layoffs Page 63 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Jared Dudley Versus Ben Simmons Should Turn Into Some Prime NBA Playoff Beef
In Game 1 against the Sixers, fleshy Nets vet Jared Dudley shone. He finished with two points, but made several nice reads after lumbering into traffic, snagged a steal which led to a charming slow-break before Mike Scott broke it up on aesthetic principle, and, most importantly, played some stout d...

Giannis Shamed Former Buck Thon Maker Into Submission, Twice
There’s no real drama left in the ass-whooping better known as the Bucks-Pistons first-round series. Milwaukee is the best team in the East, featuring the likely MVP and a top five offense and defense. Detroit is...not that, plus they’re missing their best player, Blake Griffin, due to injury....

Philipp Grubauer Saved A Game And The Flames Are On The Brink
It’s less sexy than the Blue Jackets clobbering Tampa, but out west the Avalanche are on the verge of upsetting the other top seed, taking a 3-1 series lead over the Flames after a comeback 3-2 overtime win. Colorado’s doing a lot right, but a large share of their success belongs to goalie Philipp G...

The Pacers Kept Handing Bojan Bogdanovic The Ball Until It Killed Them
It looked like the Pacers got some much-needed redemption on Wednesday. After putting up a measly eight points in the third quarter against the Celtics in Game 1—Indiana would go on to lose 84-74—the Pacers had a strong third quarter of their own in Game 2, outscoring Boston 29-16. But that momentum...

Russell Westbrook Is Struggling
The sixth-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder were such a popular pick to upset the third-seeded Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the NBA Playoffs that it’s hardly fair to even call them the underdogs. Only one of ESPN’s panel of 20 analysts picked the Blazers to take the series, and the thinki...

The Damian Lillard Experience Is The Sweetest Show In Basketball
Tell yourself you love basketball as a beautiful game, to watch the ball ping around the court as a team’s collective hive-mind hunts the best available shot. Then watch the last week of the NBA playoffs and see if you can stick to that conviction. Between Lou Williams’s rash of perverse leaners on ...

Nikola Jokic Showed Gary Harris How To Soothe His Bashed Testicles
While Jamal Murray was catching fire late in the fourth quarter and leading the Nuggets to a dramatic playoff win over the Spurs, his teammates, Nikola Jokic and Gary Harris, were dealing with a separate problem....

Nothing Could Have Shaken Mike Malone's Faith In Jamal Murray
It’s hard to overstate just how bad Jamal Murray was through the first three quarters of Game 2 against the Spurs. The numbers are as plain and grim as numbers get: 0-of-8 from the field, two assists, and a plus-minus of -18 in 24 minutes. But even those numbers don’t quite capture the depths to whi...

What The Hell Happened To The Lightning?
Six days in April can change a lot....

Damian Lillard Boils Old Ham
Damian Lillard absolutely torched the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night with 26 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals. It was a performance that came in a convincing 114-94 win that gave the Blazers an important 2-0 lead in the first-round series....

Jamal Murray Washed Away The Sins Of His Horrendous Start With A Near-Perfect Fourth Quarter
Late in the third quarter, the Nuggets were close to overcoming the 19-point deficit the Spurs had put them in just a few minutes earlier. Thanks to the efforts of Malik Beasley, Denver had whittled the lead down to six with about 1:30 remaining in the quarter, and San Antonio was forced to call tim...

The Lightning Should Spend The Entire Summer With Paper Bags On Their Heads
Never has an NHL team had more reason to be embarrassed. First period of Game 1 aside, the Tampa Bay Lightning who won 62 games in the regular season failed to show up in their first-round series against the tremendously underestimated Columbus Blue Jackets, and they paid the price. As the Lightning...

Montrezl Harrell Is Very Finicky About His Free Throw Routine
Clippers center Montrezl Harrell is a giant dude who will try to dunk on anyone and scrap for every rebound. He’s spent the first two games of the playoffs succeeding in both areas, going 20-for-24 from the field and causing trouble for the Warriors. He’s also rather fussy about how he is presented ...

Goddammit, DeMarcus Cousins Is Probably Done For The Playoffs With A Torn Quad
DeMarcus Cousins might be the unluckiest player in the NBA. After eight seasons on two of the NBA’s most cursed franchises, Boogie’s first-ever playoff run is almost certainly over after 25 minutes and 11 points, as the Warriors announced Tuesday that Cousins has a torn left quadriceps. ...

The Warriors Deserved That
Tiger Woods sat back and said, “Well, what I did was pretty damned impressive, but that? Did you see THAT?” “That,” of course, was the most spectacular pipe job in NBA postseason history....

Cale Makar Has Arrived And His Parents Are Just Barely Holding It Together
It’s been a busy few days for Cale Makar. On Friday, he was named the Hobey Baker Award winner for top college player. On Saturday, he and UMass played in and lost the NCAA Championship game. On Sunday, he signed an entry-level contract with the Avalanche, who had drafted him fourth overall in 2017....

Put Lou Williams In The Hall Of Fame For What He Just Did To The Warriors
The L.A. Clippers pulled off an absurd comeback victory against the Golden State Warriors on Monday night, tying the first-round series at one-all by winning 135-131 after being down 94-63 in the third quarter. They were aided by a DeMarcus Cousins injury and a late Kevin Durant foul out, but the Cl...

Nathan MacKinnon's Wrist Is Trying To Kill The Flames All By Itself
The Flames had one of those nights on Monday, going down 4-0 in 28 minutes before an eventual 6-2 Avalanche win to give Colorado a 2-1 series lead. They picked up two simultaneous penalties—including too many men on the ice—to give up the Avs’ first goal on a 5-on-3. They got outshot 56-29. They eve...

Joel Embiid Couldn't Keep A Straight Face While Apologizing For His Elbow On Jarrett Allen
Joel Embiid got hit with a flagrant foul late in the first half of his Sixers’ eventual series-tying 145-123 win over the Nets on Monday night when he unleashed the full force of his elbow into Jarrett Allen’s neck while trying to beat him in the paint. Allen got up right away, but my goodness, that...

DeMarcus Cousins Limps Out Of Game With Non-Contact Leg Injury
The Warriors are facing a scary situation early in their Game 2 battle against the Clippers, because DeMarcus Cousins had to head back through the tunnel after injuring his left leg while trying to make a steal....