There wasn’t a 50-point showing – heck, there wasn’t even a 40-point outing! – on Christmas this year, but the NBA provided a quintuplet of matchups that helped to put things in perspective through nearly two months of the season. SheridanHoops had an eye on the tube at all times. Below is an observation regarding the 10 teams who participated in the holiday’s hoops festivities: Boston Celtics: They might be hovering around the .500 mark through the first quarter of the season, but this
The Lakers can’t seem to buy wins right now. Tonight’s loss to the Jazz put them back to 9-12, eight back of West-leading San Antonio and Oklahoma City, and a game and a half back of eighth-place Minnesota for the last playoff spot in the conference. And yet they’re scoring 3.1 more points per game than they’re allowing, and also they have Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant. Something doesn’t seem right here. Meanwhile in the East, things are shaking out slightly
Our colleague Jeff Nichols, whose columns normally appear on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, has escaped the Canadian winter to enjoy summertime in the Southern Hemisphere. We hope to have him back before Christmas. [Read more…]
A season-high 30 points from Blake Griffin was the difference in the best game of the night. Down 14 points late in the third, the Clippers made a strong comeback. [Read more…]
(This is another in a series of 30 guest columns that will run in October, when optimism reigns supreme across the NBA. The theme will be “Five Reasons to Feel Positive About … ” We encourage you to follow the authors on Twitter and visit their sites. – CS) In the wake of the Carmelo Anthony trade and the departures of Kenyon Martin and J.R. Smith – the ending of the “Thuggets” era – Denver Nuggets vice president of basketball operations
If you saw the box score of the Rockets-Spurs preseason game on Sunday, you may have noticed an ugly stat line from Mr. Linsanity – the electrifying point guard that shocked the basketball world last season. Lin managed to hit just one-of-10 shots with one assist while committing two turnovers in 25 minutes of play against the stifling defense of San Antonio. Lin’s biggest issue so far in the preseason appears to be the status of the knee he had surgery
Ouch! I’d been touting Manu Ginobili as a buy-low trade target, anticipating that his minutes and production would improve as his left hand got stronger. Now he’s strained his oblique. There’s no official diagnosis yet, or an accurate prediction of how much time he’ll miss, but this is bad news for the Spurs, Manu and his fantasy owners. Hope you didn’t cut Danny Green or Gary Neal, whose value won’t be fading after all. Neal had 17 points yesterday, going
What Happened on Monday? The Magic beat the Timberwolves, though not because Dwight Howard dominated Nikola Pekovic. Pek double-doubled (16-13) and stayed out of foul trouble, D-12 settled for 11 and 7 with no blocks while playing just 28 minutes due to five fouls. The Minny wings (Wes Johnson and Martell Webster, starting for absent Luke Ridnour) were outplayed by veterans Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu. Philly had little trouble winning by nine in Charlotte. Run to the waiver wire for Corey