And the best team in the Western Conference is … Ah, you don’t want to read about the Portland Trail Blazers, do you? You’d rather fawn over the Miami Heat for their 3 1/2-hour, triple-overtime victory in Atlanta, or dump on the Dallas Mavericks and those who said two weeks ago that they were the best team in the NBA. Perhaps you’d prefer to postulate over where Dwight Howard will end up (just a thought, but if I’m Rich DeVos, and I’m 85
For those of you who had Mike D’Antoni in the first coach to be fired pool, we have some bad news. Sacramento Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof pulled a fast one today, canning coach Paul Westphal just seven games into the season. Keith Smart will coach the team tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks, who will be without Andrew Bogut again (he is in Australia dealing with a personal matter and won’t return until next week.) Westphal went 51-120 in his two-plus
Wednesday night was a busy night in the NBA, and no team walked out looking more impressive then the Orlando Magic. Their record is setting at 5-2, and they are shaping out to be a solid team in the Eastern Conference. Dwight Howard finished with yet another dominant game, featuring 28 points and 20 rebounds, which is becoming the norm. But the key to the Magic’s success seems to be coming from Ryan Anderson. Anderson finished with 23 points, and
Did you ever hear the story about the time Jeff Van Gundy’s Honda Civic got flipped onto Brendan Malone’s brand-new Mercedes by a jet blast from the Knicks’ charter plane? Do you remember the 1996 Western Conference finals when Karl Malone was taking so long to shoot free throws, the fans in Seattle counted to 10 while he prepared to shoot? The Jazz lost that series in Game 7 at Key Arena when Malone missed two big shots from the line at
So, let’s go right ahead and get a little carried away over what went down during the fourth quarter in Chicago last night. We now know who the leading candidate is for MVP. It’s the same guy who won it last year, Derrick Rose, who knocked down three 3-pointers in the final period to bring Chicago back from a 12-point deficit. We now know who is the leading candidate for Coach of the Year, Tom Thibodeau, who has drilled his team every
Ricky Rubio impresses, DeMarcus Cousins gets banished, and the Heat and Thunder stay undefeated. CineSport’s Brian Clark and Chris Sheridan of SheridanHoops.com discuss these story lines. //
// Happy New Year from me, too. Bernucca wrote that lede in yesterday’s roundup, and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But enough of that. We’re here this morning to talk about Ricky Rubio, and you can’t do that without referencing Licky Lubio (more on that below). The Minnesota Timberwolves have become Must-See TV. Readers who are 30 or older might remember the buzz surrounding Jason Williams in the early days of 1998 when the Sacramento Kings were the hep team