh...
Two Days At Sloan: How Sports Analytics Got Lost In The Fog
"You're hiding all the good numbers from me." ...
The Cleats Everyone Will Wear At The World Cup Seem To Fucking Suck
So our staff illustrator was perusing the sneaker blogs today when he happened upon this neon-yellow/afterbirth abomination: the Nike Magista. These bad boys were first unveiled to the world today in Barcelona, and they're fucking fugly. That's fine; shoes don't have souls and they don't have mirror...
Diego Costa Snubs Brazil For Spain And Could Swing The World Cup
Diego Costa is, at this moment, the best Brazilian striker in the world. The 21 goals he's scored for this year's title-challenging Atlético Madrid team are the fourth highest tally in the top five European leagues. Normally, you'd think Costa's impressive resumé would see him as one of the faces of...
Grierson & Leitch Predict The Oscar Categories You Actually Care About
Yesterday, to help you out with your pool, Grierson made predictions in all the technical Oscar categories. Today, we both make our predictions for the eight major categories, the ones you actually care about. Let's go to it....