By this time Wednesday, the city of Los Angeles could be in a full-blown state of panic. Forget about earthquakes, brushfires or rolling blackouts, which are the customary causes for trouble in Tinseltown. No, it’s the Lakers, who will be trying to avoid an 0-3 start when they host the Utah Jazz. It’s the second game of TNT’s doubleheader, which means everything the Lakers say and do will be analyzed by their star-studded studio panel in a way that would shame Sheldon from
Perkins: Udonis Haslem, the Heat’s key “addition”
MIAMI — The first thing you notice about Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem is his hair. The trademark braids he wore for his previous eight NBA seasons are gone. Spending two hours a week getting his hair done finally got to be too much. But after you get over that initial shock of seeing Haslem wearing a medium-sized afro, you notice the rebounding, the toughness, the willingness to take charges, to get on the floor after loose balls. You see the art
Mavericks, Lakers lose again
The defending champion Dallas Mavericks got booed off their home court – and that happened before halftime. The L.A. Lakers lost in Sacramento for the first time in more than three years. The Chicago Bulls, lost, too, while the Nets, Raptors and Bobcats opened what promises to be a weird, wild, compressed NBA season with victories that left them all 1-0. Scratching your head? That’s OK. It’s allowed after these first 48 hours of NBA basketball that we all waited so long for are
Mitnick: NBA “All-Import” Team, Euro-rules style
TEL AVIV –In most European countries, there are separate post-season awards for local players and import players. The NBA justly classifies all of its players into one category, as passports are a non-factor when post-season awards are up for discussion. While the approach taken by the NBA is certainly the right one, as the absolute acceptance of foreign players into the NBA has made a big impact on the league in the last two decades, and fans are always looking for
Day after Christmas a downer for Lakers, Celtics fans
// Did you get what you wanted? If you are a long-suffering Clippers or Knicks fan, you sure did. If you are a Mavericks fan, you sorta did (a banner), sorta didn’t (a shellacking). If you are a member of the tribes known as Lakers Nation and Celtics Nation, no you did not! Today dawned with a post-Christmas hangover in a lot of places where folks had been accustomed to having their wishes fulfilled and their dreams come true. The Lakers were up six
Garnett facing suspension?
If you punch an opposing player, you get an automatic suspension. If you smack an opposing player in the neck, do you incur the wrath of Stu Jackson? Kevin Garnett will find out soon enough after he hit Knicks forward Bill Walker in the neck with an open-handed smack after missing the potential game-tying jumper in Boston’s season-opening loss to the New York Knicks. Walker had to be restrained from going after Garnett, who may have been fouled on the final attempt. Television
Offshore power rankings: Odds to win title
Merry Christmas, all. Lots of feedback on yesterday’s inaugural preseason power rankings, with positive vibes coming out of Chicago (No. 1) and Memphis (No. 4), vitriol spewing from Jersey (No. 30). Of course, one man’s opinion is just an opinion. But there are others who take the relative strengths and weaknesses of the 30 NBA teams more seriously, because they have money riding on it. Many of those folks are offshore, spending today’s holiday on the beaches of the tiny islands where their
Power Rankings: Preseason edition
The NBA season begins tomorrow, and those who have been reading his site regularly know where I stand on the Clippers (unconvinced) but probably didn’t know I am higher on the T-Wolves than probably anyone not named Glen Taylor, and I am so down on the Eastern Conference that I have filled spots 25-30 with them in the inaugural SheridanHoops power rankings. Feel free to express your admiration, grief or grievances in the comments section, and you can look forward