nan Page 90 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Boris Diaw Kicking Ass Is What The Playoffs Are All About
When Gregg Popovich shoved Matt Bonner into his starting lineup last night, it seemed clear he was making a decision in strategy and trying to shift the tenor of the series. But in perfect Popavellian fashion, Bonner turned out to be more decoy than secret weapon. The real genius of the lineup chang...

Tim Duncan Gets Kicked In The Nuts, Wants Everyone To Know About It
Whoa, Tim Duncan, did Russell Westbrook really just kick you in the nuts?...

<em>Night Moves</em> and Personal Apocalypses: The Films Of Kelly Reichardt
None of director Kelly Reichardt's films has made over $1 million at the box office. That seems about right. It's not that her superb dramas don't deserve a bigger audience. But because they're so intimate, so understated, they feel like secrets: the cinematic equivalent of the bootlegs die-hard...

Prosecution: Aaron Hernandez Killed Two Men Over A Spilled Drink
Aaron Hernandez was arraigned today for the drive-by murders of Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado outside a Boston club in July 2012. He pleaded not guilty, and for the first time, the prosecution offered a suspected motive: disrespect....

The <em>Sleeping Beauty</em> Reboot You Never Wanted: <em>Maleficent</em>, Reviewed.
Back in 2006, Patton Oswalt had a standup bit where he fantasized about going back in time and killing George Lucas so he'd never make the Star Wars prequels. In the imaginary conversation, Lucas tries to sell Oswalt on those reviled films by assuring the comedian that all the things he digs about t...

Here's A New Attempt At Gauging The Defensive Impact Of NBA Players
The defensive impact of individual NBA players is hard to measure, as it's so intertwined with their teammates' performance. Austin Clemens, undeterred, has taken an ambitious shot with his new Adjusted Impact by Court Location model, which attempts to parse out individual impacts on opponent shot s...

Even When The Spurs Lose, Gregg Popovich Wins
The Spurs may have lost to the Thunder last night, but Gregg Popovich continued to win his war against reporters who dare to ask him questions. ...

The Thunder Are The Thunder Again, And This Is A Brand New Series
I suppose we can go ahead and forget about the first two games of the Western Conference finals, which saw the Serge Ibaka-less Thunder getting swallowed whole by the Spurs while Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant did their best to fight off the inevitable. We can forget those two games because Ser...

Opponents Barred From Speaking As Cobb County Approves Braves Stadium
This is the point where you just tip your cap to the Braves, and acknowledge that they won. Even at a time when politicians and taxpayers are getting wary about publicly funding stadiums, the Braves just walked away with nearly $400 million from Cobb County, Ga., for a new ballpark, and did so witho...

The Thunder Got Back Serge Ibaka, May Have Gotten Back Into This Series
Now this is more like it. When the Thunder announced they'd lost Serge Ibaka for the remainder of the playoffs to a calf injury, it seemed like we'd all miss out on another classic clash of age vs. youth, savvy vs. athleticism, creative offense vs. "dribble around, then someone shoot!" Ibaka's retur...

Time Is Not A Flat Circle: <em>X-Men: Days Of Future Past</em>, Reviewed
1. X-Men: Days of Future Past feels like one of those special-edition comic books that takes all the characters we know and love, drops them in some sort of parallel universe (so the storyline's ramifications don't affect the current canon timeline), and shakes up both the plot and those characters ...

A Tolerable Adam Sandler Movie! <em>Blended</em>, Reviewed.
In the late '90s, when Adam Sandler decided to transition from imbecile par excellence to romantic lead, he teamed up with Drew Barrymore to make The Wedding Singer, a very silly and very lovable '80s comedy that brought a softer, more human side to his Happy Gilmore/Billy Madison persona. That fi...

This GIF Is All The Spurs-Thunder Analysis You Need
This GIF has been making its way around Twitter this morning, and it's all that really needs to be said about what has happened so far in the first two conference finals games between the Spurs and Thunder. ...

Russell Westbrook To Kevin Durant: "Wake Up"
What we have here (via CJ Fogler) is an excellent opportunity for projection. A fairly innocuous exhortation from one frustrated player to another after a defensive lapse, but in the context of the Spurs' blowout, their 2-0 series lead, and Kevin Durant's and Russell Westbrook's shitty shooting nigh...

Aaron Hernandez's Tattoos May Contain Clues To Murders
Authorities investigating Aaron Hernandez for the 2012 double-murder on which he was indicted last week have put out a public call for help: They're looking to speak with tattoo artists who did work on Hernandez's right forearm, reportedly under the belief that Hernandez may have gotten some ink to ...

José Fernández Says He Pitched Through Pain Before Injury
José Fernández met with the media last night, his surgically repaired arm in a heavy cast and hanging in a sling, and admitted to having pitched through elbow pain during his last two starts of the season, without alerting the Marlins to his discomfort...

Mike Pouncey Has A Framed Aaron Hernandez Jersey In His House
I guess if there's one thing this teaches us about Mike Pouncey, it's that you have to have allegedly murdered at least four people before he will decide to remove your framed jersey from his living room. ...

It's Westbrook And Durant Vs. The World Now
The Spurs, because they are the all-consuming, unrelenting Spurs, did everything they were supposed to in their Game 1 matchup with the Thunder last night. With Serge Ibaka off the floor, they put their heads down and attacked the rim over and over again, scoring 66 points in the paint. They were in...

Kill All Humans, Or At Least Mute Them: <em>Godzilla,</em> Reviewed.
1. The go-to example for critics complaining about big-budget summer blockbusters today—and how they've devolved from some past, theoretical peak—is Steven Spielberg's Jaws. One of that 1975 film's many genius innovations was to hold off, as long as possible, on ever letting us see the shark. The mo...

In Praise Of <em>Sugar</em>, The Anti-<em>Million Dollar Arm</em>
Hoop Dreams has haunted me ever since I saw it 20 years ago. The story of two black Chicago high school basketball players hoping to make the NBA and escape their inner-city lives, the film ends with their pro dreams very much in doubt. Decades later, I still remember the last thing William Gat...