There aren’t many fringe benefits that come with a 66-game schedule, but one cool quirk is that All-Star Weekend is splitting the season almost exactly in half. When the Lakers and Thunder wrap things up late Thursday night, all but six teams will have played half their games as the league takes a four-day break in Orlando, where the forecast is less than ideal. Speaking of less than ideal forecasts, below are our midseason award winners, delivered with the complete understanding that “they
A chance to win a 12th consecutive game was not as important to the Spurs as getting a night of scheduled rest for Tony Parker and Tim Duncan. With rookies Cory Joseph at PG and Kawhi Leonard at PF, they lost to the Blazers by 40 points. Even D-League callup Eric Dawson played 31 minutes off the bench for San Antonio in one of those games that should be completely ignored by astute fantasy owners. It did mark the first
The TV was turned off before 11 p.m., and the home office shut down for the night. Yes, the San Antonio Spurs were playing, going for their eighth straight road win and their 12th straight W overall. But truly, they weren’t going for it. Tony Parker and Tim Duncan were being rested by their coach on the second night of a back-to-back, Tiago Splitter and Manu Ginobili were out nursing injuries, and there is only so much Cory Joseph a man can endure. I
The Hornets are 0-9 this season when allowing 100 or more points, and the Pacers got their first win when allowing 100 or more points. David West finally faced off against his former team, where he played from 2003-2011. Mario Chalmers scored 20 points in the Heat’s win over the Kings, tying a career-high with six three-pointers. The Heat scored 120 points, and all seven Heat players with at least six field goal attempts shot at least 50.0 percent from the floor. At
NEW YORK — The online auction for the jersey Jeremy Lin’s wore in the Knicks’ victory over the Los Angeles Lakers fetched $42,388, the Knicks announced today. The jersey, worn during the team’s victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 10 at Madison Square Garden, was auctioned off with four tickets and a postgame meet-and-greet with Lin for tomorrow’s Knicks vs. Hawks game. The seven-day online auction, which was conducted by Garden of Dreams and concluded today at noon, marked a major
It was an odd time for a players-only meeting — minutes after a blowout victory over Portland — but the Los Angeles Lakers felt they needed to clear the air. So, according to sources, team leaders Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher gathered everyone together in the Lakers’ locker room Monday night and tried to set the tone for the second half of the season. ESPN.com Their message was clear: Trade rumors do not matter; your feelings about management or the coaching staff don’t
This past week, the majority of the leagues in Europe took a break from their season as teams competed in the Final Four of each country’s respected State Cups. Similar to the leagues in soccer, State Cups are a one-and-done tournament that consists of every team in the first and second division of each country, with two rounds being played out every six weeks or so. While the State Cup may not hold the same respect and demeanor as a
