Well, this series brings together two polar opposites. On the one hand we have the Miami Heat going for their three-peat, striving to get as close to perfection as possible before they move on to the second round. On the other hand we have the “just happy to be here” Bobcats, who have never won a playoff series in their existence and aren’t about to start now. The Bobcats are listed at 250-1 to win the championship, the same odds as the
The Wizards made us really, really upset on the final night of the regular season by moving up from sixth place to fifth place, denying us a rematch of last year’s Bulls-Nets series that went seven games and was won by Joakim Noah in his old home borough. Well, I guess it wasn’t the Wizards’ fault. All the Nets needed to do to lock up that matchup (and avoid the Heat in the second round) was beat Cleveland. Instead, they lost
Do they have to play this series? Do we really have to watch it and pay close attention? Look, we all know how bad the Leastern Conference was this season, and we all knew that there would be at least one bad team crashing the party. And the one we ended up with is an Atlanta Hawks team whose general manager, Danny Ferry, said a few weeks back that it really didn’t matter if the Hawks qualified for the postseason or
Here is the playoff schedule for the eight first-round series of the 2014 NBA playoffs: [Read more…]
In a break with tradition, I am casting my NBA awards ballot after the 81st game, not the 82nd. It’s a rarity, but this season I will not hem and haw and sleep on it until the afternoon after the final day of the season. You’re welcome. I have been an official NBA postseason awards voter for nearly a decade, and it would have been longer if not for a rule at the Associated Press, where I worked from 1987-2005, forbidding
Well, the Phoenix Suns gave us an interesting season. And for that, we thank them as we bid them adieu and wish them good luck in the draft lottery. Their chances of winning are slim: They get five ping-pong balls out of 1,000. Good luck with that. Not much of a consolation prize, eh? The Western Conference playoff race came to a close of sorts Monday night when the Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Suns 97-91 in a thrilling game that featured 15
Would you sacrifice the possibility of hosting a Game 7 at home in the Eastern Conference finals if it meant a smoother path toward getting to those Eastern Conference finals? That is a question the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat have to be asking themselves with seven days left in the regular season. [Read more…]
The Indiana Pacers just keep getting more and more interesting. And tonight, we’ll find out if their second unit is good enough to defeat the worst team in the NBA. Why the second unit? Because all five members of the starting five — Roy Hibbert, David West, Paul George, Lance Stephenson and George Hill — are being rested tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks. It is one of the most bizarre moves by a coach in an important stretch run, ever. The Pacers