nba-finals Page 17 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Who do Eastern Conference teams need to worry about in a post-LeBron playoff world?
Last week, the NBA presented and christened its Eastern Conference Finals Trophy after Larry Bird. It was a well-deserved honor for an old Hick from French Lick, who helped pave the NBA’s Gilded Age. However, King James should be the most revered monarch over the East. LeBron was the Eastern Confere...

We have a feeling Michael Jordan took this personally
Adam Silver might be receiving a call from somebody very soon. It’ll be a friendly call from one of the NBA team owners saying that he will be in New York for a visit shortly. He will suggest that the two of them play golf soon, and as soon as that request is made, the commissioner should turn his p...

NBA finally puts respect on Monty Williams’ name
Finally, somebody from the Phoenix Suns organization is getting the respect they deserve. This week, head coach Monty Williams was named NBA Coach of the Year, and it’s about damn time. Williams ran away with the voting racking up 81 first-place votes for a grand total of 458. Memphis Grizzlies head...

Al Horford’s season-saving Game 4 was a reminder that he has been a rock
If the Boston Celtics go on to win an NBA championship, Al Horford’s Game 4 performance will live in Boston sports lore until the east coast breaks off into the Atlantic Ocean, or however climate change really sinks its teeth into this planet....

COVID-19 is still the biggest X-factor of the NBA playoffs
The fat lady may be singing, but the coronavirus and all of its variants are still dancing like the party just started....

Duncan Robinson has put the MIA in Miami against Philly
The Philadelphia 76ers tied their semifinals series 2-2 with the Miami Heat on Sunday night, defeating them 116-108. The momentum in this series has completely swung in Philly’s favor, and it’s no mystery why. Joel Embiid’s return, coupled with Miami missing 51 threes in the last two games, has made...

A look back at what 'Winning Time' accomplished
In the final episode of Winning Time, Season 1 quickly does away with the spectacle and gets straight to the facts. The series’ biggest conceit is as a series based on real-life, it can’t deviate from the truth. But, for all the defending creators Max Borenstein and Adam McKay have done for the seri...

Philly’s Joel Embiid, Dallas’ supporting cast help get their teams back into series
The last two NBA Finals losers, the Heat and Suns, are in very similar positions in the second round of the playoffs. Both took care of business at home, then went on the road Friday night and got smoked....

Budding Grizzlies-Warriors rivalry is highlighted by maturation of Ja Morant
The first two games of the Grizzlies-Warriors semifinals series have provided something for every NBA fan, no matter which side you’re on. If you can’t get excited about this series, then you aren’t a hardcore hoops fan....

Draymond is winning in the court of public opinion and basking in it
Look who gets to be the good guy. It is hard to get ejected from an NBA playoff game, but Draymond Green figured out how to pull it off on Sunday. He got sent to the showers in the first half for clocking Brandon Clarke during the Golden State Warriors Game 1, 117-116 victory against the Memphis Gri...

The NBA is always best with celebrity fans, but Jack Harlow needs to do better
So Jack Harlow is gunning for the top NBA celebrity fan award. It’s clear with him taking logo threes during the celebrity all star game, recording singles about Tyler Herro, and getting advice from Kawhi Leonard about how to improve his game. Part of the charm of the NBA is the celebrities in court...

There were some outstanding performances in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, and those players deserve some recognition
The playoffs are not about individual accomplishments. This is the time where players make every single sacrifice from points to minutes without complaint — at least they’re supposed to. That’s why there aren’t any playoff awards except for Finals MVP and, of course, the championship....

The NFL Draft becomes must-bet TV
Will it be Travon Walker? Aidan Hutchinson? Kayvon Thibodeaux? Whoever your gut is telling you is probably a safe bet — well, safer than most bets, anyway....

Funny how the Boston Celtics took off once Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens were out of the way
Ime Udoka is who so many fans — and media members — desperately wanted Brad Stevens to be....

The Pelicans turned the NBA’s least interesting playoff matchup into can’t-miss television
Even after the New Orleans Pelicans’ disastrous 1-12 start to the 2021-22 season, it’s not as if there was some seismic shift. Their first winning streak came in mid-December when they tallied four victories in a row. Before that, they were still only 9-21 on the season. Since that streak they have ...

You might want to close your sportsbook app for a few hours to watch this Netflix Tim Donaghy documentary when it comes out
Are you ready for FanDuel and Caesar’s Sportsbook commercials during your favorite sporting events to be followed by trailers for the Tim Donaghy story? If not, buckle up, because that is gonna be one helluva dichotomy as the big leagues dive into sports gambling in synchronized tandems, while we ge...

Ranking the top postseason performances in Miami Heat history
Jimmy Butler had a memorable Game 4 against the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday, dropping 56 points in a 119-114 victory over the No. 1 seed....

J.J. Redick found out that yelling about sports is Mad Dog Russo’s 3-point line
I didn’t grow in New York, so I didn’t get to listen to Mike and the Mad Dog. My most vivid memories of Chris “Mad Dog” Russo are working lunch shifts at a restaurant and watching his lips flap open and closed at 3X speed on a muted bar television playing MLB Network’s High Heat with no sound. At th...

Why do the basketball gods hate Chris Paul?
On Tuesday night, the New Orleans Pelicans were getting baptized by Devin Booker. The Suns’ shooting guard was dapping up babies en route to a 31-point first half. While the Suns offense was boiling hot in the first half, their defense couldn’t slow down the Pelicans’ offense, especially in transiti...