nba-playoff Page 14 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Basketball gods, please give us a Young-Booker NBA Finals
I’m not sure if the Atlanta Hawks won the series or if the Philadelphia 76ers lost it, but either way, the Hawks and Trae Young have surprisingly made it into the Eastern Conference finals. On the other side of the bracket, the Phoenix Suns and Devin Booker are surging. Dreams are forming in my head...

In recent coaching trend, NBA stood for No Blacks Allowed... That MUST change
The NBA is finally back in the Black. In coaching, that is....

It doesn’t matter what we think if Ben Simmons’ teammates are done with him
I admit that I fell into the trap of using every NBA playoff game as a referendum on the legacy of every NBA star. Things are never that simple, and winning a championship is hard. Especially in the NBA, where it’s an actual referendum on how your team is built. It’s not hockey where the bounces jus...

Giving the ‘Suns in 4’ guy tickets and a signed jersey sets a bad precedent
Who wants to stage a fight at an NBA game next season? Any takers? I’ll let someone throw a few haymakers my way if it means I get tickets to a playoff game. I’ll take a signed Jayson Tatum or Mike Conley jersey. It can’t be that hard to fake a fight, right? The WWE scripts their fights all the time...

Crazy times for Dallas Mavericks
The Donnie Nelson-Rick Carlisle era in Dallas is over... and it’s shaping up to be a real ugly divorce....

Well, these playoffs took some unexpected turns in the past week
Less than a week ago, the second round of the NBA playoffs seemed like it was on its way to wrapping up quickly, with the 76ers and Nets looking far superior to the Hawks and Bucks, the Suns on the verge of sweeping the Nuggets, and the Clippers down 2-0 to the Jazz with no answers for Utah’s abilit...

Paul George has chance, and not by choice, to lead a team to new heights
The NBA playoffs have been a brutal war of attrition, with nearly every team left standing dealing with injuries to star players. The Los Angeles Clippers are no different — Kawhi Leonard reportedly has an ACL injury and is out indefinitely. Much like how Kevin Durant was thrown into the fray withou...

NYC should appreciate and take notice of what’s happening in Brooklyn
To: New York NBA fans ...

James Harden will reportedly test out his hamstring, taking a huge risk amid injury-plagued season
One day, we’ll learn how this collection of injuries from the 2021 NBA Playoffs could be quantified historically, but, unfortunately, this has to be one of the most football-ass NBA seasons yet....

Deadspin looks at all the injuries that have affected the NBA playoffs
When Kyrie Irving went down with an ankle injury halfway through the second quarter of Sunday’s Bucks and Nets Game 4 matchup, basketball fans simultaneously let out a loud groan. The injury bug had hit another star in a season that may be remembered for who was left standing, instead of who was the...

These NBA Playoffs have been painful to play and watch
We are watching the worst NBA playoffs ever....

Hey, another country is forcing an international sporting event down its citizens’ throats
Only 29 percent of the people in Brazil want the country to host Copa America, with 64 percent opposed, but that’s what’s happening anyway, even with 2,000 deaths a day from COVID-19 in Brazil, even with 65,000 new daily cases of coronavirus, even after a dozen members of Venezuela’s contingent test...

Choose your fighter: deGrom or Ohtani?
New York Mets’ starter Jacob deGrom is kinda having a pretty alright season. More than 60 games in, his 0.56 ERA is half that of Bob Gibson’s from 1968 (1.12 — the lowest single-season ERA in the modern era). He’s also striking out 14.48 batters per nine innings pitched, which would also be the all-...

Wheat, chaff, separation, etc., in NBA’s second round
It’s beginning to look a lot like a short second round of the NBA playoffs after the Suns rolled out to a 3-0 lead on the Nuggets with a 116-102 win in Denver on Friday night, behind 28 points from Devin Booker and a 27-point, eight-assist night from Chris Paul....

There will never be another game like MJ's ‘Flu Game,’ and that’s a good thing
Twenty-four years ago today, Michael Jordan played in Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz while being — as the band Disturbed would say — down with the sickness after getting food poisoning from a pizza delivered to his hotel room the night before by five randos. ...

What happened to all the NBA’s best playoff heel teams?
The NBA playoffs have featured excellent basketball as players who have been on the rise as stars in the league have battled to grab the spotlight....

The 2018 NBA Draft class could rank among best of the decade
It’s time for us to take a good look at the 2018 NBA draft class....

Can the Clippers benefit from a quick turnaround against the well-rested Utah Jazz?
Fresh off the apparent re-emergence of Kawhi Leonard following a worrisome Game 5, the Los Angeles Clippers find themselves in Salt Lake City, and not Cancun, tonight....

Is Brooklyn's rout of Milwaukee meaningful?
The Bucks lost by 39 points in Brooklyn on Monday night, and it felt like something of a denouement for this current Milwaukee team, which has gone 162-65 over the past three seasons but disappointed in the playoffs....

Step aside Lakers, L.A. is Clippers Country now
The worm has turned in L.A....