NBA Page 186 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Luka Doncic Gets Pumped And Jacked About The NBA, Also Happens To Play In It<em></em>
Luka Doncic is the most productive rookie in the NBA. He is also the smiliest goof I can remember ever seeing on its basketball courts. This passage from Rob Mahoney’s nice SI profile of the Mavericks’ Slovenian teen rang true:...

Mario Hezonja Steps Over A Fallen Giannis Antetokounmpo After Breakaway Dunk<em></em>
Mario Hezonja has never been one to be short of confidence. When asked in 2015 if he went to see Lionel Messi play during his stint at Barcelona, the Croatian replied, “Let Messi come to see me.” Three years later, that confidence has yet to fade....

James Harden Uses Incredible Defensive Awareness To Pull Off No-Look Steal
The idea that “James Harden is so good that he doesn’t even need to try” is mostly used to describe the efforts of last season’s MVP on offense. In fact, Harden’s defense throughout his career has been somewhat of a detriment to how he’s viewed as a player. But his typical defensive demeanor came in...

Pascal Siakam Is Fun For The Whole Family
Six-foot-nine and a grinning menace on the fast break? Check. Seven-foot-three wingspan and can be switched anywhere? Check. Glitch-like speed and the sweetest spin move going? Check. Extremely powerful name? Check. Dropped a 26-point, 8-for-10 bomb on the Warriors? As of last night, check....

A Suddenly Well-Rounded Nikola Vucevic Could Help You Win
Many otherwise curious basketball fans might be guilty of ignoring the 10-12 Magic. Maybe because they are regular people just hoping to get through the day’s tasks without staring at an infinite procession of 6-foot-10-ish dudes scuttling across the hardwood in search of a jump shot. But if you are...

Trae Young Has The Freedom To Chuck These Stupid-Fun Three-Pointers From The Logo
Twenty-one games in, Hawks rookie Trae Young has had his moments. Barring catastrophic injury to Luka Doncic and Jaren Jackson Jr., and, honestly, some other dudes too, Young won’t be the Rookie of the Year, but he’s been an entertaining strain of semi-bad that you can really get behind....

Karl-Anthony Towns's Leadership Role Is Starting To Emerge
Karl-Anthony Towns has shown signs of improvement both in his demeanor and on-court play since Jimmy Butler was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. But while his numbers have been steadily on the rise, he hasn’t exactly been put into the position yet where the Timberwolves needed him to seize control ...

Lakers Fan Forgets How Numbers Work
A Lakers fan’s opportunity to win a getaway casino package was cut hilariously short when he had just an awful brain fart at Staples Center on Friday. In a high-low game, the fan had to guess if the next virtual card flipped would be higher or lower than the previous one. The first card featured Kyl...

ESPN Reporter Brian Windhorst Loves To Brag About Not Reporting
Longtime basketball reporter Brian Windhorst is the subject of a profile in the New York Times today, in which he candidly talks about his career and his desire to be known as more than just the guy who has spent it following LeBron James around. He also brags about a time when he refused to report ...

Markelle Fultz Shooting Form Update: Legally Barred?
The last thing the sad and strange Markelle Fultz saga needed was whatever the hell this is, per David Aldridge:...

Kevin Durant Has Suggestion For Heckler: "Watch The Fucking Game And Shut The Fuck Up"
The Warriors, who might not be all that functional without Steph Curry to make them whir, went 0-3 on their Texas road trip last week. At some point early in Saturday’s 112-109 loss to the Mavericks, Kevin Durant walked up to the front row of fans, craned forward and attempted to shut up some heckle...

I Hope Kemba Walker Joins A Good Team
Sometimes a losing performance is so searingly good that even the cheeseball who sunk the game-winner has to immediately pay his dues. “I will say, Kemba gave me 60 tonight. I will have to say that one,” said Jimmy Butler, who was tasked with shutting down Walker for much of Saturday night, minutes ...

James Worthy Played Bass And The Minutemen's Mike Watt Has The Story To Prove It<em></em>
“Have you always been a basketball fan?” This is me, asking Mike Watt, one of my heroes, a pretty basic question. It is, if we’re being honest, a feeble softball, lobbed with all the force of an Andy Borowitz gag. This happened around noon, an hour earlier than we were supposed to begin our two-man ...

Dwight Howard Heckled By Arena Worker During Post-Game Free-Throw Practice
The hackneyed image of an NBA player taking time after an arena has emptied out to practice getting his shots up becomes a story at least once a season for teams that are failing to meet expectations, or just generally struggling. Fresh off a 115-104 home loss to the Nets that put the Wizards at 5-1...

This is a couple of weeks old, but it’s endearing: A diehard Vancouver Grizzlies fan went on a mission to find the defunct team’s reclusive center Bryant “Big Country” Reeves. Unlike a lot of quests in this vein, she actually reached a satisfying resolution. That resolution at one point includes Big...

Report: Draymond Green's Suspension Came After He Told Kevin Durant The Warriors Didn't Need Him
The Golden State Warriors decided to hand Draymond Green a one-game suspension without pay because during his argument with Kevin Durant, he invited the two-time finals MVP to leave after the season was over since the team had already won a title before Durant’s arrival, according to a report from Y...

Nikola Jokic Is Back To Taunting Defenses With Absurd Passes
Nikola Jokic has gotten his groove back since his horrendous one-shot game against the Memphis Grizzlies last week. But since his recent high-scoring outputs haven’t yielded wins for Denver, he tried his next best strategy against Atlanta: embarrassing teams with mind-bending passes. The Hawks certa...

You Wouldn't Want To Work With Draymond Green, Either
They have been historically great for years and are, when at their unholy apex, probably the most beautiful and terrifying basketball machine ever constructed, but the Golden State Warriors are kind of a corny bunch of dudes. This is nothing on them, really: it’s not their job to be interesting, or ...

LeBron, It Is Time To Go Full Kratos
Look, there’s no need to belabor the point here. I have great respect for your basketball mind and your body of work. You just reeled off a 44-10-9 in fucking Year 16. But it really doesn’t need to be this way. Just hear me out on this....

LeBron James Remembers How To Play Defense Long Enough To Put Nik Stauskas On The Floor<em></em>
LeBron James’s defense this season has been, let’s say, below average. The lowlights have ranged from letting Serge Ibaka blow by him, to missing his assignment entirely because he was too busy sticking his foot out while trying to stop a pass. It would have surprised no one if James had let Nik Sta...