The Bucks are going to sweep the Heat. OK, I’ve gotten your attention. I am only joking. This series should be a joke in and of itself, with the best team in the entire NBA taking on the team that finished with the 18th-best record in the league. [Read more…]
It took every available day of the regular season and meant wounds both self- and externally inflicted, but the Lakers managed to qualify for the playoffs Wednesday night. They even avoided the high-powered Oklahoma City Thunder in the process. And while the San Antonio Spurs, winners of 58 games and featuring the best power forward in history along with the league’s best coach can hardly be considered the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it is certainly a
MIAMI — He had hit just two of his previous 18 attempts from the field, but none of that seemed to bother Mario Chalmers during Game 4 of the NBA Finals last night in the biggest performance of his career to this point. “Mario has that thing,” said Dwyane Wade, who has played alongside Chalmers for four seasons– before the Big Three was formed. “That thing called heart, and no matter what, no matter how tough we are on him, he actually
LeBron, the re-canonization…. I know, they never used to do such a thing as re-canonizations. But then, they didn’t used to do un-canonizations, either. These days, you don’t have to perform miracles to be put on a pedestal, the world’s second-favorite trick, even if it just hauled you off your pedestal, which is, of course, the world’s favorite trick. If one crummy NBA title was all LeBron James needed, what was the big deal? He figured to bag one soon enough, as runaway choice
// MIAMI — Did the basketball gods just play a cruel joke on us? Tuesday night’s Game 4 of the NBA Finals has come and gone, and although the game was competitive and entertaining, I feel cheated. I wanted LeBron James and Russell Westbrook to go at each other over the final two minutes of the game, continuing their epic showdown. Instead, neither walked proudly off the court as the game ended. In the game’s final minute, the Miami Heat should have needed James—the
If you’re looking for an illustration of why Celtics-Lakers is the best rivalry in the NBA – and perhaps the most enduring of any in the four major pro sports – then read the piece below. Before each game throughout the NBA Finals, we have been encapsulizing the top five Game 1s, Game 2s, etc. As the Thunder and Heat steel themselves for what should be a pretty intense Game 4 tonight, we offer you our top five Game 4 showdowns in
// MIAMI — You realize the Thunder had us spoiled, right? All playoffs long, they’ve been a comeback team. In Game 1 and Game 2, they were a comeback team. For nearly 2 months, they’ve looked wise beyond their years. After the Oklahoma City Thunder lost Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night, I wrote that squandering an opportunity to take a 2-1 lead after holding the Heat to 37.8 percent shooting and forcing nine fourth-quarter turnovers was a sign
MIAMI — LeBron James stares down at the stat sheet before the media brigade begins firing questions toward the podium. He’s glancing quickly, attempting to assess the game through the box score so that he can answer the public’s never-ending questions. Once Game 3 ended and the Heat took a crucial 2-1 lead in this best of seven NBA Finals series, LeBron James was already planning for the next one, trying to figure out how his team can further impose its