Kobe Bryant needed 22 points to pass Shaquille O’Neal on the all-time scoring list and got them in the first 21 minutes. He looked like he was on his way to 50, a great way to celebrate his annual trip to his hometown. The Lakers held a 55-30 advantage in rebounds. Andrew Bynum (20 points, 20 rebounds) and Pau Gasol (16 and 11) looked like they were playing against children. And LA held a seven-point lead with less than five minutes to
The Oklahoma City Thunder may have revenge on their minds. On Jan. 3, the Thunder took their only home loss of the season, a 103-93 setback to the Portland Trail Blazers. On Monday night, the Thunder visit the Trail Blazers in the NBA’s best game. There are just four teams with one home loss: Chicago (9-1), Oklahoma City (9-1), Portland (11-1) and San Antonio (13-1), which handled Oklahoma City in a 107-96 victory Saturday night. That was the opener of a five-game road
For the New England Patriots, that one long last Hail Mary attempt failed. For their sporting brethren in Boston who play basketball, another Hail Mary dropped through. Congratulations, Kevin Garnett. You now lead the NBA in 3-point field goal percentage for players with a minimum of three attempts, with a conversion percentage of 1.000. Garnett was 9-of-12 from the field, including his third 3-pointer of the season on three tries, as the Celtics defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 98-80 Sunday on a light day
Guys were losing their cool all over the league Saturday night. Coaches, players, winners, losers – it didn’t matter. Things got out of control in Utah, Minnesota and Indiana, and fines and suspensions should be coming. Let’s start in Salt Lake City, where Lakers coach Mike Brown totally lost it in the fourth quarter of a 96-87 loss to the Jazz. LA trailed, 72-68, and Pau Gasol had possession at the top of the circle. Utah guard Earl Watson came from his blind
In a stacked 13-game appetizer for tomorrow’s Super Bowl, two playoff-bound teams look to bounce back from uninspired losses when the Philadelphia 76ers visit the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday. On Friday, the Sixers (16-7) fell to Miami for the second time this season, 99-79. Philadelphia proved it can hang with big boys by beating contenders Orlando and Chicago earlier this week, but Thaddeus Young’s 18 points weren’t enough to keep up with the Heat in the Sixers’ third straight tough game. After a
My first job out of college was as a baseball dictationist at the AP. Being a know-it-all twentysomething, I would invariably do something stupid about once a week. And when I did, an old salt of a newsman named Dick Joyce – who called everyone “Mersh” – would turn to me and say, “Uh, Mersh, where you workin’ next week?” It might be time to ask Mike D’Antoni the same question. The embattled coach of the New York Knicks watched his team lose
Well, it’s finally here: Super Bowl weekend. For almost everyone in New York, it’s exciting. For Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, it’s frightening. The Knicks are in a horrendous 2-10 slide and will be feeling the pressure when they head to Boston to play the Celtics in Friday’s best NBA game. This is a make-or-break weekend for the head coach. The Daily, a gossip Web site, has reported that D’Antoni will be fired if the Knicks lose the first two games of their
The highlight of the night once again involved Blake Griffin. But it was not the type of Griffin highlight you are accustomed to seeing. As friend and former colleague Beth Harris of the Associated Press described in four perfectly succinct words, Blake Griffin got Mozgov’d. Or to put it in words that would never be seen on the AP wire, Timofey Mozgov knocked Blake Griffin on his ass. It was one heck of a hard foul, and it came during one heck of a