MIAMI – As LeBron James enters his 10th NBA season, title in hand, the pressure is off – for the most part. The Miami Heat forward is no longer a choker, a fraud, a slacker. Now, he’s The Man. That frees him up to cement his legacy and chase legends such as Michael Jordan (six titles), Magic Johnson (five titles) and, yes, even Kobe Bryant (five titles). His battle isn’t with himself, it’s with all-time greatness. He plans to run the race
MIAMI – From Dwyane Wade’s point of view, the Los Angeles’ Lakers second major acquisition of the offseason didn’t surprise him. Dwight Howard-to-LA was always on the backburner. It was the first one — the acquisition of Steve Nash — that caught him off guard. “They’re making a play for a championship,” Wade told SheridanHoops.com Saturday on his nationwide book-signing tour. “It’s not a surprising move that Dwight Howard went over there. I was kinda surprised to see Steve Nash. That was the
MIAMI — The NBA Finals remain in their infancy, relatively speaking, but here are five things we know for sure, right now, at this moment, after the participants practiced and spoke to the media Saturday on the eve of Game 3 of the best-of-seven series.
James Harden and his never-say-die mentality is a primary reason the Thunder are so relentless.
It is Chris Bosh’s lot in life to be the third member of the “Big Three.” In the Heat heirarchy, he always is placed behind LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, whose games are more captivating and awe-inspiring. He was mocked last season for crying after a string of tough losses. In this postseason, his nine-game absence due to an abdominal strain was somewhat minimized when James and Wade snapped out of their doldrums and put together an awesome two-pronged attack that obliterated
Break up the Big Three? Maybe down in Miami, where the trio of so-called superstars have the collective toughness of your average 9-year-old girl. But not in Boston, where the Celtics are on the verge of a huge postseason upset, and Kevin Garnett looks like he is about to hand previously undefeated Father Time his first career loss. You don’t have to like Garnett. You don’t have to like the stream of R-rated language that comes from his mouth after every good play.
The Boston Celtics have staggered into the Eastern Conference finals for the third time in five years, their “Big Three” era so close to complete that the moniker is outdated. It no longer even includes their best player, the mercurial and unpredictable Rajon Rondo. Just 48 hours after Rondo finished off the stubborn, pesky eighth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of a series that was borderline unwatchable for those without a rooting interest, those same time-tested and battle-proven Boston Celtics will
MIAMI – If you are Chris Bosh, there’s got to be part of you hoping the Miami Heat goes down in flames in your absence. There’s gotta be. I’m not saying it’s a large part. Maybe it’s just a tiny part. It’s human. It’s OK to be human. It’s OK to want to be missed. So I’m guessing if you’re Chris Bosh, and you’re sidelined for the remainder of this second-round playoff series against Indiana because of a strained abdominal muscle, there’s
The challenge for the Heat now is maintain their focus long enough to sweep the Knicks.