On the NBA’s six-game slate Monday night, the matchup of Spanish point guards Ricky Rubio and Jose Calderon is tempting. But a battle of top-ranked defenses should be the best game as the Pacers take on the 76ers in Philadelphia. Indiana is off to a 6-2 start and right behind Chicago in the Central Division. It will be facing a Philadelphia team off to a 5-2 start, its best since winning the first 10 games of the 2000-01 season – when
Those who thought the NBA would be plagued by inconsistency because of the nutty compressed schedule have been unpleasantly surprised. The NBA has been very consistent. All you have to do is consult the NBA roundup in your local newspaper each day. In recent days, we’ve read that players either missed or will miss games because of: — Strained hamstring (Charlotte’s Corey Maggette). — Groin injuries (Chicago’s Rip Hamilton, Detroit’s Rodney Stuckey, Milwaukee’s Mike Dunleavy, New Orleans’ Trevor Ariza). — Back injuries (Dallas’ Jason
// If I was a betting man (and I will be later this week in Las Vegas), I would bet that 85 year old Orlando Magic owner Rich DeVos elects NOT to trade Dwight Howard. To put it delicately, you’re only 85 once. More on that in the video; plus a report on test week for the Clippers and Kevin Durant’s plunge to 4th in the scoring race.
After an exciting first round that featured an unprecedented amount of imported talent due to the NBA lockout, the Euroleague is set to move on to its second round of competition. The “Round of 16” features the same number of teams as the NBA playoffs with a far different format. The 16 teams are split into four groups of four teams, where each group will play a round robin from which the top two teams in each group will advance. This type of
In case you missed it over the weekend, Dwight Howard still wants to be traded, his agent still has permission to talk to only three teams — the Lakers, Nets and Mavericks — and his current team is still better than two-thirds of the NBA. Last night, despite one of the most unproductive games of Howard’s career (he had 0 points and 0 rebounds at halftime), the Magic won in Sacramento to improve to 6-3. The 104-97 victory came on the
Highlight Performances: Wesley Matthews, POR– After being undrafted out of Marquette, Matthews has come on strong this year, averaging over 15 points a game and 32 minutes per. Although many expected newly acquired free agent Jamal Crawford to steal playing time, Matthews has continued to be a very solid scorer and defender for the impressive Portland Trailblazers. Sunday Night was no different, as he scored 24 points, a steal, and 3 assists. Guards that can post 15+ points a game on
Out of the six games tonight, the best features the Spurs’ visit to the Thunder on NBA-TV as both clubs try to end somewhat shameful streaks. San Antonio remains a perfect 6-0 at home after defeating Denver 121-117 last night, but is still searching for its first road victory of the season. Oklahoma City has had no trouble winning on the road, proving so yesterday with a 98-95 victory over Houston, but are losers of six straight to San Antonio. The Spurs catch
The big movers in a positive direction this week are the Sixers, Jazz, Clippers, Hawks and Cavs. Those going southbound include the Magic, Bucks, Warriors and Hornets. As you may have noticed, we have doubled down on Power Rankings on the site. Mark Heisler is doing his own rankings every Wednesday, and he is going to have to learn to write in HTML. Well, on second thought, that’s probably not a good idea. But he will write shorter comments than I will, because