nba-playoff Page 26 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Kevin Durant Won The NBA Finals Tonight
Even if everyone already knew the Warriors were eventually going to win the NBA Finals regardless of what happened tonight, Game 3 was actually pretty fun. The Cavs gave the Dubs their best shot on the way to a respectable 110-102 defeat. Kevin Love came to play, Rodney Hood reminded us that he was ...

LeBron James Has Always Had To Carry Useless Weaklings
As we wait out the formality that these lopsided, nightmarish NBA Finals have become, it’s still worth acknowledging just how impressive it is that LeBron James has carried such a messed up, broken Cavs team through the Eastern Conference. With a supporting cast of old three-point specialists, activ...

Kendrick Perkins Somehow Becomes The Central Part Of An NBA Finals Controversy
At the end of the third quarter of Game 2, Steph Curry missed a three and sauntered back towards his bench in front of the Cavaliers. Most of the Cavs let him walk freely, but not Kendrick Perkins, who refused to close his widespread legs and knocked knees with Curry....

Here's Four Minutes Of Footage From Game 1 Of LeBron James Not Murdering J.R. Smith
Yes, Game 2 already happened, and it went just about as everyone expected after the Cavaliers blew their chance last week. It’s still worth going back to look to Game 1 and the exact moment this Finals series ended....

What Are You Supposed To Do About Steph Curry?
Steph Curry makes you want to ragequit. Throw up your hands; throw the controller across the room; swear, loudly, to an empty apartment. It’s a videogame term, but he’s a videogame talent: hitting low-percentage (for anyone else) shots at a rate that should be beyond human capabilities, and when the...

Watching The NBA Finals At Oracle Arena With The Overlords And Oligarchs In Club Prick
I watched Game 1 of the NBA Finals from extremely expensive seats in Oracle Arena, but I didn’t see J.R. Smith’s towering goof....

J.R. Smith Is No Longer So Certain He Knew The Score
J.R. Smith was pretty clear after Game 1 that he knew the score and situation at the end of regulation, and that what appeared to be an all-time blunder was, in fact, a combination of team-wide confusion and a running clock. The play sure didn’t look that way, but that was his story and, honestly, i...

NBA L2M Report: The Refs Made A Big Dumb Mess Of The End Of Game 1
It would be hard to overstate just how badly the Cavs were screwed by the universe at the end of Game 1 Thursday night. A rare reversed judgment call, an unexpected missed free throw, an uncalled lane violation, an apparent uncalled loose-ball foul, and an all-time blunder by one of their own, all i...

Tristan Thompson Avoids Suspension For Game 1 Tussle
The NBA announced Friday that Tristan Thompson has been fined $25,000 for cramming a basketball in the face of Draymond Green during the dismal final moments of Game 1. Thompson was issued a Flagrant 2 and ejected by referee Tony Brothers—who, along with his fellow Game 1 referees, will never again ...

Don't Let J.R. Smith Distract You From JaVale McGee's Own Incredibly Funny Failure
An NBA Finals game featuring Nick Young, J.R. Smith, and JaVale McGee was always bound to be full of goofs and gaffes, and while everyone is justifiably mocking Smith for forgetting how time and numbers work, let us not forget that McGee had perhaps an even funnier botched play in the third quarter....

So, Can LeBron Do That Four More Times?
J.R. Smith’s inexplicable game-ending dribbling demo is and should be the thing fans remember about Game 1 of these short-looking 2018 NBA Finals, but lost in all the hubbub around Smith’s all-time brain fart is that the Cavs absolutely should have won a road game against a Warriors team that really...

Draymond Green Is The Supreme Heel
Draymond Green burst some blood vessels in LeBron James’s left eye while barely making a play on the ball, causing it to glow red for the rest of the night. Draymond Green walked to the bench and called James a “fucking pussy.”...

LeBron James Leaves In A Huff After Reporter Asks Him About What J.R. Smith Was Thinking
LeBron James abruptly exited his postgame press conference last night after ESPN’s Mark Schwarz asked repeatedly about J.R. Smith’s fascinatingly awful play at the end of regulation in Game 1 of the Finals. It’s hard to look appropriately mad in suit shorts....

On Further Review, Video Review Ruined Game 1
The challenge is to leave aside, even if just for a second, the question of whether it actually, truly was a charge or a block....

J.R. Smith Claims He Knew The Score
I can’t know this, but I know it: LeBron James would’ve hit the buzzer-beater. ...

J.R. Smith's Enormous Boner, As Called By Eight Different Announcers In Three Different Languages
J.R. Smith’s end-of-regulation blunder sparked a meme-worthy reaction from LeBron James, a harsh rebuke from the Cavaliers’ Spanish-language radio announcers, and left several other broadcasters baffled or even, themselves, believing Cleveland had won the game (that’s ESPN Radio’s Marc Kestecher wit...

This Is How It Feels When You're The Only Good Player On An NBA Finals Team<em></em>
LeBron James turned in a heroic, 51-point performance in what came so close to becoming an incredible Game 1 victory for the Cavs. Instead, this might have been the worst night of LeBron’s basketball-playing life, with multiple tortuous twists combining for a nightmare loss....

That Was A Fucked Up Way For LeBron To Lose
In a neck-and-neck Game 1, it looked multiple times like the Cavs were going to steal a win on the road against the Warriors. After heading into the half all tied at 56, then weathering the Warriors’ trademark third-quarter onslaught, LeBron James gave his team the lead with under a minute to play o...

J.R. Smith Forces Overtime Against The Cavaliers
Legendary fuckup J.R. Smith is doing his best to please audiences tonight, as the Cavs veteran dribbled out the clock instead of using his rebound of a missed George Hill free throw to score a would-be game-winner. Great work all around, everyone, and don’t forget that LeBron James led this team to ...
![Klay Thompson Exits Game 1 After J.R. Smith Knocks Out His Legs [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/zhphnmqtiyukuvs7p4pt.jpg)
Klay Thompson Exits Game 1 After J.R. Smith Knocks Out His Legs [Update]
Warriors guard Klay Thompson had to leave Game 1 of the NBA Finals with an apparent left leg injury after an accidental collision with the Cavs’ J.R. Smith. Smith slipped as he was going for a steal, and in doing so took out Thompson’s legs. Doris Burke reported on the ABC broadcast that Thompson ha...