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

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

Luka’s first Game 7 will tell us a lot about the young superstar
This Game 7 is huge for Luka Dončić. ...

Hear me out: Great as he is, it may be time for Blazers to move CJ McCollum
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard of the otherworldly performance Damian Lillard gave last night in a losing effort — 55 points, 10 assists, six rebounds, three blocks. He’s the first NBA player ever — EVER — regular season or postseason, to post at least 50 points, 10 assists, and 10 three-pointers mad...

Does MLB even have a marketing department?
Last weekend, when writing about José Godoy becoming the 20,000th player in Major League Baseball history, I brought up the story of Bob Watson being the man who scored MLB’s one-millionth run, and all the hoopla around that in 1975....

Nuggets/Blazers is so much more than just Jokić vs. Lillard
Nikola Jokić and Damian Lillard are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do....

Run the NBA play-in tournament as a series of high-stakes gauntlet matches
The NBA wants to have an in-season tournament, and a lot of the reaction to this idea is that it’s terrible, that it’s basketball trying to be soccer, that it’s a huge waste of time....

I dunno, maybe try a little harder to get the ball to the world’s best shooter?
Stephen Curry scored 39 points on Friday night, shooting 13-for-28 from the field with six three-pointers… and it wasn’t enough....

Home cookin’ won’t be equal for all NBA playoff teams
For the first time in two years, we might actually get to talk about home-court advantage in the NBA playoffs, but in a weird, 2021-ish kind of way....

The Charlotte Hornets are doomed to run the ‘treadmill of mediocrity’
The “treadmill of mediocrity” is a term coined by former Portland Trail Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard in 2011. It’s pro basketball limbo — being good enough to sneak into the playoffs but not good enough to win, yet not quite bad enough to earn a top-5 draft pick and select a serious game-changer. And ...

The five most disrespectful dunks in NBA playoff history
It’s getting to be that time when important NBA basketball starts being played....

Which NBA teams are poised to end their lengthy playoff drought this year?
This NBA season has brought a fresh energy to the regular season. The new Play-In Tournament and the rise of new teams to prominence (the Knicks are good now, wut?!) have made this one of the most compelling NBA regular seasons in recent memory....

The Portland Trail Blazers are hotter than a seatbelt buckle in August
The Portland Trail Blazers are coming into the NBA playoffs on fire, in NBA Jam terms....

The story of the New Orleans Jazz and their move to Utah, where jazz didn’t exist
With the NBA playoffs fast approaching, the Utah Jazz can boast the best record in the league. But the best team name? Not so much....

Underperforming in playoffs isn’t new to Mike Budenholzer teams, but this time it may cost him
With the NBA Playoffs looming later this month, and due to the perceived attainability of this year’s championship, there’s a growing list of people out there who could be held accountable for coming up short....

LaMarcus Aldridge joins loaded Nets, but we found the team they should STILL fear the most
Just because LaMarcus Aldridge has his lowest scoring average since he was a rookie, his lowest true shooting in five years, and his lowest rebounding average ever this season doesn’t mean he’s cooked at 35....

Caris LeVert’s Pacers debut tonight after overcoming kidney cancer is rare 2020-21 bright spot
When James Harden was traded to the Nets on January 14, one of Brooklyn’s prized outgoing pieces was rising swingman Caris LeVert. ...

Reports of Kemba Walker’s demise have been greatly exaggerated
Depending on who you ask, Kemba Walker might be anywhere from overly washed to overly joyous....

NBA is granting two-way players postseason-eligibility, per report, which could help some teams
Suddenly, depth may become even more important in this year’s playoffs. ...

Collin Sexton totally got in the way of Brooklyn Nets’ ‘Big 3' debut
We tuned in to see the return of Kyrie Irving as he was finally going to join James Harden and Kevin Durant in the most offensively-gifted trio in NBA history. What we wound up getting was a coming-out party from a rising star, as Cleveland’s Collin Sexton crashed Brooklyn’s bash as the Cavs defeate...

Steven Stamkos gets his Willis Reed moment
The “Willis Reed Game” has grown in proportion as an epic through the decades, as these things tend to do as the years tick off. By this point, it wouldn’t be a surprise if a lot of younger fans assume that Willis Reed hobbled out of the Knicks locker room missing a leg, hopped around for 65 points,...