playoffs Page 111 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

There Was An Exciting AHL Game 7 That You Almost Certainly Didn't Watch
Last night was Game 7 of the Atlantic Division Finals between the AHL’s Hershey Bears and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, but why would you know that? There was a lot of TV to watch on a Sunday. The highlights are all that’s necessary, anyway....

Game 1 Belonged To Brian Elliott
In the 2016 Western Conference Finals: The Great Unchokening, I (and Vegas) give the slight nod to the Blues. They’ve beaten better teams to get here, and they’re constructed more defensively-minded, the sort of team that succeeds in tight playoff games. That’s the blueliners, for sure, but more tha...

Toronto Raptors Do Two Nations A Big Favor, End Series With Heat
The janitor finally poured sawdust on the ugliest series in the NBA playoffs Sunday, as Toronto won the biggest game in the history of pro basketball in Canada. The Raptors beat the Heat 116-89, advancing to the Eastern Conference finals, first time for everything. Cleveland, which might lose a game...

Series Of Modest Coincidences Proves Raptors Will Definitely Beat Miami
Who ya got in Game 7 today? If you don’t live in Miami or Toronto, the answer seems utterly moot: The amply rested Cavaliers, having backstroked through the first two rounds of the NBA playoffs, are going to be the overwhelming favorites in the conference finals. Meanwhile the Heat and the Raptors a...


"C'mon, Man, You Can't Say That"
Live television at its best: when a Heat fan from Utah states “We’re going to beat the shit out of them.”...

Ben Bishop Stretchered Off Ice After First-Period Injury
The Lightning will be without Ben Bishop after the superstar goalie was stretchered off the ice following a severe injury sustained in the first period of Tampa Bay’s Eastern Conference Final Game 1 matchup against the Penguins....


Is This The End For Tim Duncan?
The Spurs’ season is over, and it’s time to ask the question that it feels like we’ve been asking all our lives: What’s going to happen to Tim Duncan?...

Pekka Rinne Smashed The Shit Out Of His Stick, And Yeah I Get It
The Sharks’ dream Game 7 was, necessarily, a nightmare for Nashville. Or: You don’t lose an elimination game 5-0, getting outshot 17-3 in the first and only managing 20 shots on goal of your own all night, without just about everything going wrong....

Kevin Durant Is Still The Shit
Since Steph Curry ate the NBA whole and arose as the preeminent superstar in the NBA last year, the luster on Kevin Durant has faded a little bit. The Thunder have stagnated since they made the Finals in 2012, and Durant and Russell Westbrook have only made incremental progress in learning how to en...

The Blazers Were A Miracle
The Portland Trail Blazers looked dead about three different times in the fourth quarter of their Game 5 loss to the Golden State Warriors. There was the time when the Warriors’ starters came back in with a four point lead and quickly stretched it to eight. After C.J. McCollum shot them back into it...

Bismack Biyombo Is A Maniac
Look at this incredible dunk-block-dunk sequence from Congolese big man Bismack Biyombo....

A Russell Westbrook Rebound Is An Event
If you watch enough sports, you learn to anticipate when something cool is about to happen. You know what’s coming after Steph Curry spins his defender with a bouncing crossover beyond the three-point line, or when Adrian Peterson gets a safety one-on-one in the open field, or when Chris Sale works ...

There's No Secret To Why The Capitals Lost
“We didn’t really play good enough for long enough,” Braden Holtby said. The Washington Capitals were very good, over a very long season, but even good teams falter when they run into better ones. ...

How The Hell Did Jay Beagle Make That Game-Saving Block?
The Pittsburgh Penguins dispatched the Washington Capitals 4-3 in overtime tonight in Pittsburgh, weathering a furious third-period comeback and eventually winning on a Nick Bonino tap-in. However, it could have ended earlier in overtime, had Jay Beagle not morphed into Superman and dove across the ...

Somehow, The Thunder Are A Game Away From Bouncing The Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs had a historically great regular season, whipped the life out of the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, but somehow they’re just one game from elimination after the Thunder beat them 95-91 thanks to a rugged performance from Russell Westbrook ...

Step Aside Sports Baby Pretenders, Riley Curry Is Back
Riley Curry’s dad won his second consecutive MVP award this afternoon. Good for him! He won it unanimously, but that didn’t stop Riley here from warning voters that if they don’t vote for him next year, there’ll be trouble....

The Blues Wouldn't <i>Really</i> Bench Brian Elliott For Game 7. Right?
It was a bad night for Blues goalie Brian Elliott, yanked after allowing three goals—against just four saves—in the first period of Dallas’s 3-2 win. Bad nights happen. But is there really a chance that Elliott was so out of sorts that Jake Allen will get the nod in Wednesday’s Game 7? Ken Hitchcock...

What The Hell Is Dwane Casey Doing?
Raptors head coach Dwane Casey has been put in an extremely unenviable position as he tries to guide his team to the Eastern Conference Finals. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan have had their abilities banished to the Negative Zone, Jonas Valanciunas is out with a knee injury, and his most reliable scor...