the-nba Page 66 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

George Karl has a history of making a punching bag of DeMarcus Cousins and Black players
Behind closed doors, George Karl probably calls successful Black people “uppity.”...

Is it finally winning time for Philadelphia?
On Saturday, the 76ers began the postseason by breezing past the Toronto Raptors with a ho-hum 131-111 drubbing. The 2022 playoffs is a significant crucible for Philadelphia. The legacy of The Process is at stake. If HBO ever decides to expand its foray into NBA biopics beyond the Showtime Lakers’ W...

This Kyrie Irving situation is why Adam Silver should allow players to respond to idiot fans
For once, Kyrie Irving is right....

The Bill Russell Case for LeBron as Lakers Player-Coach
“You want the job, Russ?” offered Celtics retiring head coach Red Auerbach in 1966....

Ranking the NBA’s first round matchups by how likely we are to see an upset
The NBA’s playoffs are easily the most predictable of the major American sports leagues. Without the variability of baseball or the single playoff game format like football, it’s pretty rare that there are any true upsets in the first round of the NBA playoffs. In most years you look at the bracket ...

Boston vs. Kyrie, can everyone lose?
The NBA playoffs have tossed up enough good matchups to keep the first round interesting, even though the NBA usually leans chalky around this time. There weren’t a lot of great games this weekend. The first two on Saturday weren’t bad as the Jazz and Timberwolves got road wins. The Bulls kept thing...

Unlikely heroes lead way to start NBA playoffs
The stars were out for the first day of the NBA playoffs, with Donovan Mitchelll scoring 32 points to lead the Jazz to a 99-93 win in Dallas, Karl-Anthony Towns putting up 29 points and 13 boards to lead the Timberwolves to a Game 1 upset in Memphis, 130-117, and then Tyrese Maxey scored 38 points f...

The Los Angeles Clippers are the red circle of death of the NBA
Man, Steve Ballmer had to be feeling really good when he first got Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. I mean like “Steve Ballmer hyping up a pep rally” good or “Christmas morning presents as a child” good. He felt “Just bought a brand new XBox and am barely able to drive home below the speed limit” good...

Civil servant Kyrie Irving probably shouldn’t Google ‘Nets owner-China ties’
Two of the people not quoted in ESPN’s nearly flawless piece about Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai’s problematic ties to China — including a business under the umbrella of his company developing facial recognition software that may or may not have been equipped with an “Uyghur alarm” to alert police of...

Only the NBA has teams in all three of Atlanta, New Orleans and Memphis and the league is much better for it
At Smoothie King Center in New Orleans they serve frozen daiquiris, at State Farm Arena in Atlanta there is a barbershop, at FedExForum in Memphis they regularly play, from the Oscar winning film Hustle and Flow, “Whoop that Trick.” ...

Zion Williamson got to show off his dunking ability, too bad he’s not playing
The fans who tuned into ESPN’s pregame coverage of San Antonio and New Orleans Wednesday night got a little extra treat. There was a Zion Williamson sighting on the court. Before the game, Williamson did some on-court work and put on a show for those in attendance, mostly team staff....

It’s math time with Chris Pronger boys and girls!
As one of my editors pointed out yesterday, maybe we should just be relieved that Chris Pronger can type at all given how his career was ended. That’s generally the hope for any hockey player, as forlorn as it may be. And perhaps Pronger was trying to do the right thing and illustrate how so many fo...

Obnoxious loudmouth Patrick Beverley showed us why he’s been a staple in the NBA for more than a decade
Patrick Beverley showed out on Tuesday night against the LA Clippers. He may have shown his whole ass after the Timberwolves’ 109-105 play-in game win. But Beverley also showed us how players like himself hang around the NBA for a decade....

Women tries, fails to glue herself to NBA floor
The animal rights protestors never fail to keep us entertained (remember when they wanted to rename the bullpen in baseball?), and Glue Lady is no different. Late in the second quarter of the play-in game between the Timberwolves and the Clippers last night, the cameras cut away from a Minnesota fre...

Here’s hoping Lillard is a better GM than LeBron
“You’re really going to do this?” is a question one canceled ABC drama character asks another right before they pack up their sedan and move across the country by themselves. It’s something my family not-so-subtly asked me when I told them I was moving to Chicago after more than a decade in the moun...

Here’s hoping Lillard is a better GM than LeBron
“You’re really going to do this?” is a question one canceled ABC drama character asks another right before they pack up their sedan and move across the country by themselves. It’s something my family not-so-subtly asked me when I told them I was moving to Chicago after more than a decade in the moun...

It’s not looking good for Steph Curry, or the Warriors’ playoff hopes
Unfortunately for the NBA, this playoff run may be without the Golden State Warriors very quickly. They have been battling injuries all season, and the most recent one might stretch into their first-round series against the Denver Nuggets. While the Nuggets are an interesting story for NBA-heads, th...

It’s 2022, we don’t need positions on the All-NBA ballots anymore
Positions in basketball are entirely different than almost every sport. In baseball a pitcher is required to stand at the mound until he decides to throw a pitch, make a pick-off attempt, or step off to take a break. In football, a play cannot be called for an offensive lineman to receive the ball u...

NBA play-in tournament day 2: Wednesday’s games highlight some of the league’s burgeoning young stars
Day two of the play-in tournament features the 9 and 10 seeds from each conference. These games haven’t been talked about as much as the day one games, but could be even more exciting. One of them will be a showdown between two of the hottest young guards in the league, and the other features a play...

The Mavericks had better pack some vaseline and boots if Luka isn’t full strength for their first round series against the Jazz
Bless the Dallas Mavericks’ hearts, they went for it on Sunday. They were one game behind the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference standings. If the Warriors — sans Stephen Curry — had lost to the New Orleans Pelicans and the Mavericks defeated the San Antonio Spurs, the Mavs would have j...