Kevin Durant has won in every building in the NBA in his career except one: the Amway Center. Durant and the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder (28-7) put their six-game winning streak on the line as they visit Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic (23-13) in Thursday’s best game, airing on TNT. The Thunder last won in Orlando in March 2004, when they were still wearing the Seattle Supersonics uniforms and Durant was 16 years old. Although you’d never guess after watching him put
Last week’s edition of The Bernucca List was correctly solved by Mike, who determined that all 20 players listed were active and had exactly one All-Star berth. Nice job. The latest list is below. See if you can determine the common threads among every player on the list. First correct responder gets mentioned in next week’s list. You can answer via the comments or send me a Tweet. The Bernucca List Andris Biedrins Jason Collins DeMarcus Cousins Al Harrington Dwight Howard Kurt Thomas Jason Thompson
Who was that masked man? Did you mean the one in San Antonio, or the one in Los Angeles? Original masked man (aside from the “real” original, the Lone Ranger) Richard Hamilton made his long-awaited return to the starting lineup for the Chicago Bulls as they pulled off one of their most impressive road wins of the season, defeating the Spurs 96-89 in San Antonio. And Kobe Bryant slipped on a mask over his broken nose in Los Angeles and dropped 31 points
Two juggernauts will collide in Wednesday night’s best NBA game when Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls (28-8) visit Tony Parker and the San Antonio Spurs (24-10). They are currently ranked third and fourth, respectively, in Heisler’s Power Rankings. Finally ending their annual rodeo road trip with an 8-1 record, The Spurs start a seven-game homestand over the next two weeks. They hope to continue a dominant stretch as they have won 12 of their past 13 games. The Bulls have won
We are going to learn a lot about the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Clippers in the month ahead, especially in the week ahead. What we learned last night is that the Wolves are a lot deeper than many give them credit for. After trailing for most of the first three quarters, reserves Michael Beasley and Derrick Williams led the way the as the Timberwolves made their first 10 shots of the fourth quarter and rallied to defeat the Clippers 109-97
Does Lamar Odom want out of Dallas? And if he does, will the Mavericks let him leave? Well, that depends on who you believe. It’s no secret Odom is unhappy in Dallas. The reigning Sixth Man Award winner is having by far the worst season of his career, unable to adapt his all-around game – that normally would fit almost anywhere – with the defending champions. Right now, Odom is not even with the Mavericks. He left the team midway through last week
// ORLANDO — Shall we call him “Daffy,” “Donald,” or “Floyd Mayweather?” Which “duck” moniker is most fitting? Because NBA commissioner David Stern, asked a fair question tonight by yours truly at his annual All-Star news conference, did the finest bob-and-weave in NBA history while refusing to answer whether squashing the trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers was the right thing to do. Here is a transcript of the back-and-forth: Q. It’s been two months now since you vetoed the
ORLANDO — We’ll begin this morning by offering our congratulations to Sam Smith for receiving the Curt Gowdy Media Award, which means he gets to join our own Mark Heisler and former AP colleague Jim O’Connell in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. Smith, like Heisler a victim of the Tribune company’s talent purge, now writes unfiltered for Bulls.com. You should read his column every Monday. He gets to write without being edited, which can be a blessing and