I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of trying to figure out the Indiana Pacers. Has there ever been a team that was such a power house for 80 percent of the season that has collapsed like these guys have? They are excruciating. One more win gets them into the Eastern Conference finals, but they were nowhere near ready to put the hammer down Tuesday night in Game 5 against the Washington Wizards. Marcin Gortat looked like a Polish
BROOKLYN — No explanation was provided by LeBron James, and no outrage was expressed after Joe Johnson accused the King of flopping on Johnson’s final offensive possession. LeBron was asked about it, but the questioner made the always fatal journalistic mistake of asking a two-part question. Part one was about the flop. That was the tough question, the one everyone wanted answered. The second question was completely benign, and that was the one James answered. Memo to aspiring journalists: NEVER ask a
Among professional sports in America, the National Football League reigns supreme, but one would like to think that playoffs for any of the other major sports would be more important than the first round of another league’s draft. Apparently not. ESPN, which holds the broadcast rights to Thursday’s NBA playoff games, also hosts the NFL’s draft. Guess which show got top billing? Football’s offseason. Game 2 in Miami will be broadcast on ESPN 2, while 32 former college athletes will sit around
The first round of the 2014 playoffs has been remarkable for the many crazy story lines and the record number of both games and Game 7s. Usually the first round is a snoozer with two or three sweeps, and the only upsets are the No. 5 over No. 4 variety. But this year gave us so many thrills that we all got to witness so much more. We have all experienced great regular season games that have been played with “playoff
OFFICIAL: The #Warriors have relieved Head Coach Mark Jackson of his duties: http://t.co/o8FFN3tbWv — Golden St. Warriors (@warriors) May 6, 2014 Speculation met reality Tuesday afternoon, as the Golden State Warriors fired head coach Mark Jackson. Jackson has led the Warriors to the playoffs in consecutive years—with a 98-66 record over that two-year span, making him the first Golden State coach since Don Nelson to accomplish the feat. However, two years of on-court success—each slowed by nagging injuries—could not prevent team owners from
You want gambling advice? Check out my picks for the four second-round NBA playoff series, and then go out and bet the opposite. OK, maybe that is overstating it. But I did not have a great first round from a prognosticator standpoint, failing to hit on my upset picks of the Grizzlies over the Thunder and the Warriors over the Clippers. Close, but not quite. The best pickers we had in the first round were Peter May and Shlomo Sprung, although Danny Schayes
Get a t-shirt with this Phil Jackson takeoff on the Obama/HOPE campaign by signing up for DraftStreet (first-time depositors only) There is no better way for a player to prove his worth than by coming through in a Game 7. And conversely, there is no better way for a player to show his lack of value that by coming up empty when both teams are facing a win-or-go home game. So in choosing players for DraftStreet’s two-day contests
Z-Bo’s no-no made him a no-go for Game 7. The NBA announced tonight that Zach Randolph is suspended for Game 7 of the Memphis Grizzlies’ first-round game against Oklahoma City on Saturday as a punishment for punching Steven Adams of the Thunder during the fourth quarter of the GRizzlies 104-84 loss Thursday night. Here is a link to the video, which shows Randolph clocking Adams in the right jaw with a closed fist as the two ran upcourt off the ball. The loss