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. The Pacers did that again Saturday night – its fourth game in five nights- and came away with a hard-fought 96-91 win over the Nets at Barclays Center to go to 7-0 on the season. “We are just trying to play our style of basketball,” Pacers
Carmelo Anthony is finding out that, strangely, brand reinvention may be harder than brand invention in the first place. The critics seem to have finally caught up with ‘Melo this season. Why else would Knicks team coming off a 54-win season be getting no respect? [Read more…]
Friday, a typical day for most of us. A day wrought with terror in the Philippines as super typhoon Haiyan made landfall. The NBA has numerous ties to the Philippines. Many players have travelled there on goodwill trips. The NBA hosted a preseason exhibition game between two of its top teams — the Indiana Pacers and Houston Rockets — this October. Two-time defending NBA champion Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who is the first Asian-American head coach among all four professional sports leagues
It’s exactly 10 days into this NBA regular season, it feels like 10 weeks for those who cover the league on a regular basis, and a whole hell of a lot has already happened. Few things have gone as expected, of course the undefeated start for the Pacers is an exception, and surprises abound across the league. Here are 10 that immediately came to mind, including a pair of dazzling young point guards, one major market team in big trouble and
When it comes to a discussion involving the Defensive Player of the Year award, no one gets more excited than Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert. Many around the league believed that Hibbert was one of the best – if not the best – defensive centers in the league last season. His 2.6 blocks were good for fourth best in the league, but blocking shots was far from the only thing he did as the defensive anchor of the team. His ability
Folks are not panicking in Miami just because the Heat are not atop the Eastern Conference standings. But they are taking a closer look at the Indiana Pacers, who entered Wednesday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls as the last remaining unbeaten NBA team. Heat fans remember that the Pacers took the Heat to seven games, and they realize that Indiana’s new, deeper roster is going to make the Pacers a much tougher out next spring — especially if a Game 7
Tuesday night, in a 102-97 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats, New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler left the court in the first quarter with what was thought to be a right knee injury. Now, we know that Chandler will miss 4-6 weeks with what has been diagnosed as a non-displaced fracture to his right fibula. [Read more…]
Back in 2008, I covered the U.S. Olympic team in Beijing, where Jason Kidd was the No. 1 point guard, Chris Paul was No. 2 and Deron Williams No. 3 — but it was a close contest between CP3 and DWill. They were considered equals then, but Paul is already having the type of season that shows why he has grown into the better player — and why he is the more popular of the two (having Blake Griffin as a