2014 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah led all vote getters for the NBA All-Defensive First Team. The NBA released the 2014 All-Defensive teams Monday afternoon. Leading the charge was the 2014 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year and Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, who led all vote getters. He was the only player to get triple-digit votes for the First Team, tallying 105 such votes as well as another 13 Second Team votes
LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard figure to be seeing a lot of each other over the next two weeks. That will be the small forward matchup in the NBA Finals. Just like last year, it should be a good one, because both players were named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team on Monday. Neither the Miami Heat nor the San Antonio Spurs have anyone on the All-Defensive First Team, which was voted on by the media and has Defensive Player of the
Fans in Cleveland are willing to forgive and forget. OK, maybe not forget. But they will forgive. And that is why this year’s NBA Finals will be watched extra closely in northeast Ohio, with Cavs fans hoping that a failure to win a third straight title will give the Cavaliers a chance at re-signing LeBron James when he becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer. If the Heat win, nobody expects any of their Big Three to leave — especially when they
Facing elimination once again, Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals was supposed to be do-or-die for the desperate Indiana Pacers. Instead, the team looked flat for much of the night on both ends of the floor, went down by 26 points by half time, and the game was well out of reach by mid-third quarter. Despite having the best record in the East during the regular season, it has been a tumultuous year for the Pacers. They limped their way into the
As great as these NBA playoffs have been, two characters seem to keep finding ways to steal the show. The first culprit? Donald Sterling. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been doing his best to sweep this mess under the rug as quickly as possible. In fact, he’s made greater strides to accomplish that than I think any of us could have originally anticipated. Less than a month later, the team is already in the process of being sold. [Read more…]
On Wednesday night, LeBron James had unquestionably his worst playoff performance as a member of the Miami Heat. He bricked eight of his 10 shot attempts, turned the ball over three times and mustered only four assists and two rebounds. According to a measurement devised by John Hollinger, the O.G. of basketball advanced statisticians, it was the second-worst playoff performance of James’ career. Not surprisingly, the four-time MVP’s struggles were a big reason Miami lost 93-90, failing to close out
Lance Stephenson said he wouldn’t bother LeBron James anymore. To paraphrase Arnold Schwarzenegger, he lied. Stephenson played the role of WWE heel on Wednesday night, blowing kissed to James, blowing in his ear and being an overall nuisance to The King. It worked. And social media went to work with the picture of Stephenson blowing into James’ ear. This one is a Throwback Thursday special. Many of you may not remember blowing into your Game Boy or Nintendo 64 or your Playstation to
It wasn’t easy, but the Indiana Pacers found a way to stay alive against the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday with a 93-90 win at home. A lot happened in the final moments of the game, where the game could have gone either way. An inordinate amount of clutch shots were converted by various players, including Chris Bosh, Rashard Lewis, LeBron James and most notably, Paul George. The teams traded one clutch 3-pointer after another