basketball Page 183 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Joel Embiid Moves One Big Step Closer To Returning To Action
For a while during the first half of Saturday’s Game 1 it looked like the Miami Heat might be able to capitalize on the absence of Joel Embiid, who has been in the NBA’s concussion protocol since March 28. Miami had a six-point lead after the first quarter; their lead in the first half grew to as la...
Jrue Holiday And Anthony Davis Overwhelmed The Trail Blazers
Saturday’s slate of NBA playoff games—Game 1s? Games 1?—mostly went as expected: the Warriors made lunchmeat out of the Spurs; the Raptors almost Raptored against the Wizards, but pulled away in the fourth quarter; the Sixers just ran away from the Heat in the second half. Home teams went 3-0 throug...
Mitch Kupchak Cleans House In Charlotte, Fires Steve Clifford And Everyone Else
The first big set of moves of the Mitch Kupchak era in Charlotte saw the team cast off its analytics department, its training staff, and its coaching staff, including head coach Steve Clifford:...
I Am So Incredibly Ready For NBA Tanking To Be A Thing Of The Past
The 2018 NBA Draft Lottery, held just over a month from today, will be the last before the NBA institutes the new odds formula cooked up last September, designed to reduce or eliminate tanking. Spoiler alert! The new formula will not solve tanking, an inevitability that Adam Silver recently acknowle...
A Timely And Exhaustive Preview Of The 2018 NBA Playoffs
Ah, casual sports fan: We meet again. The 2018 NBA playoffs begin this afternoon! How the hell will you know what is going on in the games, other than like a bunch of sweaty dudes bouncing a ball and throwing it through a pair of rings, if you don’t have some 10,000 words of preview and analysis to ...
Unleash Playoff LeBron
Fifteen years on, you could hardly be blamed for being desensitized to LeBron James. You and me and everyone else that plays with real and fake MVP votes at the end of every NBA season know how boring monotony can get, and so we stitch together some selective, season-specific argument sort-of-provi...
Thunder Announcer Who Said Russell Westbrook Was "Out Of His Cotton-Pickin' Mind" Suspended For One Game
Oklahoma City TV announcer Brian Davis has been suspended by the team for Game 1 of the Thunder’s first-round series against the Jazz after he used the phrase, “out of his cotton-pickin’ mind” to describe Russell Westbrook in the team’s final regular-season game. ...
Looks Like Woj Got A New Word-A-Day Calendar
“... a punishment that will vanquish him from the postseason roster, league sources told ESPN.” [ESPN]...
Thunder Call Out Announcer For Saying Russell Westbrook Was "Out Of His Cotton-Pickin' Mind"
During the second quarter of last night’s game against the Grizzlies, Thunder play-by-play man Brian Davis capped off a big Thunder play by declaring that Russell Westbrook “out of his cotton-pickin’ mind.”...
Nikola Jokic Almost Got There
For all the sublime basketball abilities that Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic inarguably possesses, it’s still strangely hard to pin down a solid picture of him as a franchise-defining superstar. All those genius passes and flawlessly executed post moves combine with slogging floor-bound defense and st...
Tank Warfare, Or A Night At Mavericks-Suns
DALLAS — If the Mavericks were going to do what needed to be done on Tuesday night in the finale of their 2018 season, it would take an almost herculean effort. A guaranteed share of the NBA’s third-worst record and the attendant lottery-odds boost was on the line, but they would have to lock in, fo...
Timberwolves Survive Nikola Jokic To Earn First Playoff Bid In 13 Years
The NBA’s unofficial play-in game lived up to its importance tonight, as the Minnesota Timberwolves needed overtime to outlast the Denver Nuggets for the Western Conference eighth seed. Minnesota earned its playoff appearance with a 112-106 win, overcoming stellar play from Nikola Jokic—who scored 3...
Russell Westbrook Gets Another Triple-Double Season With An Appropriately Nuts Statline
Russell Westbrook completed one of the greatest regular season achievements in NBA history tonight, becoming the first player ever to average a triple-double in two straight years. He didn’t make it very suspenseful either. Safe in points and assists but needing 16 boards, Westbrook went all out for...
Russell Westbrook Says Shut Up About Stat-Padding
Russell Westbrook needs 16 rebounds tonight against the Grizzlies in order to average a triple-double for the second straight season, which would be an unimpeachably impressive achievement. After Carmelo Anthony joked earlier this week about Westbrook “stealing” rebounds, Westbrook spoke out against...
32-Year-Old Andre Ingram Stole The Show In His NBA Debut
When the Los Angeles Lakers signed career minor leaguer Andre Ingram to his first NBA contract today, it felt mostly inconsequential to all but Ingram himself—or at most, a sort of cute story. Sure, the 32-year-old had grinded for a decade in the NBA’s developmental league, and playing for the Laker...
Donovan Mitchell Dropped Draymond Green On His Ass
The Jazz and Warriors are playing out a pretty goofy end-of-season game in which Golden State is very much not going at 100 percent and Utah is taking advantage. No moment has been sillier, though, than Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell making reigning defensive player of the year Draymond Green look utt...
Nuggets Keep Postseason Dream Alive Despite Inexplicably Reversed Call
The Nuggets beat the Trail Blazers tonight, 88-82, to hold onto a fighting chance for a postseason berth. The win allowed Denver to remain tied with Minnesota for the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference, who they’ll play on Wednesday for their only remaining regular-season game....
Cleveland Expected To Bring Back Creaky Veteran Mass That Is Kendrick Perkins
One of the last posts to mention Kendrick Perkins on this here blog described him as “a rusty tugboat that washed up onto a basketball court during a hurricane.” ...
Future Georgetown Hoya Mac McClung Is Not Bad
You may have heard that the valiant Duke Blue Devils did not win the 2018 NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Truly a shame for everyone. (But please, don’t be too upset, as next year’s recruiting class is truly ridiculous.) In addition to the emotional distress that I experienced due to my alma mater...
An illuminating and often hilarious peek into NBA tactics: players conserve energy by brokering informal agreements with their opponents—e.g. figuring out who’s going to go for a given rebound, or being honest with a defender when not part of an upcoming play. Ben Simmons is reportedly not onboard w...