playoffs Page 114 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
That'll Do, Eastern Conference. That'll Do.
A depressing realization dawned on me as I struggled to stay awake through last night’s Game 5s in Atlanta and Toronto: These teams are shitty. Make a squad of the 10 best players from these four teams—the Hawks, Celtics, Pacers, and Raptors—and any of the West’s top three teams would put it down in...
Reporter Who Asked Draymond Green That Odd Question About The Houston Floods Gets Fired
After the Warriors beat the Rockets in Game 4 on Sunday, a reporter started to ask Draymond Green a strange question about the connection between the floods in Houston and his team’s performance when Green stopped him and went off on the guy for over a minute. Green said that the reporter had tried ...
Holy Smokes, That Raptors Comeback
The Toronto Raptors opened the fourth quarter against the Indiana Pacers on a 21-2 run, but their entire fourth quarter was really just one big run. They won it 25-9 to take a thrilling, critical Game 5 victory in a game where they trailed for the first 44 minutes, and now they’re one game away from...
Clippers Lose Chris Paul And Blake Griffin For The Rest Of The Playoffs
The Clippers are currently tied at two in their series against the Trail Blazers, but the rest of those games are going to be tough. Chris Paul and Blake Griffin won’t play in any of them....
The Playoffs Are Shaping Up Nicely For The Cavs, Huh?
The Cavaliers finished off their sweep of the Pistons Sunday night, but almost as important as beating the Pistons 4-0 was how they did it. LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love are all healthy, and for the first time in two years actually look like a cohesive unit. Irving is relieving James of...
Man Discovers Hockey, Loves It
The NHL convinced one more person to please like its sport last night. A man on Twitter tuned into Game 7 of Blackhawks-Blues, the first hockey game he had ever seen. He tweeted as he watched, and his enthusiasm was delightful....
Kevin Durant And Russell Westbrook Torch Mark Cuban And Charlie Villanueva
There’s no trash talk quite like end-of-series trash talk. It’s easy to be magnanimous in victory, but it’s not nearly as much fun as pointing to the scoreboard as you lob a Molotov cocktail through the window on your way out of the building. After the Thunder finished off the Mavericks in five game...
Al-Farouq Aminu's Ugly Jump Shot: An Appreciation
Playoff basketball isn’t about perfection so much as compromise. If your opponent is going to attack your specific weaknesses, you counter and try to negate their strengths. Take Golden State’s comical adjustment last year where they stuck saw Andrew Bogut on Tony Allen and effectively dared him to ...
Report: Chris Paul Has A Broken Hand
Hours after Stephen Curry was officially diagnosed with a sprained MCL, the Clippers’ Chris Paul left the game and has reportedly been diagnosed with a broken hand. As you can see, he bent it while guarding the Blazers’ Gerald Henderson....
St. Louis Blues Eliminate Blackhawks From Stanley Cup 'Yoffs
That gif above you is a neat encapsulation of the sort of night the Blackhawks had tonight. The St. Louis Blues took Game 7 at home 3-2 and broke Chicago’s 18-game streak of winning in the playoffs when Marian Hossa scores. Chicago outshot their southern neighbors 33-26, but they gave up two goals i...
DeAndre Jordan Airballed Consecutive Free Throws
Adam Silver says watching DeAndre Jordan shoot free throws isn’t “entertaining.” He’s usually right, but when he’s airballing back-to-back charity stripe attempts, it carries its own special charm....
Russell Westbrook, Goddamn
The last thing Russell Westbrook needs is extra motivation, and yet—before his team sent the Dallas Mavericks out of the playoffs this evening with a 118-104 win—Mavericks owner Mark Cuban went and said that Russell Westbrook was not a superstar. So Westbrook immediately set to playing like a supers...
The Panthers Are Out Of The Playoffs Because Of A Bad Call
For pure entertainment value, Islanders-Panthers was the best series of the first round, with every game being close and half of them going to overtime. It ended in spectacular fashion, with John Tavares (who had five goals and four assists in six games) tying the game in the last minute of regulati...
Islanders Knock Out Panthers In Double-OT
John Tavares’s goal at 10:41 of the second overtime gave the Islanders a 2-1 win over Florida, knocking out the Panthers and seizing his team’s first playoff series win since they played in something called the “Patrick Division.” ...
Kyrie Irving Hits Half-Court Buzzer-Beater
Despite doing just about everything right, the Detroit Pistons just can’t hold an edge against the Cavaliers in this do-or-die Game 4. Kyrie Irving punched the Pistons in the gut with this half-court buzzer-beater at the end of the third quarter, one that gave Cleveland a three-point lead heading in...
Steph Curry Suffers Sprained Knee, Warriors Set Three-Point Shooting Record Anyway
The Warriors were counting on the MVP to make a showing in Game 4 against the Rockets, after sitting the previous two games and change with a right ankle injury. In the first half, though, Stephen Curry slipped in a wet patch on the floor, turned out his left ankle, made some horrific-looking angles...
The Many, Many, Many Memphis Grizzlies Have Gone Gently Into That Good Night
The Spurs finished their thoroughly unsurprising sweep of a bunch of guys wearing Grizzlies jerseys today, backhoeing a final heap of dirt onto Memphis’ season. In the final moments of the 116-95 thumping, Grizzlies fans stood and applauded their team’s efforts, which is usually the sort of shit you...
NBA Fines Russell Westbrook $25,000 For Yelling "Fuck You!" To A Heckler
Russell Westbrook’s “Fuck you!” to a Mavericks fan last night will cost the Thunder star $25,000, the NBA announced today. That’s 0.15% of Westbrook’s 2015-2016 salary....
James Harden Hits 30-Footer To End First Quarter
A lightning first quarter in Houston ended with a James Harden buzzer-beater to tie the score at 29 and take a bit of the shine off Stephen Curry’s return. Here’s the call by ESPN’s Roberto Abramowitz and Jerry Olaya....