Remember the Oklahoma City Thunder? They have been out of the news for a while since sweeping the Dallas Mavericks back on May 5. The waiting game will end soon enough as they will learn who their next opponent will be, with the Lakers and the Nuggets playing an elimination game on Saturday. There will be no waiting for the Sixers and the Celtics, who face off in the second round just two days after celebrating their first round victory. Philadelphia (0-0) at Boston
Memphis (2-3) at Los Angeles Clippers (3-2): Injuries have been the story of the first round of the playoffs, and the Los Angeles Clippers have officially joined the party. Caron Butler has been playing with a broken hand, and it seems his two superstar teammates will have to toughen up and join him in playing through injuries. Blake Griffin and Chris Paul each were hurt in Game 5, and though they are likely to play, a gimpy version of the two could prove
Did you guys hear? Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant is sick and may be questionable for tonight’s contest in Denver! Okay, so no one actually believes Bryant will miss the game in any capacity, including his coach. “If I were a betting guy, which I’m not, I would probably bet that he would play,” Mike Brown said. It’s still big news though, and worth keeping an eye on because he really is “sick as a dog.” Bryant’s Lakers, along with two other teams hoping to eliminate
What looked to be a fast ending to the first round of the playoffs took a turn for the competitive good on Tuesday night when three of the four teams that faced elimination – the Hawks, Bulls and Nuggets – all survived to play a Game 6. The New York Knicks and Memphis Grizzlies are in the same boat – down 3-1 in their respective series – and they will try to avoid elimination on Wednesday night rather than go fishing,
The first round of the playoffs are seemingly coming to a quicker close than many may have anticipated. The Mavericks and Jazz have already been swept out, and one of the remaining teams in each series is on the brink of elimination. Four teams will try to extend their postseason on Tuesday night as they head into their series down 3-1, but history is not on their side, as only eight teams in NBA history have come back from a 3-1 deficit. The
One team, the Dallas Mavericks, has already been knocked out of the playoffs. If you want to bash Mark Cuban for it, you should read this first. The Utah Jazz will look to avoid the same fate in Game 4 against the mighty San Antonio Spurs, who seem to have forgotten how to lose – winning their last 13 contests. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Clippers hope to put themselves in a dominant position to take the series from the Memphis Grizzlies, who
Take out the brooms. Who would have thought we’d be saying that about the reigning World Champions? The Dallas Mavericks were swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night after only eight days of playoff basketball, becoming the first team to be eliminated in the 2011-2012 Playoffs. As the TNT crew stated, they’re going fishing. It marked only the second time the team was swept out of the playoffs. The first time was against the Portland Trail Blazers in 1990, in a best-of-5 format. It
The theme of this year’s playoffs has been injuries, and they kept coming Friday night. Tracy McGrady sprained an ankle (though he later returned), Avery Bradley hurt his shoulder, and Al Harrington fractured his nose. No team, though, is getting hit harder than the Chicago Bulls, the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference, who lost 79-74 at Philadelphia to fall behind 2-1 to the Sixers. Already without Derrick Rose, who was lost for the remainder of the playoffs after tearing an ACL in his