the-nba-playoff Page 5 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Deadspin fixes NBA free agency, Part VI: The Sleepers
This isn’t a best of, and it can’t be; we don’t even know who will be available by the time this goes up. ...
Team USA takes out all its frustrations on Iran, but it’ll only get tougher from here
OK, look, Team USA wasn’t losing to Iran....
Olympics are confirming what we already knew: NBA officiating is trash
It’s safe to say at this point that the USA men’s basketball team has not lived up to its expectations. The team consists of some of the best players in the world, and yet, despite the abundance of talent, Team USA continues to fall short against lesser opponents. No matter what head coach Gregg Pop...
Forget Paris 2 - A Harden Day’s Night
The new Space Jam movie is coming soon, but James Harden has beaten LeBron James to the box office with a mid-1990s NBA film tribute of his own....
![This Tokyo Olympics is fine [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/6c788899524642490434cc71d5a70b0c.jpg)
This Tokyo Olympics is fine [Update]
The Olympics shouldn’t be happening during a pandemic that continues to wreak havoc across the globe, but we’re well past the point of no return on that, so on we go — just knowing that COVID-19 is going to be as prominent at the Tokyo Games as Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky....
Barkley has got this one right: Bucks have no killer instinct
Charles Barkley can be lazy and out of touch, and occasionally insightful, but he nailed it with the Bucks last night. That’s after he forgot who Jeff Teague plays for, which would seem to be the minimum requirement for his job. Anyway, at halftime, when the Bucks were down 20 to a Trae Young-less H...
What to know for the upcoming Olympic Men’s Basketball Qualifying
As the NBA playoffs continue, 24 national teams across the world are vying for the final four open men’s basketball Olympic berths. The tournaments will run from June 29 through July 4 in Canada, Croatia, Serbia, and Lithuania. ...
In recent coaching trend, NBA stood for No Blacks Allowed... That MUST change
The NBA is finally back in the Black. In coaching, that is....
Crazy times for Dallas Mavericks
The Donnie Nelson-Rick Carlisle era in Dallas is over... and it’s shaping up to be a real ugly divorce....
Well, these playoffs took some unexpected turns in the past week
Less than a week ago, the second round of the NBA playoffs seemed like it was on its way to wrapping up quickly, with the 76ers and Nets looking far superior to the Hawks and Bucks, the Suns on the verge of sweeping the Nuggets, and the Clippers down 2-0 to the Jazz with no answers for Utah’s abilit...
Paul George has chance, and not by choice, to lead a team to new heights
The NBA playoffs have been a brutal war of attrition, with nearly every team left standing dealing with injuries to star players. The Los Angeles Clippers are no different — Kawhi Leonard reportedly has an ACL injury and is out indefinitely. Much like how Kevin Durant was thrown into the fray withou...
Deadspin looks at all the injuries that have affected the NBA playoffs
When Kyrie Irving went down with an ankle injury halfway through the second quarter of Sunday’s Bucks and Nets Game 4 matchup, basketball fans simultaneously let out a loud groan. The injury bug had hit another star in a season that may be remembered for who was left standing, instead of who was the...
Wheat, chaff, separation, etc., in NBA’s second round
It’s beginning to look a lot like a short second round of the NBA playoffs after the Suns rolled out to a 3-0 lead on the Nuggets with a 116-102 win in Denver on Friday night, behind 28 points from Devin Booker and a 27-point, eight-assist night from Chris Paul....
What happened to all the NBA’s best playoff heel teams?
The NBA playoffs have featured excellent basketball as players who have been on the rise as stars in the league have battled to grab the spotlight....
Step aside Lakers, L.A. is Clippers Country now
The worm has turned in L.A....
Does MLB even have a marketing department?
Last weekend, when writing about José Godoy becoming the 20,000th player in Major League Baseball history, I brought up the story of Bob Watson being the man who scored MLB’s one-millionth run, and all the hoopla around that in 1975....
Nuggets/Blazers is so much more than just Jokić vs. Lillard
Nikola Jokić and Damian Lillard are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do....
Home cookin’ won’t be equal for all NBA playoff teams
For the first time in two years, we might actually get to talk about home-court advantage in the NBA playoffs, but in a weird, 2021-ish kind of way....
The Charlotte Hornets are doomed to run the ‘treadmill of mediocrity’
The “treadmill of mediocrity” is a term coined by former Portland Trail Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard in 2011. It’s pro basketball limbo — being good enough to sneak into the playoffs but not good enough to win, yet not quite bad enough to earn a top-5 draft pick and select a serious game-changer. And ...
The five most disrespectful dunks in NBA playoff history
It’s getting to be that time when important NBA basketball starts being played....