2018-nba-playoffs Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
J.R. Smith Claims He Knew The Score
I can’t know this, but I know it: LeBron James would’ve hit the buzzer-beater. ...
This Is How It Feels When You're The Only Good Player On An NBA Finals Team<em></em>
LeBron James turned in a heroic, 51-point performance in what came so close to becoming an incredible Game 1 victory for the Cavs. Instead, this might have been the worst night of LeBron’s basketball-playing life, with multiple tortuous twists combining for a nightmare loss....
That Was A Fucked Up Way For LeBron To Lose
In a neck-and-neck Game 1, it looked multiple times like the Cavs were going to steal a win on the road against the Warriors. After heading into the half all tied at 56, then weathering the Warriors’ trademark third-quarter onslaught, LeBron James gave his team the lead with under a minute to play o...
![Klay Thompson Exits Game 1 After J.R. Smith Knocks Out His Legs [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/zhphnmqtiyukuvs7p4pt.jpg)
Klay Thompson Exits Game 1 After J.R. Smith Knocks Out His Legs [Update]
Warriors guard Klay Thompson had to leave Game 1 of the NBA Finals with an apparent left leg injury after an accidental collision with the Cavs’ J.R. Smith. Smith slipped as he was going for a steal, and in doing so took out Thompson’s legs. Doris Burke reported on the ABC broadcast that Thompson ha...
Cavs Coach Tyronn Lue Talks About What Anxiety Did To Him And How He Treated It
Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue spoke to ESPN today ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals and detailed what made him step away from the team for two weeks in March. Lue said that before he took his break, he was coughing up blood, suffering from chest pains, and suffering from a lack of sleep. He struggled t...
An NBA Finals Preview With Two Very Good Reasons To Watch, Neither Of Which Is "To See Who'll Win"<em></em>
Well hello there, casual basketball viewer. No, you have not accidentally clicked on an extremely old Deadspin post—the Golden State Warriors really are hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals tonight, the fourth straight year they’ve done exactly that. Are you excited? No? Not e...
Steph Curry Breaks The Game
The Golden State Warriors won Game 7 on Monday night because—naturally, and as usual—they dominated the third quarter. In this case, they won the third by 18 points both because Houston missed 27 straight three-pointers and because Steph Curry took control of the game and mercilessly buried the Rock...
The Rockets Missed 27 Straight Threes Because Sometimes Shit Happens<em></em>
Thirty-six point two. That’s the percentage of the 3,470 three-point shots attempted by the Houston Rockets in the regular season that went through the hoop. It’s the number that should have lifted the Rockets, a team that spent the entire season building a 65-win monument to the power and truth of ...
The Warriors Bulldoze Their Way Back To The NBA Finals
For the second game in a row, the Chris Paul-less Houston Rockets held the upper hand against the Warriors after one half of play. And for the second game in a row, Golden State took away all the Rockets had over a commanding final two quarters. Not even a raucous home crowd could save Houston from ...
Kyrie Irving Missed Game 7 Due To Corrective Nasal Surgery
A mild hubbub was made by Mark Jackson out of the absence of Kyrie Irving from Boston’s bench in Game 7. Jackson was het up, complaining that Kyrie is “more important than an assistant coach” and that it would be a real problem if Kyrie was “just at home chilling or somewhere not important,” instead...
Jayson Tatum Is Already A Monster
Jayson Tatum’s best highlight from Game 7 was a savage, driving, one-handed dunk directly over LeBron James, in the fourth quarter, when the Celtics needed a spark. This was certainly one way of doing it!...
Even Gassed LeBron Is Too Much LeBron
There was a point, relatively early in the second quarter of Game 7, where Terry Rozier peeled off Kyle Korver in the short corner to double-team LeBron James in the high post. It looked like an improvisation by Rozier—I can’t imagine Brad Stevens would ever script an action that leaves one of the N...
It Is Time For The Cavaliers To Unleash, Uhh, Jeff Green
Tyronn Lue announced during Cleveland’s Sunday shootaround that Jeff Green will start in place of the injured Kevin Love. This was sort of a foregone conclusion—the only other options on the roster are Rodney Hood and Cedi Osman; Hood hasn’t touched the floor since Game 2, aside from a couple minute...
The Rockets Had A Hell Of A Chance, And Then The Warriors Woke Up
It feels weird to say this about a team that lost a road playoff game by 29 points, but, man, the Rockets blew it. Or, anyway, that’s the glass-is-half-empty take: Even without Chris Paul, even on the road, even going against an unbelievably loaded Warriors team desperate to stave off elimination, t...
If That Was LeBron's Last Home Game With The Cavs, He Sure Made It Count
If you thought the Cavs were completely screwed when, down by four points and looking disjointed against an unflustered Celtics defense, they lost Kevin Love to a scary-looking head injury, man you were not alone. Love’s mostly been crap in this series—he’s producing 48 percent true shooting on 26.5...
Chris Paul Is Out For Game 6, And Everything Is Grim Again
The verdict is in on Chris Paul, who was hurting a whole lot at the end of the Rockets’ Game 5 win: He’s out for Saturday....
The Most Painful Thing For Chris Paul Is Having To Watch
Chris Paul is, let’s say, a competitive person, probably to an unpleasant degree. He is also among the all-time greats at his position and finally, in his 13th season, making a deep run into the postseason. And he is also someone who, in the final minute of a conference finals Game 5, with a mere fo...
If The Warriors Are Going To Die, They Should At Least Die Pretty
The pre-series nightmare, for anyone who is a Warriors fan or particularly despises the Rockets’ brand of basketball, went something like this: The Warriors, a free-flowing, elegant offensive team that so often makes the experience of watching them feel transcendent, would be outpaced by the cold ca...
The Rockets Have An Answer For The Warriors<em></em>
In a game that saw James Harden go 0-for-11 from three point range, the Houston Rockets didn’t have to reckon with disaster. Instead, they beat the Warriors with defense, winning Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals 98-94 by neutralizing some of the toughest-to-guard players in the NBA....
The NBA Playoffs Have Been So Boring, And Last Night Was A New Low
These here NBA Playoffs have been terminally boring. They have been so dull and charmless and forgettable that the one night of actual exciting basketball fans have enjoyed somehow still featured two teams taking 3-0 leads in second-round series. Even Rockets-Warriors, this season’s most anticipated...