Monday night was all about the National Championship game between Louisville and Michigan, and rightfully so. This was one game no basketball fan should have missed. Check out the details of the amazing game, along with players’ reactions here.
Back to the NBA: with the season winding down, there are plenty of questions to wonder about. Will the Los Angeles Lakers make the playoffs this season? Who will be the Coach of the Year? Can Carmelo Anthony hold off Kevin Durant for the scoring title? Those are just three of the 10 questions Chris Sheridan had in this piece about the 10 unanswered questions with 10 days left in the regular season.
Who are the contenders and the pretenders heading into the postseason? Chris Bernucca has all the answers here.
Onto relevant news from around the league:
Chris Paul talked about meeting expectations and the big picture, from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports: “Paul doesn’t think the Clippers are a tease and considers them a legitimate title contender. “We understand what it’s like to go to the playoffs and get knocked off like last year,” said Paul, whose Clippers lost to the Spurs in the second round last season. “Now we are trying to do something bigger.”… The Staples Center rafters are filled with 16 championship banners belonging to the Lakers. Paul wants to add one for the Clippers and doesn’t see any reason to celebrate a division title. “There was no cake, no champagne or nothing like that in the locker room,” Paul said. “That says something even more about our team. We are not satisfied. We understand that this is something small compared to the big picture.”
Paul and his teammates put on a show in the locker room in sarcasm to show that there are no problems as reported, from Vincent Vonsignore of Daily News: “Clippers center DeAndre Jordan shouted across the locker room Sunday to Chris Paul. “I don’t like you, Chris,” Jordan yelled out. Paul didn’t flinch. “I don’t care,” Paul answered. Meanwhile, Clippers forward Blake Griffin turned to Jordan, whose locker is near his, and snipped: “Get out of my way DeAndre. Move,” Griffin shouted. Jordan didn’t back down. “I don’t like you, Blake Griffin,” Jordan screamed. Finally, all three players shared a hearty laugh. Turns out it was all in fun. But it also was a message delivered to anyone who thinks the Clippers have a chemistry problem or their star players don’t get along.”
Luis Scola put the Suns on blast for not knowing how to play, from Craig Brialou of Arizona Sports: “We can’t just play the game and pick out the good parts of the game and say we play well for a quarter or two or three. If you don’t play well for 48 minutes, you don’t play well,” Luis Scola said following the team’s most recent loss Sunday against New Orleans. He was just getting started. “We just don’t know how to play well,” he continued. “We don’t know how to play basketball and that’s why we lose. Until we learn how to play 48 minutes of basketball, we’re not going to win games. I’m surprised we won (23) games playing this way. Many of the games we won, we did the same thing. We just overcame it somehow. I’m also surprised we didn’t fix it. We saw the problem pretty much the first week and we couldn’t fix it. It’s very frustrating. It’s a bad year.”
Derrick Rose kept the option of coming back this season open, even if it means he has to play limited minutes. K.C. Johnson of Chicago Tribune has more: ““Oh, no,” Rose said, when asked if he’d announce he’s sitting out this season. “I’m keeping it open.”… Playing on a minutes limit wouldn’t bother him. “I wouldn’t mind at all,” he said. “Of course I want to play more. But it’s not that big. I’m going to play whenever I’m ready. I don’t care if it’s 15 or 40 (minutes). I just love the game too much. Like I said, I’m just waiting and praying about it. And hopefully I’ll be out there soon.”
- Jalen Rose thinks Chris Webber wants to disassociate himself with Michigan to rebuild his life. His full thoughts here: