Through two days of NBA playoff games, we have seen some horrendous officiating. Blake Griffin basically got benched by the refs in Game 1 of the Warriors-Clippers series. Dwight Howard picked up his 6th foul late in last night’s Blazers-Rockets game on an egregiously bad call. Four players ended up with DQs in that game, which lasted a ghastly 3:21, featured 65 fouls and made quite a few East Coast viewers a little less productive today at their jobs. Is this what
LOS ANGELES — It’s Clipper time, at last, in L.A., or was. No. 3 seeds in the Western draw, with the town to themselves, at last, after finishing 30 games ahead of their cross-town rivals, the former Lakers, the Clippers had it all going for them, at last… Well, at least until they tipped off Game 1 against the Golden State Warriors, who didn’t have Andrew Bogut although they supposedly did have all sorts of internal issues, who nevertheless held themselves together long
The NBA Playoffs have started. The first game of the day on Saturday saw the Toronto Raptors give the Brooklyn Nets a 1-0 lead in the series between the 3- and 6- seeds in the Eastern Conference. The Raptors committed 17 turnovers in a seven-point 94-87 loss. It was a physical contest, marred by 42 total fouls. However, if you thought the officials let loose with the whistles in the first game, you may have missed the second game. Game 2 of the
Wow, you sure can catch a lot of grief when you tell folks you voted LeBron James to 2nd Team All-NBA. I put that word out on Twitter at midweek, and I have been fending off venom ever since. Hey folks: Here’s the explanation. Try to read through it and watch the entire video before tweeting your disgust, OK? Actually, I find the selection quite reasonable. First of all, the All-NBA ballot must include a center, two forwards and two guards on each
In terms of competitiveness and venom, nothing comes close to matching what this series should bring. These teams simply do not like one another, and their rivalry has been building over the course of two seasons in which the hatred between the teams has only grown with each encounter. If you had to pick one series and one series only to watch every minute of, this would be the winner among those who like their hoops with some histrionics. If you had
When it comes to professional basketball in Los Angeles, the Lakers have dominated the conversation. The Clippers have always been the little brother compared to the Lakers, but this season the Clippers are in the playoffs without the Lakers joining them for the first time since both teams have played in LA. The last time the Clippers franchise was in the playoffs in a season in which the Lakers weren’t was the 1975-76 season when the Clippers were still the
26 years ago today, power forward Danny Manning led the Larry Brown coached Kansas Jayhawks to a National Championship, scoring 31 points against the Oklahoma Sooners. For the past two college basketball seasons, Manning has been the head coach at the University of Tulsa, where his efforts culminated in a 21-13 record, tying for first in Conference USA. He led the Golden Hurricanes to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, where they fell to UCLA. Now, he’s on the move again,
We already published one column this week analyzing the Spurs’ winning streak and how they aren’t cruising, they are gliding. Since then, they have had a pair of quality victories over the Indiana Pacers and the Golden State Warriors, winning by large margins each time. With the streak at 19 heading into Thursday night’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, we should expect another blowout, right? After all, only two games during the streak have been decided by 8 points or