Is the NBA inching toward parity? Or slowly sinking into mediocrity? Those may seem like strange questions during a season in which the Golden State Warriors have imposed their dominance over the rest of the league in unprecedented fashion. Yes, at 22-0 the Warriors have obliterated the best start in NBA history and have looked downright unbeatable while the clock was ticking during a vast majority of those 22 games. In that sense, they present a very strong argument against the notion
By now, you’ve probably heard what happened to Chris Copeland, Thabo Sefolosha and Pero Antic. If you haven’t, here’s the back story. Nothing good at all has come of this situation, and the updates have gotten worse since Wednesday, starting with the status of Sefolosha, who suffered an injury significant enough to force him to miss the remainder of the season, from NBA.com: Atlanta Hawks forward Thabo Sefolosha suffered injuries during yesterday’s early morning incident. An examination of Sefolosha’s right leg, including an X-ray
BROOKLYN — Not so long ago, what defined a tumultuous day for the Atlanta Hawks would have had something to do with ownership. Or management. Not a perp walk. So for the Hawks to do what they did Wednesday night — a gutsy road win over a probable playoff team — speaks to their fortitude as a team, a darned good team. Just hours after reserves Thabo Sefolosha and Pero Antic were released from police custody – the pair was arrested outside a
NEW YORK – It is rare when an assistant coach steals the show at an NBA game, but that is exactly what Mike Woodson did in his victorious return to Madison Square Garden. Less than a year after being fired by the perpetually rebuilding New York Knicks, Woodson was back in The Big Apple, riding shotgun alongside Doc Rivers on the staff of the title-contending Los Angeles Clippers. He met the voracious New York media before the game, then made a surprise
Add this to the list of J.R. Smith suspensions. The New York Knicks guard was suspended one game by the league for “striking” the groin of Washington Wizards reserve forward Glen Rice Jr. on Tuesday night. He will miss Wednesday night’s game against Detroit. Rice Jr. was actually called for the foul on the play, but the Wizards ended up winning the game 98-83. The league may have deemed Smith’s transgression an intentional one based on his notorious track record Smith was suspended
We waited all season for an Eastern Conference finals between the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers. Yet when the time came for the two talented teams to finally meet in late May, only Miami showed up. Indiana finds itself down three games to one, and more blame is being passed around than a Benghazi hearing on Capitol Hill. A lot of that blame is being placed on the referees, an easy target since Miami took twice as many free throws
Coming into this season, I had the New York Knicks taking a step backward in my Sheridan Hoops preview column. But not this far back. New York is tied for the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference with a 3-8 mark and J.R. Smith, arguably the team’s second best player, is in crisis mode. “They say it’s too early to panic,” Smith said after Wednesday’s hard-fought overtime loss to Indiana, the team’s sixth straight home setback. “Me personally, I panic. I don’t
The first thing you notice watching the undefeated Indiana Pacers is their intensity. More than the other seven teams this writer has seen in person this season, Indiana plays hard and aggressive basketball for 48 minutes. Indiana remained unbeaten at 8-0 after Monday’s 95-79 home win over Memphis. “We are just trying to play our style of basketball,” Pacers forward David West said after Indiana’s hard-fought 96-91 win over the Nets on Saturday in Brooklyn. That tough, tenacious style includes going hard on every