playoffs Page 166 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

This Is The Face Of Pacers Fan Denial
Oh, sure, this is supposedly an image of Ryan Briscoe, the Aussie driver who will sit the pole for Sunday's Indy 500, but then a bespectacled Roger Sterling in a "Gold Swagger" t-shirt (which the real Roger Sterling would totally wear) decided he needed to be in on the fun. He also appears to have ...

Today In Getting To Know The Kings: Reebok Offers An "Alex Kopitar" Shirt
This hockey thing's new; we get it. But despite the team's best efforts, we're still not all on the same page. Take this Reebok "Stanley Cup Finals Alex Kopitar" t-shirt, now available in the NHL.com shop. (He's also "Alex" at other outlets offering the same shirt, so this is a Reebok problem, not a...

NBC Bans Rangers And Devils Viewing Parties, Because TV Money Rules All
Fire And Ice reports that NBC will not allow the Devils to have a viewing party at the Prudential Center for tonight's game, nor the Rangers to do the same thing at the Garden on Friday. This despite both teams having viewing parties earlier in the series. What changed? Well, TV numbers have been co...

Hate Hockey? Hate Women? The CBC's Women-Only Stanley Cup Feed Is For You
Canadian national broadcaster CBC announced today the network's Stanley Cup Finals coverage will include an alternate audio channel featuring Lena Sutherland and Jules Mancuso of While The Men Watch, a site dedicated to "sports commentary that women actually want to hear."...

KG: "Philly Fans Are Fair-Weather." <i>Inquirer</i> Writer: "Oh Yeah? Boston's Racist!"
A few days back, Kevin Garnett said — or at least implied — that 76ers fans are fair-weather. It stung a bit, considering the Sixers have been terrible for the better part of a decade, and basketball is a distant fourth in Philly hearts. (That's not a knock; some sport has to be fourth.) Mostly it w...

Today In Unfortunate Newspaper Typos: "Series Shits To Boston"
Most of our favorite newspaper errors are due to dummy text, the practice of typing in a bunch of gibberish to see how it'll look in the space allotted. They're funny, but they also require a complex series of missteps. That's why this unfortunate mistake, from Saturday's Register Citizen in Northwe...

Dustin Brown Should Either Be Suspended For Zero Games Or For All The Games
Late in the first overtime, LA's Dustin Brown took down Phoenix's Michal Roszival at the blue line. Roszival was hurt; the Coyotes were angry; there was no penalty called. Twelve seconds later, Dustin Penner scored. Game, series, conference....

The Best Shooters In The NBA, And Why Field Goal Percentage Can't Identify Them
What does field goal percentage actually tell us?...

Claude Giroux Played Beer Pong With Casts On Both Wrists
Claude Giroux is still the postseason points and goals leader, despite being eliminated two weeks ago. Last week he had surgery on both wrists—bone spurs in one, torn cartilage in the other. That didn't stop him from tearing up Philly over the weekend, an odyssey nobly chronicled by Crossing Broad. ...

TNT's Slow Zoom On Mitch Kupchak's Face In The Final Minutes Of The Lakers' Season Was Sadistic
Only true Lakers believers (or the truly blind) couldn't see the Lakers' season was nearing an end long before the horn sounded on last night's 106-90 series-seizing Thunder victory. Yet it seems the moment of truth for Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak came at a time that TNT producers jumped upon for max...

If Beast Mode Exists In Basketball, Russell Westbrook Entered It
The action in Oklahoma City has been hot tonight, with Thunder fans matching the intensity of the players (from both OKC and L.A.) on the court. Russell Westbrook's been especially full of flair this evening, but his steal-and-circus-shot is the kind of highlight that deserves several looks; Kevi...

The Los Angeles Media Market Continues To Not Know The L.A. Kings Play Hockey
There are two major sports teams in California named the Kings. One of them is up north in Sacramento, and they play professional basketball (poorly, as of late). The other is in Los Angeles, and has a very good shot at winning the Stanley Cup. Despite the two franchises' differences in performan...

LeBron's Choice Of Pre-Game Reading Material? <em>The Hunger Games</em>
ABC showed a brief clip of LeBron James in the locker room before today's Heat-Pacers Game Four in Indianapolis, and surprise of surprises, he was reading Suzanne Collins's young adult novel The Hunger Games. We won't shame anybody for their choice of reading material—indeed, we'd love for more ro...

"The Kings Have The Ball": More Hockey Coverage From Los Angeles
You do have to feel for FOX 11's newslady. Hockey highlights are tough if you've never watched a hockey game. Kopitar and Doughty aren't easy names to pronounce. But in the wake of another LA station's Kings ignorance, it's entirely possible that a team is going to win a Stanley Cup without anyone...

It's All Going According To (Pat Riley's) Plan
1. "Jay, it's Pat. Pat Riley? Yes, I remember when I cursed you out and told you to never, ever call me 'Pat,' and then hit you pretty good with my briefcase. How many stitches did you need? That's a lot of stitches. But we're friends, right? You can call me Pat anytime. How's Michelle?...

For Some Reason, You Can Fly From New York To Newark For Saturday's Devils-Rangers Game
Actually, that "some reason" is pretty obvious: free publicity for Delta, which is offering Rangers fans a free flight Saturday morning from LaGuardia to Newark Liberty International. Here's hoping no one takes them up on their stupid offer, because really, who cares about free when you have to deal...

TNT Should Not Have Allowed This Morbidly Obese Sixers Fan To Participate In The Shirt-Off
The Utah State Aggies have a superfan named Wild Bill who distracts free throw shooters by wearing bizarre, Disney-inspired outfits that often reveal his generous girth....

These "Rangers Vs. Nets" Tickets For Tonight Look Legit
Fifteen rows back from the glass, right on the blue line, guy's asking 150 a pop, barely half of face value? You'd be a fool not to snap these up, unless you want to to miss Kris Humphries posting up on Ryan McDonagh. [@Lock]...

Devils Launch "Don't Sell Tickets To Rangers Fans" Campaign
Compared to the old place at the Meadowlands, the Prudential Center is clean and modern...and really, really easy to get to from New York City. This tends to lead to the Rock being lousy with Rangers fans, something that could get a little embarrassing come playoff time. So the Devils aren't going t...

Some Poor Bastard's Cell Phone Went Off During John Tortorella's Press Conference, And Torts Was Not Happy
John Tortorella's press conferences are the stuff of legend: tense, terse legend. At least from the media side, they're more amusing than hostile. But there's going to come a day when the Rangers aren't winning, and the scribes are going to refer to their mental tally of all the times Torts bullie...