A dozen teams have played at least half their schedule and another seven will join them today, when the most of the most significant holidays in this country’s history becomes the season’s unofficial midway point. So Dr. Martin Luther King Day is as good a time as any to examine the current front-runners for the annual awards. Included are links to both our staff’s preseason picks and the current rankings. And as always, we’ve included snide remarks if/when necessary. [Read more…]
The Los Angeles Lakers are officially in big trouble. Literally. Sitting eleventh in the Western Conference and three games behind the eighth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers, the Lakers received news that their primary bigs in Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Jordan Hill have all suffered injuries, which will cause them to miss an unknown number of games for the foreseeable future (more on that below). This is absolutely the last thing this team needed, given its continued struggles on both ends of the floor.
The best team flying under the radar has two rookies in its starting lineup. But it’s not the Charlotte Bobcats. It is missing its oft-injured big man. But it’s not the Philadelphia 76ers. It has All-Star candidates at point guard and power forward. But it’s not the Los Angeles Clippers. It is an original NBA franchise that has not won a title since the 1970s. But it’s not the New York Knicks. [Read more…]
Now that we are about a month into the NBA season, are you disappointed in the performance of a player or two on your favorite team? Take a number and get in line. There are dozens of players who are not coming close to meeting expectations this season. And when you factor in their salaries and how much they limit their team’s financial flexibility, it can be downright infuriating. [Read more…]
As the Brooklyn Nets (with a five-game winning streak) get set to take on the Los Angeles Lakers on the road tonight, their newly built home court will be occupied by a few players who will be in the discussion for the top pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. And if Otto Porter of Georgetown does to No. 1 Indiana what he did against UCLA, he will have officially stolen the spotlight from Shabazz Muhammad. [Read more…]
While all of the focus has been on the soap opera swirl around the Los Angeles Lakers, the NBA’s other similarly storied franchise has its own set of issues. The Boston Celtics also raised expectations by adding some key pieces in the offseason, then promptly stumbled out of the gate. But there were no death stares, insurrections, coach beheadings or panic moves. But there are some problems in Beantown. Let’s allow team leader Kevin Garnett to explain. “You can’t speed chemistry up,” Garnett said.
(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) The Indiana Pacers went into last season following the NBA lockout hoping to be a playoff team in the Eastern Conference. That goal proved too modest for the Pacers as several new faces
Larry Bird is entitled to his opinion. I just wish he’d explain it a little more clearly. Bird told Indianapolis Star beat writer Mike Wells that his team went “soft” in Game 5, which is a curious choice of words to say the least. Did Bird want the team’s self-described “smashmouth” style of play to become “smash-face?” Because Udonis Haslem and Dexter Pittman certainly played smash-face basketball, and the opinion here is that both will be sitting out Game 6 in Indiana