Did the Boston Celtics take the bait? After the Celtics easily handled the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 3, reclaiming home-court advantage and the upper hand in their series with a convincing win, Sixers coach Doug Collins tried to plant a seed of overconfidence in Gang Green. “I think they are looking at that other series a little bit,” Collins said. “I think they see Chris Bosh being out (for Miami). They see a tremendous opportunity for themselves.” Whether Boston did or didn’t, it
The Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers have something in common in the conference semifinals this season: Both lost the previous game in devastating manner. Of course, how and why they lost, and how that makes it sting so much, is a whole different story. The 76ers got blown out of their own house quite convincingly. The Lakers, as Andrew Bynum would say, played Santa Claus, gift-wrapped a victory and handed it over to Oklahoma City. Both teams look to recover
Kobe Bryant is more or less known as one of the most clutch performers in the NBA down the stretch of games. On Wednesday night, his late-game antics were the furthest thing possible from clutch. Kevin Durant took the honors instead. The Los Angeles Lakers had the chance to show the basketball world that their series against the Oklahoma City Thunder was about to be renewed. After getting blown out in Game 1 by 29 points, the former champions came out with a sense
PHILADELPHIA– Honestly, who saw this coming? Those two storied rivals, the Sixers and Celtics, had waged playoff war for two games up in Boston, with literally nothing foreshadowing what happened here Wednesday night. The Celts had rallied from 10 points down in the 4th quarter of Game 1 to pull out a one-point victory. Philadelphia had countered in Game 2 by hitting their last five shots from the field and going 6-for-6 at the line in the last 12 seconds to also win
Before the start of the conference semifinals, some have considered the possibility of an NBA Finals rematch between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. Both teams will have to start playing much better for that to happen, especially for the Lakers, who have become serious underdogs against the Oklahoma City Thunder after getting blown out by 29 points in Game 1. Two games are slated for tonight on TNT, where silly contests happen. Boston (1-1) at Philadelphia (1-1): The long-time rivals have, predictably,
// We might be looking at a 2-0 series lead for the Boston Celtics if their end-game execution was a little more sound. By ordering Rajon Rondo to commit a foul with 14.4 seconds remaining, Doc Rivers and the Celtics gave away whatever chance they had of getting a stop, calling a timeout and inbounding from midcourt to go for the win. To recap: Rondo missed an open foul-line jumper that would have given the Celts a three-point lead with 54 seconds to
Last week, we had a book review of Don’t Put Me In Coach, in which Ohio State benchwarmer and author Mark Titus repeatedly refers to teammate Evan Turner as “The Villain.” On Monday night in Boston, The Villian was The Hero. Turner shook off a tough shooting night to make a difficult driving, twisting layup that gave the Philadelphia 76ers the lead for good, then added two clutch free throws to help them hold on for an 82-81 victory over the Celtics
With the Clippers beating the Grizzlies on Sunday, the second round of the playoffs is now in full swing. We hoped for the basketball gods to stop hitting players with the injury bug after watching so many occur in the first round, but those hopes went out the window when Miami’s Chris Bosh suffered an abdominal strain Sunday, leaving him in doubt for at least the rest of the series against Indiana. Here’s hoping we can witness some good old basketball without