basketball Page 198 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Come On, Kawhi Leonard Can't Blame The Media For This
Kawhi Leonard played in San Antonio last night for the first time since being traded from the Spurs to the Raptors, and he was booed heartily every time he touched the ball. The home crowd even whipped up enough bile to hit him with a “Traitor!” chant while he was shooting free throws. Leonard, some...

James Harden Is The Most Valuable Damn Player
There are perfectly good reasons to root against both the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets. The Warriors have Kevin Durant and Draymond Green and are a juggernaut; the Rockets have James Harden and Chris Paul and play maybe the least interesting brand of basketball of any worth-a-shit N...

DeMar DeRozan Kicked The Raptors' Asses In A Sweet Revenge Game
Well that was decisive. The home crowd was bloodthirsty, the Spurs were aggressive as hell, and the Raptors were evidently not ready for all the intensity. Kawhi’s ballyhooed return to San Antonio was mostly a big old dud, and the Raptors were routed, by the score of 125–107....

“The only players in Basketball-Reference.com’s database with a usage rate that high and a true shooting percentage this low are Michael Jordan in his first season with the Wizards and Kobe Bryant in his farewell tour with the Lakers.” Dan Devine of The Ringer takes a look at Russell Westbrook’s put...

The Spurs And Their Fans Are Out For Blood
Spurs fans wasted no time ending the mystery of how Kawhi Leonard would be received in San Antonio in his first post-trade visit, booing the shit out of him every time he touched the ball during pregame warmups. The Spurs were reportedly on the fence about showing a Kawhi tribute video tonight, conc...

Report: "Football Guys" Have Broken The Pelicans And May Scare Anthony Davis Away
NBC Sports’ NBA insider Tom Haberstroh makes the case that the Pelicans have failed Anthony Davis and seems to imply that the organization’s chances of bringing back the generational talent have grown rather slim. While he goes through a bunch of factors that show just how mediocre the franchise has...

The Pac-12 Has Been Historically Shitty This Season
Even before a stress fracture brought teenage giant Bol Bol’s short, eventful college career to an abrupt end, things have been incredibly bleak for Pac-12 men’s basketball this year. There have been dumb scandals (the dull kind, not the fun kind), disappointments, and most of all, a bunch of sad lo...

High School Basketball Team Caught Swapping Out Triplets At The Free-Throw Line
Over the weekend, the Dora High School boys basketball team won a local tournament through a 64-62 nail-biter in the final over Licking High School. Their win, however, was not without controversy. Parents from Licking accused Dora coach Rick Luna of using a secret and illegal tactic: swapping his t...

The Ball Family Circus Comes To Ohio
There isn’t a whole lot going on in Vermilion, Ohio, in the winter....

Laker Fans Booed Lonzo Ball For Missing Free Throws
Is Lonzo Ball good? Ask a handful of NBA fans that question and you’re likely to get wildly different answers. Some will say “yes” and cite footage of the 6-foot-6 point guard who glides around the court and fires off touch passes and looks built to spend the next decade racking up triple-doubles. T...

Russell Westbrook Borrows Lance Stephenson's Air Guitar
Having a signature celebration opens Lance Stephenson up to humiliation. (Being Lance Stephenson, generally, also opens him up to humiliation.) Just before halftime in the Thunder’s win over the Lakers Wednesday night, Paul George stripped his former Pacers teammate, fought him off as he clamored to...

Perhaps It Is Not A Good Idea To Jump This High
One thing I think we can all agree on is that one of the most enjoyable things about watching basketball is seeing guys jump real high and do cool stuff while they are in the air. But what if, in fact, the jumping is bad?...

The Spiraling Memphis Grizzlies Are Now Punching Each Other
The Grizzlies lost to the Detroit Pistons Wednesday night, 101–94. It was an ugly, frustrating performance for a Memphis team that has now lost 10 of their last 13 games after a promising 15–9 start to the season. The angst and frustration appears to have boiled over in a team meeting held after the...

Kawhi Leonard Turned Off The Jazz
Kawhi Leonard buried the Jazz under the most assaultive offensive output of his career on Tuesday, hanging an alarmingly efficient 45 points on 16-of-22 shooting in a 122-116 win. The Raptor-for-now ascended to a higher plane in his 19-point third quarter, sinking every shot he attempted. He did all...

James Harden Is On An Unholy Tear Right Now
The Houston Rockets—who this season have been dead, not dead, and dead again—are decidedly no longer dead. Since getting spit-roasted by Luka Dončić, Houston has gone 10-1, with the lone loss a two-point squeaker in Miami. Chris Paul tweaked his hamstring, again, in that game, yet it hasn’t mattered...

Joel Embiid Flips Out After Ben Simmons Fights Him For A Rebound
Cartoon steam billowed out of every player’s ears towards the end of a spicy 119-113 Sixers win over the Clippers Tuesday night. Joel Embiid and Patrick Beverley had to be pried apart in a meeting of master trolls; Jimmy Butler and Avery Bradley then got a double-ejection for some choke-pushing. Ear...

John Wall's Busted Heel Has Officially Put The Wizards Out Of Their Misery
The Wizards, who are currently 14-24, have reached the point in their season when it’s more beneficial for them to start being bad on purpose rather than being bad on accident. The only thing standing in the way of this transition is that the Wizards do not fit the standard profile of a tanking tea...

Justise Winslow Is Saving The Miami Heat's Season
On Friday night, Justise Winslow continued his fourth season renaissance, as the Miami Heat stomped on the Cleveland Cavaliers to the tune of a comfortable 118-94 win. Winslow finished the game with an eye-catching stat-line: 24 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists, and only 2 turnovers....

Anthony Davis Has Not Been Traded Yet, Is Still Amazing At Basketball
It sure was nice of Anthony Davis, who is not yet a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, to up his trade value on Friday night. The NBA’s only commodity worth talking about, apparently, threw up 48 points to go along with 17 rebounds, as the New Orleans Pelicans, his current team, beat the Dallas Mave...

How Stupid And Toothless Does The NBA Now Look Trying To Manage This Shit
The escalating non-story of LeBron James making moves on Anthony Davis finally ensnared the NBA league office on Friday, with league counsel reportedly reminding teams via a carefully worded memo that only great big meanies would ever honestly answer a question about whether it is good to have good ...