NEW YORK – It is rare when an assistant coach steals the show at an NBA game, but that is exactly what Mike Woodson did in his victorious return to Madison Square Garden. Less than a year after being fired by the perpetually rebuilding New York Knicks, Woodson was back in The Big Apple, riding shotgun alongside Doc Rivers on the staff of the title-contending Los Angeles Clippers. He met the voracious New York media before the game, then made a surprise
The Brooklyn Nets sent a message to the Toronto Raptors and Drake. Brooklyn let Toronto know the “dinosaurs” aren’t extinct yet and trolled Drake unlike anyone has ever before. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce turned the clock back to their collective Boston Celtics heydays. Joe Johnson continued to be the offensive catalyst from the wing by drawing double-teams and scoring at will when isolated. Deron Williams responded to heavy criticism by overcoming an ankle injury and playing like a $100 million franchise
Before the season, championship expectations were attached to both the Knicks and the Nets. The Knicks were coming off the team’s first season with at least 50 or more wins and a trip to the Eastern Conference semifinals since the 1999-2000 campaign, when Jeff Van Gundy patrolled the sidelines, Patrick Ewing wrapped up his final season in New York and Allan Houston was in the prime of his career. The Nets were coming off their first trip to the playoffs in six years
Damian Lillard is very good. Okay, maybe we knew that already. But watching him carry the Blazers to an incredible win against a Cavs team that was very much on top of their game tonight, and then cap it with a game-winning three… that was something else. LaMarcus Aldridge is also very good, and so are Wesley Matthews and Nic Batum. But it’s Lillard who makes the whole thing work. [Read more…]
STORY OF THE DAY: When Jason Kidd demoted Lawrence Frank from the assistant coach position, it was assumed that there was a rift between them. While that’s all but true, it appears there was tension between the two the moment Frank agreed to join the team. Tim Bontemps and Fred Kerber of New York Post detailed what went wrong from the jump: One league source told The Post the Kidd-Lawrence union began on rocky footing. After Kidd’s very public courtship of Frank,
Jason Kidd and Brian Shaw were the two finalists for the Brooklyn Nets coaching position during the summer. While Kidd won out and was hired by the Nets, Shaw ended up getting his first head job in Denver with the Nuggets. So far, it sure seems like Shaw got the better end of that deal. While Brooklyn languishes near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, Denver won its seventh straight game Tuesday, efficiently eviscerating the Nets, 111-87, on a night where turmoil
BROOKLYN — Can one quarter ruin a basketball team’s season? It could if that 12-minute span of poor play happens over, and over and over again — compounding the many problems the team has overall. The Detroit Pistons outscored the Nets 34-15 in the third quarter on Sunday afternoon at the Barclays Center in a 109-97 loss that dropped Brooklyn to an almost unfathomable 3-10 on the season. In the Nets’ 10 losses, they’ve been outscored by a total of 96
