After a one-week wait, the NBA Finals are here. But that’s nowhere near as long as these teams have been waiting for a championship. For the Golden State Warriors, it has been 40 years since Rick Barry led them to what many believe is the greatest upset in NBA Finals history, a four-game sweep of the Washington Bullets in 1975. For the Cleveland Cavaliers, it has been, well, forever. The Cavaliers entered the NBA in 1970 and didn’t even make the Finals
See that guy? That white silhouette inside the red and blue? That’s Jerry West. He’s the NBA logo and has been since 1969, when he was still playing. Jerry West’s nickname was “Mr. Clutch.” Former Boston Celtics radio announcer Johnny Most, who disliked every player not wearing green and white, used to call him “Gentleman Jerry.” To my knowledge, Jerry West and Julius Erving are the only visiting players who ever received polite applause upon entering the lion’s den known as Boston
Here’s what’s been good about the 2015 NBA playoffs: 1. LeBron James. 2. Stephen Curry. 3. Paul Pierce in the clutch. 4. Clippers-Spurs, especially Game 7. Here’s what’s been bad about the 2015 NBA playoffs: Everything else. [Read more…]
On your mark, get set, go! Track meet, drag race, whatever analogy you like, the Western Conference finals between the top-seeded Golden State Warriors and second-seeded Houston Rockets should be played at a breakneck pace by a pair of teams who are attempting to change the paradigm of NBA offenses. During the regular season, the Warriors led the league in points per game, overall shooting and 3-point shooting. They were second in threes made and scored at least 110 points 40 times,
LeBron James is headed to another Eastern Conference finals, the Los Angeles Clippers are headed to another Game 7, and who knows where Tom Thibodeau is headed. With those in mind – and no games on Saturday night for the first time since the World Series – we thought it would be a really good time for another edition of the Three-Man Weave. Here we go. 1. Are the Cleveland Cavaliers home free into the NBA Finals? [Read more…]
Over the weekend, we saw a trio of buzzer-beaters from Derrick Rose, Paul Pierce and LeBron James win NBA playoff games. All three were certainly fantastic moments that ended intense, exciting postseason games. But before we get too excited about them, let’s consider these two factors. 1. The shots by Rose and Pierce were lucky. Yes, lucky. The next NBA player who actually tries to bank in a straightaway shot will be the first. Was some experience and skill involved in finding
Last summer, we ran a post detailing which players received the biggest raises in salary from the previous year. The list was made up of three types of players. A. Players who received maximum salary deals as their second contracts, such as DeMarcus Cousins. B. Former first-round picks who received sizable contract extensions, although not necessarily max deals, such as Larry Sanders. C. Second-round picks who had been making near league minimum and signed new deals, such as Lance Stephenson. The latter category has
With about two minutes remaining in Saturday night’s Game 7 between the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Clippers and still no clear indication regarding which team was moving on and which team was going home, Tim Duncan gave himself a break from the magnitude of the moment and offered some candid perspective. The All-Star forward and face of one of the handful of NBA dynasties approached Doc Rivers, who was in his 12th Game 7 as a coach. With one