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
“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
With one week left in the NBA regular season, the pressure is on for two Eastern Conference teams and four Western Conference teams fighting for the final playoff spots. Millions will intently watch what transpires over the next seven days as teams face must-win games, and the effort and intensity pick up. Each of these half-dozen teams have a player who will greatly impact the fate of their clubs the rest of the way. [Read more…]
Dwight Howard, James Harden and Chandler Parsons are the big-name players, but the Houston Rockets would not be a top-four team in the Western Conference without Patrick Beverley. Houston is 36-16 when Patrick Beverley starts, but they will miss him for at least two weeks (and likely for the duration of the regular season) with a torn meniscus. His replacement is one Jeremy Lin. You remember him, right? Even if Beverley doesn’t have the best offensive and defensive numbers, it doesn’t seem likely that Lin has
As it often does, the NCAA Tournament provided a wild first weekend. Mercer saved Warren Buffett $1 billion, Dayton won the state of Ohio and reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in 30 years, Stanford sent Andrew Wiggins and Kansas packing, and the young Kentucky Wildcats ended Wichita State’s dream season. So out of the 32 second and third-round games won by the 16 teams still in contention for the national championship, what statistical trends and insights can we gain
Goran Dragic slashes, drives and penetrates into the lane like no other NBA player, creatively opening up space to create for himself and his Phoenix Suns teammates. That creativity, though, comes with a heavy price: the beating he takes on a nightly basis as he hurtles into and bounces around defenders with his breathtakingly fun to watch forays towards the basket which sweep opponents and fans alike off their feet like a swift and strong gust of wind. Dragic’s offensive game