nba Page 579 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Here's More Proof That Larry Sanders Is The NBA's Best Interior Defender
One of the best things to come out of this year's Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was Kirk Goldsberry's paper on interior defense, in which he details which defenders are the best and worst at lowering opponent field goal percentage on shots at the rim. Surprisingly, the paper pointed to little-...
The Best (Or Maybe Worst) NBA Rule-Change Idea You'll Ever Hear
I was in New York on business last week (as much as what I do can be called "business" with a straight face) and I was working out of this office building downtown one morning when I had to go take a shit. So I grabbed my guest pass, beeped my way through a set of hallway doors (I always pretend I'm...
JaVale McGee Spikes A Shot Into The Crowd, Preens, Throws Down Alley-Oop
Some advice for Anthony Tolliver: Next time, just forgo the pump fake and shoot the ball over Wilson Chandler. Chandler may have gotten a hand in your face and disrupted your shot, but he probably wouldn't have infantilized you with a vicious volleyball-spike, mean mugged at the crowd until he got...
Robert Swift Finally Left His Foreclosed Home, But He Left Plenty Of Memories And Shell Casings And Feces Behind
Two weeks ago, we played a very depressing game of Where Are They Now? with Robert Swift, the big man who in 2004 jumped right out of high school to the Sonics at 12th overall. Beset by injury and ineffectiveness, Swift never put it together. In 2009, released by the Thunder, he refused a D-League a...
J.J. Barea Ejected After Shoving Ray Allen, Calls Him A "Fucking Pussy"
The Miami Heat easily dispatched with the Minnesota Timberwolves 97-81 tonight but early in the fourth quarter things were still relatively close. Then J.J. Barea decided to go rogue. As you can see, he did not appreciate a little elbow/shove from Ray Allen that went uncalled and so, after collect...
Replacement Ref Who Blew Packers-Seahawks Was Mostly Concerned With Looking Decisive
The Golden Tate hail mary Monday Night clusterfuck was one of the all-time national NFL stories, but everyone moved on fairly quickly. The regular referees came back next week, the standings weren't permanently affected (though the loss gave the 49ers home field against Green Bay in the playoffs), a...
Kobe Dunks Like Kobe Hasn't Dunked In Years, And The Lakers Are At .500
After a stirring one-point win over the Hawks last night, the Lakers find themselves in a place they haven't been since Dec. 28: at .500. This means you can no longer objectively call them a bad team. You could call them an average team, but they've been on a quiet roll for more than a month....
Here's JaVale McGee Dancing In A Predator Mask
After this and this, and surely after this, we allowed ourselves to hope that, maybe, the Internet meme of the Harlem Shake would quickly fade and then die, because fuck the fake Harlem Shake and everyone who condones its existence....
OKC Thunder Forward Serge Ibaka Just Karate Chopped Blake Griffin In The Nuts
C’mon, son. Somehow, Ibaka was only charged with a flagrant 1 foul and didn’t get ejected, and he actually converted a huge three-point play and block down the stretch to help the Thunder fight off a late surge from the LA Clippers, 108-104. It remains to be seen whether he’ll get fined or suspended...
LeBron Considering Magic Johnson's $1 Million To Compete In The Dunk Contest
LeBron's been on a highly-publicized tear recently, where he's completed insane dunk after insane dunk in the layup line while dressed in full sweats to prove to everyone, we guess, that even though he's not going to compete in the dunk contest, he would win if he tried. Then when people took to Tw...
Twitter Loves The Orlando Magic, Has Never Heard Of The Arizona Cardinals
The Wall Street Journal has helpfully assembled the sort of slow-news-month story that lets you forget that none of the four major sports (five, if you include college football) is playing many meaningful games at the moment. In it, the incomparably named Stu Woo compiled the Twitter follower counts...
Four Things You Can Learn About The NBA By Skimming Sloan Sports Analytics Conference Research Papers
The Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is under way in Boston and, though we sent no intrepid reporters to Dorkapalooza this year, the conference happily made its research paper finalists publicly available on its website. Let's blearily page through and see if we can't learn a few things. (We're foc...
Steve Buckhantz Couldn't Tell Whether That Game-Ending Shot Went In Because The Owners Moved Him To The Cheap Seats
We all had a good laugh when Washington Wizards play-by-play man Steve Buckhantz dusted off his patented "dagger!" call despite Trevor Ariza's (very nice looking) airball to end the Wizards' game on Wednesday night. The misplaced enthusiasm was funny but, as we noted at the time, you couldn't really...
Here, Have This Blake Griffin Subway Coupon That Expires Feb. 29
Fox Sports West, which broadcasts Clippers games, has a promotion deal with Subway. Any time Blake Griffin goes for a double-double, you can print out a coupon to get double the meat on your sandwiches the next day. Griffin sprung for 18 and 14 against Indiana last night, so it's Subway time. As tha...
Guy With YouTube Account Says He Is Michael Jordan's Neglected Illegitimate Son
Once upon a time, bad fathers were easily shamed with one spin of a Harry Chapin single. That's not how things get done anymore. Now spurned sons talk into their webcams and tell America to follow them on Instagram....
Andrew Bynum Will Probably Never Play A Game As A Sixer
Nominal 76er Andrew Bynum basically confirmed what Philly fans had feared, and what most everyone else had expected: he will likely sit out the rest of the season, after running into yet another setback with his knees. Bynum spoke up this afternoon, about 10 days after saying he was "100 percent" su...
Zach Galifianakis Is Nikola Pekovic's Ventriloquist Dummy
If the two people in this photo weren't famous, it would be quite the optical illusion. Is the guy on the left some kind of bearded mini-person, or is the guy on the right a gigantic mutant? I can't tell!...
Miami Heat Do The Harlem Shake, <i>SportsCenter</i> Explains It For The Stupids
The Heat released their Harlem Shake video yesterday, and as much as we'd like to call this a dead meme, it's racked up 2.3 million views in under a day. It's watchable as far as these go because of who's in it: where else but in your Stygian nightmares can you see Chris Andersen flapping towards ...
"Change This Face. Be Happy. Enjoy!" Says Ricky Rubio To A Bummed Out Alexey Shved
Man, why can't we live in a world where Ricky Rubio magically appears whenever we're having a bad day and tells us to turn our frowns upside down? Spilled coffee on your new shirt? Poof! There's Ricky reminding you that sea otters hold hands when they sleep next to each other so they don't float a...