Points will be at a premium in Wednesday’s best NBA game when the Philadelphia 76ers host the San Antonio Spurs, who are in the midst of club record-tying nine-game road trip. Philadelphia’s top-ranked defense is allowing just 86.6 points a game. The 76ers have won six of their past seven games, beating contenders Orlando, Chicago, Atlanta and most recently, the Los Angeles Lakers. The Sixers (18-7) are even better at holding onto the ball. With four turnovers against LA and only 42
Wanna see Ricky Rubio throw lobs to Blake Griffin? How about John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins teaming up again, as they did at Kentucky? It could happen in the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge, which revealed its player pool Wednesday. As we reported Tuesday, the Rookie-Sophomore Challenge is no more. NBA assistant coaches picked the pool of nine rookies and nine sophomores listed below, but TNT analysts Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal will serve as GMs and draft teams Feb. 16 on the
Next year’s All-Star Weekend will be in Houston. The NBA announced Wednesday that the Rockets and the city of Houston will host the 62nd All-Star Game on Feb. 17, 2013. It marks the third time Houston has hosted the game. It first hosted in 1989 and again in 2006. Beginning with 2006, the NBA has made a commitment to placing All-Star Weekend in supposed warm-weather sites such as Phoenix, Dallas, Los Angeles, etc. However, All-Star Weekend 2006 in Houston was marked by consistently overcast
Over to your right is a poll we are running, asking our readers to vote for who they believe is the most worthy MVP candidate at this point of the season. I have already cast my vote, choosing “other.” Forgive me for not genuflecting to the superstars on that list: LeBron James, Derrick Rose, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant. They are all worthy candidates — there is no arguing that. But none of them has turned around his team the way Kevin Love
I have to put someone No. 1, so … why not the Heat? Like it means anything. Given the fact they have a post-season tournament, where you stand at the 25-game mark has never been all-important. It may be all the more irrelevant in this compressed 66-game, 123-day season, 2011-12 season, with all the good teams young and all the old powers struggling. Oh, right, the Spurs. Well, they were so old for so long, they brought in enough kids to be young again! The
It is unlikely, but Mikhail Prokhorov’s tenure as owner of the New Jersey Nets could be coming to an end. He also is vowing to donate $17 billion of his $18 billion fortune to charity if he defeats Vladimir Putin and several other candidates in the Russian presidential election. “I’ll need something to live on,” Prokhorov said in a talk show on state-run Russian television. “I’ll sell everything, all my assets when I become president and donate almost all of the money to
The Thunder have found a knack for finishing off close games, as true championship contenders do, thanks to MVP candidate Kevin Durant. (Have you voted yet in that MVP poll to your right?) After winning a closely contested and controversial game one night earlier against the Trail Blazers, Durant scored 33 points for the second consecutive night and hit the game-winning bank shot with 14 seconds left against the Golden State Warriors in a wild game. Russell Westbrook also had a
On Monday, there were four injuries that could dramatically impact the NBA playoff picture. Chief among those was Chauncey Billups, who is out for the season with a torn Achilles’ tendon suffered in the Clippers bittersweet win over Orlando. An MRI exam revealed a full tear of the tendon. During the fourth quarter, Billups was trying to stop backpedaling, and he injured himself when he tried to switch direction and run forward. Averaging 15 points and 4 assists, Billups’ numbers will have