nba-playoff Page 40 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Spurs Hang With Rockets For Less Time Than It Took To Write This Blog<em></em><em></em>
The ever-steady San Antonio Spurs were supposed to present a stiff challenge to the Rockets. Instead, they got cooked, broken down, and eaten by a ravenous Rockets team without putting up a fight....
The Cavaliers Are Still On Cruise Control
The Cavs may have had their troubles almost blowing leads against the Pacers, yet they still swept Indiana away and got a week off before their second round series against the Raptors. Indiana gave the Cavs more trouble than they anticipated, but LeBron James remains untouchable so it sort of didn’t...
The Warriors Seem More Worried About How Boring Utah Is Than The Jazz<em></em>
The Warriors recently put the finishing touches on a sweep of the Portland Trail Blazers, and they had to wait almost a full week to find out whether they’d be playing the Clippers or the Jazz in the second round. A Warriors-Jazz series is a much more interesting prospect, because even if the Clippe...
The Cavs Are Dunking All Over The Raps<em></em>
Are the Cavs a bit rusty after an eight-day layoff between the first round and the second?...
Is Gordon Hayward Good Enough To Give The Warriors Some Trouble?
Quietly, the Utah Jazz—the nominally starless, “quirky” squad, the basketblogger’s catnip—has birthed a star of its own. Despite a bout of food poisoning, Gordon Hayward led the Jazz past the Clippers in seven games, averaging 23.7 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, including a 40-point torrent in Ga...
Let This Be The End Of The Clippers<em></em>
The Los Angeles Clippers got eliminated on their home court by the Utah Jazz yesterday, in Game 7. The Jazz were the lower-seeded team, so nominally this qualifies as an upset—though of course it wasn’t really, in the dual sense that, A) even before the Clippers lost Blake Griffin to a season-ending...
Isaiah Thomas Loses Tooth
Who knew that teeth hampered your offensive ability? Isaiah Thomas came alive after losing a front chomper, waking up the Celtics offense en route to a quick 12 first-quarter points....
Raptors Advance As Bucks Blow Fourth-Quarter Comeback
Midway through the fourth quarter last night, it looked as if the Bucks might pull off a nifty comeback and force a Game 7 after being down by double digits for much of the second half. They did not. ...
Does Isaiah Thomas Carry The Ball? A Fred Hoiberg Debate
After a Game 4 loss, Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg accused refs of ignoring Isaiah Thomas’s carrying. “He had a hell of a game tonight. But when you’re allowed to discontinue your dribble on every possession, he is impossible to guard. He’s impossible to guard when you’re able to put your hand underneath...
What In The Damn Hell Were The Hawks Doing?
With a little less than a minute left in last night’s Game 5 between Washington and Atlanta, John Wall dribbled into some open space behind a Marcin Gortat screen and calmly sank a 21-foot jumpshot, giving the Wizards a four-point lead with 47 seconds left to play....
Dwyane Wade's Playoff Defense Is Awe-Inspiring
The Boston Celtics regained control of their first-round series against the Bulls last night, winning 108-97 and taking a 3-2 series lead. Who is to blame for the Bulls losing their grip? Not Dwyane Wade, who scored 26 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, dished eight assists, and played some inspired defen...
The Celtics Have Righted The Ship
The first four games of the Celtics-Bulls series made no sense. The road team won all four games and season-long trends gave way to puzzling single-game outcomes. Celtics winger Jaylen Brown hardly saw the court despite a solid rookie season. Rajon Rondo spent all year switching back and forth betwe...
The Thunder Didn't Stand A Chance
The Houston Rockets won Game 5 over the Thunder tonight, shooting their way out of a handful of Russell Westbrook-induced holes and taking a close one, 105-99. Much like the entire series, the game was excruciating to watch and the Thunder’s brief flickers of life did little to stave off the feeling...
![Rockets Owner Leslie Alexander Looked Really Quite Mad At This Referee [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/fxjbgfsfldsdyukytzcy.jpg)
Rockets Owner Leslie Alexander Looked Really Quite Mad At This Referee [Update]
The first-round series between the Rockets and Thunder is already plenty spicy on the court, and it’s only getting more contentious thanks to the involvement of both teams’ ownership groups. This weekend, the NBA said it was looking into a postgame incident between Patrick Beverley and the son of Th...
The Wizards Have The Saddest Problem
The Washington Wizards have, in John Wall, the best player—by a mile!—in their playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks. At pretty much any given moment, they have the better player at three of the five positions on the court. They have home-court advantage. And they’re in grave trouble, at least i...
Holy Shit, That Warriors First Quarter
When the Warriors are hot, there’s nothing you can do. No other team so gleefully tosses their opponents in the trash and sets that trash on fire as the Warriors, and no Warriors run this playoffs has been as violent or as thorough as the incredible first quarter they put together tonight in Portlan...
The Raptors Finally Played Like A Team Worth Being Afraid Of
While the gates of the Eastern Conference are not exactly wide open, LeBron James’s chokehold on conference supremacy is as weak as it’s been in many years. The Cavaliers’ defense is worryingly porous and even though they just swept the Pacers, the series featured multiple blown leads and every game...
Serge Ibaka Had No Problem Dunking On Giannis Antetokounmpo Twice
The Raptors ripped out of the gates against the Bucks tonight hungry and unafraid to contend with Milwaukee’s imposing length. Giannis Antetokounmpo in particular has menaced the Raps on both ends of the court, but Serge Ibaka had no problem getting around and over him for this smooth jam....
Steven Adams And Russell Westbrook Smoothly Turned A Missed Free Throw Into Three Points
Rarely does an offensive rebound off an intentionally flubbed free throw work, but Oklahoma City Thunder teammates Steven Adams and Russell Westbrook pulled it off and made the most of it....
