OKLAHOMA CITY — Thirty-two home games. Thirty-two sellouts. Capacity crowds are standard this year at Chesapeake Energy Arena, the 581-thousand-square-foot home to the reigning Western Conference champs, the Oklahoma City Thunder. And it’s all for good reason. If you don’t have an NBA arena bucket list, you should. [Read more…]
On a special Tuesday night the NBA featured two nationally televised games. The Boston Celtics looked to continue their winning ways without Rajon Rondo and the Lakers looked to get over the .500 mark against their rival Oklahoma City Thunder. Russell Westbrook had other plans for LA, though. [Read more…]
When Kevin Garnett came into the NBA as the fourth preps-to-pros phenom, he was a gangly, 6-11, 220 pound player with unmistakable skills and a burning passion and insatiable appetite for the game of basketball. He entered the league when Patrick Ewing was a dominant player, and last night his 15 points against New Orleans moved him past Patrick Ewing for 16th on the all-time scoring list. [Read more…]
The worst coach in the NBA (fantasy division) has finally been fired. Scott Skiles has hated his own team all year, jerking players in and out of the lineup on various whims — or just out of spite — and the Bucks will collectively feel like they have been let out of jail. [Read more…]
NEW YORK — Avery Bradley’s statistics will never do him justice. Ever. The kind of perimeter defense the third-year guard out of Texas plays is on par with the best perimeter defenders in the NBA. [Read more…]
My apologies for not posting this for its usual Thursday run. High school basketball season has started, and as a JV coach, it is a busy time. Reader Brian Rivel is making a name for himself. For the second straight week, he provided the first correct answer to the most recent addition of The Bernucca List. [Read more…]
Remember back in 2010, when Kenny Smith boldly claimed that Kevin Durant would be the best basketball player in the NBA in three years? It sounded pretty crazy then, mostly because of the guy that just won Sportsman of the Year, along with just about everything else you could possibly win over the past calendar year as a basketball player. What separated LeBron James from Durant back then was his ability to create for others on offense, something the Thunder forward had
When we wrote last month that the Western Conference playoff picture would be filled in by the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves, it was assumed that both teams would have their alpha dogs at power forward. Now that Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Love are both out until at least December, that picture could be changing. Nowitzki and Love both are top-10 players whose presence instantly legitimizes their teams as playoff-worthy, regardless of the other 14 players sharing a locker room and airplane with them.