Opportunity doesn’t knock twice. For the Nets, a banged up Bulls team gave the Nets a chance to stay in this series. Thanks to Brook Lopez, Brooklyn is still alive. Home playoff games afforded the Hawks the chance to reverse their fortunes, but how drastically it turned this series around is astounding. And who will get the opportunity to shine for the Thunder in Russell Westbrook’s absence? All this and more in today’s StatBox playoff breakdown. [Read more…]
Before Game 4 of their Western Conference first-round series against the San Antonio Spurs, the Los Angeles Lakers handed out white towels to fans at the Staples Center. Apparently, someone in the marketing department didn’t understand symbolism. By halftime, those towels had become flags of surrender for the Lakers, the biggest underachieving team in the history of the NBA. Dwight Howard offered his own symbolism, figuratively throwing in the towel midway through the third quarter. Unwilling to grit his teeth and bang
I have been sounding like a broken record talking about Prop 30, the so-called millionaire’s tax, that was adopted by voters last fall in California and levies a 10 percent surcharge on the state’s highest earners. This tax negates whatever financial advantage the Lakers would have in being able to offer larger annual raises to Howard to convince him to stay in Los Angeles. [Read more…]
If you enjoy the weekly StatBox column that analytically breaks down some of the NBA’s most pressing and important topic, you’re in luck. Every Tuesday through Thursday during the postseason, the StatBox is expanding into playoff game analysis. You’ll not only find out why each team won and lost, but how different statistical trends can play out over the course of the series and the playoffs as a whole. Today: Houston’s wasted opportunity, mistakes thwarting Atlanta’s chances at victory and one Laker star’s alarming
Many pundits lament the fact that too many of todays star players are friends on and off the court. They relish the old days when teams were rivals and players were loath to be friends with opposing players. With the advent of AAU youth basketball, high-profile basketball camps and the restructured schedule and commitment to USA Basketball, most players are friends on and off of the court these days. That’s not to say that heated rivalries don’t exist, and the existence of
Hey, how about those road teams in the playoffs, hunh? It was a lost weekend that would have made Ray Milland proud. I spent huge chunks of Saturday and Sunday at an AAU tournament and missed several games. When I finally got home and turned on the TV, I wished I was back at the AAU tournament. If you didn’t watch the NBA playoffs this weekend, you didn’t miss much. All eight road teams lost Game 1, the first time that has happened
The often monotonous 82-game NBA regular season has come and gone. The worst teams have finished playing and the best 16 teams (yes, that is being generous to the Bucks) advanced to the postseason, guaranteeing high quality, spirited basketball. The seedings and schedules have been set, and each conference has matchups that are incredibly intriguing. For each team in the first round, there is one player who has to emerge and play a key role for that club to advance. Let’s have a
The Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks both skidded into the playoffs with uninspiring performances in April. It was only a few weeks ago when the Pacers looked solidly positioned to secure the Eastern Conference’s second seed. Instead, they went 2-5 in April and fell to third. Meanwhile, the Hawks also struggled at the end of the season and appeared to strategically tank their final two games in an attempt to avoid the Heat in the early rounds of the playoffs. [Read