Let’s see … the sky was gray this morning … again. The temperature was in the 30s … again. The forecast calls for more chilly weather … again. Kevin Durant is going to be No. 1 on this list … again. What is going to make today different? These are the things you ponder while getting the kids ready for school — plus the thought of what the heck was the local school board thinking when they decided that school would begin
There have been some fair comparisons drawn between the current 17-game winning streak of the San Antonio Spurs and the remarkable 27-game run put together a year ago by the Miami Heat. Both teams expect to compete for the NBA championship. Both teams found their rhythm at the most opportune time of the season. Both teams stormed to the league’s best record and home court advantage throughout the playoffs. There are obvious differences as well. For one, San Antonio still needs 10
How great was last night’s Pacers-Heat game? Enough to make up for an entire season of lackluster basketball from the rest of the Eastern Conference? Probably not. Enough to get even the most casual fan’s appetite whetted for a playoff showdown between the defending champs and the rising stars? Absolutely. [Read more…]
Kevin Durant is going to be the MVP. There’s no stopping him, and nobody is doing anything remotely close to what he is doing on offense for Oklahoma City. He might even win the award unanimously. So that steers the MVP argument toward who should finish second, and I have been making the case for two weeks now that Blake Griffin is the most deserving candidate (although his missed FT late in regulation against the Pelicans was especially costly last night). I
Nominations for the ultimate Theater of the Absurd are now closed. It doesn’t get any stranger than it did Tuesday night at Staples Center, so nobody should even try to top it, OK? Phil Jackson’s new team allowed 51 points in the third quarter to his old team, with Jackson watching from a luxury suite where he was joined by another former Knick and Laker, Metta World Peace. Meantime, down in the second row, Jeanie Buss took it all in with a
The readers have spoken … and the readers are thinking the same thing I am thinking: Blake Griffin is a stronger MVP candidate than LeBron James. We published a poll late last week asking readers to chime in on the question of who should be sitting in the No. 2 spot beneath Kevin Durant, and Griffin drew 61 percent of the vote. Yes, it seems sacrilegious to list LeBron third-best at anything – especially after he had another one of his freakish performances
Phil Jackson to the Knicks was definitely the story of the day. When a guy with 13 championship rings takes on a new job, there’s no getting around the importance of the moment. But there are 29 other teams making news of one kind or another, and I found time on 1280AM in Salt Lake City to deviate away from Jackson and discuss Coach of the Year, the sleeper teams in the East and the West, and the debate over whether Blake Griffin
A lot has happened since our MVP rankings were published on Wednesday. The Heat have not lost five out of six, blowing a chance to surpass Indiana in the Eastern Conference standings, and the Los Angeles Clippers won their 10th in a row Friday night by defeating Utah as Blake Griffin reached 20 points for the 25th consecutive game. I had Griffin ranked third and James ranked second behind Kevin Durant in the latest edition of the MVP ranks, and now I