The New York Knicks acquired a major upgrade at point guard at the expense of their starting center in a six-player trade with the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday. The trade sends Jose Calderon to New York along with center Samuel Dalembert, wing Wayne Ellington, point guard Shane Larkin and the 34th and 51st picks in Thursday’s NBA Draft in exchange for center Tyson Chandler and point guard Raymond Felton. [Read more…]
With the season winding down and holding just a 1 1/2 game lead over the trailing Dallas Mavericks, Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors could ill-afford to lose Tuesday’s game on the road at the American Airlines Center. After an inexplicable loss against the New York Knicks on Sunday, the Warriors knew another loss – particularly to the Mavericks – would put them in a neck and neck battle for the remainder of the season with three other teams just to
All season, the Indiana Pacers have maintained that homecourt advantage for the Eastern Conference playoffs, and their chemistry will give them a great chance to dethrone the two-time NBA champion Miami Heat. Are both slipping away? In the last two weeks, Indiana’s grip on the East’s best record has loosened considerably. And the Pacers’ big move at Thursday’s trading deadline, acquiring Evan Turner, illustrated that their belief in chemistry may have been overstated. [Read more…]
Advertisement The Western Conference is absolutely nothing like the Eastern Conference when it comes to championship odds. We have what I call a two-horse race in the East versus what I am going to call the six-plus team race in the West. In the 15 previous seasons, only four teams (the Lakers, seven times; the Spurs, five times, the Mavericks, two times; the Thunder, once) have won the Western Conference, which is a similar concept to what the Eastern
A little more than a month has passed in the NBA season, but it seems like we’ve already had a full year of distractions, both good and bad. Portland great; Indiana even better. The Knicks and Nets taking turns who’s bad and who’s worse. Kobe close to returning; Rose out for the year. Dwayne Wade hurting; the Atlantic Division hurting even more. Meanwhile, the last team other than the Miami Heat to win a championship is quietly turning into a solid
In a teleconference last week, we asked NBA analysts Chris Webber and Greg Anthony to pick a Western Conference team which missed the playoffs last season but will make the playoffs this season. “Dallas, mainly because of Dirk Nowitzki,” Webber said. “He’ll be back healthy. What he does, with spacing, getting guys involved … We take his game for granted.” “I would go with the Pelicans,” Anthony said. “I think that’s a team that could make sizeable leaps and surprise a lot
This is the time of year where everyone and their mothers offer up a series of fearless prognostications about the upcoming NBA season. Here’s what I can tell you about my skills at predicting the future. If I was really any good at it, I wouldn’t be wasting it on the NBA season. And neither would anyone else. I am not reading tea leaves, interpreting tarot cards, gazing into crystal balls, holding seances, poring over analytics or buying classified information on the
European basketball, aka EuroBasket, is well represented by notable NBA players (former and current), and plenty of them were in action on Friday in the semi-finals between Spain and France. France boasted a lineup of Tony Parker, Nicolas Batum, Boris Diaw, Alexis Ajinca and Mickael Gelabale. Spain also had plenty of familiar names like Marc Gasol, Ricky Rubio, Jose Calderon, Rudy Fernandez and Victor Claver. Unfortunately for Spain, they were missing two key players in Pau Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro.