Can I have last weekend back? I mean, seriously. The playoff games were duds, almost all of them. And the one game that went to overtime happened so early Saturday afternoon, lunch was not even finished. Watching playoff games should never feel like a chore, but it sort of felt that way the past two days. The second-most compelling thing I saw on video was Blake Griffin posterizing Aron Baynes twice in a row, and technically that did not happen over the
How many of the 16 teams in the NBA playoffs have a legitimate shot at the championship? It is a fair question, and it was posed to me this morning on NBC Sports Radio by host Erik Kuselias. Just to give you a preview, I did not answer “Trail Blazers,” “Pelicans” or “Celtics.” But I did give an answer that reflects what an odd situation we have on our hands after the first two days of the NBA playoffs. Clearly, the Los
I’ve used this line before, but I’ll use it again because it is a good one: Predictions are like armpits; everyone has them, and most of them stink. One exception would be our chief blogger, Jim Park (@SheridanBlog), whose preseason predictions included Stephen Curry as MVP and Steve Kerr as Coach of the Year. My own latest prediction is that Curry will receive 65 percent of the first-place votes in the MVP race, although he did not get mine. James Harden did.
There is a reason why I always wait until the 82nd game of the season is in the books before deciding on my postseason awards choices. Three words: What’s the hurry? This is a lesson I learned way back in 1999 when I was covering a late regular-season game at the Alamodome during the lockout-shortened 50-game season. There were still three of four games left, and I was sitting alongside a veteran reporter from USA Today and asked him which way he
Who will end up where? What happens if this team loses and that team wins, or vice versa, or any other combination of outcomes? The NBA has provided the following primer: Entering Tuesday’s action, 12 of the 17 games left on the schedule have the potential to affect playoff seedings. Here is a look at some of what remains undecided with the playoffs set to start on Saturday. The Spurs, Clippers and Rockets are all tied for the second-best record in the West at 55-26
I am undecided. My MVP ballot is sitting in my inbox, still blank. Of course, it is always blank with three days left in the season, because the NBA allows me to wait until all 82 games are played before making up my mind with finality. But what’s different this year is that I truly do not know who I will be putting in the first slot and who I will be putting in the second. This is the toughest MVP race I
The weather app on my smartphone read 39 degrees this morning. It left me wondering: When is this going to change? This is the second straight year in New York that spring has been a rumor rather than a reality, and it can lead a person to convince oneself: This will never change. Which brings me to my mindset on the MVP award. For months, I have been telling myself that James Harden is going to win the MVP award. Every night,
Back in the preseason, I predicted the San Antonio Spurs would be returning to the NBA Finals, where they would defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers for that elusive second straight championship. Nothing I have seen over the past month and a half has convinced me that my prediction was faulty, and San Antonio’s demolition of the Golden State Warriors over the weekend only reinforced my belief in the Spurs. If you give a read to Chris Bernucca’s column on Kawhi Leonard and