Impossible to go into the conference finals without talking about the team that should have made it but didn’t — the Los Angeles Clippers. My take: They are not cursed. They were merely too thin, and they didn’t have the fortitude to finish the job. And if the Houston Rockets taught us all one thing during their series against Doc Rivers’ team, it was this: Never give up, no matter how bleak things seem. But that series is behind us, and we
The conference finals should be fantastic. We can all agree on that. But what are fans in New York and Los Angeles looking forward to most? The Draft Lottery on Tuesday night as the lead-in to Game 1 of the Western Conference matchup between Golden State and Houston. First, let me get one thing out of the way: I do not believe the lottery is fixed. But I do believe the 1985 lottery may have been fixed in order to land the
LeBron James is headed to another Eastern Conference finals, the Los Angeles Clippers are headed to another Game 7, and who knows where Tom Thibodeau is headed. With those in mind – and no games on Saturday night for the first time since the World Series – we thought it would be a really good time for another edition of the Three-Man Weave. Here we go. 1. Are the Cleveland Cavaliers home free into the NBA Finals? [Read more…]
Lots of speculation on who will take over for Monty Williams after he was fired as coach of the New Orleans Pelicans — a subject I discussed here on WWL Radio in New Orleans. For those who beliueve Tom Thibodeau might take the job … hold on a second. First, Thibodeau was very close to Monty Williams after the two served as assistant coaches to Mike Krzyzewski on Team USA two of the past three summers. Thibodeau does not want to go
The bad news for Monty Williams was good news for the rest of the NBA. There is now a strong chance that Anthony Davis leaves New Orleans and becomes an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2017. That is the ultimate fallout from Tuesday’s shocking news that the Pelicans had fired Williams after he led them to the Western Conference playoffs, where they were swept by the Golden State Warriors. The firing came a mere two weeks after owner Tom Benson
What a weekend it was — buzzer beaters from Paul Pierce and LeBron James, a foulfest in the Rockets-Clippers yawnfest, not a peep out of future ESPN castoff Bill Simmons … but a mouthful from LeBron James, who threw David Blatt under the bus again. And rightfully so. I’ve known Blatt longer than any U.S.-based journalist covering basketball, and this site has reported on his successes overseas more than any other American basketball Web site. When he won the Euroleague Final
I had a long talk with DeMarre Carroll of the Hawks on the night Atlanta eliminated Brooklyn from the playoffs, and the discussion turned toward money — as in how much money Carroll will be worth on the open market, and whether it would be worth the risk for him to sign a one-year deal and then hope to cash in big-time in the summer of 2016 when the salary cap jumps to $90 million. Since our conversation, Carroll has had
He just coached the Chicago Bulls to a very impressive Game 1 win in Cleveland. He finished off the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 6 of the first round with a 54-point victory. He has had a surprising level of success the past two seasons despite being without Derrick Rose. He is widely regarded as one of the best tacticians in basketball. Yet Tom Thibodeau appears to be on the way out in Chicago. Even if he wins a championship. How can this be? Is there