Many will attribute Miami’s 93-86 Game 1 loss to Chicago on Monday to the seven days of rest the Heat had between its first and second round series. Can we blame the loss on Miami being “rusty,” “over-rested,” or given too much time between series, being punished for quickly finishing off the Milwaukee Bucks a week ago? “There’s no excuses,” said Miami Head Coach Erik Spoelstra, whose team had not played in more than a week. “We’re not making any excuses
The two best games of the playoffs thus far have clearly been Game 4 between the Brooklyn Nets and Chicago Bulls and Game 1 between the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs, which had a number of similarities. Both games went multiple overtimes. Both games had plenty of big shots. Both games had role players becoming unlikely heroes. And unfortunately for the Nets and Warriors, both games had huge collapses late in regulation. [Read more…]
Any of the residual gratification felt by the New York Knicks and their fans was quickly erased Sunday when the Indiana Pacers came into Madison Square Garden and manhandled the Knicks to take away home court advantage. Indiana’s top-ranked defense protected both the rim (eight blocks, five by Roy Hibbert) and the arc (the Knicks made just seven 3-pointers, one less than the Pacers) as they led for the entire second half and took away many of New York’s secondary weapons.
The San Antonio Spurs are in the second round of the playoffs. That’s pretty much the biggest non-story of the postseason, given that they’ve failed to move past the first round just three times in the Tim Duncan era. For the Golden State Warriors, it’s nearly uncharted territory – they’ve made it to the conference semifinals only twice in the last 22 years: once back in 2007, when they upset the Dallas Mavericks as an 8th seed, and once back in 1991,
It seems like the Chicago Bulls spent every last ounce of available energy and every last healthy or semi-healthy body simply to get out of the first round. It seems like the Miami Heat have not played in about a month, spending that time waiting for pretenders to wrap up their postseason series, chuckling to themselves and speculating on who was the lone wolf who did not cast a first-place MVP vote for LeBRon James. So it seems like the fifth-seeded Bulls
NEW YORK — When Pacers head coach Frank Vogel called a timeout with 12.1 seconds left in the first half of yesterday’s matinee Game 1 matchup against the Knicks, Paul George wound up and launched a jumper, smooth as could be, from near mid-court. [Read more…]
BROOKLYN — On the bright side, the Nets’ season ended with a playoff game, in a new arena, in a new home, with a young, urban crowd decked out in black Brooklyn gear. Walking through the Barclays Center during the night, I counted one — yes, just one — “New Jersey” jersey being worn by a fan — equaling the number of “Sex and Drugs and Rap” t-shirts I saw. Sitting to the right of me near the mid-level press row
If lessons have been learned, we should not expect the Knicks to dress in all-black, we should not expect Mike Woodson to be kept in the dark about his players’ pre-game plans, and we should not know what to expect — good or bad on any given night, no telling which will come when — from J.R. Smith. We also should not expect a suspension for Smith for throwing a flagrant elbow. But then again, when you are playing against a team