marcus-smart - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights



Chris Paul is done as a starting point guard
On Wednesday evening, Bleacher Report insider Chris Haynes’ report that the Suns were prepared to waive point guard Chris Paul before a June 28 deadline which would guarantee his entire $30 million salary for the next season triggered a fury of interest in the 38-year-old. Shams Charania and Adrian ...

Boston Celtics got a lucky bounce — along with Game 7 and all the momentum
After falling behind 3-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, Boston Celtics’ guards Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart told the media, “Don’t let us get one.” Not only did the Celtics get one, but they got a second and a third in a row to tie the series and become only the fourth team in NBA history to adv...

The Kyrie Irving to LA, Damian Lillard to Boston rumors will dominate the NBA offseason
At the risk of being a hypocrite and drowning Denver in a flood of Los Angeles Lakers’ developments, the departure from the postseason has stirred up the underbelly of latent Kyrie Irving free agency rumor-mongering. Even in defeat, the superstar carousel never ends in Los Angeles — or Boston for th...

You gotta wonder how Ime Udoka feels about the Boston Celtics being down 3-0
Losing to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals is one thing. But, being down 3-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals to a Miami Heat team that needed the play-in to make the playoffs is another. It’s also the barometer that Joe Mazzulla has to deal with in a post-Ime Udoka world....

Boston and Miami battle to see who's the Beast in the East
In a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat are set to square off for the third time in four years to crown the Beast in the East. While the Celtics remain the No. 2 seed, the Heat have been forced to defy the odds of returning to the ECF as the No. 8 see...

Boston was bad but the Celtics are far from finished
Boston Celtics fans, I saw the looks on some of your faces as you filed out of TD Garden early on Tuesday night. With the series tied at 2-2, there was no way you all expected the Philadelphia 76ers to pulverize your team in the second half on the way to a 115-103 victory....

Celtics' Joe Mazzulla’s reluctance to call a timeout is a blunder that’s become too common
The use of timeouts in one-possession games is a contentious philosophical debate in NBA circles. Each end-of-game episode presents coaches with an ambiguous multiple-choice equation. Timeouts have an expiration date, but that hasn’t stopped coaches from attempting to carry them into the next game o...

The NBA is incentivizing flopping
NBA players have cause to be upset with the officiating in the playoffs. Just last week a ball clearly bounced off of a rim and the Miami Heat still were called for a crucial shot clock violation. I am never inclined to defend Scott Foster, but maybe his brain was fried from a flop fest that night b...

These 9 NBA veterans are crucial to their team's playoff success
Older generations have always had critiques of where the game is going. Each generation, old heads critique how soft and easy the game has become. You can track this through podcasts, interviews, and any episode of the NBA on TNT with Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal. While revisionist history a...

Never trust an NBA Eastern Conference team
It’s getting pretty freaking unfunny how quickly the playoffs can flip narratives. The NBA’s Eastern Conference is supposed to be the superior of the two, with the three best records belonging to Milwaukee, Boston, and Philadelphia, and four of the top six marks overall. The first round was going to...

Overreacting to Game 1 of each NBA Playoff series
One game into each NBA postseason series feels like a good time to make some premature, bold declarations. The postseason tipped off with a fury of finishes that ranged from exciting to anesthesia. But Game 1 is a starter kit that we’ll try to extrapolate on. It would be wise to tread carefully in t...

Mikal Bridges is the calm after the storm of Brooklyn’s tumultuous Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant era
Today is the one-month anniversary of the NBA trade deadline that put the league in a blender. While the Phoenix Suns seem content with their half of the trade that netted them Kevin Durant, the Brooklyn Nets have quietly been winners in their own way. In addition to the first-round picks Phoenix su...