layoffs Page 139 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

LaMarcus Aldridge And His Jumper Are Here To Torment
Here's how good LaMarcus Aldridge has been against the Rockets in the first two games of their playoff series: When I first saw this obviously fake and joke-y shot chart on Twitter this morning, my first thought wasn't, "Haha what a silly and stupid thing that is." It was, "Yep. Looks about right."...

Marc-Andre Fleury Reverts To Type
Because it's the Cup, we got bad Marc-Andre Fleury....

Reporter Asks Patrick Kane "Was That Your First Overtime Game-Winner?"
Patrick Kane scored 11 minutes into tonight's overtime and helped Chicago even their series against the Blues 2-2. Afterward, a reporter asked him if it was the first time he'd ever scored a game-winning goal in overtime....

Josh McRoberts Gets Away With A Flying Elbow To LeBron's Throat
Josh McRoberts put an elbow in LeBron James's throat near the end of tonight's playoff game, but somehow, the Bobcat wasn't called for anything more than a shooting foul....

Blue Jackets Win In OT After Marc-Andre Fleury's Screwup In Regulation
The Blue Jackets won their second playoff game ever when Nick Foligno flicked a long shot past Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. But how the Pens blow a 3-0 lead in the first period? Let's go back to the end of regulation....

Even The Chicago Bulls' Security Staff Is Sick Of Joey Crawford's Shit
The Chicago Bulls have set up a kind of text-message hotline that fans can use to hail the assistance of the arena's security team. Reader Dave was at the game between the Bulls and the Wizards last night, and he tried his luck at getting referee Joey Crawford—who made a number of bad calls and whom...

Terry Stotts, Reinvented: How A Retread NBA Coach Became Cutting Edge
Players get better, and players get worse. This is a fundamental truth, and an arc we've always understood, analytics or not, as part of the fabric of not just sports, but performance and ability in general. Sometimes you get better at your job, sometimes you fall off. But we don't really look at co...

Did Nene's Whistle From The Bench Make Hinrich Miss His Foul Shot? (No.)
Last night in overtime of the Wizards-Bulls game, Kirk Hinrich went to the line with 2.4 seconds left, the score 101-99, and a chance to tie the game. But he missed! How could this be? Last night, we thought it was because he was a clutch gene-free, low-motor choke artist. But today, we may have our...

Ron MacLean Drags Hockey's "French Referee Problem" Into The Open
Any time you say something so dumb that P.J. Stock gets uncomfortable, you really stepped in it....

Report: Pacers Had Fistfight Before Game 1
Adrian Wojnarowski goes out of his way to downplay a practice fight between Lance Stephenson and Evan Turner as something normal for the close quarters of an NBA team, but that's not going to stop observers from pointing to it as one symptom—or possible cause—of the Pacers' precipitous decline....

Daniel Carcillo Scores Goal; Flyers Fan Flips Double Bird In His Face
After Daniel Carcillo scored a goal to give the Rangers a 4-1 lead on the Flyers, he celebrated near the glass, surrounded by his teammates. One Flyers fan congratulated him with double middle fingers, right in his face. Carcillo obviously noticed....

Oh Hell, Root For The Wizards: John Wall's Brave, Stubborn Playoff Run
If you have watched much Washington Wizards basketball over the past four seasons, first of all, why, and I am so sorry—but also, you have seen John Wall chase down a ballhandler in transition, take off like a fucking F/A-18 off a carrier deck, and swat the absolute shit out of the ball. It's reall...

The Nets Are Very Old, But Their Defense Is Next Level
The average age of the Brooklyn Nets preferred starting lineup right now is 32.4. Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Deron Williams have seemingly been in our collective consciousness for decades. Even Shaun Livingston, the fifth member of that quintet, is best known for a gruesome knee in...

Tony Allen Is The Defensive Stopper You Can Root For
There's a certain stigma that often hounds players who are labeled as defensive stoppers in the NBA, a belief that no small part of their success is derived from the fact that they are simply willing to play like assholes. This was true of Bruce Bowen, who was never all that feisty but wasn't shy a...

Durant, Perkins Heroics Force Overtime In Oklahoma City
This play, and everything about it, is absolutely nuts....
![Raptors Blame ESPN For Shot-Clock Malfunction [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/Image_Not_Found_1x_qjofp8.png)
Raptors Blame ESPN For Shot-Clock Malfunction [Update]
The shot clocks blew out in the third quarter of Saturday's Game 1 in Toronto, which led to pure absurdity: the Raptors' PA guy counting down the shot clock while looking at a stopwatch held by an NBA official next to him. When it expired, he would literally say "Horn!", and it was the funniest damn...

Is Chris Paul Somehow Underrated?
There's a neat narrative in the NBA today (which we help perpetuate) that LeBron James and Kevin Durant are the best players in the league by a mile, each season a clash between two great legacies in the making. But how true is this, really?...

It's So Hard To Escape The Blazers
It's a question that we've asked before, and after falling to the Blazers in overtime last night, it's one that the Rockets are probably asking themselves a lot this morning: How the hell do you beat the Blazers?...

Zdeno Chara Laughs At Puny Humans Who Want To Fight Him
Detroit defenseman Brendan Smith has been a target of abuse through the first two games of the series. He decided to take out his frustrations on the nearest Bruin. The nearest Bruin just happened to be the tallest NHL player ever....

Nathan MacKinnon Can't Be Stopped Right Now
We were impressed by Avalanche sensation Nathan MacKinnon's stellar play in his first playoff game, so of course, the 18-year-old followed up his postseason debut with a better game, including his first career playoff goal....