81 Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Luka Dončić is just a more clutch James Harden
By the way Luka Dončić has been talked about this year, you’d think the Dallas Mavericks would be undefeated — or at least near the top of the Western Conference standings. The Slovenian superstar is the first player since Wilt Chamberlain to start a season with seven straight 30-point games — which...

The Second Coming of Dennis Smith Jr.
Maybe all he needed was to come home. Smith is from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is now playing with the Charlotte Hornets, just a mere three hours from his hometown. The Hornets are Smith’s fifth team in six seasons. Last year, he split time between three teams, including the Hornets. So why h...

Deadspin's NBA awards predictions
Perhaps it’s the COVID fatigue, partisan politics, or the malaise of a slumping economy, but this off-season has felt like forever. With elections ramping up in November, we need the NBA back to distract us from our country headed toward political chaos. Both sides of the aisle have become insuffera...

Attention NBA teams with no desire to win: Call the Lakers because Russell Westbrook already looks checked out
Calling all tankers. Calling all tankers. If you are desperate to improve your chances at drafting Victor Wembanyama, there is a disgruntled guard on the Los Angeles Lakers who is on an expiring contract, and not as athletic as he used to be....

Home sweet home?
Returning home for one last season is a sacred ideal for NBA vets. Dwyane Wade made his way to Chicago in 2016. Kyrie Irving’s desire to play with Durant in Brooklyn instead of Madison Square Garden with the New York Knicks was influenced by the New Jersey native’s fondness for the New Jersey Nets o...

Giannis has become the Paul Bunyan of basketball
The fake sports news on Twitter is getting a bit out of control. I’m aware that part of responsible internet usage requires users to vet sources. It’s not like people haven’t been getting burned by fake Woj and fake Schefter accounts for years, but handles like CockSources and Ballsack sports — whil...

Doctor’s strange love
Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard is a top-five player in the NBA when healthy and has proven his greatness among The Association’s all-time greats, as he was named to the NBA 75th anniversary team last season. Another member of the 75th Anniversary squad is a huge fan of Leonard’s game. Th...

So here’s this year’s Champions League group of death
The group-stage draw for the UEFA Champions League is always a strange, exciting, but mostly strange day. The path to European glory becomes more in focus with a straightforward goal: finish in the top half of your group and you make it to the knockout stage that begins next year. If you don’t you’r...

Best destinations for Deandre Ayton if he exits Phoenix
Now that we’ve moved past the NBA draft, it’s time for the free agency signing period to commence. And this year, one of the most talked-about names that could be on the move is Deandre Ayton. The 23-year-old center believes he’s earned a max contract. It’s just too bad the Phoenix Suns don’t seem t...

Kevin Durant’s destiny is to complete 2010 Point Guard Bingo with Dame Lillard
Kevin Durant is under contract for one more year with the Brooklyn Nets, but based on the bevy of reports and leaks on the extremely fluid Kyrie melodrama and its potential fallout, his employment is volatile. That uncertainty has spawned a multitude of options for Durant, but only the Portland Trai...

It’s appears there is a new and improved Luka Dončić playing for Slovenia
One month after his Dallas Mavericks were eliminated by the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals, Luka Dončić has not yet taken a day off. He is playing for the Slovenian national team, and he does not look like the same person who scored 28 points in that elimination game on May 2...

Blazers go all in
What the hell is going on? Typically this early on before the draft, the trades are evenly balanced. First, the Thunder trades the 30th pick in this year’s draft plus two future second-round picks for JaMychal Green and what will end up being a top-five protected pick after the protections become of...

Bradley Beal seems shocked: 'Wait, huh? Lol'
Bradley Beal was expected to be the crown jewel of free agency this offseason. It was beginning to feel like things were falling into place for that to happen on Tuesday when it was reported by Michael Scotto of Hoopshype that Beal would be declining his $36.4 million player option for the 2022-23 s...

Who’s going to win (lose?) the Rudy Gobert trade extravaganza?
Rudy Gobert is this offseason’s CJ McCollum in that every GM is going to call about the star player and get counteroffered with the secondary player. Yes, we know you called about Donovan, but for the low price of a couple draft picks and a salary dump, you can have Rudy at $38 million to $46 millio...

The Trail Blazers' offseason is a high-wire balancing act
This is the most important summer of Damian Lillard’s reign in Portland. For the past decade, the Portland Trail Blazers have been the Warriors’ little brother. Think Seth Curry and Steph Curry, but in franchise terms....

Not to worry Luka, it happens to the best of them
Sure he had to hear his eulogy while he was still living after Andrew Wiggins read him his last rites in Game 3, but Luka Dončić has nothing to be ashamed of. The Dallas Mavericks star led the NBA postseason in scoring, but his singular output was futile against a Golden State Warriors team that pla...

This looks like Connor McDavid’s time
This could finally be it. The NHL is starving for its next superstar. Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby’s first-round exits with Washington and Pittsburgh left a void for a television-ratings hockey juggernaut....

The Dallas Mavericks turned into pumpkins
When I wrote the Dallas Mavericks were a mess earlier this season, it was right after they traded one terrible contract in Kristaps Porziņģis for two terrible contracts in Spencer Dwindiddle and Davis Bertans. My argument was not that the Mavs had made the wrong move in ditching the Latvian bum. Nor...

Those Game 7s were a dud, but that doesn’t dilute the outstanding performances from the second round that deserve recognition
That was quite an exhilarating second round of NBA Playoff action… until it wasn’t. ...
