OKLAHOMA CITY — Thirty-two home games. Thirty-two sellouts. Capacity crowds are standard this year at Chesapeake Energy Arena, the 581-thousand-square-foot home to the reigning Western Conference champs, the Oklahoma City Thunder. And it’s all for good reason. If you don’t have an NBA arena bucket list, you should. [Read more…]
Iona College punched its ticket to the Big Dance by defeating Manhattan College and winning the MAAC championship on Monday night. The Gaels are no stranger to the NCAA Tournament, as this will be their 10th appearance and third in the last six years. Iona hasn’t won a tournament game since 1980. Here are five things you probably didn’t know about the Gaels: 1.Their head coach is going to wear sweats in the NCAA Tournament. He’s not going all Bob Huggins on
It’s Week 2 of possibly the most ill-conceived bracket columns in sports history — the prelude, not the rankings. Last week, we introduced you to Most Improved Player Madness with a special three-page blowout edition of the Rankings. I sense a lot of excitement out there about Week 2. So without further adieu, we present to you the Most Improved Sweet 16! Let it fill your senses with indescribable excitement and joy! [Read more…]
The biggest game on Monday night was the match between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs – a clash between two of the very best teams in the Western Conference. It was expected to be a dog fight, but the Spurs ran away with the game with a big push in the fourth quarter to lead by as many as 18 points, despite playing without point guard Tony Parker. For the Thunder, who had previously lost five consecutive games
It’s been a very interesting week in the Association. Aside from the obvious jostling in our weekly free agent rankings, the Miami Heat have now won 18 games in a row and have our very own Chris Sheridan wondering whether or not they can challenge the NBA’s all-time winning streak of 33 consecutive games. That record belongs to the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers, who began their championship season by winning every game they played in November and December. [Read more…]
It’s that time of year in fantasy hoops. When a player gets injured, there’s a risk of them being shut down entirely. I happened to be at the game where Kyrie Irving got hurt, and after he shot two free throws — using only his ‘wrong’ hand — stood to applaud his exit without knowing that a sprained left shoulder will keep him out for the next month, if not the rest of the year. [Read more…]
Fresh off my maiden voyage to the M.I.T. Sloan Sports Analytic Conference in Boston, I have been spending more time dissecting advanced stats. One of the important principles in using advanced stats to draw conclusions is to also know which stats don’t paint a complete picture. I have found that looking at some of these team stats can tell us a lot on why good teams are good and why certain teams overachieve and conversely underachieve. The San Antonio Spurs currently have the
Five games made up the NBA schedule on the second Monday of March 2013. The Knicks forgot how to shoot the ball in a California nightmare, the Spurs showed the Thunder who the best team in the West is and the Nuggets extended their winning streak in Phoenix. Welcome to a Championship Week edition of Five Fast Facts.