nba-playoff Page 11 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Bronny James got a Hollywood NIL deal
Bronny James was born at the right time. With the NIL runway cleared for takeoff, James is soaring at cruising altitude. He is doing so well that you will likely see a commercial of his many times during the NBA playoffs. In an ad for the 10th installment of the Fast and Furious franchise. James’ fa...

Donovan Mitchell joins elite group of legendary NBA players in Cavs playoff debut
Donovan Mitchell had a magnificent start to his playoff career in Cleveland as he led all scorers in game one of the Cavs’ first-round series against the New York Knicks, dropping 38 points, albeit in a losing effort. Despite falling into a 0-1 hole and losing home-court advantage, Mitchell still ma...

Finding the NBA playoff X factors
The NBA playoffs are where superstars can add to — or subtract from — their legacies. They may come up clutch, or absolutely choke under the spotlight. The same goes for coaches. But there are always subplots around certain youngsters, role players, and unknowns who can make a name for themselves. T...

Each NBA playoff team's <i>Succession</i> character
Have we all recovered from that tear-jerker of an episode on Sunday? I mean to watch the Minnesota Timberwolves unravel in front of the world was absolutely heart-wrenching. Just kidding. I know the Timberwolves’ imploding was about as sad as [SPOILER ALERT] Logan Roy finally kicking the bucket late...

The Sports Emmys are lacking, so Deadspin is here to pick up the slack
A problem with the Sports Emmys is there simply aren’t enough categories for individuals. Most awards are for shows, segments, reports, documentaries, etc. Only a handful acknowledge the on-air personalities, so those who care about bringing home some hardware are in for an uphill battle....

Gregg Popovich isn't here for your thoughts and prayers
Before the NBA’s regular season wrapped up, before his San Antonio Spurs beat the Dallas Mavericks in the finale, Gregg Popovich didn’t want to talk about his future. The 74-year-old Hall of Famer brushed off questions about his retirement. Instead, during his pregame media availability, the all-tim...

Can we just skip the Eastern Conference play-in tournament this year?
As the NBA regular season nears its end, teams continue to jockey for playoff and play-in tournament positions producing some wild races heading toward the finish line. The race in the West is setting up for a photo finish over the last few days, with both playoff and play-in implications on the lin...

Sacramento’s Mike Brown is NBA Coach of the Year — and it shouldn’t be close
The NBA regular season is rolling toward its end, which means award talk is heating up. You’ll hear about the MVP race primarily, but a few other awards are handed out each year that matter. Coach of the Year is one of them, and no one is more deserving in 2023 than Sacramento Kings head coach, Mike...

The craziest storylines of the NBA season (so far)
The NBA is never drama-free, and there’s a reason the NBA playoffs are one of the few reasons to remain on the toxic hell site that is Twitter these days. But even for the NBA, this season has been a spectacle worth of Vanderpump Rules. As we inch ever closer to the post-season, here’s a look back a...

These NBA playoff performers have the most to prove
Every year a group of players enters the NBA playoffs with the weight of their legacy on their shoulders. And every year, all but one player exits bearing even more weight than they went in with. This season is no different, despite the unprecedented parity in the league. So we’ve pinpointed the pla...

The four most exciting games in the NBA last night
We here at Deadspin understand that you need to get those REM cycles in, in addition to catching up on The Mandalorian, The Last Of Us, the Great British Bakeoff, or whatever else the kids are watching these days. For those of you who cashed it in early, here are the four most exciting NBA games tha...

Brooklyn Nets, we hardly knew ye
A pouting James Harden was traded to the Brooklyn Nets nearly two years ago to the day. Way back in January 2021, before the COVID vaccine card went mainstream, the newest super team was Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving. It is now Super Bowl week 2023. Some of you all have vaccine cards stampe...

Nic Claxton is a major reason why the Brooklyn Nets have played so well lately
Thursday night’s playoff rematch between the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets will be like many big-time NBA regular-season matchups — incomplete....

Hey Adam Silver, glossy new trophies won’t fix the NBA’s regular season
They say millennials are obsessed with trophies, but our elders have been expanding the ones propping up that industry. Commissioner Adam Silver’s quest to revitalize the regular season’s infrastructure has been his pet project for almost his entire eight-year stint. One day after Kawhi Leonard expr...

The Golden State Warriors are clutch test-takers
Boston’s league-leading winning percentage meant nothing once Golden State decides to ascend to a higher plane of basketball nirvana. Golden State’s geezers might sprint out the gates as quickly as they did in years past, but when they need to hit the thrusters, they still have the energy to tap int...

The NBA’s newest award is a better fit for MLB teams
It’s bad enough that there have been 16 NBA playoff spots since 1984. At that time there were only 23 teams in the league. It’s 2022, and still more than half of the league gets into the playoffs, and that’s not even counting the highly entertaining Play-in Tournament. Sure the New Orleans Pelicans ...

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...

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

Washington Wizards trying to relive glory days of mid-2000s mediocrity
The Washington Wizards of the mid-aughts will always be remembered more for how their time together ended than the actual run itself — and for good reason. The team only won one playoff series, and that was the year before it traded Kwame Brown for Caron Butler, who would make his only two all-star ...
