Kevin Durant has won in every building in the NBA in his career except one: the Amway Center. Durant and the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder (28-7) put their six-game winning streak on the line as they visit Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic (23-13) in Thursday’s best game, airing on TNT. The Thunder last won in Orlando in March 2004, when they were still wearing the Seattle Supersonics uniforms and Durant was 16 years old. Although you’d never guess after watching him put
Jim Buss is in over his head. Of course, with the Lakers’ predicament, Jerry Buss, his father, would be in over his head, too. Actually, that remains to be seen. But it goes back to their last time at such a crossroads, after trading Shaquille O’Neal to keep Kobe Bryant, when I wrote, “Mitch Kupchak is in over his head,” adding, “Jerry West would be in over his head, too.” Amazingly, Kupchak and the Buss family tunneled out of that one and were
Erick Dampier will be with the Atlanta Hawks for the rest of the season. After signing the veteran center to a pair of 10-day contracts, the Hawks on Thursday signed Dampier for the remainder of the season, the team announced. Dampier was signed after both All-Star starter Al Horford (torn pectoral muscle) and backup Jason Collins (sprained elbow) went down with injuries. He has played 30 minutes over six games and yet to score but is averaging 1.8 rebounds backing up Zaza
The first pick and the last pick in the 2011 NBA draft were named Rookies of the Month for February, the league announced Thursday. Top overall pick Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers was the Eastern Conference winner for the second straight month. He averaged 19.3 points – most among rookies – and added 6.8 assists, 44 percent shooting from 3-point range and 95 percent from the foul line. Sacramento Kings point guard Isaiah Thomas, the 60th and final pick in the
Erik Spoesltra of the Miami Heat and Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, whose teams had the longest winning streaks in February, were named Coaches of the Month, the NBA announced Thursday. The Heat are currently riding an eight-game winning streak under Spoelstra, who guided Miami to an 11-2 mark in February and was named Eastern Conference winner. The winning streak included wins at Atlanta, Milwaukee and Indiana on consecutive nights, making Miami the first team to win road games
Last week’s edition of The Bernucca List was correctly solved by Mike, who determined that all 20 players listed were active and had exactly one All-Star berth. Nice job. The latest list is below. See if you can determine the common threads among every player on the list. First correct responder gets mentioned in next week’s list. You can answer via the comments or send me a Tweet. The Bernucca List Andris Biedrins Jason Collins DeMarcus Cousins Al Harrington Dwight Howard Kurt Thomas Jason Thompson
Wednesday’s column mentioned a handful of players who need to be traded by the March 15 deadline. Apparently, NBA GMs are feeling the same way. No less than three players mentioned – Michael Beasley, Monta Ellis and Stephen Jackson – saw their names dotting the interwebs as Wednesday became Thursday and February became March. There is some significance to that calendar observation. March 1 is the first day players signed to free agent contracts in the abbreviated offseason can be traded. So that
The New Orleans Hornets lost again last night, dropping their record to 8-27 before an announced crowd of 14,527. They are the worst team in the Western Conference, they are about to trade Chris Kaman for whoever ponies up the best bad offer, and all they are going to have to show for Chris Paul is Al-Farouq Aminu, Eric Gordon (if he doesn’t leave as a restricted free agent, and if his knee is ever going to be OK again), along