Will this be the third time NBA fans are treated to this scene? Home Court Advantage? Some in the media are falling too much in love with the regular season standings and statistics, as if the regular season really mattered to either of the teams in the NBA Finals. Some pundits are touting the San Antonio Spurs as being a superior road team because they had the best road record (30-11) during the regular season. That is bunk. First of
A rematch between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals seemed questionable before the playoffs began with the West looking so unpredictable and the Miami Heat not looking quite like the consistent championship team they’re supposed to be with Dwyane Wade’s health in question once again. When the Spurs struggled mightily against the Dallas Mavericks in the first round, it made it that much harder to figure out who might come out of the West. Once they got
The NBA conference finals normally bring out the best that the game of basketball has to offer. More often than not, the four best teams remain, and if we’re lucky, the best players on the planet. We are treated to some combination of LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Dwyane Wade, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu and Paul George every night. These players give us performances to praise night in and night out. And sometimes they don’t. And it’s when they don’t that we
As the forces of nature push toward a rematch in the NBA Finals, fans may be treated to the end of the two current mini-dynasties. All teams have a life span measured in a small number of years, and both of these teams are nearing the end of theirs. The Spurs have been on top for a tremendously long stretch, equaled by only a few teams in recent memory. The Stockton/Malone Jazz teams coached by Jerry Sloan kept their core together
We are still more than a month away from free agency, and everything seems so placid now. LeBron James? Looks primed for a three-peat. Carmelo Anthony? He wouldn’t leave New York, would he? He’ll be happy to take less than the max, as Phil Jackson has said he’ll need to do. He will be the backbone of the Knicks’ renaissance, right? No chance those two guys end up in Cleveland or Chicago. No chance, right? Well, five weeks out, and nobody can
I recently moved to Ohio, a couple hours down the Turnpike from Cleveland, and a couple hours (but a more complicated drive) from Detroit. I’m not sure how this is going to affect my NBA allegiances. When I lived in Baltimore, the obvious choice was the Wizards, but sharing with Washington people goes against a lot of the things I believe in. In Halifax, the Raptors were the de facto local team, but they played halfway across the country, and
Miami relatively cruised through its first six playoff games, with only one of their wins coming by fewer than 11 points. After trailing by two at halftime in Saturday night’s Game 3 against the Brooklyn Nets, the Heat finally took a punch it could not counter. “They got virtually everything,” Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Brooklyn Nets’ second half offensive surge. “Everybody knows the threes they hit towards the end of the third quarter but they were getting
With only one game left to go on the season, the Golden State Warriors beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 130-120 on Monday to win 50 games for the first time since the 1993-94 season, when they finished with a 50-32 record. With the victory, the Warriors assured themselves of a first-round matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the playoffs. It’s an amazing accomplishment for a franchise that has struggled for so long, and it shows a clear sign