The Memphis Grizzlies and Indiana Pacers have gotten this far in the postseason by winning at home. But the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat are going to the NBA Finals by winning on the road. The Grizzlies and Pacers were very good home teams in the regular season. Memphis was 32-9 and lost just once at FedEx Forum after Feb. 8. Indiana was 30-11 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and went more than two months early in the season without a home
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
Dwight Howard is the best center in the NBA. Yes, still. He also is (a) incapable of making an elbow jumper, (b) unreliable at the free-throw line, (c) susceptible to long-term injury, (d) hypersensitive to criticism from teammates and coaches, (e) more interested in becoming the next Bill Murray rather than the next Bill Russell and (f) wondering why no one has handed him the icon status he desperately craves. But the worst thing Howard is – and unlike the items above,
When the Oklahoma City Thunder traded James Harden on Saturday night, they revealed to everyone that they are a team far more concerned with the bottom line than the top of the heap. Probably a bit ahead of schedule, the Thunder reached the NBA Finals last season. As we have said before, they were a questionable foul call away from opening a 2-0 lead on the mighty Miami Heat that would have cultivated the doubt and derision that has swirled around