Arguably the NBA’s best two players go head-to-head for the first time this season on Sunday when LeBron James and the Miami Heat visit Kevin Durant and the Thunder in Oklahoma City. The outcome of this game could impact the finals if these two clubs are to meet there. At 35-11 the Heat, second to the East-leading Chicago Bulls (40-10), are percentage points ahead of the West-leading Thunder (36-12). Home-court advantage during the finals is given to the owner of the better regular-season
Jody Genessy: Denver guard Arron Afflalo has been suspended one game for throwing an elbow at Gordon Hayward’s face in Friday’s blowout. Twitter Brian Schmitz: Magic PF Glen Davis says team needs to have a “Jedi force” to carry it rest of season. Nice to know Star Wars hasn’t jumped the shark. Twitter “(I’m feeling) way better,” Rose said. “(When the injury occurred) I was actually bleeding, my groin was bleeding, but now it’s healed. It’s just scar tissue and it’s pretty hard trying to get that
NEW YORK — Arron Afflalo will have some time on his hands to consider his elbows. NBA vice president of violence Stu Jackson announced Sunday that Afflalo has been suspended one game without pay for throwing an elbow to the head of Utah’s Gordon Hayward midway through the third quarter of Utah’s 121-102 win over the Nuggets two nights ago in Salt Lake City. Afflalo will sit out today as the Nuggets play in Minnesota. Actually, it was a half-forearm, half-elbow that Afflalo
Being a purist, I can’t say I like the 66-game season. But it is leading to some compelling games in late March as both the Eastern Conference and Western Conference races refuse to be unbunched, the Clippers are on the precipice with coach Vinny Del Negro and are being picked apart by columnists who are starting to recognize the weaknesses that were apparent to only a few of us early in the season, and Olympic fever is starting to show some signs
Once again, the Bulls had to dig deep, requiring overtime to get by the stubborn Raptors. C.J. Watson scored 23, Carlos Boozer 24 and Luol Deng 23 to make up for the ejection of Joakim Noah after just 12 minutes. For the Raptors, DeMar DeRozan (ankle) couldn’t go, so Gary Forbes (12 PTS, 13 REB) made the most of a rare start. Jose Calderon had 20 & 10 in 45 minutes and James Johnson (20 PTS, 8 REB, 4 BLK)
Things have officially gone wild in the Wild Wild West. Over the past five seasons, at least one team with a winning record has failed to make the playoffs in the Western Conference as the competition has always been fierce and close until the final day of the season. It may never have been this close, however. Currently, 1 1/2 games separate the fourth seed and the ninth seed. Two teams — the Clippers and the Mavericks — are tied for the fourth seed
The Clippers finally got a win Saturday, and everything is hunky-dory again in Lob City. Yeah, right. The issues in Clipperland run too deep to be fixed by a matinee mauling of Memphis, which has problems of its own. It is hard to believe that a team boasting both Chris Paul and Blake Griffin may not make the playoffs, but that remains a distinct possibility. Didn’t someone around here say that a while ago? There are plenty of problems on offense. New faces are
The Los Angeles Clippers re-signed free agent forward Bobby Simmons, whose second 10-day contract with the Clippers expired on March 18, the team announced Saturday. In 13 games played for the Clippers this season, Simmons has tallied 3.5 points and 2.7 rebounds per game, while shooting 37.1 percent from behind the three-point line. ESPN.com Carmelo Anthony’s shot is officially lost. But after his 6-for-15 performance in Toronto, he said it was his rhythm that is missing. “I’m looking for it,” he said. “So