basketball Page 231 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Markelle Fultz Update: Hey, He Took A Three!
It’s been a little more than a week since Markelle Fultz was activated to begin play for the first time since October, after months of working on rehabbing his busted shot. Entering tonight’s game against the Pistons, he’d shot 17-of-39 from the field since his return, but not one of those shot atte...
The Thunder Have A Melo Problem
Oklahoma City dropped a close one against the Warriors last night despite 44 points from Russell Westbrook. The loss dropped them to sixth in the cutthroat Western Conference, a half game behind Salt Lake City and San Antonio. They’re now 1-4 over their last five games, all of which came against fel...
Spring Is Here, And That Means It's Time For The Toronto Raptors To Wither And Die
The Toronto Raptors, the first-place team in the Eastern Conference, lost last night, to the third-place Cleveland Cavaliers. They lost to the badly depleted second-place Boston Celtics three nights prior. They’ve lost five of their last eight games, the worst stretch in what’s so far been the best ...
I Love Watching Kyle Anderson Do Hilariously Slow Basketball
Among the many reasons you’d be galactically screwed if you lined up on the perimeter to defend an NBA player, speed is the scariest. Before you stand some of the tallest, longest, twitchiest, most volatile athletes in the world, with good options available at every juncture: stop dead and pop a jum...
The Sixers Beat The Nets So Badly They Played The Sixers Victory Song With 11 Seconds Left
The Sixers do not have Joel Embiid for the foreseeable future. He’s out after surgery for a fractured orbital bone. So far, that has not mattered. ...
Dennis Smith Jr. With The Bounce Pass To Dennis Smith Jr. For The Dunk
The Mavericks are currently treading toilet water, with no real motivation to win, but tonight featured a few cool things: a victory over the Trail Blazers, and, more importantly, this nifty Dennis Smith Jr. dunk, assisted by none other than Dennis Smith Jr. himself....
Nerlens Noel Probably Really Wishes He Took That $70 Million Contract
The NBA announced today that they’ve suspended Mavericks forward Nerlens Noel for five games, reportedly following a third positive test for marijuana, a drug that is legal or decriminalized in much of the country. That alone is not a big deal, but Noel’s suspension—which will see him out for the co...
Rhode Island Denies Ever Being Interested In Hiring Rick Pitino
Rick Pitino’s been out of the coaching game not even a full year, but that itch is already starting to come back. Whether anybody’s willing to scratch it is another question entirely. ...
The Donte DiVincenzo Show Was A Damn Work Of Art
Donte DiVincenzo was not a sophomore bench player on Monday night. He was when the game started, but by the final horn he was the man who had saved a national championship for Villanova. ...
How Big Colleges Prey On Fan Loyalty To Fight Back Against Scandals
If you’ve been following the ongoing developments in the Larry Nassar scandal and Michigan State University’s sexual-assault crisis, you’ve recently become familiar with the phrase “#SpartansWill.” If you’ve spent any time around East Lansing, you already knew about it, because it’s all over town. Y...
Villanova Coasts To Title On Back Of Record-Setting Bench Player Donte DiVincenzo<em></em>
For the bulk of the first half, tonight’s NCAA men’s basketball championship was Michigan’s game—not by more than a few points, not convincingly, but it was. With six minutes remaining, though, Donte DiVincenzo hit a three to deliver Villanova its first lead since the opening seconds, and then he se...
This Was Muffet McGraw's Masterpiece, And Notre Dame's Next Season Could Be Even Better<em></em>
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Muffet McGraw’s husband Matt clearly knows the drill by now. He beamed as he watched his wife of 40 years hold court with reporters after the greatest coaching win of her career. She wore a black dress that she’d bought especially for what turned out to be her second national champi...
Boban Loves To Dance
Boban Marjanovic has been working on his craft. Yesterday he was seen bopping in an adorable huddle with new friend DeAndre Jordan and old friend Tobias Harris, who accompanied him from Detroit to Los Angeles in the January trade....
On Easter Sunday, The Denver Nuggets....... <i>Resurrected</i>....... Their Playoff Hopes
Listen. I want you to know that I endured probably close to 45 seconds of deep internal conflict over whether to form this blog around a groan-inducing forced parallel between the sudden restoration of the Denver Nuggets’ playoff hopes and the Easter story of Christ’s resurrection from death. And th...
This Is "This Is March": Unpacking College Basketball's Most Uncanny Twitter Account
Jon Rothstein is a real person. He was born in a town at the very outermost edge of what could be called exurban New York City and has covered sports for a living virtually from the moment he graduated from Ithaca College. Rothstein won a Dream Job contest at New York’s ESPN sports radio station, 10...
Arike Ogunbowale Wasn't Supposed To Take The Last Shot
Notre Dame’s final play wasn’t called for Arike Ogunbowale. After hitting the winning three in Friday’s semifinal win over UConn, the Notre Dame junior guard had an off shooting night against Mississippi State, and when the Irish inbounded the ball in a tie game with three seconds left, the play was...
Notre Dame's Arike Ogunbowale Crushes Mississippi State With Championship-Winning Three
For a while, it looked like today’s National Championship game would be an anticlimactic finale after both semifinals went to overtime on Friday. Mississippi State led Notre Dame 30-17 at the half, holding the Irish to just three points in the second quarter. But Notre Dame fought back and gave us a...
Ben Simmons Requires Neither Joel Embiid Nor A Damn Jumper To Dominate
The 76ers pulled away from a sleepy and defeated Hornets team Sunday afternoon, sans Joel Embiid, behind more excellent two-way play from young Ben Simmons. It was Philly’s 10th straight win, and second straight without Embiid. Sure, the Embiid-less wins have come over Eastern Conference non-playoff...
Hassan Whiteside, On The Heat Playing Small Lineups: "It's Really Bullshit"
Saturday night the Heat had one of those really grinding losses, in Brooklyn. It wasn’t quite mutually dissatisfactory, if only because the Nets aren’t tanking, and so are still positioned to enjoy victories, but it was for sure a game the Heat were supposed to win: Miami is now in the 8th seed in t...
Whoever These Miscellaneous Celtics Are, They Are Feisty As Hell
The top two teams in the Eastern Conference met last night. You may have missed it: first of all, the men’s Final Four was last night; second of all, you might’ve simply sagged into the position, literally weeks ago, that the top of the Eastern Conference was settled. It’s not! The Celtics came into...