You hear all the time about the Atlanta Hawks being the San Antonio Spurs of the East under Mike Budenholzer. Al Horford, Jeff Teague, Paul Millsap and Kyle Korver were all All-Stars this year. The one guy who is hardly ever talked about is DeMarre Carroll – the Hawks’ own two-way player and fifth starter who is truly one of the most underrated and perhaps underappreciated players this season. Carroll, who is set to become a free agent in the offseason,
Brook Lopez is now the Eastern Conference Player of the Week for a second consecutive week — something that no other player has done all season long. Lopez led the Nets to a 3-1 week from March 30 through April 5 behind team-leading averages of 20.8 points (sixth in the East), 10.3 rebounds (fourth in the East) and 2.0 blocks (tied for fifth). He shot better than 50% in all four of Brooklyn’s contests, and ranked seventh in the East for
Back in the preseason, I predicted the San Antonio Spurs would be returning to the NBA Finals, where they would defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers for that elusive second straight championship. Nothing I have seen over the past month and a half has convinced me that my prediction was faulty, and San Antonio’s demolition of the Golden State Warriors over the weekend only reinforced my belief in the Spurs. If you give a read to Chris Bernucca’s column on Kawhi Leonard and
I did pick Duke in last night’s NCAA Championship game, in large part because I felt Wisconsin won a sort of national championship of their own on Saturday night when they beat the 38-0 Kentucky Wildcats. Duke cruised into the final after a 20-point win over Michigan State, and I thought it really showed last night in final stretch of the game as Duke had a little more in the tank to close it out. In this interview with Robin Lundberg on
Some of us are very much alive in two-day contests at DraftKings that conclude with two of tonight’s six NBA games. We looked ahead at the “demolition derby” between the Hornets and Heat in yesterday’s Spin; it sounds like Bismack Biyombo $4600 will play with a mask for his broken nose and we just don’t know about Al Jefferson $6500 (knee.) [Read more…]
With only one NBA game slated for Monday, most around the league stopped everything to watch the national championship game between The Duke Blue Devils and Wisconsin Badgers. Coach K’s team found a way to come up with the 68-63 victory to give him an incredible fifth national title. Most were simply thrilled about the exciting game and happy for the winners in general, but some were less than pleased for various reasons. See how NBA players reacted to the biggest college
Adam Silver has been commissioner of the NBA for 14 months now. He has been forceful on one issue — the lifetime suspension of Donald Sterling, which led to the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers to billionaire Steve Ballmer. It is time for Silver to stand a stand again, and this time it has to do with reformatting the playoffs. I wrote an open letter to Silver about this very issue less than a month ago, and it is certain to
What do James Harden, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook and LeBron James have in common? They’re all legitimate MVP candidates, of course. But what else does that Awesome Foursome have in common? In a potential playoff series against the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, they can all expect to see an individual matchup with Kawhi Leonard. In case you’ve been transfixed by March Madness, the Spurs are looking like a championship contender. Again. If you want some perspective, my son Andrew was born