damian-lillard Page 12 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

J. Cole’s pro basketball career is over — it should never have begun
Dreams are something J. Cole often raps about. It’s the name of his music label — Dreamville Records. But dreams aren’t promised. Sometimes one person’s dream can be another’s nightmare....

Blazers-Nuggets briefly bumped to ESPN2, still a far cry from tape-delayed 1981 Finals
The start of Trail Blazers-Nuggets was bumped to ESPN2 as Jose Ramírez and Josh Taylor fought for the undisputed junior welterweight title on ESPN, which is barely fathomable in 2021. Taylor won by unanimous decision, and ESPN switched over to the action in Denver with 6:40 left in the first quarter...

The Charlotte Hornets are doomed to run the ‘treadmill of mediocrity’
The “treadmill of mediocrity” is a term coined by former Portland Trail Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard in 2011. It’s pro basketball limbo — being good enough to sneak into the playoffs but not good enough to win, yet not quite bad enough to earn a top-5 draft pick and select a serious game-changer. And ...

Does the 'hot hand' really exist? Deadspin investigates, using Steph Curry's historic streak
On April 2, Golden State’s season reached its nadir with a 53-point loss to the Raptors in Tampa. Stephen Curry, who had recently returned from a five-game absence, sat out the second game of a back-to-back, Draymond Green was out with a finger injury, and it was the kind of night where the dynasty ...

Blazers must win tonight or Twitter madman might lose house
The stakes have never been this high for an end-of-the-season game....

Julius Randle won’t win MVP, but proved he’s ballot worthy, again, today
Lamar Odom in Zach Randolph’s body did it again, y’all. ...

The Portland Trail Blazers are hotter than a seatbelt buckle in August
The Portland Trail Blazers are coming into the NBA playoffs on fire, in NBA Jam terms....

LeBron’s out again, so the Lakers need another awesome Anthony Davis game tonight
OK, let’s try this again....

Blazers welcome back fans just in time to stick it to L.A.
I don’t think anyone will argue that the NBA playoff intensity was alive and well in the bubble last year. There were fantastic games that came down to clutch moments, and there were underdog teams like Miami making a run all the way to the Finals. It was everything on the court you could hope for. ...

Anthony Davis got injured again, and it’s getting late early for the Lakers
The league leader in heading to the locker room during games has to be either Anthony Davis or Kristaps Porzingis....

The teams and matchups we most wanna see for the NBA’s Play-in Tournament
Contrary to what LeBron James says, the NBA Play-In Tournament was a great idea. Because of the strange circumstances the NBA found itself in after COVID-19 wrecked 2020, the league had an opportunity to try out some goofy new ideas to make up for the fact that the fans were only getting a 72-game s...

We really need to discuss Kevin Porter Jr.’s 50-point & 10-assist game
Of the 12 50-point NBA games this season, only three have come with 10 assists, and here’s the list:...

The Mavericks have time to figure out what a Luka-KP led contender looks like, or if one even can
When Googling the phrase “Dončić Porzingis,” the first hits all direct you to stories about their relationship, chemistry, and beef. [As of this writing, at least.] That’s not to say there’s friction between the current two Dallas Mavericks cornerstones, but rather, the outside hunger for there to b...

Screw your narrative: Paul George deserves his flowers
Lost in the desire to disregard Paul George is the fact that he’s one of the better basketball players of his era. And right now, he’s on his best stretch of ball since joining the Los Angeles Clippers prior to last season....

Nikola Jokić is peeking back at other MVP candidates and smiling like Usain Bolt in Rio
With less than a month to go in the regular season, the NBA’s MVP race is taking up a lot of oxygen. There’s nothing unusual about that. What is strange is the divergence between the reality of the competition for MVP and the conversation around it....

The Dallas Mavericks are officially ‘in the mix,’ which is good enough in this crazy season
Part of your initiation as a young NBA nucleus is getting your ass whooped in the playoffs. But last season, the Dallas Mavericks were robbed of what could’ve been....

Athletes who turned their careers into an April Fools joke on all of us
Happy April Fools Day to all. I hope everyone reading this hasn’t already gotten duped by one of their friends or loved ones. If you have, it’s okay at least you didn’t get fooled like these organizations did when they picked the “star” of their franchise. There’s been so many examples of these play...

NBA trade deadline winners and losers (Can you guess which ones go where?)
There were 16 trades involving 23 organizations and 46 players yesterday, making it the most active trade deadline ever. ...

The best NCAA Tournament performances ever
The NCAA tournament is one of the most captivating sporting events of the year. For an entire month, the world of college basketball takes center stage and the world is introduced to young, new stars trying to make a name for themselves. Many players have had great NCAA tournament performances over ...

Damian Lillard was back on his… whatever voodoo that was… last night
If there’s one thing Twitter is good for, and it might not be, it’s alerting you when you might miss something. The Blazers were down 17 last night to the Pelicans with just six minutes to go. They won by one, thanks to a 25-7 run, in which Damian Lillard was involved in 18 of those points. He finis...