hoot Page 31 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Jason Kidd's hiring in Dallas totally won’t backfire
What has Jason Kidd done to earn a third opportunity as head coach of an NBA franchise? I’m legitimately curious. All he did in his one year with the Nets and three and a half with Milwaukee was win one playoff series while consistently underperforming and failing to win a single division title. The...

Khris Middleton must be better for the Bucks to avoid an upset
Khris Middleton was once a relatively unknown prospect, packaged by the Detroit Pistons — along with Brandon Knight and Viacheslav Kravtsov — to acquire Brandon Jennings eight years ago....

From ‘selfish’ to savior: NBA’s Reggie Jackson is for real
Reggie Jackson always wanted to be empowered. Who doesn’t? But you could always tell early on that his career revolved around striving for that seemingly unattainable belief system....

If the Clippers go down 0-2 again, it’ll be more difficult to come back this time
Don’t get it twisted — these Los Angeles Clippers could do it again, but would you really want to doubt them this time?...

The Kemba-Horford deal should work for both the Celtics and Thunder
Admit it. You woke up not knowing that NBA teams not currently playing could make trades during the playoffs. Don’t feel bad — a lot of people learned that today, in a startling way. ...

Crazy times for Dallas Mavericks
The Donnie Nelson-Rick Carlisle era in Dallas is over... and it’s shaping up to be a real ugly divorce....

Well, these playoffs took some unexpected turns in the past week
Less than a week ago, the second round of the NBA playoffs seemed like it was on its way to wrapping up quickly, with the 76ers and Nets looking far superior to the Hawks and Bucks, the Suns on the verge of sweeping the Nuggets, and the Clippers down 2-0 to the Jazz with no answers for Utah’s abilit...

The Sixers chose Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris, and Brett Brown over Jimmy Butler in 2019 and now they’re living with the result
Look at how we view the 2019 Toronto Raptors because a ball bounced in....

Can we all finally recognize Paul George for his greatness?
With Kawhi Leonard sidelined with an ACL injury, everyone rushed to their computers to rule out the Clippers in their series with the top-seeded Utah Jazz. Even though the series was tied 2-2, no one expected the Clippers to steal a game in Utah without Kawhi on the court. Much like my colleague Jon...

Can we please just pick the 15 best players for All-NBA teams?
Every year, some worthy players are left off the three different All-NBA teams and Twitter goes into an uproar. Sadly, what makes it even worse is that now these All-NBA selections are impacting player’s money. Just ask Donovan Mitchell and Jayson Tatum, who are undoubtedly two of the Top 15 players...

SEE IT: Phoenix fan pummels man in Nuggets jersey, declares 'Suns in four'
The Denver Nuggets can’t go out like this. ...

Stop the Bubble slander
The Denver Nuggets are down 3-0, meaning no team who reached the NBA’s Final Four in The Bubble has won a game past Round 1, and one of them didn’t even do that. But these four teams — the Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, and Boston Celtics — shouldn’t be diminished for accomplishing what th...

There will never be another game like MJ's ‘Flu Game,’ and that’s a good thing
Twenty-four years ago today, Michael Jordan played in Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz while being — as the band Disturbed would say — down with the sickness after getting food poisoning from a pizza delivered to his hotel room the night before by five randos. ...

Kawhi’s gonna have to do it again
This 0-2 hole, in some ways, isn’t as dispiriting as the previous round’s seemed to be for the Los Angeles Clippers. ...

LeBron reminds us of other greats who wore multiple numbers on the same team
After a tumultuous 2018-19 season with the Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James tweeted this out, passive-aggressively declaring his intentions to change his number to six....

Embiid and Simmons remind us, in different ways, why they’re special
Ben Simmons only took three shots in the 34 minutes he played last night, but his defensive impact was a catalyst in the Philadelphia 76ers’ 118-102 win over the Atlanta Hawks in Game 2....

Old man CP3 just keeps proving the haters wrong
Chris Paul deserves every single one of his flowers. ...

THAT is exactly what the Suns need to keep doing
If your entire starting five is at least a +12 or higher, then you’ll look like the Phoenix Suns did in their 122-105 Game 1 victory over the Denver Nuggets last night. And their balance is precisely why they have the edge on a shorthanded Nuggets roster....

Is Brooklyn's rout of Milwaukee meaningful?
The Bucks lost by 39 points in Brooklyn on Monday night, and it felt like something of a denouement for this current Milwaukee team, which has gone 162-65 over the past three seasons but disappointed in the playoffs....

Can we stop all the Luka-Larry comparisons now?
It’s a Trash Talking Tuesday, and today I’m trashing Mavs star Luka Dončić....