ATLANTA — In a game when J.R. Smith stole the momentum away from the Atlanta Hawks and slowly quieted the Phillips Arena crowd, it was a potentially devastating injury to Hawks wing DeMarre Carroll that silenced the crowd altogether and may have been the biggest story of the night. [Read more…]
Despite all the talk of a parity-filled, wide open, volatile NBA postseason, the top two teams from each conference advanced to the conference finals. For those of you who ignored the Eastern Conference outside of Cleveland and Chicago, the Atlanta Hawks won 60 games and are the top seed out East. Game One is Wednesday night in Atlanta, with LeBron James’ Cavaliers wearing the road burgundy, or those unattractive navy alternates. Atlanta went 3-1 against Cleveland during the regular season, although
Cleveland Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith inexplicably threw a spinning back fist against Jae Crowder while trying to box him out in Game 4, causing the forward to fall and sprain his knee in the process. If you missed it, here’s the clip: Smith claimed that the hit was unintentional after the game, but that’s pretty hard to believe, given that he swung as hard as he could backwards with a closed fist. What did he think was going to happen when he
The irony was more than evident Sunday at Madison Square Garden. The Cleveland Cavaliers were a disappointing 19-15 when they acquired guards J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert from the Knicks, who were embarrassed by the Cavs on Sunday and have the league’s worst record. Additionally, Cleveland acquired former Knicks center Timofey Mozgov from Denver later that week. Since trading for Smith and Shumpert, Cleveland is a robust 17-7, has won 17 of 19 and is now a legitimate threat to represent the
From NBA bust to CBA folk hero, Shanghai Sharks import Michael Beasley is enjoying an incredible career renaissance in China. The second overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft, Beasley is currently averaging 29.4 points and 10.4 rebounds. If that wasn’t impressive enough, on Sunday at the CBA All-Star Game in Beijing, Beasley scored a record 59 points. There are few players with quite so hot a hand as the former Miami and Minnesota forward, and given that he will soon
There are only three Thursday games in the NBA, on two continents. From the O2 Arena in London, England, at 3:00 Eastern time, the young Bucks should trounce the rickety Knicks, who have lost 15 straight. [Read more…]
Congratulations if you keyed on Pau Gasol last night. A career-high 46 points came out of nowhere, along with 18 rebounds. Nikola Vucevic (34 PTS, 16 REB) was another brilliant play despite the ‘ankle injury’ that scared me away. D’oh! [Read more…]
The Cleveland Cavaliers are making moves. Specifically, general manager David Griffin is trying to go all in on the talented but flawed roster of his team right now. It started with the removal of Dion Waiters on late Tuesday night, as the guard had not lived up to the role as a starter or a bench player for the team. For him, they were able to acquire J.R. Smith (who made a not-so-glorious debut on Wednesday with an zero-of-five shooting performance),