basketball Page 173 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Sassy Clippers Once Again Made The Warriors Look Like Frauds
When the Warriors dropped Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers, it seemed like it might’ve been because they were overconfident, lackadaisical, and maybe even a little tuned-out. This would seem to have been confirmed by their subsequent 27-point demolition of ...
Rockets Survive Utah's Aggressive Butt Defense, Advance
The Utah Jazz needed a few games to get there, but they finally worked their way into fighting range of the Houston Rockets over the course of their first-round playoff series. The hilarious strategy of defending James Harden’s butt started to yield dividends, and a Rockets offense that scored 122 a...
Jusuf Nurkic Hobbled Over To The Blazers' Game To Rally His Team And Roast Russell Westbrook
Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic suffered a horror injury less than a month ago, and even though he remains pretty immobile with a super busted leg, he still showed up to support his teammates Tuesday night. Nurkic wasn’t part of the dogpile after Damian Lillard’s heroic game-winner, but h...
They Are All Good Shots For Damian Lillard, You Absolute Fool
Damian Lillard pulled up from 37 feet and waved goodbye to the Oklahoma City Thunder. We all saw it. We all lost our minds, and perhaps in a fit of jubilation (or despair, depending on where you live) did or said something we regret this morning. Nobody handled the aftermath of one of the greatest s...
Damian Lillard Eliminates Thunder In Completely Psychotic Fashion
Damian Lillard opened Tuesday night’s Game 5 with a 19-point first quarter, keeping the Blazers close while Oklahoma City made everything thrown even vaguely in the direction of the basket. Lillard finished the first half with 34 points. He opened the second half with an utterly preposterous 30-foo...
The College Basketball Bribery Scandal Might Be Spreading To Football
On Monday, a second trial to deal with the charges from college basketball’s bribery scandal began in U.S. District Court. Former financial advisor Christian Dawkins and former Adidas consultant Merl Code both returned as defendants after being convicted in the first trial, and they are charged here...
Steve Kerr Thinks Russell Westbrook's Media Grudge Is "Dangerous" For The NBA
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is among the most eager and verbose figures in the NBA, which makes him the opposite of Thunder guard Russell Westbrook. Whereas Kerr will take the time to give his thoughts on gun control or own up to his own mistakes, Westbrook has pretty much always been antagonist...
These Goddamned Suns Have Fired Their Goddamned Coach
The bottomlessly dysfunctional Phoenix Suns, who absolutely cannot get anything right, ever, have fired innovative head coach Igor Kokoškov after one season at the helm of their flailing, utterly incompetent and incoherent basketball program....
Bucks Take Pistons' Best Punch, Then Coolly Dropkick Them Into A Toilet
The Pistons got off to a very good start Monday night, at home, in Game 4 of their playoff series against Central division foe Milwaukee. Blake Griffin was lively; Reggie Jackson poured in 20 first-half points; the Pistons all but played Brook Lopez and Khris Middleton off the court. It was about as...
The Blazers Really Want Russell Westbrook To Keep Shooting
Russell Westbrook’s jumper has never been his best friend, but the relationship between the two has become particularly standoffish in the Thunder’s first-round playoff series against the Blazers. Westbrook keeps asking his jumper if he wouldn’t mind pitching in this time around, maybe help him adva...
Nobody Is Getting Suspended For Leaving The Bench Under This Bucks Assistant's Watch
By now, everyone in the NBA is aware that one of the worst infractions you can commit in a playoff game as a player is leaving the bench during a fight that’s happening on the court. One step in the wrong direction, and a player risks getting suspended for key playoff games. The NBA’s habit of bring...
Not Even A Historically Bad Shooting Night From James Harden Could Stop The Rockets From Crushing The Jazz's Spirits
Given how badly the Rockets had crushed the Jazz in Games 1 and 2, if news were to come out of James Harden breaking some sort of postseason record during Game 3, the underlying assumption would be that it was related to scoring. That was half-true on Saturday in Utah when Harden set the NBA postsea...
![Jared Dudley And Jimmy Butler Were Ejected After A Scrum They Started Got Out Of Hand [Updates]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/uxqqt0eruasj2mlbuxr1.png)
Jared Dudley And Jimmy Butler Were Ejected After A Scrum They Started Got Out Of Hand [Updates]
What started out as some beef between Ben Simmons and Jared Dudley has now escalated into Jared Dudley trying to beef with the other stars of the 76ers roster. In the third quarter, Joel Embiid tried to get a block on Nets big man Jarrett Allen—a player Embiid elbowed in the face and then laughed ab...
The Thunder Really Enjoyed Their Flukey Shooting Night Against The Blazers
There’s no secret as to why Damian Lillard was a little bothered on Friday following his game against Oklahoma City. After winning the first two games at home, the Blazers dropped Game 3 against the Thunder 120-108. But though his team still lead the series 2-1, and he was coming off a solid statis...
UNC Basketball Coach Sylvia Hatchell, Who Sounds Like A Real Nightmare, Resigns After Investigation
Longtime University of North Carolina women’s basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell has resigned after more than three decades with the program, following the conclusion of an investigation that found she made “racially insensitive” remarks, pressured players to play injured, and generally failed to conn...
Derrick White Is Clobbering The Nuggets
Through three playoff games, the San Antonio Spurs have done what they do better than anyone: suffocate the life out of opponents by playing fundamentally sound basketball. On Thursday, with their series tied at 1-1 with the Denver Nuggets, the Spurs shot the lights out, finishing with 52 percent sh...
Someone Farted Near The Sixers' Bench
With Joel Embiid not playing in Game 3 of Sixers-Nets because of an injury, it made sense for the TNT broadcast to take some time during a break in the action and talk about his absence. As Ros Gold-Onwude spoke about Embiid’s decision to sit out, and the camera panned towards him, someone near the ...
The Good Part Of The NBA Season Has Started
It is a curious folkway here at Deadspin that NBA-related previews cannot be published before the start of whatever it is they’re previewing. It’s not covered during the onboarding process, and is more just one of those things that you learn over the course of time as a member of the staff, like the...
James Harden Is Just Toying With Poor Ricky Rubio
The Houston Rockets have encountered little resistance through their first two games against the Utah Jazz. They’ve hung 240 points on the NBA’s second-best defense and hit 32 three-pointers. (Those would’ve come in handy last May.) Eric Gordon and P.J. Tucker are getting theirs, the weird bench uni...
Let Us Hope Jayson Tatum Has Won His Long Battle Against Kobe Brain
Celtics star Jayson Tatum scored 26 points on 11-of-20 shooting during last night’s Game 2 victory over the Pacers. He was very good, but the best play he made, and the one that should have Celtics fans most encouraged moving forward, involved him passing on what could have been a game-deciding dagg...