NEW YORK – There were simultaneous senses of shock, joy, exuberance and disgust Tuesday night at Times Square Studios in Manhattan where the Cleveland Cavaliers drew the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft Lottery for the second straight year and the third time in four years. Cleveland had the ninth best odds to claim the top pick and, percentages be damned, landed numero uno again. “It was incredible,” said Cavs general manager David Griffin. “When Cleveland didn’t pop up at nine,
Realistically, the Brooklyn Nets don’t have room for Kevin Garnett next season. Garnett had by far the worst statistical season of his career in 2013-2014, capped off by a two-point, eight-rebound performance in Wednesday’s Game 5 loss to Miami that eliminated Brooklyn. Garnett scored 24 points total in the five games against the Heat and is a sad shell of his former self on the floor. Garnett is scheduled to make $12 million next season in the final year of his contract and is considering
Miami relatively cruised through its first six playoff games, with only one of their wins coming by fewer than 11 points. After trailing by two at halftime in Saturday night’s Game 3 against the Brooklyn Nets, the Heat finally took a punch it could not counter. “They got virtually everything,” Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Brooklyn Nets’ second half offensive surge. “Everybody knows the threes they hit towards the end of the third quarter but they were getting
Each of the eight teams remaining in the NBA playoffs have played a game in this second round, and some interesting trends have emerged that could be harbingers of things to come over the next two weeks (or however long the league decides to stretch out this round). [Read more…]
Why did the Nets acquire Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett from Boston last offseason, mortgaging key future assets to do so? To help win a championship? To be on the floor in important moments in the playoffs, where their championship experience and leadership would prove invaluable to a team that previously had no players with real, legitimate postseason success? In the most important moments in the Brooklyn Nets’ season, the final minutes of the team’s Game 5 loss in Toronto, Pierce and
BROOKLYN — The Toronto Raptors were tired of being the less physical, aggressive and careful team in their first round series with the Brooklyn Nets. So they flipped the script on Brooklyn in Sunday night’s Game 4 at the Barclays Center and took control of their playoff fate. Toronto set the tone in the first quarter by scoring 35 points and finished the game by not allowing a field goal over the final six minutes and 11 seconds in an 87-79
The twists and turns for the Brooklyn Nets and Toronto Raptors over the course of the regular season could almost rival those of the red and purple weddings on a certain Game show based in Westeros. Brooklyn had championship aspirations ever since it acquired Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett on draft night, but ended the 2013 calendar year at 10-21, with All-Star center Brook Lopez out for the season, and searching for answers under rookie head coach Jason Kidd. While Pierce
“Nobody was expecting this,” Knicks head coach Mike Woodson said of his team missing the playoffs for the first time since 2010. “At the beginning of the season, nobody ever thought we’d be in this situation, in this position that we’re in right now,” said star forward Carmelo Anthony, who will not play in the postseason for the first time in his 11 year career. After coming into last year’s postseason as the second seed in the Eastern Conference, the New