playoffs Page 198 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

How Sad Is Ben Wallace Today, Really?
It was a nice little hope for a while, some sort of jolt of life into a lagging, pallid Eastern Conference playoffs, but now that the Pistons have advanced past the Bulls and set up a presumably smooth trip past whatever "team" collapses forward enough to win the Cavs-Nets series, we're back to our ...

Looks Like Another Pistons NBA Finals
OK, so maybe the Bulls can't pull this off....

Can The Bulls Pull This Off?
It's really quite wild how much can change over two playoff games. After the Bulls' depressing, limp Game 3 loss at home, everyone was writing about how they should blow up the Bulls, how they should have traded for Pau Gasol, how they were too young, how Ben Wallace had no heart. And now, after two...

Cavs, Nets Try To Out Not-Care Each Other
This is how ugly that Cavaliers-Nets series has become: The Nets scored six fourth-quarter points, on the road, facing elimination ... and they won by 11 points. As the Bulls-Pistons series stirs slowly back to life, this plodding, limping joke of a series still stumbles along, one team emerging vic...

Playoff Blogdome: Spurs-Suns, Game 5
Views from around the Web after last night's pivotal Game 5 between the Spurs and Suns ......

Suns Lose In Worst Way Possible, For Everybody
As many have already pointed out, last night could not have gone any worse for ... well, for just about everybody involved in the Suns-Spurs series. A blowout victory for the Spurs would have been painful, but at least it would have been quick, and we all could have convinced ourselves that the Suns...

The Spurs Fan Solution: Sit Duncan!
The guy from Spurs blog Pounding The Rock had it exactly right this morning: The worst part about Amare Stoudemire's (and Boris Diaw's) suspension tonight is that it immediately makes the whole game illegitimate. If the Spurs win, it won't feel like they earned it, and they've instantly become the b...

A Game 5 Without Amare. Tragic.
Well, the suspensions from the Suns-Spurs Game 4 finally came down last night, and one thing was assured: Nobody, probably not even the Spurs, is happy about it. Robert Horry, Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw will all miss tonight's Game 5, which means that the Suns will be at a clear disadvantage be...

Hey, Somebody Tell The Bulls The Series Is Over
Well, one thing's for certain now: The Pistons fans don't think of the Bulls as Glass Joe anymore. In a development that has shocked even Bulls boosters, Scott Skiles' crew has blitzed the Pistons two consecutive games now, and they head back to Chicago with a chance to even the series on Thursday n...

Thanks For The Memories (At Least The Ones We Could Stay Up Late Enough For)
We salute the Golden State Warriors for the ride they've taken us on, but after last night's once-again-convincing 100-87 Jazz victory, they're the first team to be eliminated from the conference semifinals. And the Warriors fans are rather Zen about the whole thing....

Last Call For Bandwagonners
We've never been as offended by bandwagon fans as most people are. When Bill Murray started following around the Illini during their Final Four year, we didn't mind: It was Bill Murray, for crying out loud....

Pity The Poor Buffalo Fan
Heading into the NHL playoffs, the subplot we were most excited about involved the Buffalo Sabres, a team with a long-suffering but rabid — we mean literally rabid; it's in the Buffalo drinking water — fanbase and a No. 1 seed. After they beat the Rangers, it all appeared to be coming together. At l...

The Suns And Spurs Won't Stop Punching Each Other, And It's Awesome
Did you ever wonder just how entertaining those old Knicks-Heat slugfest series could have been had, you know, the actual basketball being played was even slightly tolerable to the eyes? That what this Spurs-Suns series has become: Two amazing teams who play entirely different games trying to force ...

Last Call To Keep Any Of These Close
The general consensus, to this point, is that the Jazz-Warriors and Pistons-Bulls series are pretty much over: The favorites up 3-1 with two home games to close it out. Well, if the Nets and Suns can't hold serve tonight, they might be well be in the same position....

Apparently, The Warriors Can Lose At Home
In their their preview of the Suns-Spurs series, Free Darko, describing Stephen Jackson and the Golden State Warriors, wrote, "Stephen Jackson doesn't care because he has nothing to lose, and thus is invincible." For the first time, last night, his team looked like it cared, like it had a lot to los...

The Bulls Aren't Castrated Quite Yet
The Pistons got a little cocky after Game 3, when they took two quarters off, and then still managed to rout the Bulls. They tried the same routine today, but extended it to three quarters, even going so far as to put up a 13-point third quarter and go down by 20. But they couldn't make quite enough...

The Suns Have Made Tim Duncan Into A Bully
In the press conferences following the Spurs/Suns game yesterday, the same reporter asked both Tim Duncan and Mike D'Antoni if they thought the series was physical....

Baron Davis Climbs Andrei Kirilenko
If you watch closely, you can see Andrei Kirilenko looking back at Baron Davis afterwards, as if to say, "You know, that really wasn't necessary." Even Adonal Foyle crinkled up his nose in a "Damn that was nasty," kind of a way. When Adonal Foyle acknowledges the nastiness, you know things just got ...

NHL Stanley Cup Pants Party: Red Wings Vs. Ducks
We have always found it amusing that Anaheim decided to take the positive modifier "Mighty" out of its name; we know they wanted to avoid the Disney context, but usually when there's a "Fighting" or a "Runnin'" in there, it's supposed to be a good thing. Now they are Ducks, simply Ducks....

Pistons Finally Tire Of Toying With Bulls
Remember in the last game of the NBA regular season, when the Bulls simply needed a victory over the Nets to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference? If they hadn't lost that game, this Bulls-Pistons whitewash could have been our conference finals; this could be all there is....