Believe it or not, a quarter of the NBA season has already come and gone. What have we learned so far through the first 20 games of the season? Time flies, the Portland Trail Blazers are for real, critical injuries can derail any team, and the Eastern Conference may never have been worse. After another impressive 111-104 home win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday, the Blazers are a conference-best 16-3 – something no expert or fortune teller could have predicted
The Golden State Warriors (11-8) were back home at Oracle Arena after a four-game road trip, and appeared to be in for a relatively easy win against the lowly Toronto Raptors (6-11) on Tuesday. Perhaps feeling a bit complacent, they came out flat and watched the Raptors take a surprising 36-19 lead after the first quarter. Stephen Curry had just three points after the first half, and things only got worse in the third quarter when the Warriors’ deficit ballooned to
Things couldn’t have gone much uglier for the New York Knicks in the first month of the season. They lost defensive anchor Tyson Chandler to a leg injury, J.R. Smith has been awful since coming back from a 5-game suspension, Amare Stoudemire has been a shell of himself while playing limited minutes, Iman Shumpert’s name in trade rumors has been a distraction, and Andrea Bargnani is what most of us expected him to be – a scoring forward who can’t rebound
The Portland Trail Blazers (15-3) are surprisingly tied with the San Antonio Spurs for the best record in the Western Conference. The Indiana Pacers (16-2) are currently the best team in the entire league. The two teams collided on Monday for the first time, and the competition did not disappoint. Paul George continued his rise to stardom, scoring a game-high and a career-high 43 points, including seven 3-pointers made. Roy Hibbert was also a factor with 16 points and 14 rebounds. With
Just when the Golden State Warriors finally seemed to put away the Oklahoma City Thunder for an impressive 112-110 overtime victory on the road, Russell Westbrook happened. After somehow tapping away a Jermaine O’Neal rebound on Serge Ibaka’s missed shot with about 6.4 seconds remaining in the game, Westbrook saw Thabo Sefolosha jump into the stands to save the ball from going out of bounds and made himself available for the catch. He then went to the 3-point line and launched
A DARK PLACE FOR NEW YORK: The New York Knicks have now lost seven consecutive games – an unfathomable way to begin the season – to drop to 3-11 overall. They are in the bottom of the Atlantic Division, and Carmelo Anthony admits that the team is now in a dark place, from Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles: “The easiest thing for us to do is just to crumble right now,” Carmelo Anthony said. “We are in a dark place but we have
In the midst of a frantic comeback and in desperate need of a win, Jason Kidd needed a timeout to call a play for his Brooklyn Nets against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday. Just one problem: he ran out of them in the fourth quarter. No matter. There have been plenty of questions about his ability as a head coach with the Nets badly struggling out of the gates, but Kidd came up with one trick that probably deserves to be
When it was announced that Kobe Bryant signed a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday, Lakers fans around the world rejoiced. Despite not having seen him play since he tore his Achilles tendon in April, they couldn’t fathom the idea of losing the superstar they’ve known for two decades. Then they heard about the size of the contract, and all hell seemed to break loose on twitter. “He has no interest in winning if that’s what he’s asking for