Johnson, Durant Earn Weekly Honors The Atlanta Hawks’ Joe Johnson and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant today were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played March 19-25. Johnson led the Hawks to a 4-1 week with averages of 23.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists. Johnson hit game-tying three-pointers vs. Cleveland on March 21 and Utah on March 25, as well as the game-winning three-pointer at Washington on March 24. Durant’s 29.5 ppg
After being pulled out of Saturday’s victory over the Detroit Pistons, Amar’e Stoudemire told members of the press that his back tightened up a bit, that he was pulled for “precautionary reasons,” and that he would be available to play when the Knicks took on the Milwaukee Bucks in a game with playoff implications on Monday night. Well, that was then, this is now. At about 6pm on Monday–90 minutes before tip off–the Knicks announced that an MRI revealed that Stoudemire had
When the New York Knicks started their season full of hope and expectations, they probably did not circle March 26 on their calendars as an important night. Yet, they hold just a 1 1/2-game lead for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference as they prepare for one of the most critical games of the season against the Milwaukee Bucks at Madison Square Garden in Monday’s best game. Looking to reach .500 for the first time since beating Sacramento on February
You have to wonder what criteria the NBA is using to determine its Players of the Week. Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love, who averaged 33.5 points, 15.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists while shooting 54.9 percent from the field and 52.2 percent from 3-point range, somehow did not win Western Conference Player of the Week honors announced Monday. That honor went to Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant, whose numbers were 29.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists while shooting under 50 percent (42-of-86)
// csprtContainer(); // ]]> The Denver Nuggets have played 27 home games and just 22 away games (entering Monday night’s game at Chicago), they are not a particularly good defensive team, and their final nine games will be against teams fighting for playoff positioning and/or playoff spots. They just downgraded Nene for JaVale McGee, they have been in a constant state of flux because of injuries, and they are 0-2 thus far on a seven-game road trip. So when asked who I think
Four overtime periods is not how you want to finish your third game in three nights. The exhausted Hawks never quit. Joe Johnson played over 55 minutes en route to 37 points and Zaza Pachulia was terrific, with 15 points and 20 rebounds. For Utah, seven players scored in double figures, led by Al Jefferson (28 & 17) and Paul Millsap (25 & 13) but somebody had to lose this very exciting contest. Elsewhere DEN @ MIN: Kevin Love was tremendous again,
Kobe Bryant watched from the bench for a key stretch of the fourth quarter as his Los Angeles Lakers suffered a rare home loss. Dwyane Wade watched LeBron James dominate the ball and didn’t attempt a single shot in the final 12 minutes as the Miami Heat got soundly defeated in Oklahoma City. Do we have a pair of controversies on two of the NBA’s marquee teams? On a Sunday that included a possible NBA finals preview, the first quadruple-overtime game in 15
