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Sprung: All-Breakout Team led by L.Stephenson, A.Afflalo, I.Thomas

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Where the hell has the time gone? It certainly flies as the days get shorter and darkness descends in the late afternoon. We’re already through the first quarter of the NBA season and almost at Christmas. The league has seen plenty of pleasant surprises, like the consistently stellar Portland Trail Blazers, and many disappointments, like the entire Eastern Conference besides Indiana and Miami. There have also been a whole host of players who have really progressed in a positive direction over the

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Sprung: Celtics aren’t tanking, they’re building

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If the Boston Celtics are actually tanking, they are doing a really bad job of it. The Celtics played three very different kinds of basketball games over the previous five days – I was at two of them – that showed a lot about the way this team is operating. And giving away wins for ping-pong balls isn’t part of the plan. On Friday, Boston scored the first 14 points against Denver and led 39-15 after the first quarter. The Celtics nearly gave

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Sprung: Amid coaching chaos, Nets only imagine what could have been with Shaw

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Jason Kidd and Brian Shaw were the two finalists for the Brooklyn Nets coaching position during the summer. While Kidd won out and was hired by the Nets, Shaw ended up getting his first head job in Denver with the Nuggets. So far, it sure seems like Shaw got the better end of that deal. While Brooklyn languishes near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, Denver won its seventh straight game Tuesday, efficiently eviscerating the Nets, 111-87, on a night where turmoil

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Sprung: Anatomy of the New York Knicks’ Losing Streak

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The Knicks went the entire month of November without a home win and started December the same way. New York lost its ninth straight game and seventh in a row at Madison Square Garden in a tough 103-99 setback to New Orleans on Sunday night. For a team that was supposed to be at least on the fringe of contention in the Eastern Conference, it’s almost unfathomable that the Knicks are 3-13. Coach Mike Woodson told reporters before the game that

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Sprung: How the Lakers are surviving without Kobe and Nash

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BROOKLYN – How many NBA teams could survive the loss of their starting backcourt for nearly a quarter of the season? How many NBA teams could survive that loss when those two players are future Hall of Famers like Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash? Through 17 games, you can count the upstart Los Angeles Lakers among those teams. Thanks to an unlikely effective backcourt rotation quartet of Steve Blake, Jodie Meeks, Jordan Farmar and Nick Young, the Lakers are 9-8 and

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Sprung: Brooklyn’s struggles extend well beyond third quarters

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BROOKLYN — Can one quarter ruin a basketball team’s season? It could if that 12-minute span of poor play happens over, and over and over again — compounding the many problems the team has overall. The Detroit Pistons outscored the Nets 34-15 in the third quarter on Sunday afternoon at the Barclays Center in a 109-97 loss that dropped Brooklyn to an almost unfathomable 3-10 on the season. In the Nets’ 10 losses, they’ve been outscored by a total of 96

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Knicks fans should recognize a real superstar: Indiana’s Paul George

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New York sports fans are very protectively delusional with players they consider stars or superstars. Just look at Mark Sanchez. Or 2013 Derek Jeter. The same thing seems to be happening with Carmelo Anthony, who New Yorkers remarkably revere as a megastar. In reality, Anthony is only average defensively and, so far this season, inefficient offensively. As we’ve seen throughout this season, Melo is certainly no Paul George. Just consider this sequence over the last five minutes and nine seconds of Wednesday

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Sprung: Freedom, chemistry behind Trail Blazers’ early success

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BROOKLYN – Portland Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts doesn’t run any crazy offensive scheme. He just tries to get the most out of his talented players. Often this season, that has meant letting his shooters shoot with the rest taking care of itself. So far, that has been a major key to the success of the NBA’s hottest team. It seems simple, but in a sporting landscape where coaches like to exert influence or control, sometimes giving individuals freedom can get

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