NBA Page 321 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Stanley Johnson Thinks He's In LeBron's Head. Okay, Stan.
LeBron James spent large portions of Game 2 punking the Detroit Pistons. He dunked all over Reggie Bullock and let everyone know how awesome it felt, he stink-faced Marcus Morris for daring to leave him open, and he gave rookie Stanley Johnson a meaningful bump during a timeout:...
Steve Clifford Reminds Reporters That Coaching Is More Complicated Than It Looks
The Hornets lost 103-115 to the Miami Heat this evening to fall behind 0-2 in their first round series. The Hornets had a top-ten defense in the regular season, but they’ve allowed Miami to score 238 points in their first two games. Naturally, someone asked Hornets coach Steve Clifford about whether...
Vintage Dwyane Wade Is Fun As Hell
It’s easy to forget how good Dwyane Wade can be. LeBron James was Miami’s best player during their title seasons, and Wade’s struggled with injuries for a few years. Since LeBron took his talents back to Ohio, Wade has had the highest usage rate on the Heat in both seasons, but he’s not the undisput...
Tom Thibodeau Is The Perfect Coach For The Young Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves have been flirting with mere mediocrity since Kevin Garnett left town nearly a decade ago. Their highest finish in the Western Conference in the past ten years was a tenth place in 2014, after which they traded Kevin Love and won 16 games the next season....
Nearly Perfect: For One Night, Rex Chapman Was King
Michael Jordan made me hate basketball. That’s not supposed to be the effect of one of the greatest players of all time, not if he plays for your team or you’re a connoisseur of the sport. But for me, a young sports fan in South Florida who sort of understood basketball, I looked at Michael Jordan’s...
Charlie Villanueva Gets In Nice Underhanded Burn
There was a funny little moment before Dallas’ dramatic Game 2 victory over Oklahoma City, when Mavericks reserve Charlie Villanueva interrupted the pre-game dance routine of Russell Westbrook and Cameron Payne. After the last-second loss, Kevin Durant called Villanueva’s move “fake shit,” and Russe...
Nearly Perfect: Charles Barkley Was The Patron Saint Of Moral Victories
I’m a sucker for those moments when athletes lose themselves a little bit. When Jose Bautista gets mad at baseball and then throws a bat into baseball’s face; when Rajon Rondo realizes it’s him against the world and still asks LeBron James to come get some; when Baron Davis decides that the only app...
Harry The Hawk Crotched Himself
That ugly-ass Hawks-Celtics game was only made less painful to watch by an unfortunate pratfall from Atlanta’s mascot, who will not be fertilizing eggs anytime soon. Keep an eye on Harry’s tightrope routine at the bottom of the screen:...
ESPN Interviews One Of The Guys From "Meet Me In Temecula"
The Christmas season is all about peace on Earth, goodwill towards your neighbors, and defending the honor of your favorite basketball player by driving 35 minutes to go fight some chump who talked shit online. Two Christmases ago, Twitter user @MyTweetsRealAF made the drive down to Temecula, Ca. af...
That Terrible Celtics-Hawks Game, In One Play
The Hawks just took a 2-0 lead in their first round series with the Boston Celtics after a prehistoric, listless game. Avery Bradley didn’t play because of a hamstring injury, Kelly Olynynk missed the game with a shoulder problem, and the Hawks’ coolest player, Dennis Schröder, turned his ankle at t...
The Celtics Just Had The Worst First Quarter In NBA Playoff History
The Atlanta Hawks were held scoreless for the last five minutes and change of the first quarter of tonight’s playoff game against Boston, but that doesn’t matter because the shamrock boys just took a world historic shit and scored only seven points over the entire first period on 3-for-23 shooting. ...
Nearly Perfect: The Chicago Bulls Were Frauds
Children don’t pick their heroes, they gravitate to them. This youthful ignorance is blissful insofar as it frees one to feel that magnetic pull without questioning why it exists in the first place. The Jordan-era Chicago Bulls thus became the team of my childhood without any real reason beyond the...
Nearly Perfect: The Indiana Pacers Were A Vanished Ideal
The Indiana Pacers were a pretty, pretty basketball team. Do people know that now? It all came back at once, watching the bleary video of them facing the Bulls on Boxing Day of 1995. The in-game graphics reminded viewers that the Pacers had won the Central Division the year before—Michael Jordan’s b...
The Rockets Are A Miserable Basketball Team
The Houston Rockets fired their coach after just 11 games this season, finished 41-41, and are the eighth seed in the Western Conference playoffs. That is to say, they’re a mediocre NBA team, and therefore have some glaring problems, or else they would be better than mediocre. They get back-cut to d...
The Warriors Didn't Even Need Steph Curry To Handle The Rockets
While the early playoff games were on this evening, a mystery was unfolding at the Warriors’ arena. Steph Curry had been listed as questionable for tonight’s Game 2 against the Rockets since he turned his ankle on Saturday, and there seemed to be genuine uncertainty about whether or not he’d play up...
Holy Shit, Kevin Durant Was Bad Tonight
Despite being a team composed of Dirk Nowitzki plus some future Guys To Remember, the Mavericks beat the Thunder in Oklahoma City tonight and took back home court advantage in their opening round series. The Mavs have Steven Adams’ slow release to thank for that, as well as Raymond Felton’s chubby e...
Mavericks Down Thunder As Would-Be Steven Adams Game-Winner Comes Too Late
The Dallas Mavericks sunk the Oklahoma City Thunder 85-84 tonight after Raymond Felton of all people carried them in the fourth quarter. Kevin Durant went 7-for-33, but the Thunder had a chance to take the win after Felton missed two free throws with seven seconds left. Oklahoma City got to the rim ...
Just Stay Out Of Russell Westbrook's Way
Russell Westbrook is an intense dude, and if he’s determined to do a million dabs with Cameron Payne, maybe you should just let him do so in peace?...
Nearly Perfect: An Unremarkable November Finals Preview
By November 26, 1995, everybody already knew the 10-1 Chicago Bulls were very good; nobody knew they were the best team in NBA history just yet. Michael Jordan was in his first full season back from retirement, the Bulls had gone down meekly in the playoffs to the young Orlando Magic the season befo...
Nearly Perfect: The Meteoric Rise And Fall Of The Orlando Magic
The Chicago Bulls’ path to the NBA’s then best-ever record and the first of three consecutive titles wasn’t as inevitable then as it seems now, with hindsight, and that’s in large part because of the rise and fall of the Orlando Magic....