Game 4 of the NBA Finals had quite a number of memorable moments, from Russell Westbrook’s incredible scoring outburst (overshadowed by late blunder) to LeBron James’ “Wills Reed” moment (kind of). Our Moke Hamilton explains why the duel was so great but the ending wasn’t. Find all the coverage below, plus updated news about the Magic, Wizards and Hornets. Berry Tramel explains why the officiating of Game 4 wasn’t as bad as people claim: “Game 4: Really good. Scott Foster, Mike
csprtContainer(); MIAMI — They defied the odds and fooled the world. After dropping the first two games of their conference final showdown against the number one seed—a battle- tested team who had been there and done that—they won four straight games and shockingly won the right to play for the NBA’s crown. They tricked us into believing they had a fighting chance to win the whole thing, but after four games, it became obvious that the NBA Finals was a bit of
SOUTH BEACH — “Harden at the end of game three – a bad foul,” said Jeff Van Gundy, former Knicks head coach and current ABC analyst. “Two bad fouls in the third quarter of Game 3. The game is turning based on these small things that turn out to be huge in their amount of consequence going into winning and losing. “These last three games have been so close.” You can say that again, Jeff. To give you an idea of just how
The Washington Wizards on Wednesday acquired center Emeka Okafor and forward Trevor Ariza from the New Orleans Hornets for forward Rashard Lewis and the 46th pick in next week’s draft. Trades usually aren’t made during the playoffs as teams are inclined to wait until the draft and free agency to start making moves in advance of next season. As far as postseason trades go, this is a pretty big one, rivaling the Chris Webber deal in May 1998. The Wizards were fleeced
Jimmy Kimmel has been on fire with coverage of the NBA as of late, and it continued on Tuesday night with Kevin Love making a guest appearance. During the discussion, Love revealed that he is the son of a former NBA player, his uncle Mike Love was in the Beach Boys, called himself a “token white guy” for the Olympics team, and explained the reason behind his hiatus from twitter for two years. He also talked about his former teammate
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