In Kobe Bryant’s fourth game back from an injured achilles, the Los Angeles Lakers played against the Charlotte Bobcats on the road in the Time Warner Arena and escaped with an 88-85 win—their first since his return. The win will, perhaps, allow Pau Gasol to continue their road trip with his pride intact. At least, that might be the impression you’d get from Golden State Warriors center Festus Ezeli’s reaction to a Josh McRoberts dunk Saturday night. [Read more…]
Today is the day when the floodgates open and a whole bunch of NBA players can theoretically start changing addresses and re-assessing their prospects. Basically, just about any player in the league can now be traded, as Dec. 15 is the date when players who signed over the summer can be shipped elsewhere. There will be umpteen trade stories over the next two months, leading up to the actual deadline in February. A fraction of them will have any truth. Already we’ve seen
Saturday, December 14 was a night in which the NBA hosted eight games featuring some of the most high-profile players in the league. There were legendary milestones, out-of-this-world performances and a loss that continued the Eastern Conference’s dreadful season. Here’s everything that you need to know about last night’s games. [Read more…]
One year ago, the Knicks had the best record in the East and the second-best in the NBA. Today, they’re fighting to stay above the absolute bottom-feeders. So where do they go from here? Up is the only answer, right? Well, probably not too far up. Of the 16 teams that were in playoff position on December 14th last year, 14 made the playoffs. The only teams to crash the party were the Lakers and Rockets, who got the bottom two seeds in
It’s challenging to be a fan of a struggling team, but the real fans are able to do it. Bill Simmons has been a lifelong Celtics fan. He’s criticized his team many times over the years and has even butted heads with some of the top people in the organization. Though, after many losing seasons in the 2000s, the Celtics did have its championship run in 2008. This season, things weren’t looking very promising for the Celtics. After losing Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett
Every now and then I appear on the BBC World Service, which is broadcast in about 1,800 different countries — or something just short of that number. I aways enjoy explaining the NBA to the Brits, because their knowledge of basketball still trails their knowledge of cricket by something like 1,800 percent. In this appearance, we discussed the lack of rivalries in today’s NBA — which is astonishing to the British because teams can play each other as many as 11 times
With the exception of the Thunder destroying the Lakers, none of the games ended with a greater than ten point margin. In two high scoring games, the Rockets outlasted the Warriors and the Suns beat the Kings to earn important road wins. The Cavaliers, Bulls and Jazz also scored road wins. Tonight, there are eight games on NBA floors. Here is today’s Fantasy Spin. [Read more…]
Where the hell has the time gone? It certainly flies as the days get shorter and darkness descends in the late afternoon. We’re already through the first quarter of the NBA season and almost at Christmas. The league has seen plenty of pleasant surprises, like the consistently stellar Portland Trail Blazers, and many disappointments, like the entire Eastern Conference besides Indiana and Miami. There have also been a whole host of players who have really progressed in a positive direction over the