The Los Angeles Lakers fans and everyone else along the way were absolutely shocked very early on Monday morning, when Mike Bresnahan of Los Angeles Times reported that Mike D’Antoni – not Phil Jackson – would become the next head coach of Kobe Bryant and company. So what exactly happened? It was reported over the weekend that the Zen master and the Lakers met to discuss the coach’s possible return to the team after the firing of Mike Brown. The fact that
Special mention atop this column is deserved for Andre Iguodala, Nicolas Batum and Tony (SLJW) Allen, three of the league’s best man-on-man defenders who all had a chance to guard James Harden over the past week. Not that Harden is a marked man or anything, but after going for 37 and 45 in his first two games — and earning the No. 1 ranking in last week’s edition of these rankings — the guy should strike a personal endorsement deal with
There was a scary knee-on-knee collision between LeBron James and Josh Smith just before halftime, but both were able to return. LBJ was tantalizingly close to a triple-double (21 PTS, 11 REB, 9 AST) as the Heat won a close one in Atlanta. Dwyane Wade (illness) didn’t play, but Chris Bosh picked up the slack, leading all scorers with 24, and Ray Allen (17) had another solid night. Jeff Teague was impressive in defeat with 20 points and 11 assists,
It’s getting hard to keep up with all the injuries and illnesses. Every NBA team has to deal with them, but let’s consider just one, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Their star Kyrie Irving played (quite well) through a bout of food poisoning on Wednesday. Anderson Varejao has a sore knee, though we expect both in the lineup this evening. Rookie Dion Waiters has a deep thigh bruise, while fellow freshman Tyler Zeller, who has a fractured face, is being fitted for
Carmelo’s Knicks Look Good NEW YORK — At 3-0, the New York Knicks are the NBA’s lone unbeaten team, but their battle for respect is far from over. For the most part, the national media has done its best to rationalize the Knicks’ good start. The Miami Heat didn’t want to play after sitting in traffic on a bus for 2 hours, and the Philadelphia 76ers didn’t have Andrew Bynum. Never mind the fact that the Heat and
NYK @ PHI: The unbeaten Knicks are apparently that much better than the 76ers, who they trounced for the second straight day. Carmelo Anthony (21 PTS, 7 REB) got a lot more help from Raymond Felton (16 PTS, 8 AST) and Ronnie Brewer (13 PTS, 10 REB) in the rematch. J.R. Smith (17 PTS, 7 REB, 5 AST, 2 STL, 1 BLK) has been superb off the bench. Ageless Rasheed Wallace looked pretty good in 13:33, with 10 points including
Once upon a time, I discouraged any and all MVP talk until a quarter of the season (at the very least) had been played. Nowadays, I am a reformed man — and I have Sam Presti, Clay Bennett, Daryl Morey and Rob Pelinka to thank. After slightly less than one week of the NBA season, we find ourselves in a situation no one could have envisioned in the waning days of October. The game of poker between James Harden (repped by
