national-basketball-association Page 35 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Why the 76ers’ Joel Embiid scored 101 points in 24 hours
In professional sports, team executives and coaches can over-complicate a situation by attempting to outthink the room. This frequently happens in the NBA when general managers are building teams. Or they just become so blinded by certain players that they fail to see their inadequacies clearly....

FTX’s collapse cost a who’s who of pro athletes and sports brands millions
The Crypto craze has infiltrated the sports realm for years, however, no crypto firm has been more ubiquitous of late than FTX. Franchises, athletes, and venture capitalists who advise these figures all rose for the bullish crypto market. FTX sniveled its way into mainstream culture through brand sp...

Coming off the bench has brought back some semblance of vintage Russell Westbrook
Russell Westbrook’s first season in L.A. was an unmitigated failure. He was plugged into a lineup of non-shooters including LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and a confusing mix of ill-fitting pieces. Of Rob Pelinka’s misfit toys, though, nobody took last season’s debacle harder on the chin than Westbroo...

Grizzlies broadcasters got so mad they couldn’t even call the game, and it was wonderful
There is a charm to a local sports broadcast. Sports is about energy, and passion, and a way to draw that out of fans is with the MCs of the event....

Why are the Warriors looking so shaky this year?
The Golden State Warriors are far from the only team in the NBA that’s surprisingly struggling. Hell, there are surprises all over the league. The Utah Jazz gutted their team and have the best record in the Western Conference....

Jacque Vaughn is Brooklyn’s next man up or their next sacrificial lamb
Mere hours before a nationally televised matchup against the New York Knicks, the Brooklyn Nets opted for a semblance of stability, or at least a stable shoulder to lean on, when they removed the interim tag from assistant coach Jacque Vaughn’s title....

Some day, not now, Jabari Smith Jr. will know what it’s like to have a true point guard
For as much tanking and general thirst that the top three picks of the 2022 NBA Draft garnered, they haven’t merited that attention quite yet. In Chet Holmgren’s case, it’s impossible because he’s out for the season. Paolo Banchero is going to win Rookie of the Year, and little else on an Orlando Ma...

Dejounte Murray has been better than advertised to start the season
Following last season’s disappointing journey and final destination, the Atlanta Hawks are off to a blazing start to this season. They are 7-3 and not only look like the clear best team in the Southeast division, but also like one of the better squads in the Eastern Conference....

The Lakers should’ve listened when Anthony Davis said he didn’t want to play the 5
Basketball fans always wondered why the pre-Kevin Durant Golden State Warriors didn’t start its vaunted Death Lineup but instead opted to begin games with Andrew Bogut at center. The combination of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes, and Draymond Green finished the 73-win se...

Who will be stepping into the limelight this NBA season?
When a new wave of players becomes NBA relevant, it usually happens over time, never all at once. It’s a gradual increase in relevance, sometimes under the radar, because it’s guys who reach their potential in small markets and losing situations. When a lottery pick hits early and fast, like Paolo B...

Steph Curry is keeping Golden State upright, but for how long?
Golden State’s 4-7 record has been jarring to witness. A five-game road losing streak during a road trip that rolled through Charlotte (3-8), Detroit (3-8), Miami (4-7), Orlando (2-9), and New Orleans (5-5) had the alarms blaring. Despite the final result, the Warriors 116-113 win over the Sacrament...

Dwight Howard can’t get an NBA job while other past their prime vets continue to collect paychecks
Former slam dunk champ Dwight Howard, aka Superman, entered the 2022 NBA season on the free agent list. Throughout training camps and three weeks into the season, nobody has come knocking at Howard’s door until now. And you’ll never guess what team is giving Howard a chance to continue his career — ...

Like LeBron and Migos, NBA hipsters were on the Nuggets before you
Fun fact about the Denver Nuggets: They might have more trendy NBA Twitter fans than actual hometown supporters. While the hipster hoops head’s response to “You know who I low-key really love to watch?” is always Nikola Jokić’s squad, they’re behind the Broncos, Avalanche, and the Rockies when it co...

The Utah Jazz are George Costanza-ing their way to the top of the West
“What is going on in Utah?” was the Brian Windhorst query that ruled the summer as the Jazz’s CEO of basketball operations Danny Ainge jettisoned Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a boatload of first-round picks through 2029. The answer was Utah gutting their roster and Quin Snyder walki...

How the mid-2000s Suns f’ed it all up
Everything we love about the current NBA was made mainstream by the “seven seconds or less” Phoenix Suns of the mid-2000s. They mostly ran lineups that went four out, surrounding their All-Star big man, Amar’e Stoudemire, with space to dominate less athletic bigs. In the 2000s, just about every othe...

The Brooklyn Nets might be giving up on Ben Simmons already
Welp, that could be it, folks. ...

The Brooklyn Nets are the biggest basketball failure of the 21st Century
With Kyrie Irving dominating the news cycle in recent days, now seems like as good a time as any to remind you that even if you take all the Brooklyn Nets’ off-court issues out of the equation, they’re still a really bad basketball team....

Can you Phil the love tonight?
Love is certainly not the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about Philadelphia — despite it being called the City of Brotherly Love or having a statue of the word. I don’t care how high of a note Musiq Soulchild hit in his 2000 Billboard Top 100 single....