nba-playoffs Page 37 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Kyrie Irving Dribbled Away LeBron James's Moment
With under a minute to play in last night’s Game 3 of the NBA Finals and the Cleveland Cavaliers leading 113-111, Golden State’s Kevin Durant calmly stepped into and nailed a long three-pointer right over LeBron James’s outstretched hand. It gave the Warriors a one-point lead, and left the Cavaliers...

LeBron Is Not Enough
Remember the 2015 Finals? Kyrie Irving got injured, Kevin Love missed the whole series, and so LeBron James had to take the court with the likes of Matthew Dellavedova on a coffee binge, an empty bag of Lay’s chips, a childhood stuffed animal, and a rock he found out in the parking lot. Timofey Mozg...

The Cavaliers Almost, Almost, Almost Went And Did It
Tonight, for the first time in these NBA Finals, the Cavaliers held a second-half lead. They held a fourth-quarter lead. They were actually playing credible defense. Kyrie Irving was making all sorts of ridiculous drives to the basket with no one there to stop him. LeBron was LeBron. It felt, if not...

ESPN's Darren Rovell Wastes Everyone's Time With Dopey Column
The Golden State Warriors just spent the first two games of the NBA Finals dominating the Cleveland Cavaliers in humiliating fashion. After sweeping through the preliminary rounds of the playoffs, and with a Finals sweep very much on the table, the Warriors have a real chance to go 4-4-4-4....

Would The Warriors Beat The '96 Bulls? Watch Our <i>NBA Live</i> Simulation To Find Out
The Golden State Warriors’ unprecedented dominance in this year’s playoffs have boosted the team past the ‘95-’96 Bulls for best NBA team ever, according to “mathematics.” But how would they stack up head-to-head? There’s only one way to find out: by importing the current Golden State team into a co...

The Warriors Are Math
The old-timey wisdom goes: Basketball is a matchup sport. I think I’ve heard Kenny Smith or various other Kenny Smiths say some version of this more than 200 times in my life. That is, basketball outcomes are not determined neatly along gradients of pure talent and/or skill, but rather by how varyin...

Steph Curry Gave LeBron James The Runaround
It’s sort of hard to crystallize a Warriors attack that could only be described as “relentless”—in both games so far, the Cavs have survived for a half, then understandably given way under a barrage that just doesn’t let up, and comes from so many different angles. (Seriously, how many times did a C...

Stephen Curry Beating LeBron James, In Extreme Slow Motion
Boy, this was fun to watch, wasn’t it? ...

The Cavs Were Scared Enough Of Steph Curry That They Let Kevin Durant Destroy Them
The Cavs, who have to play perfect basketball to beat the Warriors, did not play perfect basketball last night in Game 1, so they did not beat the Warriors. They turned over the rock 20 times and ceded 27 fast break points, which is not all that shocking given their piss-poor transition defense duri...

No Mistakes Allowed
Close one eye and squint with the other, and last night’s Game 1 box score starts to look like a positive one for the Cavaliers: The Warriors only had two players score in double figures; Klay Thompson and Draymond Green combined to shoot 6-of-28; LeBron James and Kyrie Irving did their thing. Open ...

I'm Just Here For The Rihanna-Kevin Durant Feud
After waiting roughly 50 weeks for basketball that was both close and meaningful...we did not get that. We got destruction, a 113-91 Warriors win led by Kevin Durant’s 38-8-8. What we did get was the start of a pretty great athlete-celebrity beef, and neither is going to fold as easily as the Cavali...

Warriors Look Disgustingly Unstoppable In Game 1 Blowout Victory
For the better part of a quarter, the Cavaliers and Warriors gave us the gloriously competitive game these playoffs have so been lacking. Then Cleveland suddenly became unable to defend Kevin Durant in any capacity, Golden State looked every bit as unstoppable as they’re supposed to be, and it all w...

How Does Kyrie Irving Do It?
Yeah, the Cavs are barely holding on in a game that’s seeing Cleveland pushed around by the likes of... JaVale McGee? Still, this four-point play by Kyrie Irving is our highlight of the first half....

Tonight's NBA Finals Game 1, Simulated In NBA Live '96
We updated the rosters in NBA Live ‘96 on a Sega Genesis to simulate tonight’s NBA Finals game 1 between the Cavaliers and the Warriors. Can Draymond successfully injure someone? Can the Cavs overcome the oddsmakers? We’re LIVE:...

An NBA Finals Preview For People Who Want LeBron To Dunk The Warriors To The Core Of The Earth<em></em>
It’s that time of year again: 364 days and 23 hours since the end of the conference finals, the NBA Finals are here! The brave Cleveland Cavaliers will seek to defend their championship from the vile and heavily favored Golden State Warriors, whom they vanquished in last season’s Finals by coming ba...

Steve Kerr Might Return During The Finals
Warriors coach Steve Kerr only coached two games of the Warriors’ playoff run before complications from his 2015 back surgery forced him to leave the team and seek treatment. Mike Brown took over and the Warriors have yet to drop a game in the playoffs, but Kerr has been hurting. He went to Duke Med...

Have You Talked Yourself Into The Cavs Yet?
I think we can all agree that last year’s NBA Finals was one of the best sports things to ever happen, and that it would be maximally good if the same thing—by “same thing” I mean LeBron and the Cavs banishing the Warriors to hell—happened again this year. If you disagree with this, then you are pro...

Old Man Deron Williams Can Still Play A Little!
Here is a lovely bucket from Deron Williams, in last night’s Eastern Conference clincher between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics:...

LeBron James Took Care Of Business
The Cavaliers had zero interest in prolonging what’s seemed to be inevitable since Game 1 here, if not since Game 1 of the regular season. They were going to win the Eastern Conference Finals, and they didn’t want to have to go back to Cleveland to do it—and no one seemed to feel that more strongly ...

Show Me Your Favorite Marcus Smart Highlight
While watching the Cavaliers beat the Celtics in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals last night, I sent a rude tweet:...