layoffs Page 51 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Raptors' Defense Was Outrageous In The Clutch
The Sixers hit their last field goal in the half-court—a long, and-one leaner by J.J. Redick—with 3:29 remaining in Game 7. Then the Raptors put the clamps on. Philly would only even hit the rim one more time, off a heroic Jimmy Butler transition play. As stagnant and deferential as the Raptors have...
C.J. McCollum's Older Brother Is The Blazers' Best Hype Man
After the Blazers came back from 17 down to knock out the favored Nuggets, Portland hero C.J. McCollum told reporters that his 37 points, 9 rebounds, and game-saving chase-down block was fueled in part by a text from his brother Errick: “He told me not to settle, told me to get to the midrange, get ...
Kawhi Leonard Wins Game 7 With Insane Buzzer-Beater, Sends Joel Embiid Home Sobbing
The Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers just got done with a ragged and at times infuriating Game 7 to end the Eastern Conference semi-finals. The Raptors won the game, 92-90, thanks to this buzzer-beater from Kawhi Leonard. Hooooooooly shit, wait until you see this shot:...
The Trail Blazers Tried And Succeeded, Jennifer
Playoff games have a way of allowing narratives to fully bloom in the best possible ways. The latest example of this came on Sunday, when the man who almost single-handedly dragged the Portland Trail Blazers kicking and screaming into the franchise’s first Western Conference Finals appearance since ...
Rodney Hood Leaves Game After Injuring His Knee On A Screen From Torrey Craig
About halfway through the third quarter, Denver’s Torrey Craig set a screen on Rodney Hood to free up Jamal Murray. The screen caught Hood with his legs in an awkward position and he immediately went down clutching his knee. Portland staff members were able to get to Hood once play was stopped a few...
Which Humiliating Rockets Elimination Loss Was Worse?
For the second year in a row, the Houston Rockets’ efforts to try and defeat the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs came up just short. Normally, a postseason loss to the greatest team of this generation wouldn’t mean much more than “the significantly better team won four games before we did.” Ye...
Losing-Ass Rockets, At Long Last, Please Remove Yourselves To The Fraud Bin Immediately
I’m sure most Rockets fans are lovely people. The Rockets have a fine basketball organization, as creative and nimble and determined as any in the NBA. And James Harden genuinely is one of the most unstoppable offensive players in modern basketball history. Now. Can that team please get all the way ...
Ben Simmons Finally Showed Up
After four straight games of curious anonymity, Ben Simmons finally arrived—and just in time, as the Sixers desperately needed their Aussie weirdo to make like Joel Embiid’s ass and stop spewing diarrhea everywhere. Thanks to Simmons’s 21 points and bevy of rebounds and assists, Philadelphia lived t...
Jusuf Nurkic Wears T-Shirt With List Of Combatants Who Died In Bosnian War
Jusuf Nurkić, Portland’s excellent but injured big man, has been occasionally spotted supporting his team from the sideline during the playoffs. This support sometimes makes use of fashion. During the Blazers’ Game 6 win on Thursday, the big man wore a t-shirt with a list of 10 names. Here are those...
Mike Francesa Might, <i>Might </i>Be Able To Name Four Players In The Nuggets-Trail Blazers Series
The Western Conference semifinal series between the Denver Nuggets and the Portland Trail Blazers has been very good. It was hectic and tight through the first four games, then Denver landed a heavy blow with a Game 5 wipeout. Thursday night the Blazers responded, surging ahead in the second quarter...
Joel Embiid Emerges From Fog Of Illness, Leads 76ers To Game 6 Win
Joel Embiid didn’t put up the hugest numbers in Thursday night’s Game 6, but if anything his pedestrian production underscores just how dominant Embiid can be when he’s not pooping out and coughing up various vital internal organs. Thursday night he was feeling good, and as a consequence the 76ers ...
Kevin Durant's Achilles Seems To Be Intact, But The Warriors Have To Beat The Rockets Without Him
The good news for Warriors fans: An MRI this afternoon confirmed that Kevin Durant’s scary-looking non-contact injury Wednesday night was actually a right calf strain. The last time Durant strained his calf, he was only out for a week, which means he could return in the playoffs and should be health...
Don't Worry About The Warriors, But Worry A Little
There are worse problems to have as a basketball team than the lingering hangover and lousy vibes that come with a half-decade of all-devouring dominance. In the abstract, that doesn’t really sound like a problem at all—being slowly spoiled by overwhelming success is, on balance, a much better way t...
The Vile Celtics Are Dead And I'm So Happy
It was going to be so bad, man....
Paul Pierce Has Spent The Last Day Rotating Over The Flame Like A Rotisserie Chicken
Paul Pierce played his last NBA minute over two years ago. His absence made no hearts grow fonder. Last night, while the Bucks drained the last drops of blood out of the Celtics’ season, Milwaukee’s arena lit up with a “Paul Pierce sucks” chant....
The Four Horsemen Of The Second Round
As the second round came to a close I looked upon the remnants of the NHL and beheld the Four Horsemen who delivered judgment upon the match-ups. Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death each sent a team into the next life, which appears mostly to be either Worlds, or a golf course in British Columbia....
The Avalanche Were Sunk By A Bad Rule, Badly Applied
Pretend you don’t know anything about hockey. Take a look at this frozen moment of action. Where is the puck? Where is the play happening, and where is it not? Who is involved in the action, and who still has the potential to affect it? Who is violating the rules? More importantly, who is violating ...
Warriors Dodge A Whole Hailstorm Of Bullets, Hold Off Rockets In Game 5
The Warriors found themselves in a real hairy spot Wednesday night, in the second half of Game 5 of their conference semifinal series against the Houston Rockets. The Rockets were surging even before Kevin Durant went down with a lower leg injury, erasing Golden State’s early lead and drawing to wit...
![Kevin Durant Leaves Game After Suffering Alarming Non-Contact Leg Injury [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/rbmkyyzfpjakryfypnh6.gif)
Kevin Durant Leaves Game After Suffering Alarming Non-Contact Leg Injury [Update]
Late in the third quarter of Wednesday night’s Game 5 of Rockets-Warriors, Kevin Durant pulled up with a sudden non-contact lower leg injury, and had to leave the game. Reggie Miller, working the TNT broadcast, observed that the sequence of Durant’s injury looked strikingly similar to the Achilles t...