nba-playoff Page 34 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Jrue Holiday Decided The Pelicans Would Win (And They Did)
The Pelicans went up 2-0 on the Blazers in their first-round series Tuesday night with a 111-102 road win. They did this thanks in part to main man Anthony Davis—who picked up a 22-point double-double—but mostly because point guard Jrue Holiday took the game over and willed the Pelicans to a narrow ...
Suddenly, Jaylen Brown Is The Celtics' New Leader
The Boston Celtics are generally broken and injured for this year’s playoffs, but after a 120-106 win to take a 2-0 series lead over the Bucks, they’re in prime position to survive at least the first round. And for both of the Celtics’ wins so far in the postseason, they owe a huge debt to Jaylen Br...
Nothing Matters, But LaMarcus Aldridge Was Awesome Last Night
They have to say they believe they can win, of course. More than that, they have to actually believe that it’s at least possible, or they would not be the sorts of people capable of claiming the West’s seventh playoff seed with a roster that looks like somebody sat on a keyboard. None of the rest of...
Gregg Popovich's Praise Of LaMarcus Aldridge Felt Rather Pointed
The Spurs are down 0-2 to the Warriors in their first-round playoff series, and Kawhi Leonard is not with the team. The reasons for that are still somehow impossibly murky—Leonard has been dealing with an injured quad muscle all year; he may or may not have been healthy enough to play for some time ...
How Many More Times Can The Heat Do That?
It’s true that the Miami Heat dominated most of last night’s Game 2 against the Sixers, only wobbling late in the fourth quarter before being steadied once again by Dwyane Wade. It’s true that Wade was spectacular, and hewed much closer to the 2010 version of himself than the player he’s been recent...
Joel Embiid Is Not Happy After Tonight's Sixers Loss
Joel Embiid cleared concussion protocol yesterday—nearly three weeks after he initially landed in said protocol by smacking heads with teammate Markelle Fultz and fracturing his orbital bone—but the Sixers center was still on the bench for tonight’s Game 2 against the Heat. He’s apparently not too t...
It's 2018, My God, And Dwyane Wade Just Won A Playoff Game Through The Force Of His Own Will
Dwyane Wade established tonight’s Game 2 against the 76ers as a Dwyane Wade Night, a performance bound to get the word “vintage” repeatedly attached to it, pretty early on: certainly before the end of the first half, by which point he’d scored 21 on 8-for-9 shooting off the bench. In the second quar...
Donovan Mitchell Isn't Wasting Any Time
The Thunder won the first game in their series against the Jazz on Sunday, thanks in large part to the dominance of Paul George. But if you’re looking for someone in Utah with the ability to rise to George and Russell Westbrook’s level and keep this series competitive, look no further than rookie gu...
Steven Adams's Arm Seems To Have Survived This Dunk
Please turn up the volume on your computing device, and listen to the goddamn sound this Steven Adams alley-oop made. ...
One Of These James Harden Step-Backs Is Unlike The Others
James Harden was comically unguardable in Sunday night’s 104-101 win over the T-Wolves, certainly if your name was Andrew Wiggins, and even if your name was Jimmy Butler. Houston must have been relieved to see it. The Rockets’ offense relies on the three-ball more than any other team’s, with fully 5...
Uhh, The Pacers Beat The Living Shit Out Of The Cavaliers
Apart from a furious run spanning the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth, the Cavs were soundly whupped on their home floor by the Pacers Sunday afternoon, and lost 98-80. Possibly these are the end times. Up...is it down?...
The End Of Bucks-Celtics Featured A Ridiculous Sequence Of Clutch Buckets
Game 1 of Bucks-Celtics was choppy and hectic and low-scoring, but man was it tense, and the last 10 minutes or so were breathless, hilarious fun. Let’s just sit here and enjoy some highlights for a few minutes, yeah?...
Joel Embiid Moves One Big Step Closer To Returning To Action
For a while during the first half of Saturday’s Game 1 it looked like the Miami Heat might be able to capitalize on the absence of Joel Embiid, who has been in the NBA’s concussion protocol since March 28. Miami had a six-point lead after the first quarter; their lead in the first half grew to as la...
Jrue Holiday And Anthony Davis Overwhelmed The Trail Blazers
Saturday’s slate of NBA playoff games—Game 1s? Games 1?—mostly went as expected: the Warriors made lunchmeat out of the Spurs; the Raptors almost Raptored against the Wizards, but pulled away in the fourth quarter; the Sixers just ran away from the Heat in the second half. Home teams went 3-0 throug...
Serge Ibaka Got Hit In The Dick And Balls
Through three quarters, Kelly Oubre had no points in today’s NBA playoff opener for the Washington Wizards. What he did have was an amazing pass right into Serge Ibaka’s dick and balls....
A Timely And Exhaustive Preview Of The 2018 NBA Playoffs
Ah, casual sports fan: We meet again. The 2018 NBA playoffs begin this afternoon! How the hell will you know what is going on in the games, other than like a bunch of sweaty dudes bouncing a ball and throwing it through a pair of rings, if you don’t have some 10,000 words of preview and analysis to ...
Unleash Playoff LeBron
Fifteen years on, you could hardly be blamed for being desensitized to LeBron James. You and me and everyone else that plays with real and fake MVP votes at the end of every NBA season know how boring monotony can get, and so we stitch together some selective, season-specific argument sort-of-provi...
Timberwolves Survive Nikola Jokic To Earn First Playoff Bid In 13 Years
The NBA’s unofficial play-in game lived up to its importance tonight, as the Minnesota Timberwolves needed overtime to outlast the Denver Nuggets for the Western Conference eighth seed. Minnesota earned its playoff appearance with a 112-106 win, overcoming stellar play from Nikola Jokic—who scored 3...
Here's Everything At Stake On The Last Night Of The NBA Regular Season
Tonight, anyone watching the NBA will get to see the closest possible regular-season equivalent of a play-in game when the Denver Nuggets travel to Minnesota to play the T-Wolves for the last playoff spot. Both clubs are 46-35, and Minnesota leads the season series 2-1, though a 100-96 win last week...