In a major upset, the coaches of the teams that won the most games in the season’s first month were named NBA Coaches of the Month. The league announced Wednesday that Tom Thibodeau of the Chicago Bulls and Scott Brooks of the Oklahoma City Thunder were January’s recipients. Thibodeau was Coach of the Year last season. He actually had to do some serious juggling with his roster as the Bulls were hit hard by injuries. Nevertheless, Chicago sped to the top of
To win the NBA Rookie of the Year award, it helps to have the ball in your hands. The rookie race is pretty much acknowledged as down to two players – point guards Kyrie Irving of Cleveland and Ricky Rubio of Minnesota, each of whom were named Rookie of the Month for January, the NBA announced Wednesday. Irving, the top overall pick in the 2011 draft, won for the Eastern Conference. In January, he averaged 18.1 points (tops among rookies) and 4.9
Live from Staples Center, it’s the Next Great Team! No, of course, it’s not the Lakers. They’re the Last Great Team. If the next great one is busy being born here, it’s the Clippers, who are already spectacular and aiming for bigger things. If you want to know what the Clippers could be, it’s no longer a problem because they just turned it all loose, for one night, anyway, routing West-leading Oklahoma City. After rolling up 38 points in the first quarter, or as
Detractors of the Philadelphia 76ers point to their easy schedule thus far. On Wednesday night, they have an ideal opportunity to prove those folks wrong. The Chicago Bulls visit Philadelphia in Wednesday’s best NBA game and should be one of the toughest tests the 76ers have faced thus far. Philadelphia (15-6) is just 3-4 against teams with winning records, and one of those wins came Monday night vs. floundering Orlando. The 76ers have lost to Portland, Utah, Denver and Miami. The Sixers have
Two of the best dunks in recent memory happened this week when Blake Griffin ‘Mozgov’d’ Kendrick Perkins and LeBron James jumped over John Lucas III of the Bulls to flush an alley-oop. The boss sent out a tweet asking his followers to submit their best dunks of all-time, and responses came flooding in. So here is a list of our 10 favorites. Plus, a few extras from the Twitter respondees. After watching, how do you think Blake’s and ‘Bron’s stack up? Comments are
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Surprised to find themselves in playoff contention while dealing with a rash of injuries, the New Jersey Nets have added a lockdown defender and 3-point shooting specialist to their roster. The Nets announced today they have signed free agent guard Keith Bogans. His contract is for the veteran’s minimum and will pay him roughly $600,000. To make room on the roster, the Nets have waived forward Larry Owens. “Keith will give us defensive toughness and experience,” general manager Billy King
Where did everyone go? It was great working from Los Angeles the last 12 years when all the good times were in the West, which meant short flights and short series. West teams won the first five titles after Michael Jordan left the Bulls in 1998, by a combined 20-4. East teams won three Finals in the last decade (Pistons in 2004, Heat in 2006, Celtics in 2008), all as underdogs, beating the Lakers (in the final tumult-filled season of Shaquille O’Neal and
// // Carmelo Anthony returned, and the Knicks finally won a game. Forgive the cynical New York media if it wasn’t that impressed. The Knicks were back home and hosting the Detroit Pistons, who would have trouble winning games if they played in the Big Ten Conference instead of the Central Division. In a season of awful performances, this one may have been the worst. Detroit established season “highs” for points allowed and margin of defeat, which is saying something when you