murray Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Karl-Anthony Towns could have been Nikola Jokic in another reality, but not this one
“If you gotta say it, you ain’t it” is a phrase Minnesota Timberwolves big Karl-Anthony Towns never learned. During a recent appearance on the PatBevPod with former T-Wolves teammate Pat Beverley, Towns was inhaling too much of the copium pipe with Pat and in a fantastical excuse-making mood discuss...
2023 All-Postseason Team, a FANtastic performance by these 5 players
America, glad to see the NBA playoffs were able to hold your attention again. With an average of 5.47 million viewers per game, the 2023 postseason was the most watched in five years. And more importantly, per Darren Rovell, since April of the 20 most watched programs by Americans under 50, the NBA ...
Deadspin's 2023 All-NBA Finals Team
The 2023 NBA Finals was not a sexy matchup on paper. A team from the mountain time zone with a mountain in the middle of lane, against a team from South Florida with no flash. These were the two teams that kept America from the NBA’s most classic championship matchup, Los Angeles Lakers vs. Boston C...
The Rockets are the NBA’s most ambitious offseason franchise
After the Denver Nuggets championship parade, it will be the Rockets time to shine. The Houston Rockets’ ‘Light the fuse” mantra has encapsulated their offseason machinations since Jalen Green’s bold IG Live set the tone for the summer by vowing to reach the postseason in 2024. That’s easier said th...
Nikola Jokić made a mockery of Heat culture
Imagine being Pat Riley, Jimmy Butler, and the Miami Heat’s training staff right now. They spent two decades preaching the advantages of elite fitness, conditioning, and mining for diamonds in the rough. Every season, Miami mandates that its players maintain a body fat percentage low enough to go wa...
A chaotic NBA season punctuated by a chaotic championship finish
The perfection of basketball offense. The shooting is too great. There is no way to defend the entire floor. The 3-point shot has ruined basketball. The Denver Nuggets had one of the greatest statistical offenses in NBA history during the 2022-23 NBA regular season, and defeated the Miami Heat in Ga...
Tomorrow is going to have to wait on Novak Djokovic
Eras don’t end on schedules. There wasn’t an assigned time when Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal exited the royal hall of the ATP Tour, it was just sort of a nebulous “time.” Federer’s knee eventually gave out, it might be that Nadal’s hip has done so as well. It would appear that Novak Djokovic is not...
The Nuggets are immune to the Heat’s Dark Arts
The Miami Heat’s success has been hard to define all postseason. Words like resilience, toughness, and intelligence certainly apply, but that can be said about any team in any sport that makes a deep playoff run. No, Miami has been Jonathan Crane, injecting fear into Gothamites and Bostonians alike....
Alcaraz’s cramps robbed us of satisfying conclusion to dream match against Djokovic
Well, that escalated quickly. It was nearly even in one of the biggest matches tennis has had in decades with a clash of the generations between old-standard Novak Djokovic and rising star Carlos Alcaraz. Then that damn charley horse in Alcaraz’s right leg happened and Djokovic won 10 of the next 11...
History says the NBA Champion will be the Finals Game 4 winner
By the end of Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday night in Miami, we’ll know who will be hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy. It won’t have anything to do with the Denver Nuggets having a possible 3-1 series lead, or if the Heat have stormed back to tie the series at 2-2 before things shift back to Col...
PGA Tour commish Jay Monahan eating his words after LIV merger
Oh to be in that room when Jay Monahan had to look the players on the PGA Tour in the face on Tuesday. The chainsaw from Scarface couldn’t have cut the tension in that room. A room of the players who weren’t offered hundreds of millions of dollars of Saudi Arabian Money — or worse, were offered but ...
Kyler Murray’s career is trending in the wrong direction
Kyler Murray was considered one of the most promising young NFL quarterbacks not too long ago, and now he’s viewed in a much less favorable light around the league. After a messy contract dispute with the Arizona Cardinals, Murray got his money, and now some think they may have overpaid the former R...
Jimmy Butler was good enough in Game 2
There was a little too much fouling of 3-point shooters for my taste on Sunday night, but other than that, the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets played quite the thrilling Game 2. The Nuggets threw run after run at the Heat, who ate every blow and kept countering. Eventually the Heat put the Nuggets on ...
French Open fans are the best
It was never a secret that Novak Djokovic was the third wheel to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Yet the Serbian planted himself into the conversation in two ways. First, a machine-like greatness over the past 12 years — 21 of his 22 Grand Slams have come since 2011, which is a period of condensed d...
The Denver Nuggets did something no team has done in a long time — beat the Miami Heat in Game 1
The last time the Miami Heat lost the first game of a series they got swept. Game 1 is always important, but Thursday night was essential for the Denver Nuggets — a franchise that is making its first appearance in the NBA Finals. It’s why Mike Malone knew his team was a must-win scenario....
Sometimes basketball is as simple as having taller guys everywhere
I wouldn’t pretend to be a basketball expert. My colleague Stephen will be around later to do that stuff. I do know there are myriad ways of designing an offense and defense and how to guard pick-and-rolls and rotations and a bunch of other things that coaches play with throughout a playoff series. ...
The definitive NBA Finals player rankings
The NBA Finals are upon us, and it’s time to rank the players involved. You’ll notice Tyler Herro is just an honorable mention, and that’s due to his injury status and not fully knowing when he’ll play in the series. These rankings are based on the level of importance and influence each player will ...
![These are your NBA Conference Finals All-Stars [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/f76d81f8c8a7ff5311833c932baa6622.jpg)
These are your NBA Conference Finals All-Stars [Updated]
Unfortunately, as hard as the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics played in the conference finals, a 2010 rematch did not emerge from the conference finals. Both legendary franchises fell to a 3-0 deficit. The Celtics held on for dear life, but should never have been down that bad. In the end both...
Talk about the Denver Nuggets, you cowards!
The Denver Nuggets are in the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, and I’m sincere when I say that’s not a backhanded compliment. Yet it seems as if I’m one of only a few media members who actually wants to talk about the team that won the Western Conference Finals. The league and its...
LeBron James isn’t retiring
Going to get this in writing real quick just so I can do the sports media thing in a couple of months and say I told you so: LeBron James isn’t retiring. The guy had 40, 10, and 9 in a closeout game, and the Los Angeles Lakers were a second scorer away from the NBA Finals. This is simply a little mo...