basketball Page 172 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Commissioner For A Day: It's Time For A Four-Point Shot In The NBA
It is not a good practice, just as a general rule, to steal Big Ideas from widely maligned and mostly forgotten MTV stunt-programming. But people that play by the general rules or adhere to best practices or “have actual ideas of their own” seldom make history, and I was not going to spend my one hy...

What The Absolute Hell Was Kyle Lowry Doing?
It was possible to miss this in realtime. I did. For one thing, it happened quickly, and devolved quickly into distracting chaos. For another, even if your eyes gathered the information and transmitted it whole to your brain, your brain may have processed it as an error and erased it, because it is ...

Nuggets Bozos Turn Fast-Break Into Slapstick Disaster
Late in the first half of Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal series between Portland and Denver, Jamal Murray swiped a Blazers inbounds pass and tore ass the other way, in a two-on-two break with teammate Malik Beasley streaking ahead of him. With two skilled and athletic guards pushing ahea...

In Game With Gut-Sick Joel Embiid, Raptors Are The Ones To Shit Their Pants
Joel Embiid was listed as probable headed into Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series between the 76ers and Raptors, with a case of gastroenteritis. It’s a stomach virus, and is experienced as a lot of stomach pain and diarrhea, which is definitely not the condition you want to be in whil...

Bucks, After Having Butts Kicked All The Way Off In Game 1: Why Would We Change Anything?
The major question coming out of Game 1 of the ballyhooed Celtics-Bucks series is how the Bucks plan to recover after having home-court advantage yanked away in a discouraging loss. The long and short of it is, the Bucks, from head coach Mike Budenholzer on down, do not feel that strategic adjustmen...

The Rockets Are Only Embarrassing Themselves
It’s not enough that the Houston Rockets have to whine that they lost Game 1 because the refs didn’t take their signature gaming of the “landing zone” rule as seriously as usual. They elected to follow that snit with what is perhaps the most pathetically lame sports media leak of all time, as ESPN m...

If This Is Rockets-Warriors, Let's Just Get It Over With As Soon As Possible
In case you ever decide to hate sports without the crutch of a rooting interest, financial, familial, or simply laundry-based, here’s your ticket. The pre–NBA Finals NBA Finals are already a drunken bar argument, and they’re only going to get worse. The Houston Rockets ... the Golden State Warriors ...

Well That Was An Officiating Clusterfuck
In an ironic twist, it was James Harden that spoke up about officiating problems in Game 1 of the Rockets-Warriors series. He told reporters after the game that “he just wants a fair chance” and that he’s willing to live with whatever results come from the game as long as it’s called “the way it’s s...

The Celtics Stole Giannis Antetokounmpo's Lunch Money And Stuffed Him In A Locker
Game 1 of the Bucks-Celtics series seemed to prove that there were little to no overarching takeaways from the first round of the playoffs that could have been used to predict how this game would go. The Bucks were not the world-beaters they looked to be in their four-game sweep of the Pistons; the ...

The Clippers Didn't Have An Answer For Kevin Durant On Or Off The Court
Kevin Durant had one of those games on Friday against the Clippers that superstars put out to remind opponents just how much better they are than everyone else. As these players are wont to do in these kinds of games, Durant imposed his will on the Clippers in the first half, dropping 38 points on ...

Let's Remember Some Guys: Thurl Bailey's Eyewear And Other Fleer NBA Guys
In many of the moments in the Let’s Remember Some Guys videos in which I appear to be successfully remembering various guys, I am in fact remembering the basketball cards that I once had on which they appeared. There are some instances in which this is not the case, but many of these people played t...

Report: Pretty Much Everyone Is Sure Kevin Durant Is Heading To The Knicks
ESPN’s Ian Begley published a story today about the state of the New York Knicks on the eve of a potentially pivotal summer for the franchise. The Knicks, of course, spent last season as a big sad joke, and even though recent Knicks history has been a procession of failed seasons followed by disappo...

The Spurs Will Always Be The Damn Spurs
Basketball fans of a certain age will remember a time not so long ago when the San Antonio Spurs were just as reviled for their steady greatness as they were respected for it. Around that time, the league kept producing pretty new things that seemed custom-built to capture the hearts and minds of th...

Magic Johnson Quit His Job So He Could Tweet More And He Seems Very Happy
In the event that you’re offered the job of running the Los Angeles Lakers, you would do well to consider the pros and cons. The salary is almost certainly better than what you currently earn—as you are reading this website, I am assuming that “you” are an attorney of some kind—and you get to live i...

Rockets "Intend No Disrespect To Clippers" While Functionally Discounting Any Chance Of Clippers Advancing
The Rockets find themselves in the advantageous position of having closed out their first-round series days ahead of whoever they’ll eventually meet in the second round, giving them a head-start on preparations for the series to come. It would be reasonable, under the circumstances, to tilt the bala...

The Bucks Will Be Without Malcolm Brogdon To Start The Celtics Series, Which Frankly Is Bullcrap
Bucks-Celtics was one of the best and most hotly contested series in last year’s NBA playoffs, and Bucks-Celtics II (The Kyriedux?) promises to be, if nothing else, an opportunity for Super Giannis to triumphantly hurl the team that eliminated him last season into a dumpster. Which is what makes tod...

Surely This Video Of Steve Kerr Being Annoyed At Draymond Green's Loud Music Won't Be Turned Into A Thing
The Warriors are going to have to play at least a sixth game against the Clippers, possibly because it’s hard for a team to maintain such a level of absolute dominance for this long without occasionally falling into complacency, but anyway, here’s a clip that is most likely nothing but could, given ...

Freshman Phenom Jimmy Sorunke, Who Became A Senior Overnight, Is Done With High School Basketball
The bizarre high school basketball career of Jimmy Sorunke, who went from an overhyped freshman to an ignored senior in just one year, appears to now be over....

Russell Westbrook Considers Russell Westbrook
Russell Westbrook is headed for a summer of reckoning. Three straight triple-double seasons have been followed by three straight first-round playoff exits. This latest 4-1 defeat by the Blazers did not show many signs of progress, and, thanks to Damian Lillard, even cast his weaknesses in starker re...

The Warriors Shouldn't Need To Get Shocked Out Of Complacency
It’s not too difficult to figure out what’s plaguing the Golden State Warriors as their first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers drags on to surprising lengths. According to Klay Thompson, the champs were already looking forward to the Rockets, assuming a tidy Game 5 win. According to Kev...