theplayintournament Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The NBA’s Eastern Conference might see a bit of a shake-up in the standings this season
It’s October, so it’s Halloween season, but it also means the NBA is back. All the talk and some drama will be moved aside as teams return to the court, hoping to do what the Golden State Warriors did last season in raising the Larry O’Brien NBA Finals trophy....
The Pelicans have finally taken flight
Bourbon Street in New Orleans exists in a loop. Every night the street clicks back into a state of debauchery, repeated with perverse precision. Lonely men drift in and out of red neon strip clubs holding cans of Natty Light. Police on horses stroll between sleeping bums, screaming preachers, pools ...
Just can’t go all-in on Russell Westbrook anymore
The Los Angeles Lakers and new coach Darvin Ham made a grave error on Monday....
Long live Nikola Jokić, the NBA’s Most VORPable Player
The impending news that Nikola Jokić will be awarded his second-consecutive MVP award has sent the NBA community into a border war formation between respect for analytics and the eye test. Jokic’s back-to-back wins is a resounding victory for the NBA’s mathlete contingency. This isn’t a diatribe aga...
Funny how the Boston Celtics took off once Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens were out of the way
Ime Udoka is who so many fans — and media members — desperately wanted Brad Stevens to be....
This NBA season was not fantastic
The NBA ended its worst season in recent memory on Sunday. Yes, it was really that bad....
Have to admit, the Play-in is adding a lot of intrigue
Everyone’s favorite time of the year is finally here. We’re just days away from the NBA’s Play-in Tournament as eight teams battle for the right to get their spines pulled from them in the first round. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a big fan of the Play-in when it was first introduced. I thought it water...
Three possible trade scenarios for John Collins
What the hell is happening in Atlanta? They went on a Cinderella-esque run in last season’s playoffs, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals. This year? They currently sit 12th in the East, out of the Play-In Tournament, and 22nd in the entire NBA. During the summer of 2020-21, the Hawks happily wen...
The NBA future is... WOWZA!
The NBA has never felt younger and more reliant on up-and-coming stars than it does today. Teams are beginning to utilize the draft more and more. We’ve seen plenty of tank-a-thons by teams in the last five years, and these efforts have panned out to varying degrees. For some, it has materialized in...
Run the NBA play-in tournament as a series of high-stakes gauntlet matches
The NBA wants to have an in-season tournament, and a lot of the reaction to this idea is that it’s terrible, that it’s basketball trying to be soccer, that it’s a huge waste of time....
‘Smacked in the mouth,’ LeBron and AD now need to find second gear — if bodies let them
LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers looked sluggish and shell-shocked on Sunday. In their first-round matchup against the Phoenix Suns, after squeaking past the Golden State Warriors in the Play-In Tournament, the defending champs looked anything but title-contending....
Leave Kwame Brown alone
When you poke the bear, you best be ready for the consequences. And Kwame Brown is a 6-foot-11, 290-pound bear that was in hibernation until his rest was disturbed by two of his former teammates....
LeBron cements the continued existence of a game he hates
Look, the Play-in Tournament is stupid. Everyone pretty much knows it. The players certainly hate it, and even the ones who get to participate in it probably don’t like it much more. It’s manufactured drama. We’ve had 72 games this year, and in normal times we’ll have 82, and if you’re not in playof...
The five most disrespectful dunks in NBA playoff history
It’s getting to be that time when important NBA basketball starts being played....
Westbrook joins Robertson atop triple doubles list, gives thanks to Big O
For more than half a century, Oscar Robertson stood alone in NBA history, his 1961-62 campaign representing the only time anyone averaged a triple-double for a full season....
Blazers welcome back fans just in time to stick it to L.A.
I don’t think anyone will argue that the NBA playoff intensity was alive and well in the bubble last year. There were fantastic games that came down to clutch moments, and there were underdog teams like Miami making a run all the way to the Finals. It was everything on the court you could hope for. ...
The teams and matchups we most wanna see for the NBA’s Play-in Tournament
Contrary to what LeBron James says, the NBA Play-In Tournament was a great idea. Because of the strange circumstances the NBA found itself in after COVID-19 wrecked 2020, the league had an opportunity to try out some goofy new ideas to make up for the fact that the fans were only getting a 72-game s...