So much has been made of the trials and tribulations of LeBron James over the course of these NBA playoffs, which is to be expected. When you flame out the way James flamed out in the NBA Finals last June, you are going to be under a microscope — or a Hubble telescope as columnist Tom D’Angelo wrote in this Game 6 column. But how about we take a look at another of the stars in this series, and put him
Tonight, the Boston Celtics will try to become the 16th team in NBA history to come back from an 0-2 deficit to win a playoff series. Yesterday, the Oklahoma City Thunder became the 15th. Here is the list of all the teams that have done it, and below are some interesting notes about the Celtics and Heat. Boston (vs. Los Angeles) 1969 Finals Los Angeles (vs. San Francisco) 1969 Western Division Semifinals Baltimore (vs. New York) 1971 Eastern Conference Finals Portland (vs. Philadelphia) 1977 Finals Chicago (vs. New York) 1993 Eastern Conference Finals Houston (vs. Phoenix) 1994 Western Conference
Ok, so the Oklahoma City Thunder are in the NBA Finals, and the knee-jerk reaction will be that they are doomed to lose because they’ve never before performed on the big stage like so many of the Celtics and Heat have. We’re here to tell you that knee-jerk reaction argument is fatally flawed. Unbeknownst to many Americans, the Thunder’s dynamic duo of Durant and Westbrook have not only performed, but won, at the highest level on earth. That happened at the 2010 World
Somewhere in San Antonio, be it in somebody’s basement or in some large warehouse, are thousands upon thousands of “I Want Some Nasty” t-shirts with bleak futures as dishrags. Turns out the signature phrase of the 2012 NBA Western Conference finals was uttered by Gregg Popovich once again, but this one doesn’t have much of a future as a fashion statement. “We’re in trouble” was what Pop told point guard Tony Parker at the beginning of the fourth quarter, imploring his playmaker
// csprtContainer(); // ]]> If you missed the postgame interviews, Miami coach Erik Spoelstra was asked why he left Chris Bosh on the bench for the entire fourth quarter of the Heat’s Game 5 loss to the Boston Celtics. Spoelstra responded that it “wouldn’t have been fair” to Bosh to put him in for the final 3 minutes. Hello? Wouldn’t have been fair? On what grounds? This was Game 5 of an even series, a fourth quarter in which the Heat were getting destroyed over and
csprtContainer(); Something you may not have known about the Oklahoma City Thunder: despite their relatively young age, they are about as tightly-knit of a group as there is in the entire NBA. They hang out at each others’ houses. They are as much of a team on the court as hey are of of it. Their core has been together so long, including the most unheralded big player in this series, Nick Collison, that they have been able to summon a collective
Paul Allen has a new general manager for the Portland Trail Blazers, and you may wager amongst yourselves as to how long Neil Olshey will last in what has been a revolving-door job for the past few years. Olshey left a similar post with the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday to take the job with the Blazers, who have been using Chad Buchanan as their interim GM for the past year. Buchanan took over from the departed Rich Cho, who lasted only
NEW YORK – Los Angeles Lakers forward-center Pau Gasol is the recipient of the first-ever seasonlong Kia Community Assist Award in recognition of his outstanding efforts in the community and his ongoing philanthropic and charitable work, the NBA announced Monday. Kia and the NBA are honoring Gasol in part for his ongoing support of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The pre-medical-student-turned-NBA-star has been a hospital champion for the past several years. In addition to frequent visits with patients, Gasol facilitated a new partnership this year between the hospital and Grifols,